Troy
After the mini conversation Reece and I had at the club, I didn’t think she was going to call an Uber to take us back to the car wash to get our cars. I really didn’t want to have this talk with her; not this soon, but I knew she was curious to find out who Kari is to me as well as Deena. Since she wanted to know so much about me, it was only fair for me to know something about her.
While heading to the car wash, Reece smiled. “I hope you didn’t mind me volunteering your house for our conversation,”
I gave her the side eye. “We could had gone out to eat or just to the park,”
She shrugged. “Maybe I wanted to be alone with you,”
“You know that could lead to other things,”
Reece tilted her head to me. “I hardly doubt it. Besides, this is a time to get to know each other since you said I didn’t really know you.”
“You’re trying to get into my business,”
“Whatever you say, Jimenez.”
“It’s true, Palmer. Just as long as I can get into yours. I need to know what’s going through that beautiful head of yours.”
Reece blinked at me while giving a shy smile. I smiled at her as the car suddenly stopped, meaning we were at our destination.
As I gave the driver a tip, I went to my car as Reece went to hers. “Meet you at my place. I’m going to make a stop first,”
“Where are you going?”
“It’s a surprise. Just wait for me there, okay.”
She looked at me again before getting into her car. I know she was probably hesitant for me to drive since I have been drinking, but I’m not drunk, so I’ll be fine.
After texting her my address so she could GPS it, I went to make my stop before heading to my place. I pulled up to the driveway to see Reece’s car parked on the street. I opened my garage as I parked my car in and texted her to do the same. Once she did, she waited for me to close the garage and open the door.
I had to quickly turn off my alarm as Reece walked in. She waited for me to get settled as I went back to my car to get what I’d purchased. I came back in and Reece smiled.
“Are you serious? How did you know I liked this?” she asked as she noticed the clear bags of food.
“I noticed you were eating them at work recently. Not saying anything bad about the restaurant at work, but La Corina makes the best Spanish rice with chorizo.”
“And mangonadas. Wow, you’re really going all out,” she said and smiled.
“With extra chamoy. Had to do it right,”
Reece smiled. “Thank you,”
“If you want, you can change into a t-shirt and shorts. I have some extra clothes in the guest room.”
“I rather just stay in my clothes,”
“I thought you might want to be comfortable.”
“I’m sure, but that’s okay. Besides, I’m just here for us to talk; I’m not spending the night.”
“Did I say you were? If you did, you stay in the guest room like the other night.”
“Only because I was drunk.”
“Anyway, let’s enjoy our food before it gets cold. I hate cold chorizo and rice.”
Reece smiled as I set the bags on the coffee table. Reece grabbed the drinks and placed on the table as well. We sat down on the couch and I turned on the TV. I needed some type of noise in the house, so that would have to do.
Reece stared at me as she took a sip of her mangonadas. She closed her eyes and gave a content purr .
“This is really good,”
“Of course.”
She set down her cup on the table and gave me an encouraging smile. “Okay, so start talking. What made you, Troy Jimenez, a whoring dog all of these years. Inquiring minds want to know,”
I took out a fork from the bag and set it down on the table. “You know you’re the only person I’m telling this to, right?”
“Why me?”
“Because you asked. Not only that, but I figured you wouldn’t judge me.”
“I could. I mean, we barely know each other,”
“I don’t think you would.”
“Honestly, I wouldn’t.”
I glanced at her as she grabbed a pillow and sat Indian style on the couch. She gave me another encouraging smile, which looked beautiful on her.
“Let’s go all the way back to when I was seventeen.. At the time, I was dating, but I really wasn’t serious about anyone. Anyway, that all changed when I met this girl named Nahomi, who was super sweet and just nice. She always made me smile, and was just a great person.
Anyway, the two of us began dating and it became pretty serious. Then we decided to take things further and we had sex. You might laugh at this, but we wanted our first time to be with each other.”
“Why would I find that funny? I think it’s sweet.” Reece said.
I ran my hand through my hair and sighed. “Nahomi ended up pregnant, which honestly, I was scared as shit because I didn’t imagine I would be a father at seventeen. I told her I would do what I could to provide for her and our child. I would even drop out of school and start working at the car wash, which she didn’t want me to do .
What I didn’t know was that Nahomi never even told her parents that she was pregnant. Hell, she never even mentioned anything about me to them. When they did find out, Nahomi lied to them, saying that I forced her into having sex with me. I’d just turned eighteen when her parents found out, so I was at the legal age to be…”
“Considered to be salutatory rape. Wow. And Nahomi didn’t stop them?”
I shook my head. “She didn’t want to look a certain way to her parents. She wanted to look pure in their eyes. But I’d done something to save myself, and that was record a conversation we’d had between the two of us about the night we had sex. She decided she wanted the charges to be dropped, much to her parents’ dismay.”
“At least she had the decency to drop the charges. But what about the baby?”
