“J.C.!” Robin gasped as she open her front door to find her lawyer standing on the other side. She had just finished filling Monique in on what she had figured out to be the truth when the doorbell rang. Robin was surprised, to say the least, to see J.C. at her front steps at this time of night and took it as an immediate sign of something bad for her. Even though her mind was forming scenarios of the worse possible things that could have brought this woman to her house, she managed to stay calm as she continued, “What are you doing here? Did Jay come with some more BS?” She wasn’t trying to get anywhere near the subject of J.C.’s cheating husband.
“Well, well, well,” J.C. said as she slid off her driving gloves and tucked them into the pocket of her trench coat. She raised an eyebrow while one side of her mouth curled up in a semi-smile as she folded her arms across her chest. She continued, “now this is a surprise. May I come in?”
Robin wanted to say “hell no you can’t come in here! You know I’m fucking your husband!” but instead she moved to one side to allow her entry as she said, “Sure, come in. I just put the girls to bed so we’ll have to be kind of quiet.” Robin didn’t want the girls to be awaken by two grown women arguing over some man, so she hoped that both she and J.C. could converse about the situation like two civilized adults.
“I understand. It’s past my baby’s bedtime too. In fact, I’m on my way home now but I needed to stop by and talk to you. This will only take a second. I just wanted to ask you about something. Have you been seeing a guy named Ryan Carter?” J.C. asked getting right to busy, a tactic that Robin found impressive in the courtroom but didn’t much care for while this chick was standing in her living room.
Robin had been in J.C.’s shoes so she knew how she was feeling. Her first instinct was to lie in an attempt to spare J.C.’s feelings but she knew from experience that the truth, no matter how painful, was what she needed and most likely wanted to hear. Robin took a deep breath before she said, “Yes. I’ve been kinda seeing Ryan steadily for about three weeks now but I didn’t know you two were married until today, when I saw that photo of you guys in your office. I broke it off today right after I left your office.”
“He said you slapped him,” J.C. said. She didn’t seem too upset for a woman who’d just found out that her husband had been having an affair with one of her clients. Robin was sure that she was that J.C. was used to seeing this kind of male behavior in her line of work so she was probably numb to the entire infidelity thing by now.
“I did slap the shit out of him. He deserved it! He didn’t even tell me he was married…just made me the other woman like I didn’t have a choice in the matter. I’m trying to get rid of my husband because he has a mistress so why would I want to be anyone’s personal whore?” Robin said, still having not invited J.C. to have a seat. She was sure J.C. was just there for answers and she planned to make them short and sweet so there was no need for the usual pleasantries.
J.C.’s reaction was calm and highly unexpected but Robin just figured every woman handled it differently. J.C. looked as if she wanted to smile at any second but instead she said, “Tell you what let’s do to him what you did to Jason. We are going over to my parents’ house this Saturday and I’d appreciate it, if you could come over so that I could embarrass him in front of my entire family.”
“Sure,” Robin said somewhat bewildered. She really didn’t wanted any part in whatever J.C. was planning for Ryan but she didn’t want her attorney pissed with her either. There wasn’t too much to be said after that so the two ladies exchanged goodnights and J.C. left.
Robin moved through the next hour like she moving through quicksand; struggling to make it out while quickly sinking under. The deepest places of her mind wanted her to revert back to her younger days and “wild out”, which would mainly include her drinking high volumes of liquor before releasing some type of physical mayhem on Ryan and his possessions but her good side prevail and she instead decided to let Calgon take her away. She had just finish running the water for her bath, when she heard the doorbell. She glanced at the clock on the wall in the bathroom and made note that it was well after nine o’clock; a fact she would point out to Monique later because she knew it had to be no one other than Velle. She got undressed and had just placed one foot in the steamy goodness of her hot bath when a knock came at the bathroom door.
Monique let herself in before Robin could say anything or wrap a towel around herself. Monique closed the door behind her and whispered, “Girl, Jay out here.”
“What!” Robin exclaimed. Hadn’t she had enough bad news for one day? She quickly took her foot out of the tub as Monique handed her the robe off of the door hook. Robin slid on the robe as she continued, “What do you mean Jay’s out there? What the fuck does he want?”
“I don’t know,” Monique continued whispering, “but he’s in the living room asking to talk to you. I told him you were in the bathroom but he said he’d wait.”
