Heartbeat (3 page)

Rick took his coffee cup off the granite kitchen island and took one sip before replacing the cup. He totally ignored the three cheese egg-white omelet, bacon, and toast I’d put on a plate in front of him.

“You’re not eating?”

He looked up from his cell phone and glanced at me before looking back at his phone. “Nah, I’m sorry babe, I gotta get to the hospital.”

Even though I didn’t want to, I felt some kind of way. I’d gotten up earlier than usual because I wanted to make him breakfast and he didn’t even look at the food. He was spending so much time at the hospital lately that I found myself trying to find time with him in any way possible. My schedule was crazy, but his was down-right maniacal.

“What about dinner tonight?” I hated the way my voice was laced in desperation. I felt like I was begging to spend time with my own damn husband.

He glanced up from his cell phone again. But this time it must have been something in my eyes that made him soften his facial expression. He walked up to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. He looked down at me and kissed me on my lips. “I don’t wanna make a promise that I’ll be home in time for dinner, Charlie, but I will do my best.”

I frowned. “Please do your best. We haven’t eaten dinner together since…” I couldn’t even think of the last time I’d had dinner with my husband. I knew he was ambitious and very successful, but he’d better start fitting me in his ever growing, busy, schedule.

“I’ll do my best, “he repeated. He kissed me again before he stuck his cell phone in his back pocket, grabbed his car keys and walked out of the door.

I looked at the plate full of food still sitting on the kitchen table and threw my hands up in defeat. “What a waste.” I grabbed the plate and emptied it into the garbage.

I got dressed for work and headed out to the salon. I was always the first at the salon to open and always the last one out the door to close. My salon was like my first born child and I treated it as such. It was already the #1 salon in the Dallas area and we’d only been in business a year and a half. I had the baddest hair stylists, colorist, make-up artists, and nail technicians.

I pulled up in front of the salon, met my assistant, Kelly, in the parking lot. She was the best assistant I ever had. She was always on time and extremely professional. As I unlocked the door and disarmed the security system, she was reading off my list of clients for the day.

“Kesha? Kesha has an appointment at nine?” I rolled my eyes. Kesha stayed in my appointment book. I never charged her though. But as much as she stayed in my chair, I was about to start having to.

“Yes, she is,” Kelly said. “Would you like me to bring some peppermint tea to your office?”

I nodded. I walked into my office, started up my computer, and looked over yesterday’s numbers. The salon was doing well, very well.

It wasn’t long before the salon came to life. Stylists and clients piled into the salon and I made my rounds to each stylist before my first appointment came in. Kesha walked in my private studio and looked me up and down.

“You look cute. Are those new? She pointed to my leopard Giuseppe heels. “How you gonna stand up and do hair in them all day?”

“Bitch, you know I do this,” I said. I wrapped a cape around her. “What we doing to your hair?”

She shrugged. “Whatever.”

Kesha had gorgeous high cheekbones that made her look good in any hairstyle. Today, I was going to trim and deep condition her naturally long, jet black hair. Kesha was naturally pretty, but her face was always made up to perfection. She was a fool with a makeup brush.  I tried convincing her to come work at my salon part time as a makeup artist, but she wasn’t having it. She was a pharmacist at a local drug store, so she didn’t need or want a part time job.

Kesha had long legs like those models you see walking down catwalks, and she could dress her ass off. We instantly clicked freshman year in college and became the best of friends.

“Have you heard from Darnel?”

She shook her head and curled her lips in disgust. “No, and I hope wherever he is, he keeps his black ass there, too.”

“I went to see Lake the other day. Girl, that baby must be wearing her ass out cause she looked like she hasn’t slept in weeks! She getting bags under her eyes and shit,” I said.

“Did Greg have his triflin’ ass there?”

I sighed. I hated talking about Lake behind her back, but damn, my friend was stupid behind Greg’s no good ass. “Girl, naw.”

“I went by there twice last week and he wasn’t there naan time.” Kesha sucked her teeth in disgust. “She tried to play it off like he was at work or some shit.”

“Damn, Lake fucked up getting pregnant by him.”

