Page 22 of After Him, There Was You
“Kids, as in children… as in I’m a father.”
“Really? Why didn’t I know you had kids? And how many do you have?”
“Because I keep them off of social media, and I make sure their mother does the same. There are too many sick people out there trying to exploit kids, and my daughters won’t be in that population if I can help it.”
“I understand your stance because I rarely post my sons on social media. I feel like the people who need to know or care to know what they are doing will make it a point to be a part of their lives beyond statuses and pictures online.”
“Facts,” I agreed. “Oh, and I have three daughters to answer your question.”
“You have three daughters by one woman? I have to ask now to avoid it being a problem later just in case I do decide to let you take me out on a date,” she said with a seductive smile. “Why didn’t your relationship with the mother of your daughter’s work?”
“She cheated on me.”
“Really?” Eva questioned, matching the same level of surprise I had when I found out my ex-fiancée had an affair and had me taking care of the next man’s baby. “I wasn’t expectingyou to say she cheated. I’m sorry you went through something so detrimental.”
The day I found out about her infidelity, I told her, ‘You’ve probably been cheating on me for our entire relationship’. To take the disrespect and pettiness a step further that day, I told her I had doubts about our daughters being mine, even though I didn’t at the time. That day, I found out how wrong I was in my sureness when she pulled my card and confessed how she wasn’t one hundred percent sure of the paternity of our two youngest daughters. Naturally, I got all three of my daughters tested, only to find out the youngest daughter wasn’t mine, not biologically at least because in my heart all three were my daughters and legally my name was on all of their birth certificates.
“It’s a part of life. I got three beautiful daughters out of the situation, so I can’t do too much complaining,” I reasoned, pulling out my phone to show Eva the picture of Chasity, Elise, and Paige which decorated my phone’s lock screen.
“Awww. They are so pretty. They must look like their mama.”
“So, you want to be a comedian?” I inquired, causing her to bless me yet again with her dimpled smile. “Paralegal by day and comedian at night. You must be looking for a talent agent.”
“No, I’m not. Thank you but no thank you,” she teased, sticking her tongue out at me. “As much as I like talking to you, I have to get these shoes so I can go back to work.”
“Let me ring you up,” I offered, taking the two boxes of soccer cleats out of her hand, motioning in the direction to the nearest empty register.
Once I swiped my employee card, I was able to log in to the system and scan the cleats without error, making sure to give her my discount which brought her total up to nothing. I’d only scanned the shoes so my inventory wouldn’t be off.
“Don’t disrespect me like that,” I fussed as she pulled her wallet out of her purse.
“What do you mean? How else am I going to pay for them?”
“You’re not.”
“Zeke, let me pay for these shoes.”
“No, it’s a perk of dating a man who owns a shoe store.”
“We aren’t dating,” she denied with a smirk.
“We will when you have time. Go back to work, and I’ll see you later,” I assured, handing her a store bag containing her shoe boxes.
“I feel like I’m stealing taking this from you.”
“You have a receipt to show you’re not stealing.”
After a few seconds of a heated stare down, Eva finally accepted the bag and thanked me for the gesture. It really wasn’t a big deal in my eyes, and when she became my woman, she would receive the perk of receiving shoes and so much more, because for a woman like Eva, I had everything to give.
“Chante, I’m going to my office. If it gets too busy, give me a holler, and I can come out to relieve you,” I stated to my assistant manager and the mother of my daughters.
Infidelity aside, I trusted Chante with my life and my money. I trusted her more than any other qualified person off the street because she knew the store contributed to both of our livelihoods, and therefore it put food in our daughters’ mouths. Chante may have been reckless with my heart, but I knew she would never be so careless with something which had the power to affect our daughter’s future.
“Okay. I got you covered, Zeke, but there is something I need to talk to you about. It can wait though,” she said, intently staring at me with her light brown eyes that once drove me crazy.
If nothing else, aside from being a great mother, Chante was a beautiful woman. She always had been, and I was sureage would only cause her to get better like an aged whiskey. We started dating not long after we had literally bumped into each other one night at the club. She ran into me and wasted her gin and juice on my white Alexander McQueen shirt and offered to buy me a drink to make up for her clumsiness. We spent the rest of the night getting to know each other, and when the club closed, she ditched her friends and came home with me. From there we became damn near inseparable. There weren’t too many times you would see me without seeing her, and if I would’ve been given the chance, I would have gladly lived in her skin.
At the time, you couldn’t have told me I hadn’t found my soulmate, so when I found out she cheated on me, hurt didn’t even remotely begin to describe the pain I felt in my chest. It was like once the lie came to the light, I knew without hesitation things could never be the same because even if I could forgive her indiscretion in my heart, I knew my mind would never trust her again because I knew what she was capable of.
