7. Sage
SAGE
The first thing I did when I woke up was call my dad to check in on JJ. That boy loved his pop so much that he forgot I even existed whenever they were together.
“He’s good, baby. You know you don’t have to keep an eye on him when we’re together.”
“I know, Daddy. Don’t let him have a whole bunch of junk, though. He needs to eat his vegetables.”
“Did I let you and your brothers eat a whole bunch of bullshit?”
“No, but you ran a strict program with us. JJ made you soft.”
“Girl, you know there ain’t nothing soft about me.” He chuckled. He was absolutely right, but he also knew exactly what I was talking about.
“Yeah, OK. Let me speak to him.”
After a brief silence and a whole lot of shuffling on the other end, my son came on the line. “Hey, Ma. Pops took me to the water park downtown. You know, the new one. Now we’re on the way to get ice cream and donuts.”
“Boy, stop telling every damn thing. I told you this was a boys’ day out.”
See what I was saying? By the time my baby came home, he probably wouldn’t have any teeth.
You think his granddaddy gave a damn? As long as his oldest grandchild was happy, he was happy.
I couldn’t have asked for a better village when it came to taking care of my son.
I only wished that his own father had the same enthusiasm as the rest of the people in my life.
“Don’t eat both, Jaylen. Pick either a donut or ice cream. I know your pops might not care about diabetes, but I do.”
“Pops, what is diabetes? My mom says you don’t care about it.”
“Tell her you’re good and hang that phone up.”
“Boy, you better not hang that phone up on me. Don’t let your granddaddy get you in trouble.”
“Sorry, Mama. I gotta go. I’ll see you later,” JJ said before ending the call.
Shaking my head, I put the phone on the coffee table.
I knew there was no arguing with my dad.
Instead of getting irritated, I was actually grateful that my son was enjoying himself.
At least one of us had the privilege of being completely oblivious to the things going on in our lives.
KD had done a wonderful job of keeping me occupied and distracted, but eventually, I would have to face reality.
I had to get my things out of that house and sever emotional ties with Jaylen once and for all.
Even though he was a complete jackass, I would never keep him away from his son.
Sooner or later, we would have to work out a coparenting schedule or some kind of plan.
Right now, I just wanted to hide out under KD and pretend that everything was right in the world for a while.
Since he was out when I woke up, I took the liberty of making lunch.
I wasn’t a vegetarian chef or anything, but I found what I needed to make potato burritos and a nice fruit salad to go along with them.
It actually didn’t take much trouble at all.
Plus, the little taste that I sampled was delicious.
Maybe it was something that I could adopt now that we were together.
What was I saying? KD and I weren’t together. Were we? According to the state of Georgia, we had been married for the last ten years. That was even enough for a common law marriage at one point. It didn’t matter that we had only technically lived together for a few days. He was my husband.
After a lot of coaxing, he’d been able to finally get me to admit what I never even wanted to admit to myself: I loved him.
Of course, I loved Klever. He was amazing.
With as annoying as he could be sometimes, he was also brilliant, charming, kind, and the best lover I had ever had, hands down.
I would have never thought I was into that dom/sub stuff before he introduced me to it.
I was bossy as hell, mostly from being an older sibling, and the rest from being one of the only women in my immediate family. Somebody had to keep things in line.
Klever let me off the hook when it came to that.
He handled things and made my burdens lighter.
Who wouldn’t love a man who wanted to make their life easier?
I loved KD down. I loved him enough to know that he was too good for me.
He deserved a woman who didn’t come with baggage, emotional trauma, and a child that belonged to another man.
Even when we got married, I knew that he was too good for me. After ten years, it seemed like I would have been able to convince him of that, but as I found out, his feelings had never changed. It broke my heart to feel like he was settling for me.
No matter how hard I tried, I could never get him to understand how damaged I was.
Why would he want me when the father of my child probably never did?
I was sure Jaylen tolerated me to keep the child support people out of his pocket and Bash off his neck.
I never once regretted having my son, but with every second that ticked by, I wondered why I’d put up with his dad for so long.
