7. Alisha
ALISHA
Lately, something in my house just ain’t been sitting right. I couldn’t even put my finger on it for real. It wasn’t like me and Deuce was arguing every day or throwing dishes at each other. It was the little shit. The conversations got shorter and the hugs didn’t last as long.
It was like somebody had snuck into my marriage and stolen the comfort out of that muthafucka while we weren't paying attention. The morning started like every other morning. Before the sun even had a chance to fully come up, Brittany came dragging that blanket through the hallway.
“Mommyyyy,” she whined, climbing right on top of me.
I laughed, wrapping my arms around her little chunky self. “What?”
“I’m hungry.”
I rolled my eyes. “You wake up asking for food every damn day.”
She just smiled and didn't even deny it. I climbed out of the bed with her hanging off me and carried her downstairs. She laid her little head on my shoulder like she wasn’t the same person who’d be running laps around the house in another ten minutes.
Soon as we hit the kitchen, the smell of coffee met us.
Deuce was already up. Standing at the island, one hand wrapped around his coffee mug while the other stayed glued to that damn phone.
Black sweatpants hanging low, white T-shirt stretched across his chest. Fresh cut, I ain’t even gone lie my husband was fine.
“So that’s what we doing?” I laughed. “Walking around here looking all handsome before eight in the morning?”
He looked up and grinned. “There go my girls.”
He walked over, kissed me on the lips, then rubbed Brittany’s little head. “Morning, Princess.”
“Daddy.”
She reached for him and he scooped her up without missing a beat. Watching them together always did something to me. That’s why this whole situation has been messing with my head so bad. Because despite everything I still loved that man.
“You cooking?” I asked, grabbing the orange juice out the fridge.
He shook his head.
“Nah. I ordered breakfast.”
I smirked. “Sound about right.”
One thing Deuce gone do is spend some money before he stand over a stove. Brittany was already talking our ears off about daycare. Who cried, who got in trouble. Who wouldn’t share toys. Baby girl gave a full morning report like she worked there.
I wasn’t paying half as much attention. Every few minutes my eyes drifted back to Deuce.
Not because he was doing anything wrong just because lately, I couldn’t stop watching him.
Most women would’ve been eating this version of their husband up.
Flowers, random kisses, checking in and being extra sweet.
But me? That just made me wonder what the hell he was trying to make up for.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Hm?”
“You keep looking at me.”
I blinked. “I wasn’t looking at you.”
He laughed under his breath.
“Aight.” That little smile stayed on his face while he walked back toward the island.
Phone still in his hand, that damn phone had practically become another body part.
It went everywhere with him. Hell, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he took it to sleep with him too.
Maybe another woman wouldn’t have thought nothing of it.
I notice patterns and once your gut started talking every little thing started sounding louder.
Right then the doorbell rang. Breakfast, perfect timing, because Brittany was two seconds away from climbing across that island talking about she was starving to death.
“You act like we don’t feed you,” I laughed.
“I am starving!”
Deuce chuckled. “Our daughter dramatic as hell. I wonder where she get that from.” He looked right at me.
I sucked my teeth. “Whatever.”
For a second it felt like us again but that feeling never stayed long anymore. I spent most of breakfast cleaning up after Brittany while Deuce answered work calls between bites of food.
“Daddy, you coming to my school today?” Brittany asked suddenly.
Deuce looked up from his phone.
“What’s today?”
I frowned immediately.
“Her little daycare performance.”
“Oh damn.”
He forgot again. That was the shit that made me so angry. He could remember everything else, but when it came to his us, he caught amnesia.
“You said you were coming,” Brittany said sadly.
And instantly guilt crossed his face. “Aight, I’ll be there.”
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
I looked at him while he smiled at her. Lately work kept pulling him away more and more.
Late nights and random calls. At first, I accepted it because Deuce always handled business, but now something about it felt different.
After breakfast, I got Brittany dressed for daycare in a little denim skirt and a pink shirt with some white Air Force Ones.
Then I sat her between my legs in the bathroom and started doing her hair.
Her curls bounced while I braided carefully.
“You're doing it too tight,” she complained dramatically.
“You say that every time.”
“Because you do!”
I laughed, Deuce walked past the bathroom doorway while putting on his watch.
“You dropping her off?” He asked
“Yeah,” I replied.
“I got meetings all morning.” He replied.
