Where I Wanna Be (43 page)

“
Nah, girl. You know the one that works at the floral shop? The one that does all those designs?” The first woman replied.

“
Yeah, what about him?”

“
Yeah, he and his wife split. Word around the campfire he’s with some trashy ho now.”

“
What?” The friend replied. “When did this happen?”

“
Sometime this past week,” the first woman replied, “one of my friends works at the salon the wife owns. Told me the whole story. She heard it from one of the barbers that works with the brother next door to the wife. Fool left his wife in the middle of the night for some skank-ass pussy.”

“
Not a surprise,” the friend replied, “A man can have the best meal at home and will still be digging in the garbage like if he never ate.”

“
For real,” the first woman sucked her teeth, “I hope that new chick doesn’t get too comfortable with the brother, though. How you get his ass…”

“…
is how you lose his ass,” the friend finished and the ladies howled in laughter. They left the dressing room shortly after.

Simone sat down on the bench, soaking up what she just overheard. Why Eli left Faith was not her fault and she loathed the fact people were unfairly blaming her. What about Eli? Why wasn’t he at blame? Why did she have to be the skank? Why did she have to be called the rude names? Eli was no saint himself.

If the women heard the information from Faith’s hair salon, it only gave Simone one option to clear her name and straighten this whole mess out. She was going to have a talk with Faith, woman to woman.

“
Daddy!” Nathan ran to his father, who quickly scooped him up in a big hug.

“
Little man!” Eli held his son and gently rocked him. It had only been a week, but it was the longest he had gone without seeing his son. Nathan seemed like he’d grown a foot overnight and was sporting a nice tan when he returned from Florida.

“
Daddy, guess who I met in Florida?” Nathan beamed.

“
Who did you meet?” Eli put him down.

“
You have to guess!” Nathan exclaimed.

“
Um, okay. Mickey Mouse?” Eli guessed.

“
No!”

“
Minnie Mouse?”

“
No!”

“
The seven dwarfs?”

“
No!”

“
Okay, I give up,” Eli squatted down to his son, “who did you meet?”

Nathan put down his backpack and pulled out a picture. “This guy!”

Eli grabbed the picture from his son and slowly rose. It was Nathan and Faith with Mickey and Minnie Mouse. That wasn’t the problem. The issue was the other person also in the picture with his family. He immediately recognized the blond man as Darren Matthews, famed New York Giants quarterback. All-American boy. Darling of the press and many groupies. He knew about Darren due to the frequent visits his assistant made to Madre’s on his behalf. He sent flowers to various women all over New York. He was a known player and there was a long line of women competing with each other to be Mrs. Darren Matthews.

There was one more to add to the list—Faith. She was a number on Darren’s list, whether she knew it or not.

Eli wouldn’t have had a problem with Darren being in the picture if it wasn’t for the fact he was awfully close to Faith. An arm was wrapped around her waist, while the other hand was on Nathan’s shoulder, as if he was saying, ‘this is my family.’ If Eli didn’t know better, he would’ve assumed Faith and Darren were a couple and Nathan was
their
son.

Oh, hell, no.

It took all of Eli’s strength to not crumble the picture and set it aflame.

“
Do you like the picture, Daddy?” Nathan bounced.

“
Yeah,” Eli cleared his throat and handed the picture back to his son, “it’s a nice picture.”

“
I’m going to put it next to my bed so I can see it every morning when I wake up!” Nathan ran inside the home.

“
That’s… that’s… great.” Eli caught eyes with Faith walking towards him. He helped her with the bags and followed her inside the home.

“
Thanks, Eli,” Faith replied.

“
Not a problem,” Eli closed the door behind him and set the luggage aside. The first question on his mind was Faith’s newfound close relationship with a non-committal professional athlete, but Eli decided to wait for another time to inquire. The last thing he needed was Faith throwing his relationship with Simone back in his face.

Instead, he played it safe and left the door open for her to divulge anything. “So… how was Florida?”

Miserable because of you. Wonderful because of him
. Faith could still feel Darren’s lips on hers and a small smile formed on her face. She softly bit her lip and tried to erase the smile from her face before she turned around to face her husband. She had to remind herself, for the first time in a while, that they were still married. “It was good,” Faith smiled. “It was lovely.”

Eli scanned Faith’s face for an explanation about Darren being so lovey-dovey with her in the picture. He was too close to her. He was particularly close to Nathan. But the way Darren had his arm wrapped around Faith’s waist made Eli wonder if something more than just a friendly picture occurred between the two of them. “I wanted to talk to you about support and custody, if you have a minute.”

“
Um, sure,” Faith walked to the kitchen. “Did you want anything to drink? I haven’t thought about anything to eat for dinner.”

