Chapter 7
Dionne Henry
Against My Better Judgement
“Iknew I meant to check you about something yesterday, but I forgot. Why did you have your location turned off yesterday? I had finished up early with a client, and I was going to text you to see if you wanted to grab lunch, but I noticed that your location was turned off. June ended up calling me, so I just went to lunch with him, and in the midst of that, I forgot to ask you that. Where the hell were you?” Free asked me, sounding as if she was my damn mama, or the oldest sister.
We were at my place. Tommie was in the back, using the bathroom, and Free and I were chilling on the couch.
The three of us had gone shopping, and we were supposed to go out, and sit somewhere to eat, but Tommie was in the backseat, complaining about her stomach hurting.
Since we were closest to my house, this is where we stopped, so that my sister could use the bathroom.
So far, she’s been in there for about five minutes.
We did so much shopping, and running around, that before Free asked me that question, I was dozing off on the couch, but the sound of her voice forced me to get up.
“Girl, what? I don’t know. My phone did die sometime in the middle of the afternoon yesterday, so that’s probably why you couldn’t see my location,” I lied, knowing that she hadn’t been able to see my location because I had turned it off.
Yesterday, I was handling business for ‘House of Henry’.
I had a meeting with a realtor, who was taking me warehouse looking.
I was keeping this business venture a secret, not telling anyone what I was up to, and because of that, I had to turn my location off because I didn’t want anyone that had my location to ask me any questions.
“Your lying. The message delivered, so your phone wasn’t turned off.
If you was out with a nigga Dionne, then just say that.
Who was it? I’m not going to even ask you if it’s someone that we know because it’s never anyone that we know.
Where did you meet him?” Free asked, loud and fuckin wrong, asking me all these damn questions.
I was lying on my back, with my head resting on the arm of the couch, and since she was sitting on the same couch as me, I had my feet in her lap. I wanted to raise my foot and just kick her ass.
“You of all people should know that I wasn’t out with a nigga.
I was out, handling something that I’m not ready to tell ya’ll about yet.
When the time comes, you will now. I put it on Nivea that I wasn’t out on a date or anything,” I swore, and she just rolled her eyes, and waved me off as if she still didn’t believe me, even though I put it on our baby sister.
“Oh yeah, and I forgot to tell you this too. You know I’m booked out for the rest of the year, but somehow, I allowed my damn husband to convince me to squeeze Tank into my schedule this month.
I’ll be tattooing your man really soon. You should swing by my shop and just pretend that you came through to bring me lunch or something,” she said it with a smile on her face, and this time, it was my turn to roll my eyes at her.
“And just why would I do that?” I asked her, and she chuckled, while putting her hand on my foot, and she squeezed it, as if it annoyed her so bad that I wouldn’t fuck with Tank in the way that she wanted me to.
“Why wouldn’t you? I just don’t see how you don’t see the hype in him,” Free went on.
“Free, I very much do see the hype. I never once said that Tank wasn’t fine.
When we all saw him for the first time months ago at June’s bar b q event that he put on, I agreed with all of you that he was fine.
That’s not the issue here. The issue here is that he isn’t my type, and you know that.
Not only that, but he has a girl. He literally came to Liberty’s party with her,” I shared with her.
If Tank was here with us right now, I felt like he would be pissed that I was still going around, saying that he was in a relationship with that woman, when he’s told me time, and time again that he was single.
“Oh girl, speaking of the girl that he came to the party with. So, I was eavesdropping on June’s conversation with him the other day.
I don’t know all the details, and I even tried to ask June what happened, but of course, he wouldn’t tell me.
All I know is that Tank had gone over to her place, and the two of them got into it about something.
I guess the bitch started talking crazy to Tank, and he said that he snapped, and choked the bitch.
He was telling June that he’s going to stop messing around with her because she was going to fuck up his life, or something of that sort.
I’m telling you this to let you know that she’s out of the picture now,” Free said to me, and I kept quiet, taking in the things that she was saying to me.
All I could think about was the fact that I was glad that I had been using my discernment when it came to Tank.
The nigga looked good on paper, but he was a guy that was much different than what I was used to, and I was just glad that I didn’t listen to that small voice that was in my head, trying to tell me to give him a chance.
From what Free just told me, this nigga was over there putting his hands on women, and I didn’t have any respect for men that went around doing that.
I chose not to respond to what my sister told me because I felt like the more questions that I asked about the situation, it was going to really make me not like him.
Bagel was in the room with us, but for the longest he had been in the corner, where his bed was, and he was laying there.
I knew that it wouldn’t be long before he got up, and he ran over to me.
He was so tiny that he couldn’t jump up on the couch, where I was lying, so I had to lean over, and I picked him up, putting him right into the crook of my arm, where he lay.
You couldn’t tell me that this wasn’t my baby that I carried for nine months. I loved him like I birthed him.
I dealt with a lot of trauma that I kept to myself, and Bagel was that thing that I needed in my life, that made my problems seems so small.
I snuggled up under him, releasing a yawn.
All I could think about was the fact that if my sister didn’t come out of that bathroom soon, I was going to take a nap, and I would be telling my sisters that they could just go out without me.
Two minutes later, Free’s phone started ringing. Her phone was sitting on the small table that was before us, and she picked it up. She showed me the screen, and I could see that it was June calling her on Facetime.
“Watch, he about to try to tell me to come home,” she said to me, right before she used her finger to swipe, answering the call for him.
“Where you at, baby?” was the first thing that he asked her when the call connected. She laughed, while she threw her back against the couch.
“You have my location, June. You see that I’m at my sister’s house,” she responded to him.
“When you coming home then?” he wanted to know.
“I hateeee home,” she joked to him, and I couldn’t even help it because I ended up laughing at her dumb ass. She laughed right after she said it, and the fact that I didn’t hear June laugh let me know that he didn’t find it funny.
“That’s a fuckin lie. Seriously, when you coming home? Damn, we got a kid free night. I’m thinking I’m about to spend some quality time with my wife. You been road running with your sisters all day. When you leave Dionne’s crib, you coming home?” he asked her.
“We’re about to go to dinner. We’re waiting for Tommie,” she let him know, and I heard him suck his teeth, which didn’t do anything but make me laugh. June was obsessed with my sister. The two of them had come such a long way, and I was happy with the place that they were in right now.
“Aight. Bring your ass home after dinner. Who sitting next to you that keep laughing? That’s Dionne?” he asked, and instead of Free answering him, she just turned the phone, so that he could see that it was me.
“Dionne, what’s good? I heard ya’ll went shopping. I know you broke the fuckin bank with your shopping ass,” he let out, and I laughed, and we talked back and forth for a little bit.
Free put the camera back on herself, and she talked with her husband for a little bit longer. They eventually hung up, and seconds later, Tommie was making her way out of the bathroom. I looked up at her, and her ass looked refreshed.
Tommie had a weak stomach, and she couldn’t eat a lot of things without her stomach hurting.
Dairy would really fuck her up. While we were at the mall, she purchased a Cinnabon, and she had it with milk.
Both Free and I told her not to drink the milk because she knew what it would do to her stomach, but she opted on getting it anyways.
The second we got in the car, and was getting ready to head to dinner, her ass was in the backseat groaning, telling Free to take her to my house, since I was the closest, so that she could use the bathroom.
“Because that was dumb as hell of you. Why would you willingly drink milk, knowing what that shit is going to do to your stomach?” Free snapped on her, as she removed my feet from her lap, so that she could stand up.
For Tommie to not even respond, that only meant that her stomach was probably still hurting a little bit because she wasn’t the kind of person that would miss an opportunity to go back, and forth with someone.