Her So Called Husband Read online

  I don’t know what it was about Alexus that had me gone. I lost count of the many broads I cheated on Cherika with, but this was different and she knew it. That was the thing that she couldn’t take. She never had to worry about me catching feelings and she knew I would always come home. She hated Alexus and she made sure that everybody knew it. It killed her that Alexus was much younger than she was and she couldn’t deny that my baby girl was indeed a bad bitch.

  Don’t get me wrong, Cherika was pretty and her body was alright, but after four kids and a lifetime in the streets, she couldn’t compete with Alexus at all. She had a gut and I couldn’t tell if it was from having four kids or all the beer she drank. She was ignorant as hell with a loud foul mouth. Working was out of the question, but the club was mandatory. I tried to encourage her to go back to school and get a degree, but that wasn’t happening. The money wasn’t an issue since I could afford to pay for whatever she needed for her education.

  That was one of the things I loved about Alexus. She didn’t play about her education. She refused to miss school and she studied all the time. Even if we were at our spot, she would go in her study area that I made for her and stay locked up for hours at a time. I knew not to bother her and she would ignore me if I did. She was determined to be better than her sisters and mom. They all worked just to get by and she wanted more for herself. I was determined to make sure she got any and everything she wanted, even if I lost my wife in the process.

  I rode around for a while smoking and thinking. I wasn’t ready to go home yet especially since I knew Cherika would be bitching all night. I was hoping that she would have calmed down by the time I got home. I know I was wrong for telling baby girl to pull off on her, but she knows I don’t do the police and I was sure somebody had called them. I was on probation for the next two and a half years and I wasn’t trying to go back to jail for her and nobody else.

  I ended up going to a hole in the wall bar called Pee-Wee’s in Marrero to see ifEric was around. This was his spot and he never missed a weekend here. As soon as I pulled up, I saw a gang of niggas hanging outside and my brother was in the mix. I stepped out of my CLS 500 and walked over to the group.

  “What’s up with y’all? I know y’all broke asses ain’t gambling.” I joked. My brother was known to be a jokester so he always had a slick answer.

  “Yeah,” Eric said, “I’m trying to help this nigga here buy some teeth.”

  He was cracking on his homeboy who lost his three front teeth in a fight a few months back. Everybody fell out laughing and I joined in. I noticedKeanna’s boyfriend Troy standing there with a foul expression on his face.

  Back in the day, Troy and I were tight. Right before I went back to jail the last time, he started acting shady for some reason. He always seemed to be on some hating type shit. He used to get his work from me and I would always look out for him, but I couldn’t trust him any more so I stopped doing business with him. Nobody wanted to deal with him because he always fucked up their money. It looked like the nigga was getting high judging by the amount of weight he was losing. He sold a little weed here and there, but he wasn’t seeing major money like when he fucked with me.

  Keanna couldn’t see the changes in the nigga, but everybody else did. He didn’t even take pride in his appearance any more. For some reason it seemed like he had a problem with me more than anybody else. He always had a boot in his mouth when he looked at me. I really didn’t give a fuck, but I made sure to keep my eyes on that nigga at all times.

  “What’s up Troy?” I hollered at the nigga despite him mean mugging me. I knew that was only pissing him off even more.

  “Ain’t shit up,” he replied with an attitude. That only made me want to fuck with him more. “Let me get in on the next game. I got a few stacks to blow. My baby girl want go shopping anyway. I might as well let you niggas foot the bill!” I yelled. I guess that nigga really did feel some kind of way cause he dapped a few dudes up and went back in the bar.

  “What’s up with that nigga?”

  “Man I don’t know, but I don’t trust his ass. He was alright until you pulled up. I guess he’s still salty ‘cause you don’t front him anymore,” my brother answered.

  That was exactly the reason why I stopped. Something was up with that nigga and I wasn’t trying to figure out what it was. Just as I was about to tell my brother my feelings, Cherika called me. I stepped away from the crowd to talk, but I was so loud they still heard me. She was yelling about what time I was coming home like she usually did. I hung up on her and went back to where my brother was standing.

  “Nigga, Cherika gon’ kill yo’ stupid ass. Keep playing if you want to. You know she’s crazy,” my brother joked.

  “Man ain’t nobody thinking about Cherika stupid ass. She showed her ass earlier.”

  I told my brother everything that happened at the gas station today. He and everybody else thought it was funny as hell. My brother and I were very close so he knew everything. He really liked Alexus, but there were very few people that Eric didn’t like. My entire family knew about Alexus. Even my pops who was on his way home from doing a five-year prison bid wanted to meet her since I talked about her so much. My moms and my sisters didn’t like her because they were team Cherika. My brother didn’t care one way or the other so he was the only one who welcomed my baby girl into the family.

  I hung out with my brother and his friends for a few more hours before I decided to head home. I tried calling my baby before I turned in for the night, but after three back-to-back calls, she still didn’t answer. All kinds of crazy thoughts were running through my head and none of them were good. I know I was selfish. I just couldn’t picture Alexus with nobody else. I knew she had sex with her ex-boyfriend, but I wasn’t worried about that. He was long gone. I hoped like hell she wasn’t trying to play games with me because my heart couldn’t take it. After trying again for the fourth time, I decided to leave her a message.

