Chapter 17 Tatiyonna
SEVENTEEN
TATIYONNA
“A dance studio?” My daddy asked as he drank his coffee.
“Yes, I’ve had it for years now. The only person that knows is…him.”
“It’s been a while now. I’m sure you can tell me who the hell he is by now. You’re back with Kileen’s ass now. Who is him and why would he know before Casi or me?”
“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to think that I wasted your money going to college to only want to be a dance instructor. I didn’t tell Casi because I wanted to tell you first. Casi wouldn’t judge me.”
“And you think I would? You’re successful, Tati. Whatever you put your mind to do, you’ve done it. My paying for you to go to college was a blessing to you. You did it and now it’s time for you to be happy. Don’t worry about little old me.”
“Thank you, daddy,” I hugged his neck.
“You still avoided the question, Tati.”
I knew what he wanted to know, but I wanted to hold Jah as close to my heart as I could.
“It was Jahmir,” I said lowly.
“Grant?” My dad raised his voice.
I nodded my head like I was a kid all over again.
“You picked Kileen over Jahmir Grant?” My dad asked again for clarification.
“Daddy, Kileen is and has always been my husband. Jahmir was a thing.”
“A thing that had you ignoring calls and shit. Yeah, tell that lie to your husband and not me.”
My phone started ringing, and I was actually glad because I didn’t want to keep having this conversation with my dad. It was from the twins’ school.
“I need to take this,” I told my daddy.
I was having breakfast with him at his place, so I excused myself to my old bedroom.
“Hello?”
“Hello, this is the school counselor at Elm Groves. You are on the paperwork for the Reign and Dream Grant as their speech therapist.”
“Yes, but my services ended with them,” I explained.
“I’m aware, but Mr. Grant asked me to reach out to you and see if you could assist me with Dream.
Mr. Grant said that Dream works well with you and may open up if he sees you.
Is there any way we can schedule you to come in tomorrow?
I need as much help as I can get with him. He won’t speak with me.”
“Did you reach out to his aunt, Lonni Grant? I’m not sure what I can help with.”
“Both Mr. Grant and Ms. Lonni said you would be able to get Dream to use his words to himself while in the classroom.”
“And this is strictly for classroom purposes. No one else will be there?”
“Correct,” she replied.
“Okay, I can be there at nine.”
“Thank you. I’ll see you then.”
After I got off the phone, I kissed my daddy and left.
Tonight, I planned on telling Kileen about the dance studio and the plans I had for it.
I wanted to be a therapist part-time and teach different dance classes.
One being sensual dance classes, where they can bring their partner in once they learn the basics.
Another class I would love to teach would be aerial dance. I headed to work and tried to focus.
Later that night, I had made it home to cook dinner.
Kileen told me he would make it home in enough time to sit and eat dinner.
Since I agreed to work on our marriage, he was doing a lot better.
He did the random check-ins; he made sure to pay me attention while he was home.
He left work at work and focused on working on us.
He took notes while in counseling and I appreciated that I gave him another chance.
As I sat his plate down, I could hear the garage door opening and closing.
I grabbed his drink and then fixed my plate, and took a seat to wait for him.
I could hear him struggling to get through the door.
When he made it to the dining room, he was out of breath because his ass was carrying a car seat and his work bag.
“Kil, what the fuck is this?” I rose from the table.
“Look, I know it’s last minute, but Siya had a family emergency and had to handle something.”
“And you didn’t think to call and discuss this with me? You do know this is why I was leaving you, right? You told me this was under control.”
“And baby, it is. She’s a good baby. You won’t know she’s here. She’ll be gone before we go to bed.”
My appetite was gone. The talk about the dance studio was gone.
I didn’t even want to look at Kileen's ass right now. He brought the exact problem into my fucking house. I would’ve rather he called me and said he had to get his child, and he was going to his apartment with her.
I sat across from him while he tried to eat and juggle holding his baby.
I had nothing against the beautiful baby, but I didn’t want her in my house either.
My mind drifted right to Jah. Had I served Kileen with divorce papers, I would be about six months with Jah’s baby.
I wouldn’t have had to guess with him. Though things were going good with Kileen and I, the last three months had really took me through it.
Every time Kileen touched me, I thought about Jah.
I had yet to be sexual with Kileen because my trust just wasn’t there to trust him with my body again.
Now that he popped up with this baby, I knew he was spending time with Siya again.
We agreed that a mutual family member would do the talking between the two.
I know, it was stupid, but it’s what he agreed to in order to get me back.
“Dammit.” Kileen knocked me out of my daydream.
His daughter had knocked his drink over and it was spilling all over my floor.
I didn’t jump into action immediately because I wanted to see what his instinct as a father was like.
Just as I suspected, he got up from the table and handed his daughter to me.
He couldn’t hold her and clean up the mess.
“You could’ve sat her in her car seat, you know.”
“She’s too big for that car seat. I need to buy her another one,” he said as he cleaned the mess.
I looked at the little girl who was identical to my husband and wanted to cry. I got up, sat the baby in her car seat and walked off. When I closed my bathroom door, I broke down crying.
“Bitch, get yourself together. This is what you wanted, right?” I said to myself in the mirror.
“Tati, are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I sniffled.
“I got the mess cleaned up. It didn’t mess up the floors,” Kileen said through the door.
Did this nigga think this was about my fucking floors?
“It’s not the floors, Kil. You know what?” I snatched the door open. “It’s cool. Just do what you got to do for her, but please give me some space to think.”
