Wifey: Part 1

As I scanned the phone numbers my heart was beating fast from anxiety. I was hoping I didn’t see Jasmine’s number. But, sure enough, I saw an incoming call from Jasmine to Nico right around the time my house had gotten broken into. And I also knew Nico was real cool with this white boy who owned a body shop, so it wasn’t hard for me to connect the dots and know that Jasmine meant to send that text to Nico.

Immediately I just felt sick to my stomach, like I wanted to throw up. My mind was racing with all kinds of thoughts. I was wondering how long Nico had been talking to Jasmine. Was he fucking her? Had he played me by using me to deliver money to her? Was the money really for her personal pockets and not for extracting viable information about Shabazz? What did he see in her that he didn’t see in me? Was it because she was in school and I wasn’t? Was she the reason he hadn’t taken me on any vacations recently?

I didn’t know exactly what to say or what to do. And although I was a quiet person by nature, I was never a person to hold my tongue, and I wasn’t going to start now. I didn’t hesitate any longer and I called Jasmine to confront her.

Jasmine picked up on the second ring.

“Mia, I’m sorry about that text,” she said, sounding like she was snickering or laughing as if things were funny.

“Jasmine, I’m not a dummy!” I shot back into the phone. I knew I caught her off guard.

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play stupid. Are. You. Fuck-ing. My. Man?” I asked her in a cadence that stressed each syllable.

Jasmine was silent. I kept quiet too, waiting for her to blink first.

“You just joking with me, right?” she asked with a fake chuckle.

“Do I sound like I’m joking?” I asked and mocked her with a fake chuckle of my own.

“Mia, really? You’re that insecure? I send you a text message by accident and you come at me like this?”

“Answer my question! Are you fucking Nico?”

“No, I’m not fucking Nico,” Jasmine replied short and blunt.

“So why are you calling him at all times of the night?”

“Seriously, Mia? Like, are you really serious right now? OK, first of all, don’t call my number with no bullshit like this. I don’t care who you are or who your man is, you can’t disrespect me!”

I could feel my ghetto side starting to rise up to the surface. “Ain’t nobody disrespecting you!” I yelled into the phone.

“You calling my phone all outta pocket and cursing and shit. That is disrespect! And if you wanna know who your man is fucking, then you should ask your man. And don’t call me no more with this bullshit, or we gonna have a problem!” Jasmine hung up the phone.

I was beyond heated and ready for war, so I called her right back.

“Mia, stop calling my phone!”

“You broke-ass ghetto bitch! Let me tell you something—If I find out you called my man one more time, I’m whipping your little project ass!”

Jasmine started to laugh into the phone. “Whateva, Mia. I ain’t hardly from the projects and I ain’t hard to find. If I ain’t at school, then I’m on a hundred and ninth avenue and Guy R. Brewer Boulevard, so whateva you wanna do, bring it. But you better come correct! And if I wanted your man, believe me, I could have him.”

“Oh, now you talking real reckless I see?”

“Why are you still talking to me?” Jasmine screamed.

“You right. I’m done talking. But test me if you want to, bitch!” I hung up, abruptly ending the call.

I wanted to call Nico, but I didn’t. I figured, if he was talking to Jasmine, she was going to let him know what happened, and if he said something to me, then that would be the confirmation I needed to know that he was actually fucking her.

I sat down on my bed, feeling like someone had just gutted me. But there was no way I was going to let that bitch take my man. She had no idea who she was fucking with.

CHAPTER 10

Jasmine

When the call ended with Mia, I was so vexed. I was definitely in fight mode and