Chapter 2
I heard exactly what he said, but it wasn’t registering at all. It was no way that he was alive.
“Monroe did you hear me?”
I still sat there staring at the phone. I couldn’t speak. Just then I heard, Sahara’s voice. “Mom, where are you?”
Not wanting her to hear the phone conversation, I ended the call. “I’ll call you back,” I whispered to CoCo before ending our video. I took a deep breath, “In here baby.”
Sahara was her dad’s twin for sure. The only thing she got from me was her booty. “What you doing,” she asked as she walked over and kissed me on the cheek.
“Working on a design idea I want to send to your Auntie.” I wasn’t lying. I had been working on new designs for CoCo. “What are you doing up so early?"
“Saylor was kicking me all in my head, so I decided to get up.”
“Saylor slept with you?”
“Yeah. She woke up, looking for you. But, you were passed out on the sofa. So, I put her in the bed with me.”
Knowing she saw the wine bottles made me feel so ashamed. They were used to me having a glass every now and then, but not two bottles. “Thank you baby.”
“You’re welcome. I figured yesterday was rough for you.”
“It was.” As we were talking my phone rang again. It was Cartier. “Baby do you mind starting the Keurig for me.”
“Sure, if I can make me a cup.”
“You can.” I tried to limit their caffeine intake, but I needed to take his call. I waited for her to walk out the office and close the door before I answered. “Hello.”
“Baby, please don’t hang up on me. I need to talk to you.”
“If you’re Cartier, what did we want to name Saylor if she was boy?”
“Hathaway.” He paused. “Moon Pie, it’s really me.”
“How?” Tears started to fill my eyes.
“Long story.”
I heard something in the background that sounded like screaming and gunfire.
“Oh my God, you’re a POW.”
He started laughing. “No baby. Listen, I’ll explain everything. Meet me at the pool house tomorrow night at 11:30. The girls should be in the bed by then right?”
“You’re in Commons?” I was so confused.
“No, but I will be. Baby please just do what I ask.”
I was hesitant but I agreed.
“I love you baby.”
“I love you, too.”
Just then Sahara walked back in with my cup of coffee. “Who you talking to?”
“Your Aunt CoCo.”
“She’s up? Did she get the sketch I sent to her?”
I hated lying to my baby, but I had to. “Yeah. She said she’ll call you later.”
“She sounds so grown up,” Cartier said And, he was right. Our baby had grown up overnight.
“CoCo, Sahara just brought me my coffee. I’ll talk to you later on.” I didn’t give him time to say anything before ending the call. Then I sent CoCo a text to check her email for Sahara’s sketch.
“Here’s your cream and coffee.”
“Just the way I like it,” I laughed.
“So, how you’re doing,” she said as she sat down. “Yesterday was pretty stressful. I think Safiya and Gourni are starting to feel it more.”
I couldn’t help but stare at her. My baby was all grown up and having her morning coffee with me. “I was thinking maybe we cut school short today and have some family time.”
“I like the sound of that. I think everyone is caught and finished majority of their work yesterday,” she stated before taking a sip.
“That would be fun. Something to take away form all the stress of COVID-19.” I watched as she took a sip of her coffee, then looked up at me with those beautiful brown eyes like Cartier. “So, how are you holding up,” I asked her.
She took another sip, “I miss him so much. I still text his phone and send him messages.”
I hadn’t disconnected his phone. It was the one thing that wasn’t returned with his other belongings. So, I left on because he made me feel as if he wasn’t really gone.
“I do too,” I replied.
“If I could hear his voice one more time, I think I would be alright.”
“Me too.”
I felt so guilty as I talked to her. I wanted to tell her about the phone calls from her dad, but I knew that wasn’t a good idea until I knew everything. After we had our morning coffee, which we agreed would become our new thing together, she headed upstairs to get the girls up. And, I headed in the kitchen to fix breakfast.
After breakfast, the girls sat around the table finishing up their school work. Saylor headed to the family room to watch Sesame Street, and I headed to my office to get some work done.
I was working on some new designs for CoCo. CoCo is a costume director out in Hollywood, and I make a lot of her custom pieces when she needed them. I had even done some work for The Walking Dead and Evil, thanks to my bestie. But, most of my designs were on my website that was managed by Sahara and Sarabi, of course.