  “Man, I know you see me blowing your phone up. I don’t know what kind of games you’re playing, but you better call me back. Don’t make me come to your sister’s house this time of the night.”

  I hung up the phone and decided to go home and get this shit over with. It was almost one in the morning and I knew her ass was up waiting for me.

  When I pulled up to my driveway I thought the weed and the liquor had me seeing things. I just knew she didn’t have her messy ass sisters in my house this late. I hopped out the car ready to curse all those hoes out, but they must have seen when I pulled up. The front door opened and out came Thing 1 and Thing 2 followed by Cherika. Those are the names I gave her two messy ass sisters, Cherice and Charde.

  They looked me up and down as they exited my house. I dared one of them bitches to say one word to me. They didn’t like me and it was no secret that I couldn’t stand their asses either. I walked through the front door and the house looked a mess as usual.

  Cherika was lazy as hell. I wasn’t a nasty nigga and that drove me crazy. There were plenty of times when I paid my moms and my aunt to come get the house in order for me while she laid around smoking and drinking. I swear if she asked for a divorce I would sign the papers right now. I knew that would never happen, but I wouldn’t be hurt if it did. I couldn’t bring myself to ask for a divorce especially since she was the only one holding me down for all these years.

  She did things that risked her freedom and could have possibly gotten her killed. I knew I would be forever indebted to her, but I didn’t want to be married to her forever. I would definitely make sure that she and my kids were always taken care of no matter what, but I needed a way out of this marriage.

  As soon as she came back in the house, she started going off.

  “I’m tired of you putting that young bitch before me. I have been through everything with you Dee. All I ask if for you to be is faithful, but you can’t even do that. You bringing her around your family like you married to her. You know your mama and your sisters tell me everything,
but I guess you don’t care about that. And now you got her driving your car too. That’s just disrespectful.” She yelled.

  “Man, you want talk about disrespect, but how you got your bum ass sisters in my house smoking and drinking while my kids are here? And then this damn house looks like a fuckin’ mess. You always throwing in my face the fact that you my wife, but you don’t act like one. You don’t cook. You never clean up. All you do is shop, smoke, and drink. That shit is unattractive.”

  “It’s unattractive, but you smoke and drink too. So it’s cool for you to do it and not me?”

  I couldn’t believe this broad. She missed the whole point.

  “That’s different. You supposed to be a wife and a mother. You need to go back to school or do something with yourself. Get a job or something.”

  I was getting aggravated with this conversation. And the fact that I still hadn’t heard from Alexus only made the shit worse. I was just about to finish going in on Cherika when my phone started ringing and I saw my baby girl picture pop up on the screen. I know I shouldn’t have answered the phone, but I couldn’t help myself. I needed to know what was up with her. I rushed out of the living room to the bathroom upstairs in the hall with Cherika hot on my heels.

  “I know you’re not rushing off to answer the phone for that bitch!” she screamed. I closed and locked the door before she had a chance to slip in there with me. I tried whispering so she wouldn’t hear what I was saying.

  “Where the fuck you at?” I whispered.

  “I’m at Jada’s house,” she said pissing me off. It sounded like she was asleep, but I didn’t care. I dropped her off at her sister’s house so I don’t understand how she ended up at her friend’s house.

  Cherika was kicking the door and screaming for me to open it up, but my mind was on Alexus. I just knew she was up to something.

  “What is all that noise?” she asked.

  “Don’t worry about that. Why are you at Jada’s house when I dropped you off at your sister’s? How did you get there?”

  She paused and that drove me crazy. I just knew she was trying to come up with a lie to tell. I didn’t even give her a chance to answer before I went off.

  “You know what? Don’t even answer that cause you gon’ lie anyway with your sneaky ass. I’ll deal with you tomorrow.” I said as I hung up. I was heated, but I couldn’t do shit about it tonight. I had other problems to deal with. One of which was trying to break down the bathroom door at the moment. Man my life was all fucked up right now, but I was determined to get everything back on track.

  As soon as I opened the door, Cherika rushed me trying to take my phone out of my hand. I know

  She was dying to get a number on Alexus, but that wasn’t happening again. My baby got her number changed five times over the last two years because she kept getting a hold of it and playing on her phone. I pushed her back as she tried to swing on me. I didn’t like putting my hands on females, but I really think she liked the shit.

  “Cherika, go head man. Stop putting your hands on me before I hit you back.” I tried to be calm and walk away, but she just kept following me trying to swing.

  “Nigga, I wish you would hit me behind that bitch. I’m sick of this,” she cried.

  I was sick of it too. If she would divorce me, we could probably both be happy. But I know that was wishful thinking. I went to my kids’ room to make sure they were still sleeping since she was screaming and hollering like it was daytime. I hated that they were put in the middle of all of our madness, but there was only so much that I could do.

