Polyamory - A Love Story

My son, who has a view of out-front while sitting in the living room, yells out, "Mom's home!" OK. Go to the bathroom and check the mirror. Make sure you show no signs. I walk there, flip the lights on, and look. Aight, cool. No dried up tears. You're good. I flip the lights off and step out. Aight, here we go. Ready? Just be cool. Treat it like any other day. Kiss her and chat like normal. Let's see if she brings it up first. I walk down the hall, pause at my daughter's bedroom doorway and look at her. The rule in our home is 'Doors stay open at all times unless you're getting dressed.' You want privacy? Get a job and get your own place. It's a rule instilled in me as a kid by my mother.

Anyways, I see her sitting on her bed. Backpack wide open on the floor, a few textbooks on her bed and she's busy writing into her notebook. "You have a lot more to go?" She looks up at me, "No. Just two more assignments and I'm done." "OK. Well, if you get stuck let me know." "OK daddy." I walk past my son's room and keep going down the hall till I reach the living room. My son's reclining on one of the sofa armrests. Remote control in hand. Channel surfing. For a kid who I barely see doing homework, he manages to make Honor Roll consistently. It must be the genius genes I passed down. Both of them bring home good report cards. Anyways, "Get off sofa like that. You know better." He responds like he hasn't already heard me say it a million times before, "Oh. OK." He slides off the armrest onto the cushion, "Mom's home." "I know. I heard you down the hall. Thanks." He continues channel surfing. I walk up to the window. Look out. Yup, there she goes. She's getting out the car.

By now, I've managed to calm myself down considerably. Anxious? Yes. Like a prize-fighter working his way to the ring on the big night. But overall, I'm calm. Rationale. I'm still a bit apprehensive but for the most part, I'm cool. I hear her opening the outer entrance door. OK, here she comes. I open our door. See, we live in a two-family home. Our tenants have the upstairs apartment. Us, the downstairs. Then there's the basement level, which you already know about. There's a stairwell leading to each floor.

But like I was saying....I open the door. She walks up the steps, sees me standing in the doorway and smiles, "Hey babe." Gives me a kiss and walks inside. I close the door. "How was your bike ride home? See any of your homies on the way?" Sometimes she clowns me about riding through the 'hood on my bike. "Ha, ha. Funny. Nah, but I seen your ex again. He's still stankin and begging for change." "Whatever. That's your homeboy from back in the day. Don't try to put him off on me." "Please. He told me the other day his biggest mistake was losing you. That y'all could've made mad change together. You take one corner. He takes the other." She looks at me and smirks, "Fuck you. Your mom already got that corner locked." "Nah, you got our mom's mixed up again." Ah, there goes the sign of defeat.....she smiles and gives me the middle finger. I give a half smile in return, "So anyways, how was work?"

She makes that exhausted 'aargh' noise then, "Same as always. Patients wearing me out. I feel like I'm the slowest nurse there. I'm always so behind giving out meds." Yeah, I bet. Ramon taking up too much of your time? She looks over at our son, "Well, hello Alex. You don't say Hi to me anymore? I don't get a hug or anything?" My son, still slouched on the sofa with remote in hand, turns and responds, "Oh. Hey mom", then lazily gets up to give her a hug. "You're not too grown to show your mother some love you know." Oh, I'm sure you're getting plenty love. They hug. "Denise!" she yells down the hall. My daughter comes running, "Hi Mommy", and gives her a hug. Now she's embracing both kids. "So how was school you guys?" My daughter responds first, "Good", then my son, "It was good." Jasmine realizes the kids' faces are up against her scrubs, "Oh, sorry guys", and lets go. "I don't want you guys catching something from my job. I'ma go take a shower now." She looks at me, "You wanna join?" Fuck no. "Sure. You get in first though. Rinse off and relax for a minute. Then I'll get in."