I sighed. “She had a miscarriage during her second trimester,”
Reece sighed. “I’m sorry,”
“When my parents found out everything, my dad wasn’t too happy about it. He warned me beforehand that I shouldn’t been dating just one girl and that I needed to sow my oats, or whatever the hell that saying meant. Anyway, he blamed me for what happened and said that I deserved what Nahomi did to me.”
“No, you didn’t, but Nahomi got scared because her parents found out.”
“I know, but it still doesn’t make things right. I was hurt by what happened.”
“I guess after what happened with her, you decided to do what your dad suggested?”
“Not really. I did date, but I really didn’t trust anyone, because I felt she might do the same thing that Nahomi did. I kind of keep my distance when it comes to women women in general.”
“So what changed things for you?”
“I set some ground rules before I got involved with anyone. I told the girl what was up and if she didn’t like the terms, then I couldn’t be with her.”
“If you did that, how in the hell did you marry Deena?”
I sucked my teeth before staring at her. “Deena is sort of a complicated story. When I started working at Suds, I was debating on whether I should go to college. That was the goal after I graduated high school, but since I got into trouble, I didn’t start right away. Anyway, one day while working, I met Deena, who was getting her car detailed. I was the person that was working on her car, so when she came to claim her vehicle, I noticed she had books with her. We started talking and found out she was an instructor at the community college nearby.
When I mentioned to her that I wanted to go to college, she told me it wasn’t too late and that I should try and get at least an associate degree; so we talked some more and she gave me information on how to start. A few weeks later, I met her at the college and she helped me enroll in school. Three months later, we were dating, which turned into something more when she became pregnant.”
“So you decided to marry her because of it.” Reece said.
“I know that wasn’t the best choice, but I figured as a man, I had to support her. Not only that, but she was really good to me. I felt obligated to be with her because she helped me get to a better place,”
“I understand that, but that didn’t mean you had to marry her.”
“I know that was a stupid reason, but at the time, I didn’t feel that way. Besides, I had a stable place to stay, which was better than sleeping on people’s couches. My parents didn’t want me back in their house since I’d done time.”
“What happened to the child you had with Deena?”
I looked up to the ceiling and took a deep breath. “Before I get to that, I just want to say that what happened was what sent me over the edge with love and commitment. What Deena did truly fucked me up.”
“What happened, Troy?”
“Deena told me she had a miscarriage, but she really had an abortion. She was scared to have a child, so instead of talking to me about it, but she decided to take it upon herself and make the decision of terminating our child because she didn’t want to be a mother.”
“Wow,” Reece mumbled.
“When I found out about that, I figured I didn’t give a shit about being committed. Two women had lied to me, which made me feel like shit. On top of all that, I learned that my mom had also cheated on my dad when I was younger; that was why my dad told me to forget about being in love because it wasn’t worth it. He was right.”
“I’m sorry that happened to you, but that’s not an excuse to be a hoe. You’re doing the same thing to the women that you’d messed with that Deena and Nahomi did to you.”
“At least I don’t have to get hurt first,”
Reece shook her head. “You’re being a hypocrite.”
“I’m protecting my heart. Really, I just don’t give a shit anymore, because love has left the building for me.”
Reece put her knees to her chest as she stared at me. “It doesn’t have to be that way, Troy. Maybe you just haven’t found the right woman.”
“And who is that? You?”
Reece shrugged. “Maybe,”
I laughed. “Whatever, Reece,”
“I’m just saying, Troy. You can’t keep living your life this way because you might be missing out on something great.”
“Are you giving me a lecture when your love life is just as shitty?”
She gave me the evil eye and I smirked. “Who’s being the hypocrite now?”
“I haven’t been stringing guys along thinking there was a chance of something and there wasn’t.”
“I haven’t done that with women either,”
“I don’t go through men like you do with women. In fact, I just don’t date.”
“That’s why you’re always so angry.”
“Sex is not always the answer, Troy. That’s why you need to get your priorities straight.”
“My priorities are just fine. Anyway, don’t change the topic back to me. It’s your time to talk, mija, so spill it.”
Reece leaned back on the sofa and stretched. “I have to address one more thing before I get to my issues.”
“What’s that?”
“When you found out what Deena did, why you just didn’t get a divorce? Why start cheating on her?”
I looked around the room before speaking. “You want to know the truth?”
“That would be nice,”
“I knew about her and Ramon way before she said anything. I caught the two near the back of Suds having sex in his car. I wanted to seek revenge, so I figured fuck her and our marriage, and I began doing whatever I wanted. I even tried fucking her best friend, but that didn’t work.”
“So you decided to go for her cousin?”
“Big mistake that was. Kari is crazy.”
“Hey, you put yourself in that situation. You should know the risk you were taking when playing with fire,”
“That’s true, but I didn’t care at the time. All I wanted was revenge,”
“It seemed like you were more hurt than anything,”
I looked at her as she gave me a sincere glance. “It’s okay to admit that you’re the way you are because you were hurt and just didn’t know how to handle it.”
“You’re my therapist now?”
Reece shook her head. “Remember, I can’t give you advice, because I’m just as fucked up as you are.”
We sat in silence as I thought about everything that I’d told Reece. Now, I wished I could take everything back.