For the rest of the evening, I stayed up in my room while he stayed downstairs with her. It wasn’t until my doorbell chimed that I rushed downstairs because the audacity for a bitch to show up to my house. As soon as Kileen opened the door, Siya stepped in.
“Excuse me, you can step right back out the door,” I told her.
“She’s just coming to get the baby,” Kileen explained.
“Boy…don’t piss me off. How the fuck does she know where I live?” I looked at him.
Siya stood there quiet, waiting for him to respond. If he said the wrong thing, I was going right in his mouth.
“I just gave her the address today. She needed to know where our daughter was going to be.”
“And you thought it was a good idea to give your side piece my address?”
“Tatiyonna, I don’t want any issues with you. I just came to get my baby,” Siya said.
“Would you let your husband’s side piece in your house?” I asked her.
“I don’t have to worry about that issue.”
“Of course you don’t. Get your baby and get the hell out of my house,” I said before walking away.
I was prepared for what Kileen said when he walked in this room. My only request from him was to keep this whole situation away from me. He could spend all the time he wanted to with his child, just don’t force the child on me. And what does he do? Bring his child to my house.
“Was that called for?” Kileen walked in the room.
“Yes, it was. I hate to remind you why we’re here. You agreed to keep me out of this shit.”
“Tati, fuck! What did you want me to do? In emergencies, I expect my wife to be supportive.”
“Supportive? That word did not just come out of your mouth. You know what, I can’t do this tonight. I have work in the morning. Good night, Kil.”
“That’s your problem. It’s always Tati’s way and no one else’s.”
I let him continue to talk as I pulled the cover back and got in bed.
“So, we’re ignoring and going backwards again. Now, I can’t speak on how I feel without you giving me the cold shoulder about my baby.”
Nigga, fuck your baby.
“You want to argue, Kil? Is that what you want? Right now, I’m upset, and I don’t think I’ll communicate well. It’s not me ignoring you. Do you want me to say something I’ll regret or would rather me sleep it off and we discuss it when we’re both calm?”
“Whatever.” He waved me off.
“Yeah, whatever.” I rolled my eyes.
I entered the school in hopes that whatever was going on with Dream I could fix it. We left off on a good note and he was able to verbalize his needs. I wasn’t sure what made him digress. The school counselor greeted me before she took me to where Dream was sitting in her office.
“Dream,” I greeted him. He jumped up and hugged my leg. “Can you give us a minute?” I asked the counselor.
“Sure.” She walked off.
“What’s going on, buddy?”
He didn’t tell me right off the bat, so I had to pull out my tricks.
Dream loved certain snacks. As soon as he saw the Cheetos, he started talking.
Once he was finished, I took a wipe and cleaned his hands and mouth.
I left him in the room to finish coloring while I took the time to talk with the counselor.
“Are you separating him from his sister?” I asked the counselor.
“Well, yes, she is more advanced than he is. We have him grouped with the kids that are on his level.”
“And Mr. Grant is okay with this?”
“We haven’t notified them about classroom changes.”
“Don’t you think that is important with twins?
Your job is to advocate for the kids. The twins have been through a lot; Dream will be able to function better in an atmosphere with his sister.
She will not let him fail. I spent months with them.
She wants him to learn just as fast as she does.
For him to stop acting out in class, you have to put them back together.
That’s my suggestion. Oh, and I advise that you speak with the Grants about the move you made without consulting with them. ”
Now that I had that settled, I can finish my day and then head home to talk with Kileen about last night.
Jah had rubbed off on me with the no-arguing thing.
There was no point in arguing. Nothing was getting proven.
I had made up my mind that this was my last year as a speech therapist full-time.
I had typed up my email to send out to all my clients.
I would only be doing once-a-month appointments for each client.
Unless emergency visits were needed. I saved the email in my drafts and got up from my home office.
“Hey,” Kileen greeted me with flowers.
“I didn’t know you were here.”
“I just walked in. How was work?”
“It was good. Can I talk to you about something?” I sat at the table, and Kileen followed.
“If it’s about last night, I apologize for not communicating with you about my daughter. From now on, I’ll call and take her to my apartment.”
“It’s not that, but I appreciate you for understanding my feelings.”
“Did I do something else?” A look of stress hit his face.
“At the end of the year, I’m giving up working full-time at my business.”
“What, you got another business venture in mind? I thought this was your dream, Tati.”
“It is, but I’m not fulfilled anymore. I have a studio that I bought, and I want to teach dance full-time and do my therapy part-time.”
“What?” he laughed in my face.
I was disgusted, and he hadn't even picked up on it.
“Dance? What fuck are you thinking about? You won’t be able to continue your extravagant lifestyle off teaching dance, Tati. You’re sitting here telling me, you’re leaving a six-figure job for what? A couple thousand a year. You’re joking, right?”
“Actually, I’m dead serious, but I don’t know why I would think someone like you would understand me.”
“It’s not that I don’t understand you. I’m being real, and you’re living in some fantasy shit. How long have you been dancing? We’ve been together for years, and I’ve never known you could dance.”
I just nodded because we were so far removed from each other. He forgot about me being on the dance line in college. I stuck around for a year after I graduated to teach the girls the dances for the following year.
“Well, I just thought, as your wife, I would let you know. It wasn’t me asking you for permission.
I’ve had the studio for five years now, and you never knew.
I never asked you to pay anything for it.
And if you’re concerned about money, don’t.
I got me.” I got up from the table and left his stupid ass sitting there.