Page 8 of I Heard It All Before

Chapter 3

“You can’t be serious!” Asha yelled as she looked at Cam in disgust. What he was saying had to be a joke and she was just waiting on him to laugh.

“Does it look like I’m playing?” Cam asked in return. “The fuck we need with three bedrooms anyway and it’s just us?”

“We got it because we needed the extra closet space. I have too many clothes and shoes for us to downsize,” Asha argued.

Her breath got caught in her throat when Cam told her that he wasn’t renewing their lease when it was up in eight more months. The place was in his mother’s name, so she really didn’t have a say in the matter. Nora renewed the lease when he was locked up, but that was only because he told her to. Neither of them had a job when they first moved there and his dope money didn’t count. Cam had only been home for three months and shit was going from bad to worse.

“We can still get a place with an extra room to store our stuff. We don’t even use that third bedroom’s closet anyway. I’m paying almost two-thousand dollars a month and that shit is just ridiculous. People pay less than that for mortgages,” Cam replied.

“I don’t want to move to another area. Why can’t we just get a two-bedroom back here?” Asha inquired.

“That’s only one hundred dollars less than what I’m paying now. I don’t have it like that no more Asha. My savings is going down and I need to be smart about this shit. We just need to start looking for us another place to stay. I’m telling my mama to give a thirty-day notice when it gets close to renewal time,” Cam said, ending the conversation.

“You’re not even taking my feelings into consideration. Don’t I have a say in all of this?” Asha asked.

“Are you gonna pay the rent Asha? Are you even gonna go half on a bill up in this bitch? If the answer is no, then fuck whatever you gotta say,” Cam snapped.

He didn’t have to be at work for a few hours, but he needed to get away from her for a while. Asha stormed off to the bedroom and slammed the door, right before Cam grabbed his keys and left. He called his mother to see if she wanted to get a bite to eat with him, but she was already out shopping with her sisters. They were scheduled to leave for their cruise in a few days and she was making sure that she had everything. Deciding to dine alone, Cam drove to IHOP to get one of his favorite southwestern omelets. As soon as he was seated, he placed his order and waited for his food. He called his boy, Randy, to vent to him for a while as he stuffed his mouth. They always talked when he went to work, but Cam needed a listening ear sooner than that.

“What’s up with you?” Randy asked as soon as he answered the phone.

“Same shit, different day. I’m ready to throw in the towel on this relationship shit. I don’t have the patience for all the drama. If her ass didn’t hold me down all those times that I went to jail, I would have been gone,” Cam replied.

“Hold up one second bruh. I’m dropping Nia off to work right quick,” Randy said, referring to his girlfriend. He never talked around his girl, so Cam understood. Nia was tight with Asha, so Randy probably didn’t want her to repeat whatever was about to be said.

“At least she got a job,” Cam replied under his breath.

He listened as Randy and his girlfriend exchanged pleasantries before his boy got back on the line.

“What happened this time?” Randy questioned his friend.

“Me and Asha stupid ass got into it again, just like always,” Cam replied.

“What y’all into it for now?” Randy quizzed.

“I told her selfish ass that we need to move. I’m spending too much money on unnecessary bullshit. This ain’t no dope money that I’m making no more. I gotta be smarter about shit now. I’m getting too old to keep making the same dumb ass moves,” Cam noted.

“I feel you on that bruh. I guess Asha ain’t feeling the move,” Randy assumed.

“She don’t give a fuck if a nigga go broke. She’s too busy trying to uphold an image. Man, don’t Nia have some sisters? I need me a working woman who’s about her business,” Cam replied.

“Yeah, but them ratchet hoes ain’t nothing like her. I just had it out with her ass too,” Randy informed him.

“Nia? The fuck could you possibly have it out with her about? You got one of the good ones. Probably the last good one,” Cam acknowledged.

“Yeah man, but she’s boring as fuck. All she does is go to work, school, and back home. I can barely get her to spend the night with me,” Randy argued.

He and his brother shared a condo, and that was Nia’s reason for not wanting to stay. She didn’t feel comfortable at his house knowing that his brother was always there.

“Nigga, I’m still waiting for you to get to the problem. I got a bitch who won’t even wash dishes and you’re complaining because your girl works too much?” Cam questioned while shaking his head.

Nia was the kind of woman that most men were looking for, and Randy wasn’t satisfied. She was a pharmacy tech at Walgreens, studying to become a pharmacist. If being boring was the only problem that Randy had, then that nigga was winning in Cam’s opinion. Nia went out with Asha and Cam’s cousin from time to time, so she did get out sometimes.

“Man, I just feel like we both work too hard not to enjoy the fruits of our labor. I shouldn’t have to be sitting in the movie theater by myself, when I have a girl. She doesn’t even try to switch it up,” Randy replied.

“That shit is easy to fix though, bruh. Don’t wait on her to do something. Take matters into your own hands. Plan a date night or something and surprise her. You need to talk to Lacey. She used to put me down on all kinds of shit to do for Asha,” Cam said, referring to his cousin.

---