Take Her Man

Reading the page wasn’t an option, I thought, listening to hear if Julian was still in the bathroom. I had everything on the line with Julian and before I poured my heart out to him, I had to find out what reason on God’s good earth Miata would have for sending Julian a text message. Therefore, without hesitation, I read:

Got your message about going out to L.A. to see your old classmate in the hospital. I hope he’s ok and that the accident wasn’t too bad. Call me when you get settled.

Love, Miata

My eyes closed tight with horror. It didn’t make sense. Why would Julian lie to Miata about coming to L.A. to see me, if everything he was telling me was the truth? I opened my eyes and read the message again, for one second, praying I’d read it wrong or that it had been sent from someone else. Any plausible reason for what I was seeing escaped me. First, I thought to run into the bathroom to confront Julian, but if he had already been lying to me, there was nothing to stop him from doing it again. I needed to hear the truth from the horse’s mouth and come to my own conclusion.

I picked up Julian’s phone and scrolled down to her name.

“Baby,” Miata said, answering the phone. “I just sent you a message.”

“This isn’t baby,” I said.

“Troy?”

“Yes.” I looked over my shoulder to see that Julian was still locked up in the bathroom. I didn’t want him to see me, but really I didn’t care anymore. I had nothing else to lose.

“Why do you have Julian’s phone?” Miata sounded as upset and confused as I was.

“Miata,” I said, “I’m beyond all that stuff with you now. Julian’s here in L.A. with me and I saw your message, so I just wanted to call and see what was up.”

“What’s up?” Miata’s voice went weak. “Julian and I are supposed to be together now. He told me he wasn’t seeing you anymore.”

“Miata, please. Why should I believe anything you say?”

“Well, if you don’t want to believe me now, perhaps you’ll believe me in nine months.”

“What?” I asked with the phone slipping from my ear.

“I’m pregnant and Julian’s the father,” I heard as the phone fell to the floor.

I’m not a psychologist. And short of struggling to understand my crazy family, I have little experience with the human mind. But I bet there’s some kind of psychological term for what happens when something really bad happens to you and your mind just separates itself from your body out of total rage and disgust for the situation you’ve found yourself in.

My hand flew across Julian’s face like greased lightning when I found him sitting on the toilet in the bathroom. I hadn’t hit anyone in my entire life, but I knew the slap had to hurt because I could see the red imprint of my hand on his face. His reading glasses went flying across the bathroom into the tub and the magazine he was reading fell to the floor.

“What the fuck is that bitch talking about?” I asked, hollering so loud I nearly startled myself.

“What did you slap me for?” Julian jumped up from the toilet and bent down to pull up his pants.

“No, fuck that,” I said, jerking his arm so he couldn’t get the pants up. “You’re going to answer my question.”

“What question? I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

“I spoke to Miata, Julian.” I mashed him in the forehead. “Apparently, I’m your old schoolmate and that’s why you’re in Los Angeles.”

“Oh, that’s it.” Julian smiled. “I can explain that.”

“Well, I guess you better start, motherfucker.” I put my hands on my hips. “Yeah, I guess you better start explaining right where you got your black ass on the plane.”

“Look, Troy, the bitch is crazy. That’s all I’m going to say.” Julian pulled up his pants and shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not going to explain my actions,” he added. “I broke up with Miata because she’s crazy. I didn’t want to tell her I was coming here to be with you because it’s none of her business. Just like what I do with her is none of your business.”

“Julian, don’t make me slap your ass again.” I could feel myself beginning to cry. I fought so hard to hold back the tears, but when Julian turned to walk out of the bathroom, I couldn’t stop them. I’d played his fool for so long and I couldn’t believe he couldn’t even look me in the face. “None of my business?” I said, watching him walk down the hallway. “Like the baby is none of my business?” Julian stopped walking and turned back around.

“What? How do you know that?” he said, rushing toward me.

“You got her pregnant,” I screamed. Hearing the words come from my mouth suddenly made them real. When I’d heard them on the phone I had been angry and I’d wanted Julian to explain. I’d wanted to yell at him, fight, scream, and cry. But when I’d realized exactly what was going on by hearing myself say that Julian had gotten another woman pregnant, I was done. I wanted him to leave and never, ever come back into my life.

Not only did this man I loved and had taken care of while he was going through one of the hardest times in his career leave me for another woman, but then he had the audacity to think I was fool enough to take him back. And worse—he got the bitch pregnant! I wanted his ass out. Who did he think I was? Shit, who did I think I was that I actually thought I had to fight to get and keep this piece of a man?