“Yeah, cause she ain’t gonna ever leave his ass now.” She paused. “But how are you and Rick doing? With the baby making and stuff?”

She had a smile in her voice but I didn’t, when I said, “I just don’t know, Kesha.”

She turned around in the chair and looked at me. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t know...he seems so distant lately. We barely see each other cause he spending so much time at that got-damn hospital.”

Kesha was silent when I expected her to have something to say. She opened her mouth and then closed it almost as quick as she opened it, as if she was having second thoughts about speaking her mind.

“What?” I wanted to know.

“Ok, don’t be mad,” she said. “But I heard from Tamika that stay in Pleasant Grove, that she seen Rick with some thot out there.”

I gasped and damn near choked. I got up and led her to the shampoo bowl as I ran what she just said over and over in my head. “That’s some bullshit,” I finally said. “You and I both know Rick ain’t never gonna be in no Pleasant Grove, for one.”

She laughed, “I know, that’s why I never even brought it up.”

I began washing her hair. “When she tell you this?”

“Like a month ago.”

I stopped washing her hair and looked at her like she was crazy. “Why you just now telling me this?”

“Cause like you just said, me and you both know Rick would never take his bourgeois ass to Pleasant Grove.”

“But still, you ain’t think I wanna know if some hoes out there putting rumors in the street about me and my husband?”

She rolled her eyes. “Bitch please. Hoes gon’ have some to say, regardless.”

I nodded my head agreeing with her. But still, it didn’t sit right with me. “What you say when she told you that?”

“I told her she was a got-damn lie and she ain’t seen no Rick Johnson in Pleasant Grove, let alone with another bitch.”

I somewhat felt better but there was doubt turning over inside my stomach. I knew Rick like I knew the back of my own hand, but I couldn’t put it past him to cheat on me. He’d done it more than once when we were in college, but that was so long ago. Telling myself that I knew my man didn’t erase the sick feeling I had growing in the pit of my stomach so I changed the subject. “Did you ever call that cop that was checking for you when you had that black ass eye?”

“You got jokes, huh?”

“He was cute, girl,” I laughed.

If her eyes weren’t closed, I was sure she would have been rolling them. “No, he was not.”

“Yes, he was,” I said.

“Well, I wasn’t looking at him. I was worried about that crazy ass nigga, Darnel.”

“And he was worried about you,” I said.

“Just wash my hair, bitch,” she said with a smile.

❤❤❤❤❤

I pulled into my driveway expecting to see Rick’s BMW but wasn’t surprised when I didn’t see the car. I sighed and headed inside of the house. I’d called him two times with no answer and he didn’t bother to respond to any of my texts. This was so unlike the man I’d married.  I couldn’t help but think back to what Kesha said earlier today. At first, I wasn’t going to pay it any mind but I couldn’t shake the feelings of doubt.

I opened the refrigerator and slammed it closed. I hopped back in my car. I was going to make a trip to Rick’s office. Since he couldn’t make it home in time for dinner, I was going to bring dinner to him.

When I turned onto the street where Rick’s office was located, I was surprised to see him pulling out of the parking garage.

“What the fuck?” I said under my breath.  I waited until he pulled onto the main street. I let another car get behind him and then I got behind that car. I held my cell phone in my hand expecting him to return my missed calls at any minute now. I followed him as he hopped on a freeway that didn’t lead to our home. My palms grew sweaty and my heartbeat quickened, wondering just where my husband was on his way to. Anxiety and anger stabbed my heart as the possibilities ran through my head.

We rode on the freeway for thirty seven minutes before he took an exit. We were in Pleasant Grove. When the realization of that hit me, I felt like I would vomit. I was driving erratically now, not giving a damn if he noticed me following him or not.  He turned a right into a ran-down apartment complex. My right leg was shaking so bad, I could barely press on the gas pedal.

I parked four parking spaces across from where he parked and turned off my lights. I wanted to jump out of the car and follow him but something in my gut told me this night was just getting started.

