Page 22 of His Bittersweet Regret

“I never took you for a piece of garbage like my ex-husband, but I suppose my judgment never got any better. Why don’t you do everyone a favor and stay as far away from this apartment and this street as possible from here on out. That was beyond cruel. You made that poor girl witness your tryst with another woman while she’s been struggling, alone, and pregnant with your child.”

“My child?” I asked, even though I’d just deduced that was what Monica had been trying to allude to.

“Yes, boy. Don’t play dumb with me. I know she texted you about it after you were in such a rush to leave her that you wouldn’t listen to her break the news to you.”

“Break the news to me?” I pondered out loud. “The surprise she had,” I mumbled as I thought back to the day I left Opal in the apartment I’d just cleaned out. She had a gift bag with her. I thought the surprise was just something she bought for me.

“No. No fucking way! She wasn’t coming to tell me she was pregnant the day I left,” I said out loud, not even remembering that Beth’s mom was there watching as I talked to myself.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying, and if you didn’t get that text, you might want to think about who could have received it and sent her that nasty message back.”

“What nasty message?” I asked. Anger brewed in the back of my mind, as I thought of my brothers and maybe even Tandra, possibly being responsible for me missing out on that news. I’d left my phone on the table while I went to the restroom before our big blowout.

“Maybe you should figure that out.” And with that, the angry momma bear took off, leaving me standing there holding my underwear on the side of the street and staring up at my old apartment. My old life. The one where apparently, I’d be snuggled up right now with my very pregnant woman – probably my wife by now – if only I hadn’t been stupid enough to listen to the bad advice of my best friend and brothers.

“Remember what I said to you that day?” A man’s voice called out to me. I looked around and didn’t see anyone until a screen popped out of the first floor window of the apartment building my Opal resided in. “Right here, kid.”

“Gary,” I acknowledged.

“Remember what I said to you that day?”

“Yeah, I remember,” I mumbled back.

“How’s it feel to have my words bite you in the ass?”

Okay, so Gary was no longer a fan of mine. He could join the growing list of people who were pissed beyond belief. I took a step to cross the street, but Gary shook his head.

“You leave that girl alone. I’m sure it was hard enough for her to see what she just did. Girl’s been walking these streets back and forth to work, to the grocery store carrying all those bags, living a miserable, difficult, lonely existence while you’ve been slumming it with the likes of that Monica James across the street.” Gary shook his head at me in disappointment as he spoke.

“She’s had about all the hurt she can handle today. Go home, boy. If I see you attempt to enter my property, I’m calling the cops.”

That stopped me in my tracks. “You’d call the cops on me for going to try to straighten things out with Opal?”

Gary laughed at me then. “I’d call the cops when you’re trying to trespass and make that girl more upset than she already is. You don’t have a hope in hell of straightening shit out with her after what you’ve done, boy. I warned you. You didn’t listen. Why is it that the young never listen when wisdom is spoken?”

The last was asked while he looked to the sky for answers. Not sure if he received a reply, but he did shut his window, and effectively closed the conversation so I couldn’t beg my way into the building.

I wasn’t stupid. Gary meant what he said. Those words were no idle threat. So, instead of tempting fate, and local law enforcement, I got in my car and headed out to my parents’ house. I needed a round of their special brand of wisdom to fix what I had royally fucked up.

~*~

I never could have imagined that a full-on world war had blown up at my family’s house while I’d been out on that stupid fucking date, and yet, the minute I walked through the door all I could hear was my father and mother yelling and snippets of my brothers trying to get a word in but failing.

“What is going on today? I feel like everything is going to hell every which way I turn.”

“Imagine that, since you’re at the center of everything,” Ryker accused snidely.

“Why were you with Opal earlier?”

“Because someone had to be,” he yelled at me.

“Monica just informed me that the baby Opal is carrying is mine,” I said, talking to Ryker. “Is that true?”

“Why didn’t you ask Opal that question?”

“Because Monica lives across the street from Opal, and she was just getting home as I left Monica’s place.”

“Oh God! Tell me she didn’t see you,” Ryker moaned, as if the thought of Opal seeing me there with Monica hurt him. I nodded my head, unable to voice exactly how bad the situation had been. “Mom, I understand you want everyone here for this, but I have to go.”

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