Page 30 of Terrez and Shalene
“Okay. Start coming down.”
When we made it to the entrance, Terrez took my keys to get Amayah’s car seat from my car. Once we were settled, I told Terrez how to get to my childhood home. It took us about twenty minutes to get there. The closer we got, the sicker I felt.
“You good, baby?” Terrez asked as he rubbed my thigh.
“Mmmhmm,” was all I could muster up.
Trying my best to be okay, I took my seatbelt off and got out of the truck. After Amayah was out of her seat, I grabbed my purse and took her by the hand. I took my key from my purse on our way up to the house, but my dad was standing in the doorway by the time we made it up.
“Is that Pawpaw’s favorite girl?” he called out to Amayah.
When she realized who he was, she pulled away from me and ran full speed right into him. It had been a couple of weekssince she’d last seen him and he truly had her spoiled. Amayah being the only grandchild came with a lot of perks. Before my mother passed away, she and my dad would take Amayah for the weekends or whenever they felt like it really. Brevin and I never had to worry about a sitter. These days, my relationship with my father had been distant. I was hoping to end that tonight and work on getting our relationship back on track. Selfishly, I never even took the time to really check on my dad like I should have. I had to constantly remind myself that I wasn’t the only person who’d lost a loved one.
“Hey, Dad,” I said as I reached out for a hug.
Tears instantly ran down my face when he brought me into the tightest embrace. No other words were exchanged, but I could feel everything my father was communicating.
“Shalene…it’s good to have you back here, baby girl. You don’t know how many times I wanted to call to make sure you were still coming. I thought you were gonna change your mind. I’m so glad you came,” he expressed.
“I’m glad I came too. It’s not that I don’t wanna come by, Dad, but it’s hard.”
Squeezing me even tighter, the two of us rocked from side to side in a moment of silence. When I pulled myself back to reality, I remembered Terrez was here with me and did the introductions.
“Dad, this is my boyfriend, Terrez. Terrez, this is my dad, Curtis Thompson.”
The two men shook hands and all seemed to be well. I wasn’t sure how my dad would feel about me having a boyfriend so fresh out of a marriage, but he didn’t look concerned at this moment.
“Nice to meet you, young man. You all come inside. Dinner is done.”
I took a deep breath that I let out slowly and walked inside. The house felt no different than it did the last time I was here. The pictures on the walls and furniture all seemed to be in the same place I last saw it. Even with that being the case, my tears wouldn’t let up. Just knowing I was sitting on my mother’s couch and she wouldn’t be coming down to hug and talk to me was killing me on the inside. Terrez sat next to me and rubbed my back through my whole breakdown. I wasn’t sure how much time had gone by, but I felt much better mentally after letting all those built-up emotions out. I excused myself to the bathroom and freshened up. When I stepped out, Terrez and my father seemed to be talking about the start of football season. That surprised me because I always assumed Terrez didn’t watch a lot of TV unless he was with me. I’d spent some time in his apartment that had three TVs, but he always seemed so busy.
Amayah was playing with the four-foot dollhouse my dad had gotten her for Christmas this past year. He insisted on keeping it here so she’d have some entertainment while here and it turned out to be a good idea.
“You good, baby girl?” my dad asked as I took my seat next to Terrez.
“I’m okay. Just emotional.”
“I know. I figured it was hard for you to be here, but I’ve longed for you to come back. Things haven’t been the same since your mom, but you still have me. I feel like I barely see you and my grandbaby and I don’t like that. I know you were going through things with Brevin, and even then, you didn’t come to me.”
“I know, Dad. It was all too much and it happened back-to-back. I felt like I couldn’t get a grip on life. I’m just now getting back into some type of normal routine. I’m back at work and that’s been good. Amayah is adjusting just well in our new placeand splitting time between her dad’s and mine has been going smoothly.”
“Good. I’m still not fond of how that boy handled you, Shalene. There’s no way in hell your mother’s death should have caused y’all to get a divorce. You know that fool stopped by here the other day, asking me to have lunch with him. Talking about how sorry he was and how it was a lot on him.”
“Really? Why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve called him and put him in his place. He shouldn’t be reaching out to you for anything.”
“He has it in his head that he can right his wrong. I already told him, even if you decided to take his ass back, I’d never give him a second blessing to have your hand in marriage. Hell, I’m mad I didn’t see through his ass the first time.”
“I can promise you, that relationship will never have another chapter. All I need him to do is be a father,” I said honestly.
“Even if he doesn’t do that, Amayah will always be good,” Terrez added.
He’d been expressing to me that he wanted to be a figure Amayah looked up to. He felt like since she’d be with me most of the time, he’d play a bigger role than Brevin by default. He let me know that he wasn’t trying to replace Brevin as her father, but not being involved wasn’t an option for him.
“I know that’s right. Tell me something about yourself, Terrez. How did you meet my child and convince her to be your girlfriend?” my dad questioned jokingly.
Terrez gave him the truth on how we met, but not so much about what he did for a living. As far as my dad knew, Terrez was a silent partner and invested his money in stocks. It was true, but he’d never reveal his other truth to my father, and I appreciated that. I understood the brotherhood they had in DP, but it was a gang nonetheless. I couldn’t wait for Terrez to be out completely.
As the evening went on, my dad started playing his music from the seventies and eighties. These were the same songs I grew up hearing on Saturday mornings when he and my mom would force me to wake up and clean. He’d poured Terrez and me a glass of his favorite Tennessee whiskey and I was feeling it. “If You Were Here Tonight"by Alexander O’Neal was playing loudly through the speaker and I was singing it at the top of my lungs. This was one of my mother’s favorite songs. She used to play it so much that I’ve known it by heart since I was eight. Terrez surprised me when he started singing along with me.