I never understood how some women could go off the deep end on some of those true crime television shows. I never understood how a woman could snap and do something that could alter her future forever. That was, until I spotted my husband leaving the home of another woman. In that very moment, nothing that ever mattered, mattered anymore. All I could see was red. I jumped out of my car and ran across the street as fast as I could, which was actually quite fast considering I was wearing five inch cheetah printed Giuseppe heels.  

As soon as I was upon them, they both looked like the world was coming to an end. The look of utter fear across his face was one I know I’d never forget for as long as I live. Then there was her. The slut. I’d never seen her before but I could tell by the look in her eyes that she knew all about me. There she stood, about 5’5, with absolutely nothing special about her in any shape, form, or fashion. She was basic. Yet, this is who my husband chose to spend his Friday night with. His lying ass!

It was as if everything was moving in slow motion. I lunged at the both of them. Not sure which one I wanted to attack first. I slapped Rick as hard as I could with him yelling, “Baby! Baby! Baby! Charlie, calm down!” But I didn’t want to hear any of that, I was out for blood. I wasn’t even sure who I was punching, kicking, clawing, but I was sure every hit was making impact with one of them.

Then suddenly, I was being pulled away. Someone had picked me up and pulled me from the adulterous pair. I could feel my feet lifting from the ground as I was being picked up. I was barefoot, where were my shoes?

“Put me down! Muthafucka! Put me down!” I screamed. I wasn’t satisfied. I was out for blood.

“I will, once you calm down,” the stranger said. It was a man.

I tried to calm myself down but I couldn’t. My heart was racing, my throat was dry as hell and I wasn’t done with Rick and his basic ass sidepiece just yet.

But the stranger was far stronger than me. He threw me over his shoulder and I immediately started kicking and screaming harder and louder than before. Who did he think he was? What business of this was his? This was between my husband and me.

“Calm down, ma. I’m tryna get you out of here before the laws get here,” he said. And as soon as he said that, I broke down crying.

This was some bird shit. I was better than this. I hadn’t been in a fight since my freshman year in high school. I was too grown for this. I broke down and cried so hard my throat felt raw. I didn’t even notice the stranger had returned me to my feet and I was now swallowed in his arms. It took at least two minutes of me boo-hooing until I realized I was in the arms of another man. Instinctively, I pulled away.

When I looked into the eyes of the stranger I was taken aback. He was very fair skinned, had the most beautiful set of green eyes I’d ever seen. He stood about 6’2, had long dark brown dreads that were pulled back into a ponytail, a rough, yet pretty face that hadn’t seen a razor in weeks, and a smile that would con any woman out of her panties.  

I wiped my face, embarrassed that I’d shown such raw emotion to a complete stranger.  He must have sensed my uneasiness because he stepped back and stuck both of his hands in the pockets of his green and blue track jacket.  

I also took two steps back as well. The gravel beneath my feet made me sorely aware I’d lost my very expensive shoes somewhere in the middle of my brawl. All I wanted to do was go home now, crawl into my bed, and cover my head with my feather down comforter.

“You gonna be alright, ma?” The stranger said.   

I nodded my head unable to make eye contact with him again because I was too embarrassed of the complete fool I’d just made of myself.

“You need a ride somewhere?”

My car! I looked up and I was sure the alarm on my face took the stranger by surprise.

“What’s wrong?” He asked.

“My car keys. I must have dropped them during the…” I couldn’t allow myself to finish the sentence.  

“Fight?” He said and he was actually smiling. I would have punched him in the face if his face wasn’t so damn gorgeous.  

I started walking away. Back to where I’d ambushed Rick and his whore. I had to have dropped my car keys there. As soon as I’d gotten at least four steps away from him, the beautiful stranger pulled on my arm. I yanked it away from him just as quickly as he’d touched me. Who did he think he was?

“Leave me alone,” I said. I wanted to scream it as loud as I could but for some reason it came out as a whisper.

He put both hands up as if to surrender to me. “Look, I ain’t tryna’ hurt you or nothing. I just don’t wanna see a beautiful young woman such as yourself getting locked up tonight over some bullshit.”

