Page 12 of After Him, There Was You
“Jason,” she stated, looking down at her menu like she didn’t know what she was going to order. We came to Grits every Saturday morning either with or without our kids when their fathers had them, so we both knew the menu like the back of our hands. Tara was a creature of habit, and I was sure the staff knew her order without her having to actually place it. Hell, even I could have placed it for her.
“I know damn well you didn’t say Jason, and in the chance that I heard you correctly, please don’t tell me it was your ex-husband, Jason Morgan. The same jackass who cheated on you and destroyed what you thought was a happy home. Please don’t tell me it’sthatJason.”
“Eva, it just happened.”
Sitting across the table from Tara, I couldn’t believe what she was saying. If my best friend was nothing else, she was cautious, so it blew my mind she managed to slip and fall onto Jason’s penis.
“I’m sorry, T, butit just happenedis not a good enough reason for this situation, not after what he put you, Jaedan, and Raegan through. Just like his affair which ended your marriage didn’tjust happen, you having sex with him didn’t either. He is your ex for a reason. On top of that, now you’re not any better than his little secretary.”
“Don’t say that, E,” she groaned, running her hands down her perplexed face.
“Why not? It’s true,” I fussed. “You were inducted into the homewreckers hall of fame this morning, and evidently you are the last to know.”
“But he was my husband first.”
“But he’s her husband now, and it’s not even to say that you sleeping with him isn’t her karma because how you get themis how you lose them, but it doesn’t make it right. However, if she finds out the two of you circled back around, she’s going to know exactly how you felt.”
“Amber already knows,” Tara conceded, holding her hand down in warranted disgrace.
“Please don’t tell me y’all had a three—”
“You can stop right there,” she interrupted, whipping her head up, staring at me like I should have known better. Truthfully, I knew that kind of behavior wasn’t up her alley, but neither was sleeping with a married man. “I have never and would never have a threesome.”
“Let you tell it,” I mocked, shaking my head in dismay. “Look, I’m all for payback, but right is right and wrong is wrong, Tara.”
“I know, and to add insult to injury, I’ll have to cancel my date with Zane tonight.”
“No, you will not. The insult and the injury was Jason playing with your heart. You made a mistake sleeping with him, and we need to move past it because what I won’t let you do is cancel a date with a man like Zane in order to continue to deal with Jason and his mess. Yes, you slept with him, but don’t let him continue to ruin your future by not staying in your past.”
As the words left my mouth, everything started making sense.
Jason and Tara had been divorced for two years, and in those two years, she hadn’t dated or been seen with a man. All of a sudden, the night after a man shows her attention and she reciprocates it, he slithers his way back into her folds. In my eyes, I knew it wasn’t a coincidence, and as I intently replayed the night before, I knew who the culprit was.
“It was Paula!”
“What about Paula?”
Going back over our night out, I recalled to Tara how Jason’s younger sister, Paula, was the bartender in VIP. I knew for a fact she had to see the very moment Zane whisked my friend away like the prize she was.
“But what would she gain by telling Jason that I talked to Zane?”
“His entire family is just as messy as he is, and I’m sure it didn’t skip Paula,” I reminded her, ready to provide her with proof because she’d clearly forgotten the ways of the family she had married into. “Wasn’t it his mama who continued to call you after he got married to Amber, asking you to make it work with her son as if the divorce wasn’t already finalized and he didn’t have an outside child?”
“Maybe you have a point.”
“I know I do, but as I digress, you are not going to cancel your date with Zane.”
“What am I supposed to do? I feel like a whore going on a date with one man while I still have the scent of another man on me.”
“Tara, I’m not telling you to sleep with Zane tonight because that may be a bit much, but what I am saying is to eat breakfast, go home, shower, take a nap, wake up, take another shower, and then get ready for your date. If Jason isn’t scrubbed off of you by then, then I don’t know what to tell you, but you’re going on that date.”
Feeling my stomach touch my back, I raised my hand and signaled for the waitress. I was sure she was allowing us time to engage in our heated conversation, but I was at the point of becoming hangry, and it was dire for me to eat sooner rather than later.
I had plenty of advice to give my best friend, but I needed to do it on a full stomach.
“My eyes must be playing tricks on me,” I lowly mumbled, as my gaze followed a happy couple being led by a waitress to an empty table.
“What’s wrong?” Tara questioned as I stood from my seat, ready to get some answers from the oblivious duo.