Before leaving, he leaned down kissing me again, lately every affectionate thing he did felt like it came attached to guilt.
“You smell good,” I muttered against his neck.
I paused, then my eyebrows pulled together slightly. Did this nigga jacket smell like another female’s perfume. It most definitely wasn’t mine. The smell was faint and sweet.
“You've been around women already this early?” I asked while pulling back.
Deuce barely reacted.
“Probably from the restaurant yesterday.”
“Yeah okay,” I muttered.
I wanted to go bat shit crazy on his ass, but I couldn’t because Brittany was sitting there. Brittany must’ve noticed my facial expression.
“Mommy?”
“Hm?”
“You okay?”
I blinked quickly before forcing a smile.
“Yeah baby, go and grab your book bag so we can go.”
The ride to daycare was quiet. Brittany was in the back singing one of them cartoon songs at the top of her little lungs while my mind kept bouncing all over the place.
That perfume, Deuce always glued to his phone, them late-night “meetings.” The way Deuce switched up the second he saw Kim sitting in my chair.
Then Shante turned down drinks and snapped at me for no damn reason. By themselves, maybe none of it meant nothing, but together that shit was starting to paint a picture I ain’t wanna look at. After I dropped Brittany off, I headed toward the shop.
The Lodge was its usual hot ass mess. Folks weaving in and out of traffic like they had nine lives.
Somebody behind me laying on their horn for no damn reason.
Construction barrels everywhere, making a twenty-minute drive feel like forty-five.
Soon as I got downtown, Detroit was doing what it always do.
People lined up outside the Coney waiting on breakfast.
Business folks walking fast as hell with coffee cups in one hand and phones in the other. The city was moving. Everybody had somewhere to be. Everybody except my damn thoughts.
By lunchtime, I still couldn’t shake that feeling. I laughed with clients and talked shit with Nia. Made a couple bomb nail sets but every chance my mind got it drifted back to my husband.
One thing about women is that we notice the little shit. The stuff men swear we ain’t paying attention to. By the time my last client walked out, I was more tired from thinking than I was from working once again.
“Friend…” Nia called from across the shop.
I looked over at her. “What sup?”
She stopped wiping down her station and looked dead at me. “You been looking like somebody stole your damn Social Security check all day.”
I laughed. “Girl, bye.”
“Nah.” She pointed the disinfectant bottle at me. “I’m dead ass serious. What Deuce done did now?”
I sucked my teeth and kept wiping my station down. “Ain’t nothing.”
Nia looked at me like I had lost my damn mind. “Bitch.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “What?”
“Don’t ‘what’ me. I been watching you all day.” She folded her arms.
“You laughed when the clients laughed. You talked when they talked. But your mind been somewhere else since you walked through that door this morning.”
I looked away. One thing about me I hate discussing my relationship with other people. Soon as folks hear you having problems, everybody turned into a damn relationship counselor. Half of ‘em couldn’t keep a relationship if somebody paid ’em. Everybody got opinions.
Very few got healthy relationships. So, I kept my business my business. But lately I felt like I was carrying all this shit by myself. Shante had been moving funny. And honestly, she was the one I’d normally call. Only problem was that’s Deuce’s sister. Blood usually pick blood.
I tossed the towel on the counter and leaned against my station. “You ever have one of them feelings…”
“What feelings?”
“Like…you know something ain’t right, but you can’t prove it.”
Nia nodded without saying nothing.
“I keep telling myself maybe I’m tripping, but every day It feel like God keep dropping little clues in my face.”
“What kinda clues?” She asked.
I let out a slow breath. The late nights, the phone glued to his hand. He been moving different. And then…” I paused. “That girl came into the shop.”
Nia already knew where I was going. “Kim.”
“Yeah.”
I nodded. “Something about that whole interaction rubbed me wrong.”
She didn’t say nothing just let me talk. “I ain’t catch ’em flirting, But my spirit ain’t like it.”
Nia walked over and leaned against the station beside me. “You wanna know what I think?”
I looked over at her. “What?”
“I think you’ve been making excuses for that man because you love him.”
“I ain’t making excuses.”
“You sure?” She raised one eyebrow. “‘Cause every time you tell me something he do, you follow it up with why it probably ain’t what it look like.”
I opened my mouth then closed it because damn maybe she had a point. I looked down at the floor before finally saying it out loud. “Girl…I think Deuce cheating on me.”