For Sonya, there was sanctity in a committed relationship that one shouldn’t violate. She was very traditional when it came to that. Her rules were simple, no cheating. And now that they were living together, don’t let the sun beat you home. There was no excuse for staying out all night. Whatever Tone was doing in the streets in the nighttime he could do in the daytime as far as she was concerned. Violating those rules was the difference between Sonya’s unconditional love and her removing you from her life, forever.
Although her boyfriend may have a newfound obsession with the streets, Sonya had remained deeply in love with him as ever. Whether she cared to admit it or not, Sonya had a soft spot in her heart for Tone. According to her rules, he should have been cut off after his first incident of cheating. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to let him go. She really wanted this relationship to work. Sonya couldn’t see herself with anyone else. He was her high school sweetheart, the man she lost her virginity to. Tone was the only dude she’d ever been with. In her mind this was a special relationship, something she would tell her grandkids about someday.
Sonya thought her love could change him. She was slowly coming to the realization that maybe it couldn’t. The only thing that seemed to be changing Tone was money, and it was doing a good job of it, too.
On a daily basis, Tone wasn’t measuring up to the expectations that Sonya had of him. There were days that she barely saw him. Every day without fail, Tone came home late. His street activities were at the center of their conflict. They had several heart to heart talks where Tone explained to her exactly what he was trying to do. Sonya seemed to understand that sacrifices had to be made for Tone to achieve his street dreams of making it in the drug game. However, she didn’t know that she was going to be the sacrificial lamb. That their relationship was going to suffer because of his relentless pursuit of the almighty dollar.
In these instances, Tone was fond of saying, Women remember the things that they shouldn’t remember, referring to his cheating. And forget the things that they shouldn’t forget, referring to who was paying the bills. Love and relationships were the afterthought, money always came first with Tone.
Simply put, when it came to women Tone was a man with options. He was like a kid in a candy store, exploring a lot of them. He had a thing for women from Baltimore, and even more so they had a thing for him.
Suddenly, she grabbed the phone and punched in his pager number. Her fingers moved robotically over the keypad as they recalled Tone’s number by heart. Angry, Sonya felt like she had done this for the umpteenth time and she swore she wasn’t calling Tone any more. Who was she kidding? Even though he had ignored her phone calls, Sonya was going to keep calling Tone’s pager until he returned her calls.
Was he locked up, shot or dead? Sonya mused. Those ill feelings were gnawing at her. Sonya’s suspicious nature was quickly turning into fear.
After punching her home phone number into the pager, Sonya added the numerical code of 911. This was supposed to emphasize to Tone that this was an emergency. But Sonya had done this too many times before, in non-emergency situations, for Tone to fall for that again.
Once she was done, Sonya slammed the receiver down and continued to wait, impatiently, for a call that may or may not come.
On a good day, when Tone wasn’t running the streets, which was rare, Sonya felt like a hustler’s wife, pampered, spoiled, loved and appreciated. On a bad day, like today, she felt like a side chick, betrayed, lied to and disrespected.
That’s when all the doubt and negativity seemed to seep in. A voice in the back of her mind told her to leave him, that she deserved to be treated better than this. Sonya had every reason in the world to leave and yet no reason at all.
For Sonya, life with Tone wasn’t turning into all that she thought it would be. She thought the move to Baltimore would bring them closer together. But in all actuality, all it did was drive them apart. Ever since Tone arrived in Baltimore, the dynamic of their relationship changed. They weren’t clicking. Or at least not like they use to. In her mind, Tone had lost sight of their relationship in the process of him becoming the man in the streets. Sonya was starting to feel like collateral damage. She couldn’t remember a time that she was truly happy. Recently, she tried to stick it out and wait for things to get better, but they actually had gotten worst. Tone’s selfishness was killing their relationship.
Sonya saw firsthand how the street life in Baltimore had steadily corrupted Tone more so than it had in New York. Over the past few months he had changed into someone she didn’t know. Sonya had seen a side of Tone that she never knew existed. He was a one-track minded man who preferred running the streets to a quiet night at home.
Of course Sonya didn’t mind all the benefits Tone’s drug dealing lifestyle afforded them. His success in the streets had trickled down to her. They had
