Page 13 of Mahogany 1

“How was school?” I asked the four of them.

“Straight,” Gabe nonchalantly replied. “Ready for the weekend lowkey.”

Aubry grabbed two boxes of pizza from the porch and closed the door behind her. “School was school. I’m ready for it to be over.”

“De’Ontray was messing with me again. I told Mrs. Stewart this time,” Honesty said with an eye roll. “Can’t stand his ugly butt.”

De’Ontray was a little boy in her class that kept picking with her. I was sure the little boy had a crush on her since the picking he did was harmless. But the last time, she popped him in the eye.

“Mrs. Addison made pancakes!” Sparkle exclaimed, jumping into my lap.

She was in daycare. We might’ve had a support system, but I made sure Sparkle was in daycare, instead of with family.

“Why ain’t nobody tell me momma was home?” Duke asked while the kids were in the middle of talking over each other, giving me details about their day.

Opening my eyes, I offered him a weak smile. He thanked Aubry for getting pizza and told her he’d send her the total in a little bit. I had the urge to curse him out about dinner but... I let it go. I let a lot of shit go for the sake of keeping the peace. Outer peace, at least. I was boiling inwardly. Wanted to call him lazy and inconsiderate. Wanted to remind him of the promise he made about equal effort around the house months ago. But I didn’t. I would. Eventually...maybe.

“Hey,” I sheepishly answered.

“Pizza!” Sparkle shrieked. “I want pizza!” She then climbed down from my lap and ran off, following behind her siblings and that pizza she loved so much.

Duke leaned down, kissed my lips, and then kneeled in front of me. We locked eyes for a second before I closed them again. Grabbing my calve, he pulled the other shoe off and I lightly moaned.

“Tired?” Duke asked, lightly massaging the arch in my foot.

I didn’t know what made me wear four-inch Tom Ford heels to work. I slipped them on, confidently, telling myself that beauty was pain. But my God! Twelve hours in four-inch heels did me dirty.

“Mmhmm,” I mumbled, opening my eyes to put them on his. “Tired as hell. Too tired to cook. Thank God my daughter got pizza.”

There it was. Sometimes it was as if my mouth had a brain of its own. It was all about delivery though. I could’ve said all of the things I wanted to say but... for the sake of that peace, I kept a lid on it. I was too tired to argue, anyway because that’s exactly what mentioning another empty promise would lead to.

With a light smirk, he said, “You know I told Bre to order pizza, right?”

Lies.

He lied… right through the small gap between his two front teeth. Duke lied bad. When God said all men were liars, in Psalm 116:11 He didn’t tell a lie. Instead of arguing about how Sparkle had already told me he told her I would cook, I let it go. Had to. Sometimes I had to. Some things were better for keeping tucked away inside of the vault that held all of the unaddressed lies. Not for the sake of keeping score, but for the sake of discernment.

“Yep,” I dismissively said.

He shook his head with a squint. “Therapy go alright?”

That was his way of checking my temperature. Wanted to know if it’d gone good or bad, as to say my checking him was because of therapy. It wasn’t. He knew that. Duke just liked to blame my issues with his lack of effort on everything but himself.

“Therapy went how therapy goes,” I said with a light sigh. “Speaking of…”

With raised brows he said, “What’s up?”

“I think we should go.”

“To therapy?”

No, to mars. What the fuck you think?

“Yes, Duke. I know you don’t?—”

He shrugged. “I’m with whatever you with. If you think we need therapy, we can go to therapy.”

“You don’t think we need it?” I asked, giving him a questioning look.

---