Page 61 of Sunday

I stood there, mugging over her shoulder at her husband. He glared back at me.

“Come on, Cedar, let’s roll,” Shawn suggested as he hit the back of his hand against my shoulder a couple of times.

When we were back in the car, he sighed. “Niggaaa. You can’t be going off the grid like that.”

“I’m not playing when it comes to my girl.”

“I get it, but you gotta operate with a cooler head. What do you wanna do now?”

“Drive to every business in this little town to see if we spot her.”

We drove around for the next half an hour, with me popping out of the car and rolling into businesses. When I failed to find her, Shawn turned on the music and blasted some old-school Tupac while we rolled home. Twenty minutes before we pulled up to my place, he finally spoke.

“Cedar, you gotta calm your ass down. I get that you want your woman back, but your actions back there ain’t doing shit but proving her daddy right about you.”

“I swear on God, I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve always been able to read her like a map. This chick blows back into her life, and she’s somebody different, Shawn.”

“Yeah, but it might not be what you’re implying, my guy.”

I was thankful that Shawn had dropped by to bring me a folder I’d forgotten at work that day. I was supposed to spend the evening going over some paperwork, but I didn’t realize that I’d forgotten the folder until he called me when I was on my way home.

Rather than turning around, he dropped by my place since it was on his way home. When he arrived, I was heated because I had realized that Sunday had packed her shit and actually left me.

When I told him my plans to roll to her hometown and head to her parents’ home, he insisted on rolling with me.

“I don’t know what to think it is because she ain’t telling me shit. She wants to keep insisting that it’s all me. That’s a bunch of bullshit.”

“Is she saying that it’s all you or that it’s all in your mind?”

“She claims that it’s all in my mind.”

“She’s pregnant, scared, super emotional, and probably conflicted about the state of your relationship. Before you got her pregnant, you weren’t even checking for her like that. Let a couple of days pass by.”

“We were arguing in the heat of the moment, and we were both in our feelings. I thought we’d calm down and talk shit out the next time we saw each other again.”

“Just sleep on that shit tonight. Everything looks different in the morning.”

“I hope so.”

I couldn’t imagine living life without my two shorties. Sunday meant the world to me, and maybe I hadn’t done a good enough job of making her know that.

Cedar

Sunday hadn’t come home, she hadn’t called, and she hadn’t responded to a single text message. I did overhear Celine at work telling one of the other girls that Sunday was working from home the next couple of weeks. She mentioned that she wanted to drop by and check on her, but her sister was in town, so she wasn’t sure if she would have a chance.

That was all good with me because I didn’t want anyone popping up at my house. And I didn’t want to bother making up excuses or lies about where Sunday was.

This was the first Friday in a long time that I didn’t have shit to do. When I came home, I sat on the couch in my boxer briefs with my socks on and kicked my feet up on the coffee table. An empty pizza box was on the couch beside me, an empty Doritos bag, several empty beer bottles, and one half-full one littered the table.

I let out a loud belch and looked around through a sleepy gaze and befuddled brain. I hadn’t realized that I’d dozed off. It had been some time since I’d lived alone. I had been trying to convince myself for the last few days that the bachelor life was where it was at. I could see me now when my little nigga got bigger. It would be the two of us playing video games, eating theshit we wanted to, and doing what the hell we wanted without some nagging ass female around.

Chaz was out on a date, and Shawn was out of town for the weekend. I shoved the pizza box onto the floor and stretched out on the couch with my feet propped on the arm. I flicked through a few channels until I found a boxing match.

I had been dozing when my phone rang. I jumped and fell off the damn couch. Mad as hell, I stood and looked around for my phone. My heart thundered in my chest, and while I would never admit it to a living soul, I hoped in my heart that it was Sunday.

I was miserable as fuck without her, trying to pretend like it was no skin off my back. I missed my woman, and I wanted her back.

I finally found my phone on the floor in my jeans pocket. I’d come home from work with my pizza box in hand, a six-pack of beers, and stripped in the middle of the floor. I hadn’t bothered going up to my room.

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