The excuse of wanting to keep my family together was starting to fall apart at the seams.
What a child needed more than a two-parent household was a happy one. After a full night’s sleep and time to think, I could think clearly enough to know that our home had never been as happy as it should have.
My phone rang, dragging me away from the kitchen to the living room where I’d left it.
I figured the first call was from KD. About an hour had passed since I’d gotten up, and he still wasn’t home.
The call rolled over to voicemail before I could answer, but I grabbed my phone anyway.
Apparently, someone really wanted to get in touch with me.
Calling KD back-to-back probably put him in panic mode.
I didn’t want him to worry or bring lunch, so I picked up my phone to call him back.
When I unlocked my phone, I was surprised to see that there were actually ten missed calls.
A few of them were from parents of the kids that came to my dance studio; another couple of them came from the other two instructors.
I didn’t return the calls immediately because I also had a slew of text messages. Damn, I must have really been sleeping good.
Monica: Girl, WTF
Monica: Sage, call me ASAP
Tashay: Damn, I couldn’t even get a phone call.
Mrs. Travers: Sage, please give me a call at your earliest convenience.
My heart sank as I considered what all the fuss was about.
The fact that both staff and parents of Rhythm and Grace Dance Studio were calling meant that it was likely that news of my arrest had gotten out.
Hopefully, all the parents hadn’t found out.
Some of them were downright nosy on top of being gossipers.
I was quite sure that if one person knew, then eventually, they would all find out.
I couldn’t blame them for being alarmed.
I wasn’t sure I would want Jaylen around someone who would crash out and get arrested, and I was his mom.
There was no use in prolonging the inevitable, so I bit the bullet and called Monica back first. She taught the after-school tap dancing classes.
It was nowhere near time for class to start, so maybe I had time to reassure her that everything would be good by four o’clock when she usually got started.
“Girl, what the hell is going on?”
“I don’t know, Mo. I kinda just lost it. Mind you, I had been drinking.”
“Drinking is one thing, but what made you mad enough to close down the studio?”
“What?”
“I got an email this morning that the studio was being closed down immediately.”
My stomach dropped as I plopped down on the couch. She had to be mistaken.
“Mo, what the hell are you talking about? What email?”
“Sage, just how drunk were you last night?”
“Not drunk enough to forget closing down my freaking studio. What in the world is going on? I have no idea about an email.”
“Effective immediately, Rhythm and Grace Dance Studio will be permanently closing its doors. We are sorry for the inconvenience this might have caused during this transition. Please respect our privacy at this time as we work to issue refunds and send out referrals to other local studios.”
“Please tell me this is an April Fool’s prank,” I said once she was done reading.
“Sage, all the parents got this email about an hour and a half ago. I can’t believe they haven’t been blowing your phone up like I have.
I was actually on my way over there to shake some sense into you.
Tashay just called me and said she went straight to the studio, and the doors are freaking chained up.
What’s going on? Are you having financial problems? ”
“Monica, what part of I have no idea what you’re talking about don’t you understand?”
“Well, everyone got it, including the other two dance instructors. It came from your email.”
Jaylen. That was the only explanation. I’d left my laptop home, but that didn’t matter. I’d used his enough that he would easily be able to get into my account. I knew he was a bitch, but it seemed like lately, he doubled down on that title a little more.
“Mo, I would never just close down the studio without warning. Somebody is fucking with me.”
“Were you behind on the payments? Tashay said there was something on the door about revocation of property by owner, J Jackson Sr.”
“Girl, I know damn well he did not!”
“Who would do something like that?”
“Jaylen,” I confessed. I hated to bring anyone else into my business, but Monica was more than an employee. She was a friend.
“You two having problems?”
“Girl, at this point, that’s an understatement. Look, I’m going to figure out what’s going on. I guess we know this is an off day. I’m going to make some calls, and I’ll get back in touch with you later tonight.”
“Handle your business, girl. Let me know if me and my bat need to pull up anywhere.”
That almost made me laugh, almost.
“I will.”