I could hardly concentrate because all I kept thinking about was Cartier. How in the hell was he still alive? I remembered the day his commanding officer came to the front door.
“CoCo, someone’s at the door, I’ll call you back in a few minutes,” I told her. The moment I opened the door my heart stopped. There was no need for them to say anything, I knew. Cartier had tried to prepare me for the “what if” scenario as he called it. But, that still didn’t help.
His commanding officer’s lips were moving, but I didn’t hear a word he said. What I do remember is waking up with his mom and aunts standing around me, along with his commanding officer and two other soldiers.
“Monroe, we are so sorry. If there’s anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask,” he stated.
I just nodded as his aunt walked them to the door. Thankfully, the girls were in school, and his sister came to help take care of Saylor.
When Cartier talked to me about building a house on his grandparents land, I thought he was crazy. “I don’t want to be that close to your family. That’s like us moving back to Birmingham and living with my parents.”
He promised that we would be off the main road where everyone else was, which would give us more privacy. I agreed. But, the day his commanding officer came to the house, I was thankful he picked that spot.
His family helped me until my parents and aunties arrived. I swear I walked around in a fog. My mom stayed with us for six months until I was ready to be on my own with the girls. Now, he has the nerve to call and say he’s alive. I know one thing, he better have a damn good reason for leaving us.
“Mommy, Aunt CoCo said answer your phone,” Sarabi said as she poked her hand in my office.
“Thank you, baby.” My phone was buried under the sketches I was working on.
“You’re welcome,” she said as she closed the door.
I already knew why she was calling me back. She wanted to know if Cartier had called back. “Hey girl.”
“You ok? I’ve been calling you for the last ten minutes. Did you get it?”
“Get what?”
“The text I sent you with the information for the app. Jay finally woke up, so I could ask him.”
“Oh.” I had forgotten all about the app. “Let me check.” There it was. “Yeah, I got it.”
“Good. Did he call back?”
“No.” I wasn’t about to tell her about him coming to the house the next night. She would hop on a plane and come to Commons. Even, though she was quarantined in the house.
“Good. Now, put the app on the phone to make sure he doesn’t call back.”
“I sure will.”
“Roe,” she paused. “He called back, didn’t he?”
“What makes you say that?” We were never good at hiding things from each other. We’d been friends over 20 years, and we knew each other too well.
“When you say, I sure will, that means you’re hiding something. The last time you said that, your butt was pregnant with Saylor. And, you were trying to hide the news from me.”
I didn’t say anything because I was trying to muster up the courage to tell that her he was coming to see me.
“You know what, I can’t judge you. If the love of my life came back after two years, I’ll talk to his ass too.”
With CoCo changing her tone, I didn’t have to explain that he was coming over. Instead, I switched subjects and started talking about the sketches. Even though we were locked down, we could still be making money.
After we hung up, I started thinking about the placement of guns in the house. I had one in my office. One in my bedroom. One in the garage. And, one in the pool house. Well, he had one in the pool house. Then I started thinking about Fatal Attraction on TV ONE. So, I ran out there to remove it. I knew he remembered where it was, but I wasn’t going to give him the chance to put his hands on it.
That night after the girls were all in bed, I started thinking about what Sahara said about sending her dad texts every so often. When I went in to check on her that night, I asked, “Do you have read receipt on your messages?” A part of me was praying she said yes. The other part was praying she said no.
“No mam. Why? What’s up?”
“I was just thinking because they never found your dad’s phone. Just wondering if someone was using it?”
“I never thought of that.” Before I could stop her, she sent her dad a text with the read report on it. “Omg,” she squealed.
“What is it?”
“It says read. Let’s track to see who has it.”
“No,” I said quickly. I didn’t want my little private detective figuring out her dad was alive.
“Why not?” She had this confused look on her face.
“They may try something crazy, once they realize we’re tracking it. Turn the read receipt off and I’ll call the phone company tomorrow.”
She seemed to buy it, but I don’t know for how long. Sahara was sharp, and I was pretty sure she would ask questions later.
I headed back in my room to take a shower before laying down, when my phone started ringing. It was him. “Hello.”
“Baby come out to the pool house.”