“Wait Hell!” Robin snapped, tying the belt on her rob. She was in no mood for any manner of Jay. She just wanted to soak away her worries, him being on of them, and pretend as if the day had never happened. She cracked the bathroom door before she said, “come on Mo. I need you to be my witness, in case, he tries to say something happened between us that didn’t. I know this just has something to do with him trying to stall the divorce.”
The ladies made their way into the living room to find Jay looking at the photos in the picture wheel on the coffee table. It was Jay at his best; fresh shaven, clean cut, well dressed, sweet scented Jay. The sight of him alone was enough to make Robin want to throw up. He had some nerve showing up at her place after that bombshell he’d planted with her lawyer.
Robin attempted no cordialness, as she demanded, “What the do you want?”
“It’s good to see you too,” Jay replied, his tone of voice relaying the fact that he sensed her total disdain for his being there. He opened his mouth to say something else but Robin was quick to silence his tongue before it could spin its web.
Robin again snapped, “Well, I’m glad I can’t say the same. Do you know what time it is? Don’t just show up over here unannounced this time of night, like someone here wants to see you! We’ve got children here and they are sleeping so whatever bullshit you done come over here with; you can take right outta here with you.”
Monique added an “Amen to that” as she folded her arms across her chest before she took a seat in one of the chairs behind Robin.
“Wow,” Jay said as he scratched behind his ear before saying, “I don’t know how I forgot that mouth.”
“Me either,” Robin snapped. She was ready for Jay to leave. She didn’t have time for his mess after the trying day she’d had, thanks partially to him. Jay just stared at her for a moment, as though he was pondering whether to say something or just let it go. He smiled as though her temperament amused him, which seemed to only raise Robin’s blood pressure. She barked, “What the fuck do you want? Coming over here all smiling and shit! If you ain’t got shit to say then you need to get the hell out. Matter of fact, you need to leave anyway. Anything you want to say to me can be said through my lawyer.”
“Fine,” Jay smiled, “that’s fine, but I’m not giving you a divorce so whatever this shit is you’ve got going on with this doctor dude is ‘bout to be over.”
“Get the fuck outta here,” Robin replied, her voice and demeanor both calm, “you don’t run shit here. You lost that privilege when you started fucking your bitch. Now, if that’s all you got then you ain’t got nothing so I suggest you roll out, bruh”
Jay again smiled before he said good night to Monique and then Robin, then turned to make his way to the door. Monique got up to show him out while Robin held firm her position afraid that moving was a show of weakness, something she couldn’t afford with Jay. Jay’s balls were as big as ever because it took some pretty big balls to think he could just walk back into Robin’s world after he’d torn it down before leaving her to pick up the pieces. His brazen actions worried Robin because if there was one thing she knew about Jay was that when he made moves he made bold ones and they usual meant havoc for everyone else involved. Robin just wanted to put the entire day behind her, so she stormed back down the hall to enjoy the tubful of relaxation she had run earlier.
As the weekend grew closer Robin became unsure if she’d be able to ignite the flame to the explosion that was set to go off in Ryan’s face on Saturday. He had been calling her almost 50 times a day, leaving her message after message about needing to explain but his calls had gone returned. His flowers on the other hand had all been sent back with a message to leave her alone. He had even shown up at her job after work one evening, trying to convince her that he didn’t have a wife that was alive, a lie Robin was not even trying to hear. He had even tried to get Velle to explain but she had shut that avenue down too. She had quickly reminded Velle that he knew that Jay had been cheating on her and had even lied to help him cover his tracks in a few instances, so his word wouldn’t hold water with her.
By the time she reached the front door of J.C.’s parent’s home on that Saturday evening, she was convinced that she and J.C. were going about exposing Ryan’s secret the wrong way, but it was too late to back out now. The door opened to a woman who was all smiles as she invited Robin inside. The plump older woman seemed extremely happy to meeting her son-in-law’s mistress. She gave Robin a big hug as she gleefully exclaimed, “You must be Robin! James told us so much about you. Did you find it okay?”
“James?” Robin questioned, unable to wrap her mind around just why this lady was so happy to see her. Maybe she didn’t care much for Ryan and was glad that she was about to expose him for the lying, cheating dog he was.
“That’s right,” the woman said as she closed the door behind them. She continued as she led Robin down a hallway, “I always forget that we are the only ones who call her by her first name. I guess you know her as J.C. Well, come right this way. We’ve all been waiting for you.” Robin decided not to say anything until she talked with J.C. because it was obvious that this woman thought she was someone she wasn’t. Robin was ready to turn tail and run for the car so that she could avoid the chaos that would sure to ensure after she ousted Ryan in front of his in-laws.