I ignored him and kept walking back to the run down apartment complex I’d just caught Rick creeping out of. I shook my head in anger.
How dare he be fucking with some trash ass section 8 ass bitch
, I thought looking around at my surroundings. His side piece was obviously looking for a come up messing with my husband and if he’d tricked off any of our money, the beat down they received tonight was just an appetizer.  

I spotted my right shoe by the gate of the complex but the left one was no where to be found. I cursed under my breath as I picked the shoe up. Those were one of my favorite pairs of shoes and I knew it would be hard to find another pair since I’d bought them so long ago.  

“Why was you fighting Kia, anyway?” The stranger was suddenly standing behind me.

I rolled my eyes.
It figures, she’d be named after a cheap ass car
, I thought.  

“Lemme guess, she was fucking with ya’ man,” he said as he bent down and picked up my car keys.  

I nodded and opened my hand for him to drop my keys into my waiting palm.  

“You gonna be able to drive home?” He asked.

I nodded again and he gave me the keys. I stole one more look at this gorgeous man before thanking him and walking back to my car. Once I got inside of the car, I broke down crying again.  

How could this be happening to me? How could Rick do this to me? I’d thought he’d changed since college. But I was stupid. So very stupid. I trusted this man with everything in me and this was how he repaid my trust. I would have never thought he was cheating on me. And to think, he was cheating with
that
! She wasn’t even cute. She was the type of chick, you’d see in the supermarket and wouldn’t be able to describe five minutes later because she was just that basic. I clicked my IPOD on some broken hearted man bashing song as I drove the 45 minutes back to my side of town. I prayed that Rick had the good sense not to come home tonight.

When I pulled into my driveway, Rick’s white BMW was still missing so he was probably staying with his side chick tonight. It didn’t matter because I didn’t want to see him anyway. I pulled my car into the garage and entered my massive home. My eyes had finally dried by the time I stepped my bare feet onto the mahogany hard wood floors of my foyer. We’d barely been in the house a year and I wondered if all the memories we created here were a lie. I shut the door behind me and walked the long foyer. The house I just had to have now seemed too big, now that I’d probably be living here alone. The five bedroom 4,684 square foot home was in a private gated community in a quiet suburb of Dallas. I’d fallen in love with the home as soon as I saw it and seeing how much I loved it, Rick agreed on purchasing it. But now, walking through it, I hated everything about it.

How long had he been messing around with this chick? How could I have been so blind to the many signs that were slapping me upside my head? I thought he’d changed, I thought he’d grown, I thought we’d grown as a couple.  I thought he really loved me and would never do me like this again. I felt so played.

I walked into the master bathroom, the ivory marble was cold underneath my feet and turned the shower on to the hottest I could stand. I stripped down and stared at my bare body in the full length mirror I’d insisted on having installed on the opposite end of the oval Roman tub. A smile formed in the corners of my face as I stared at my damn near perfect body. At twenty eight years of age, I was in the best shape of my life. My breasts were a full C cup and were perky with or without my Victoria Secret push up bra. My waist to hip ratio was crazy thanks in part to my mother’s great genes, but mainly to a renowned plastic surgeon in South Beach. Though, I’d take that secret to the grave.  

Rick is a gotdamn fool
, I thought as I stepped inside of the shower. I’d been faithful to him since the day I met him, although, I got tons of offers on a daily basis. I’d been so down for him and this was the thanks I got.

I stood under the pulsating shower head forcing myself not to shed another tear behind the man I’d called my husband. Of course, I lost that battle. Was I not pretty enough? Sexy enough? What was so wrong with me that Rick felt he had to step outside of our marriage?  I felt so broken.  

After staying in the shower for more than fifteen minutes, I finally exited the bathroom and laid in my king sized poster bed. I knew sleep wouldn’t find me easily tonight so I took two sleeping pills. When I closed my eyes the face of the dreadlocked stranger, I met tonight, popped into my head. I shook my head hoping that would shake his face from my memory. What was wrong with me? I didn’t even like dudes with dreads. Besides, I would never see him again.

