19. Desire
I remainedon the blanket and watched the father and daughter duo from afar, snapping pictures of them between scrolling through Flikstagram. A notification appeared indicating I had a message. I pressed it and sighed when I saw who’d sent it.
A few hours after Aziel and I exchanged vows, I received the first message and received a few every week since then. I blocked each profile but assumed they were from the same person because each message had the same sentiment: Aziel Harris was no good for me and would eventually break my heart. The profile was empty, followed no one, and had no followers.
The identity of the person or people responsible for the messages was a mystery, but if I had to guess, I’d say it was someone Aziel used to deal with. I hadn’t responded to any of the messages and figured they would eventually get tired of being ignored and leave me alone.
However, today’s message was different. When I saw the pictures, my heart stopped. Your little fairytale will soon come to an end. Sitting up, I looked around, and only a few mothers and their children were in the park. Someone was watching us and was bold enough to take pictures and send them to me. The thought gave me chills and made me feel sick.
I have to tell Aziel.
Azaria’s giggle stole my attention as she ran toward me. I dropped my phone on the blanket and caught her just before she tackled me. Aziel was several feet behind her, but I heard him chuckle at his daughter’s actions.
“Miss Chammies, I got new friends,” she said excitedly.
“You do?”
“Yes, dem with dem mommies.” She pointed to the little girls who were still playing near the swings.
“Oh, that’s good. Are they nice?”
“Yes, we played in the sand.”
“I’m glad you had fun, sweetheart.”
I stood and began to gather our picnic items, but Aziel stopped me.
“Nah, baby. Someone is coming to pick this up.”
“Oh, we’re just going to leave it here?”
“They’re nearby. Don’t worry about it.”
“Okay.”
I kneeled to pick up my purse, phone, and Azaria’s bag before taking Aziel’s extended hand. He took her bag from me, and we headed to the truck. Azaria ran ahead of us, stopping every few minutes to ensure we were behind her.
“Did you enjoy lunch?” he asked.
“I did. It was a nice surprise, and I think Ria enjoyed it too.”
“When we were over by the swings, one of the little girls asked Ria where her mommy was. She turned around and pointed to you.”
“Oh, wow. Are you serious?”
“I am, and she did it with no hesitation.”
Tears gathered in my eyes, and I dabbed them with the back of my hand so they wouldn’t fall.
“It means a lot that she thinks of me as her mother.”
“She’ll probably be calling you Mommy soon. Will you be okay with that?”
“It would mean as much as being called Mrs. Aziel Harris.”
“Woman, don’t make my dick hard when you know I can’t have you right now.”
Once the three of us were secured in the backseat, Mark headed toward our house. Azaria was asleep within minutes, Aziel was on an important phone call, and I was distracted by thoughts of the pictures I’d been sent. It was creepy that someone had captured images of our private family moments.
My husband was the mayor, so I expected certain moments to be caught on camera. However, the mayor wasn’t the governor or president, so I didn’t expect people to hide in bushes and intrude on our lives.
“Meet me at the office in about thirty minutes, and we can finish this conversation. My assistant is calling, and I need to see what she wants. What’s up, Tammy?”
“The people are not taking too kindly to you having a picnic in the park during the middle of the day while you’re supposed to be working.”
Aziel’s phone was not on speaker, but Tammy spoke loud enough on the other end for me to hear her side of the conversation.
“What are you talking about? How’d you know I had a picnic?”
“A few pics are posted on Keeping It In the Closet. Oh, and tell your wife to leave the groping for behind closed doors.”
He groaned and rubbed his hand over his face. “I’ll be back shortly.”
When the call ended, he took his personal phone from his pocket, opened the Flikstagram app, and searched for the gossip page. After reading the post, he gave me his phone.
“Tammy tends to exaggerate. The pictures and comments aren’t that bad. I didn’t read all of them, but most of the ones I saw were positive.”
The pictures were similar to the ones sent to my inbox but from different angles, and I wondered if the same person had sent them.
KIITC: Onyx City mayor Aziel Harris took a little break from the office today and spent some time with his family, having a picnic in the park. If you recall, Mayor Harris shocked us all when he was matched with his bride through Arranged Hearts. Many speculated that the marriage was only to gain votes, but I don’t know. The couple looks like they’re in love.
I clicked on the comment section, and as Aziel stated, most comments were positive. Overall, people enjoyed seeing the mayor with his family and especially loved the representation of Black Love.
“Yeah, Tammy definitely exaggerated. Clearly, she focused on the negative, not the positive, which doesn’t surprise me.”
“I’m starting to give up hope that you two will ever get along.”
“You may as well. Hell, Ria’s known her for three years, and she still doesn’t like her. That’s really all I need to conclude that Tammy’s on some bullshit, and her spirit ain’t right. You’d better get on board before she finally exposes her true colors to you.”
Kids had the best discernment and were rarely wrong. When an innocent child didn’t fuck with you, your heart wasn’t in the right place.
“I can admit, for the past month or so, she’s been doing too much.”
“You mean, since the wedding?”
He thought about it for a moment before saying, “Yeah, I guess so, but me getting married was her idea. I don’t understand why she’d be mad.”
“You were supposed to get married to win votes. She didn’t think you’d match with someone you’d been checking for. She surely didn’t think you’d fall in love.”
“I guess the joke is on her. I’m about to win the votes and ride off in the sunset with the woman I love, the daughter she loves as her own, and the babies we create together.”
“Let her ass know wassup, baby,” I told him with pride, wearing a cheesy grin.
We exchanged a kiss as we entered the gate to our home. He carried Azaria inside and laid her on the little couch in her bedroom because we didn’t want her to get sand in her bed. When he returned downstairs, he passionately kissed my lips, squeezed my ass, and was out the door as quickly as he entered.
Once I was sure he was gone, I called my sisters on three-way. Neither of them had worked full-time or outside their home since they’d had children. Destinee was an accountant for small businesses, only taking on a few clients. Dream used her marketing degree as a virtual assistant and had a few famous clients, like Onyx City’s own NBA player, Dakari Bentley, and his wife, Jahzara, a world-renowned artist and photographer.
“I see y’all made it on KIITC. I guess the picnic is over,” Dream teased lovingly.
“It is, and it was a beautiful surprise. Are y’all busy?”
“Not really.”
“I’m not.”
“Good. I need to run something by y’all.”