“
I can cook, if you want,” Eli offered, “I can whip up something for you and little man. It won’t take too long at all.”

It occurred to Faith that she was famished. Though they flew in first-class, courtesy of Darren, airplane food only took her so far and she was too busy trying to get Nathan to eat his food to concentrate on hers. “I would like that, yes.”

“
Just relax, baby girl,” Eli’s hazel eyes sparkled as he headed to the kitchen and began to retrieve various pots and pans. “I got this covered. Go relax.”

Faith leaned against the entryway of the kitchen. It seemed surreal. A week ago, she wouldn’t have given a second thought to Eli fixing dinner for her and Nathan. Now, a week later, it was odd.

****

"Yo, yo, yo!” One of Darren’s brothers, Noah, was on the phone with him. “Tell me about all the honeys you hooked up with down in Florida, my man.”

“
Not much to tell, my man.” Darren set his luggage aside in his apartment and collapsed on the sofa. “Just same old, same old.”

“
Same old, same old? Pssh!” Noah didn’t buy that excuse for a moment. “Seriously, bro. I know you had a flock of honeys lined up at your hotel room.”

That probably would’ve been true if Darren had spent any time in his hotel room. He mainly used the hotel room for sleeping. His waking hours were spent with Faith and Nathan. They had just about every meal together and visited all of the tourist spots. Though Faith was mum on the situation between her and her husband, Darren knew she probably didn’t have that much money and paid for everything. It was something he quickly got used to.

“
Seriously, man. Nothing too extraordinary happened,” Darren lied. The extraordinary event was meeting Faith. He was already enchanted with her. He knew a relationship between them would be hard, not because of her marital status, but rather the distance: Faith was centered in Harlem and never entertained the thought of leaving. Darren was firmly planted in Brooklyn and saw no reason to leave as well. He briefly wondered how a long-distance relationship would work between them.

“
Well, if you say nothing happened, nothing happened.” Noah finally gave up. “Say, you coming over for dinner, later? Mom and Dad want to see you.”

“
Yeah, I’ll be there. Just give me a minute to decompress and I’ll be right over.” Every Sunday when Darren wasn’t playing football, he was at his parents’ home for dinner. He thought about extending the invite to Faith and Nathan one day.

****

It was becoming harder to hate Eli.

He fixed a fabulous meal for them and got Nathan to eat his vegetables. Eli and Faith kept their conversation cordial and friendly, leaving any sarcastic and sharp remarks to themselves. After dinner, Eli tucked Nathan into bed and read him a bedtime story.

“
And they lived happily ever after,” Eli closed the book.

“
Again!” Nathan clamored.

Eli smiled. “Little man, I’ve read the book three times already. It’s time for you to go to bed.”

“
Again!” Nathan clamored.

“
What about later this week?” Eli asked. “Deal?”

“
Deal.” He slapped Eli’s hand.

Eli kissed his son’s forehead. “All right, little man. I gotta go now.” He stood up and straightened out his jeans. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“
Daddy?” Nathan’s soft voice rang out.

“
Yes, baby?”

“
Are you and Mommy fighting?” He asked.

Where’s Daddy? Why isn’t Daddy home, anymore?
Eli could remember his child-self asking the same questions to his brothers when they told him that their father wasn’t coming home anymore. He remembered waiting by the front windows, hoping his father just got lost and would soon make his way back home. After a while, he just gave up and came to the harsh realization that his father wasn’t coming home and he was never going to come back.

Now his son was asking him the exact same question. Eli sat back down on Nathan’s bed and let out a hard sigh. How was he going to explain to his son that he and Faith were no longer living together? That Daddy needed some space? That Nathan might split the holidays and weekends between the two households?

You see, you thought your actions were only going to affect you and no one else, right? That’s where you messed up. Your actions affected our son, who wondered why Daddy wasn’t around to make him pancakes...
Faith’s words rang in Eli’s ear and glared in his face. Leaving, getting away, needing to cool off… it all seemed so simple. He needed to figure out what he wanted in his life, who he wanted in his life, and where he wanted to go. He truly wasn’t prepared for the effects of his decision.

“
Mommy and I are taking some time apart to figure out what we want.” Eli finally mustered the courage to speak. “It won’t affect our relationship with you. I’ll still make you pancakes but not as often. I’ll still see you but not as much. But hey, whenever you need me, whenever you want to see me, just tell Mommy and she’ll make it happen.”

“
Do you still love Mommy?” Nathan asked.

“
I do,” Eli replied, truthfully. The truth was he did love Faith still; he just didn’t want to be with her at the moment. “I love Mommy very much. I love you very much. But I need you to go to sleep, little man. We’ll talk more in the morning when I pick you up.”