Under any other circumstance, I would have never second guessed anything about Rick, but I’d let Kesha make me doubt him. I wasn’t like her or Lake, I’d picked a good man. Or so I’d thought all these years.

Rick had never given me a reason to think he was being unfaithful. But I couldn’t deny the feeling in the pit of my stomach that was telling me something wasn’t right. We were growing distant but I thought it had something to do with the miscarriage. I knew he was hurt about it, and I assumed he was throwing himself into his work to deal with that pain.

It hurt more than anything to admit my marriage was a failure. Everyone expected us to make it. Everyone had such high expectations for our union. On the outside we looked like the ideal couple; somewhat of a power couple to our relatives. Everyone had high hopes for Charlie and Rick. But at this very moment, none of that mattered anymore. Here we were just two years in, and he was already stepping out on me.

I thought back to the neighborhood and the chick I’d caught Rick with and couldn’t help but shake my head. For years, Rick had acted like he was so much better than the people who called that part of town, home. He’d turned his nose up and refused to even drive through
the hood
. I laughed at the irony of him creeping with a hoodrat. What would his mother, Miss Marie, think of that?

If there had ever been a mother in law from hell, Miss Marie was it. She hated me from the moment Rick introduced us. I was going to college full time while attending cosmetology school on the weekends. Still, I wasn’t what she envisioned for a daughter in law. I didn’t have the long list of degrees that she and her husband had and multiple degrees were a requirement for dating any son of hers. I was working toward a bachelor’s degree, but to her, that wasn’t shit. For as long as I live, I’ll never forget the face she made when I told her I was a hairstylist, working to obtain my own salon. She didn’t hear that I was an aspiring business owner, all she heard was I was a hairstylist. No doctor son of hers was going to marry a mere hairstylist, but he did, and now it was over. I was no longer going to be Mrs. Doctor Rick Johnson. I assumed Miss Marie would be elated to hear that bit of news.

I laid in bed staring at the spinning ceiling fan until I couldn’t take it anymore. I jumped out of bed and walked into Rick’s closet. The closet was huge, granted, not as large as mine. I looked around at how meticulous Rick’s organizational habits were. Each suit was arranged by season, and color. All of his polo shirts, t-shirts, and even undershirts were hung according to sleeve length. My eyes darted from one side of the closet to the next, trying to decide which side I would start on. Rage fueled my insanity as I grabbed as many of his expensive Italian suits that I could hold. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do with them, I just wanted them destroyed. By the time my adrenaline had worn out, 75% of his closet had been cleaned out and dumped in the foyer. I walked back into the foyer and stared at the heap of clothes, ties, and designer shoes. I didn’t know what I was going to do with them. I wanted to set them on fire but was afraid that the house would catch fire with the clothes, so I walked into the laundry room and grabbed a gallon of bleach. When I returned to the foyer I emptied the entire gallon on the pile of clothes making sure every piece got a least a taste of the bleach.  

When that was done, I only felt slightly better but at least the sleeping pills were finally taking effect. I set the house alarm and headed to bed where sleep thankfully and finally found me.   

I was awakened by Rick lightly shaking me. It took me a full two minutes to register what all went down last night. As soon as the memory surfaced it felt like I’d been punched in the stomach.  

“Charlie, before you say anything, let me explain,” He said. He was standing over the bed staring at me. I searched his eyes for the man I once knew so well.  

My throat was dry and my mouth tasted stale. I was so tired and barely had the energy to keep my eyes open but knew if Rick didn’t get out of my face soon I would jump on him in attempt to claw his eyes from his face. The light shining in from my drapes told me it was early morning. I couldn’t help but wonder where he’d spent the night.

He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his black jeans. The same jeans he had on last night. When he was with
her
. That thought made rage resurface and trickle through my veins.

“I made a mistake,” He finally said. He spoke slowly. Every now and then he’d allow his eyes to make contact with mine. “I’m so sorry, Charlie.”

I steadied my breath and looked at the clock on my nightstand. It was 9am, I had to be at the salon in fifteen minutes. I forced myself out of bed, although every muscle in my body was screaming for me to do otherwise. I pushed past Rick and headed into the bathroom.