  Once I made sure they were straight, I went down the hall to our room ignoring my wife the entire time. I know this drove her crazy, but I wasn’t in the mood to argue. I just wanted to get some rest. I planned on getting up early to see what the deal was with Alexus. She was going to be on my mind all night. I really needed to spend some time with my kids. I always made plans to do something with them, but something always came up. They were at my mom’s house most of the time because Cherika and I were always on the go.

  I felt a stinging pain in the back of my head breaking me out of my thoughts. That crazy bitch slapped the hell out of me. Everything in me went numb as I turned around and wrapped my hands around her neck trying to choke the life out of her. She tried to pry my hand away, but my grip was too strong. I saw her gasping for air as her eyes watered and pleaded for me to let her go. I dropped her to the floor and she sucked in a mouthful of air trying to regulate her breathing.

  I grabbed my keys and sprinted down the stairs and out the front door. It was a little after two o’clock in the morning, but I didn’t care. I called Alexus and told her that I was on my way to pick her up. She could go back to sleep when we got to our spot. I had so much on my mind and I just needed to be around her right now. Cherika really made me step outside of my usually calm character. One thing was for sure, if I didn’t realize it before I damn sure knew it now. This marriage was definitely over.

  Chapter 3: CHERIKA

  As soon as I heard the front door slam, I knew that Dre was gone. I couldn’t believe he choked me out like that and just left. He didn’t even stay to make sure I was alright. I went to our master bathroom to look at myself in the mirror. My eyes were red and swollen and my neck was bruised from where Dre had choked me. I stared at my reflection in the mirror and just cried. That seemed to be all I did lately. My marriage seemed to be falling apart.

  I loved Dre more than life itself. He wasn’t perfect and I knew that before I married him, but I was never giving up on my husband or my marriage. I didn’t care what my family or anyone else had to say. It was definitely till death do us part. I had Dre’s back no matter what. When he was in and out of jail, I was there every step of the way. My sisters convinced me to give him an ultimatum when he went back the last time. Either he married me or I was done. My sisters felt that with all the bullshit he put me through the least he could do was make us official and they were right.

  I was skeptical at first but I was happy that everything worked out and Dre made me his wife. I know some people were saying that I forced him into marriage but I didn’t give a damn. I had my man and I was happy. I just prayed that he came to his senses before it was too late because divorce was out of the question for me. I know a lot of bitches wished they were in my shoes.

  Dre was one of the finest men on the west bank of New Orleans. He’s 6’1 with a perfect caramel complexion and a perfect body to match. He had no flaws as far as I could see and I was the only woman lucky enough to have his last name. I earned the ring on my finger and so much more.

  I can’t count the number of fights I got into over my husband. At the end of the day, he still came home with me. Well he used to. Ever since Alexus came into the picture, everything changed. I never knew if my husband was coming home or not. He used to make excuses for his absences in the beginning, but after a while that stopped too. Everybody knew about Dre’s side chick. His entire family had met her but I was the wife so she was never accepted.

  Dre’s sisters and his mom all loved me. They refused to deal with another woman. His brother Eric was another story. He was in her company just as much as Dre was and I couldn’t stand him for it. Dre’s cousin, Keanna, and I were very close. I knew that she was friends with Alexus because they went to the same high school. Me and Keanna’s relationship was different because we were family. She was Dre’s first cousin so I know that if it ever came down to it her loyalty would be to me.

  Keanna was the one who first told me about Dre and Alexus. Supposedly, they met at her graduation party. I was at the party too, but that never stopped my husband from being the dog that he was. I know they often wondered how I showed up to most of the places they went to and I had Keanna to thank for that too. I just had to promise never to let anyone know that she was my informant. Keanna had always been a good friend to me, but I didn’t always return the favor. If she knew some of the things I had done behind her back, she probably would have never s
poken to me again and Dre would definitely leave me.

  According to Keanna, Dre had been dealing with Alexus for about two years. I use to hear things about her but I wasn’t worried at first. Dre had cheated so many times that I knew the routine. Once I would find out he was cheating whoever the bitch was that he was with would be history. This was the only time that I felt like I had some real competition. She was a very pretty girl and she had body like a video vixen. I was intimidated by her but I would never admit that to anyone. I was far from perfect, but I was a damn good wife and mother to our four kids.

  Dre and I had two girls and two boys ages eight, six, five and three. Dre always had doubts about our three year old being his. He claimed that he had barely been out of jail for a month when I got pregnant and I must have been sleeping with somebody else. I’ll admit that I had needs and I did do me when he was locked up, but I was sure about the father of my kids. Dre was locked up so much I had to get sex from somebody. Hell at least I did it when he was locked up and not all in his face like he did me. He didn’t try to hide his relationship with his mistress. My husband was actually in love with another woman and it was tearing me apart.

  I felt like I was constantly being compared to a younger woman. And that was another problem I had. She was eight years younger than I was with no kids so of course her body was in near perfect shape compared to mine. She had also graduated high school and was now in college. That was something that I never did. Dre was constantly on my back to do something, but I didn’t have any interest in anything. He had always taken care of me so I never needed to work. I hated school so going back was not happening. Keanna tried getting me to take Certified Nursing Assistant or CNA classes with her, but I wasn’t about to be cleaning shit off of old people for $8.00 an hour.