Page 73 of Until the Ink Dries

“I hear you.” I responded.

I didn’t want to keep going over this situation. Although it was new to Jordan, I had been dealing with the aftermath for two weeks now. I released a sigh and stood, then looked over at Jordan.

“Since a nap isn’t something I’m going to be able to get, you might as well come with me to clean up the mess from my place. I haven’t been back over there since the incident.

Jordan’s eyes widened, “You haven’t checked on the shop, either?” he asked.

“That’s the only thing I’ve been around those parts to do. You coming?” I asked.

Jordan nodded then stood to follow me out of the living room. We said our goodbyes to my parents. It took a minute because I had to talk my mom out of coming. She was convinced she needed to be there, even if it was just so she could help clean up. I love her to death, but this was one thing I was cool to do without her. She had already done so much for Charlie and me.

The drive to the shop was a short but silent one. This was the first time that Jordan didn’t feel the need to say anything. Usually, he was the most talkative out of us. I pulled around back and parked in the designated space for me. The side doorknob to get to the stairs of my place had been repaired. It was one of the only things I made sure was done, I didn’t want to come back to find everything stolen out of here. I reached into my back pocket for the key, and hesitated before finally unlocking the door. Still, Jordan hadn’t said anything or rushed me.

We jogged up the steps to open the door to my place. My hand stayed still on the knob for a moment before I pushed it open. This doorknob was still jacked up so I didn’t need to pull out my key for it. I slowly walked inside as that day became clearer to me.

“Damn.”

I glanced behind me at Jordan whose eyes had gone wide and was now surveying the place.

“I knew Tierra ass was crazy but not this crazy.”

I nodded. That was the problem. I felt the same way and had given her too many passes for the shit she did. It wasn’t out of love but for my daughter, she was the only reason I never pushed that Tierra stay away from us. But now after all this, my daughter would forever be the reason I couldn’t allow people to get off free after treating her any kind of way. Even if the person birthed her.

“Yeah. It was something different about her that night. I could tell that she had moved on from just drinking and pills. The shit she was on that night was the hard stuff.” I told him.

I leaned down and grabbed one of Charlie’s dolls from the floor.

“You think she on crack or something?” he asked.

I shrugged, “I’m not too positive but she has never looked or acted that deranged. She did mention that the night before, she watched Willow and I come in. She was stuck on that. I don’t know why that woman believes we’re going to be anything more than co-parents and not even that anymore.”

Jordan walked around me and went into the kitchen for a moment, before walking out with a broom and a couple trash bags. He removed his jacket and placed it onto one of the bar stools, then rolled up his sleeves and started to clean.

“It ain’t much you have to say to make someone believe some shit that they want. But you coming or nah? This yo’ spot.” he said with a smirk.

I shook my head and then stood to place Charlie’s doll onto the counter.

“Man, watch out.” I said with a laugh.

I walked around him to grab the whole box of trash bags. We were going to need it.

For the next few hours, we got rid of all the broken TVs, and anything Tierra broke, which was basically the entire house. I don’t know what was on her mind when she came in here fucking everything up. It was as if a switch went off. She broke the legs on my tables, ripped up curtains, and tore Charlie’s room to shreds. I was going to have to buy all new furniture messing around with her.

I glanced down at my watch, and it was almost two in the afternoon, which left me with a little bit of time to get in the line at Charlie’s school to pick her up. They got out at 2:30 and when it was time for pick up, the line was usually wrapped around the building and down the street. I can’t front and say they didn’t keep that line moving, though. It was a seamless process, although it looked bad.

“Aye, I have to pick up Charlie. You coming?” I asked.

“Hell yeah. After you overworked me, I need to get the hell up out of here. Then, you can drop me off to my car.”

I nodded and then grabbed my keys. He followed me back to the car and we made our way to the school.

“I been meaning to ask you. Did you get Charlie into therapy or anything? I can only imagine how scary that shit was to her.”

I released a sigh and nodded. “Yeah, it was the first thing I did. Man, she was having terrible nightmares, waking up screaming for me. It had gotten to the point where I needed to sleep with her every night. I knew then that it was necessary. But the cost of keeping up with that and now seeing I need all new everything… I’m gone need to get back to booking a few sessions.”

“I’m glad you got her the help she needed.” he said while texting.

Then his phone rang and he answered almost immediately.

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