Page 5 of In the Lonely Hour

At the feel of her phone vibrating in her jeans, Layla pulled it out and sighed at the sight of Carlos’s name.

“Hello?” she answered.

“I’m here. Where you at?”

“In the middle of the park… by the ice cream cart.”

“Aight. I’m on my way.”

Since Layla wasn’t sure what Carlos wanted to talk to her about, she’d asked the only friend she had, Brittany, to watch Dior for a few minutes. Really, she couldn’t even call Brittany her friend. They were in the same support group and often watched each other’s kids for brief moments when something pressing came up. Unfortunately, Layla’s marriage wasn’t the only thing that suffered when she became a mother; her friendships did too. She was obsessed with Dior and didn’t give a damn about anything else. Now that so many years had passed without school, work, or activities, Layla had no earthly idea how to make friends as an adult.

How the hell was she going to teach Dior to?

Layla’s eyes landed on Carlos. When she looked at him, he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his slacks and twisted his mouth to the side. She looked away, wondering if Tiny and his human were still in view, but they weren’t.

“Hey,” Carlos greeted when he made his way in front of her.

“Hey. What’s up?”

“I wanted to get some kind of arrangement in place.” She nodded. “Since I’ll be staying with Jasmine, I’m going to start paying her rent. She’s going to take care of everything else, though. With that being said, I need you to start looking for a job. I’m still going to pay all the major bills at the house, but youcan start taking care of the smaller ones, food, and your personal shit.”

Layla’s head shook as she chuckled. “I can’t work, Carlos. Dior is my main responsibility. Just because she’s not yours doesn’t mean that’s changed for me.”

“I understand that, but you can’t expect me to take care of you while I’m with someone else.”

“Nigga!” she roared while pounding her fist against her palm, unable to maintain her calm. “I don’t give afuckabout you being with someone else! I’m your wife and that’s your child. You promised to take care of everything financially so I could care for our child. Just because you’re laying up with her doesn’t mean your responsibility to us has changed! Until our divorce is finalized, that still needs to be your main priority. If you can’t afford to take care of homeandher spot,she’sthe one you need to cut off—notus.”

“Look, you can have until Dior starts back to school. By then, you need to have a job. You can work from home or work while she’s at school and have your evenings off so you can be with her.”

“So you expect me to work an actual job and then be present for Dior? I’m barely functioning as it is.”

“I’ve told you several times to let our families help with Dior or hire help. She’s thirteen now and fully capable of doing things by herself. Hell, she’s almost always in her damn room anyway. You can spend that time resting or doing whatever else you want to do. Either way, my fiancée isn’t comfortable with me…”

“Wait.” Layla lifted her hands in surrender. Her eyes squeezed shut as she released a quick bark of laughter. “I know you did not just say your fiancée.”

“Yes. I proposed Saturday.”

Nibbling her bottom lip, Layla crossed her arms over her chest and rested the bulk of her weight on her right side.

“The day after you left home?”

Carlos nodded. “Yeah. Jasmine doesn’t want me taking care of you. She knows I’m going to provide for my daughter, but that’s it. I won’t go public with our engagement until after our divorce has been finalized…”

“But you said our agreement was still intact until Dior graduated. Surely you don’t expect me to believe Jasmine is going to wait four years to marry you?”

“I wanted to talk to you about that too. We talked about it and I decided I want the separation to remain in place just for her first year of high school. Once she’s adjusted, we can finalize the divorce. I’ve already scheduled a meeting with my lawyer to have everything written out and approved by Judge Harris. I don’t want any type of waiting period when we start up with the new proceedings. So are you going to make this easy for the both of us and not contest the divorce?”

“As far as I’m concerned, when I’m sure Dior can handle the adjustment, you can have a divorceandsign over your rights to her. That way, you won’t have to fake the funk and make it seem like you even give a damn about being in her life. Start fresh with Jasmine. I don’t give a fuck.”

Pushing past him, Layla headed toward her car as her anger continued to rise. Just when guilt had her feeling bad and wondering if there was anything she could do to make up for not being the wife Carlos needed, he dropped two bombs on her that made her want to remove him from her life for good. But as always, Layla moved with Dior’s best interests in mind. Unfortunately, those interests would force her to play nice… for now.

“He was there until she was done with her routine for the evening then he left but that’s not the case anymore,” Layla finished, head hung. She was at the Martin Community Center where the weekly support group she attended was held. Beyond the typical neighborhood community center, this one specialized in being a safe zone for both those with Autism, on any end of the spectrum, and their caregivers. It was where she’d met Brittany years ago and the only place she felt safe discussing the trials and tribulations of being with a partner who didn’t hold his own weight. “I guess we’re going to slowly transition her so that she will get used to him not being in the house. They don’t talk a lot, but she’s calm when she knows he’s there unless we’re arguing. Once she’s accepted the lack ofhis presence, he wants to tell her about the divorce, but I’m not exactly sure that will be necessary.”

“Why not?” Carolyn asked.

“Why does she have to know our marriage is over? It’s not like I’m going to have another man around.”

“Ever?”

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