We're in the bedroom. Door's closed. She's taking off her scrubs and I'm laying on the bed. After she's completely naked I ask, "Soooo. Anything exciting or new happen today?" She pauses for a minute as if she had to give it some thought. Then, "Hmmm. No. Just a normal day." Can't look at me while saying that, huh? OK. I see how this is gonna go down. "Nothing?" "Nope. Not really. Why?" "Nah, just asking. Well, work was pretty busy for me." "Yeah, me too." Fuckin liar. She starts walking toward the bathroom while crossing her arms over her breasts, "You sure you don't wanna jump in with me? You stink too." "Nah, go ahead. I'll be in a minute." "OK." She turns the water on. Waits for it to get warm enough. Then gets in and closes the curtain.

I wait a few seconds. A few more. And.....OK. I get up off the bed and move with purpose. Where's her phone? I see her tote-bag on the floor. Open it up. Start digging. Bamn! I got it. Let me see what the fuck they've been chatting about all day. She has a Palm Treo which conveniently stores all incoming and outgoing messages from any conversation together. Sort of like a chat room for each contact. So I tap on the touchscreen and go to messages. I see our convo. OK. Where's the convo with him? I check outgoing. Nothing. Incoming. Nope. Just my convo with her. Get the fuck out here. She erased it?! She actually erased it! Lying, sneaky mu'fucka! How long has this been going on?! Fuck! Hold on. Think. OK. Let me check to see if I'm the last to know about this. I go through her contact list and find Joanne. Hit the green call button. I hear the ringing sound. "Babe?! You coming in or not?" "Yeah! Hold on." Still ringing. Ringing. Then, "Hello?" "Hello, Joanne? This is Marco."

She sounds excited but at the same time I can tell my voice took her by surprise, "Oh.......hey! How are you? Is everything OK?" "Yeah, yeah. Listen, you know anything about my wife and your husband texting each other?" "Uh.....no. Why? Are they?" "Yeah. All damn day. I just found out they've been chatting all day and she erased the entire conversation. Now I have no idea what they were chatting about." She has no response. I continue, "Do me a favor. When you speak to your husband, tell him not to text my wife any more. All this.......what we're doing? I'm done with it. My wife's sneaking around texting him then trying to cover her tracks? Nah. This ain't for me. Tell your husband I ain't feeling what he did. Dude violated. He violated big time and I want no parts of this anymore." I didn't give her a chance to respond. I jump right back in, "Sorry it has to end like this but I'm done. Take care Joanne. I gotta go." "Wait." "Sorry. I feel stupid as hell right now. I gotta get off." "OK. I'm sorry about this. I'ma try to find out exactly what's going on." "Sure. Alright, take care. Bye." She responds in a very soft voice, "Bye." Hit the end call button and walk over to the bathroom with the phone in hand.

Rip open the shower curtain, "Where's the convo with Ramon?" She wipes off the water running over her eyes, "What?" "The convo! The fuckin convo you've been having all day with Ramon! What? You didn't think I was gonna find out?!" She has a blank expression. It seems I caught her completely off guard. "How long have y'all been texting each other? Days? Weeks?!" After a short delay, she responds in a meek voice, "It's the first time we ever did." "Oh really?! Then why'd you delete it?! You come home and act like nothing new happened! What you trying to hide?!" Again, no response. "You ain't got shit to say, huh?! Whatever. I hope it was worth it, whatever the hell y'all were talking about. Cause this shit is finished! Hanging out with them? Over! Matter fact, I just got off the phone with Joanne. She knows now." Jasmine looks dazed. "Tell me, what's the point of swinging if you're gonna be sneaking around lying to me? And to Joanne as well? Some friend you are. You know what? It don't even matter. I'm done. Fuck swinging. I hope you had fun!" Rip the shower curtain closed, drop the phone and start walking toward the bedroom. I hear Jasmine open the curtain, "Babe. You don't give me a chance to explain."

By now, you should be pretty familiar with how I get when upset. No need to bother with descriptive sentences here, right? I was pissed. But more than that, I felt like a sucker. A laughing stock of a man. This feeling of embarrassment topped with betrayal was boiling into rage. It was starting to consume me. I gotta get out of here. Now. If I don't, I'ma end up doing something really stupid. Walk out. For your own good, walk out right now. I head toward the bedroom door. Jasmine's getting out the shower, "Babe. Wait." Walk out and slam the door behind me.

Mt Eden Dubstep - Sierra Leone