When I pulled up, I spotted his motorcycle parked on the side of the building. I found him inside one of the service bays working on an import. His head was up underneath the hood. He was surprised when he heard my voice. “Tyson, I need to talk to you.”
He stood up, almost bumping his head on the underside of the hood. “Damn, you scared the shit out of me!” He grabbed a rag so he could wipe some of the oil and grease off his hands.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to take you off guard.”
“Zoe, where have you been? I’ve been leaving messages for you at your office for almost two weeks.”
I looked down at the concrete floor to avoid eye contact. “I’ve been busy. Something came up.”
“Awwwwwwww, so in other words, you pushed my ass to the curb?” He walked over to a little cooler that was sitting beside one of the toolboxes on a workbench and got out an ice-cold soda. He held the can out toward me. “You want one?”
“No, thanks.” I walked over toward him and leaned on the workbench. I needed some strength to come from somewhere and was hoping the bench would have some mystical powers and help a sistah out.
“So, what’s up, Zoe? Must be mighty important for you to show up here out of the blue, at my job, after not even bothering to call for so long.”
He was all eyes and ears. I was all nervous. Sex with Tyson had always been rough, and I had often wondered if that signified a violent streak in his nature. He had never hit me or anything, but there was a first time for everything. I was hoping I was dead wrong.
I cleared my throat and prayed he wouldn’t haul off and punch me dead in the face. “Tyson, it’s over.”
He looked stunned at first, but the look was quickly replaced with one of anger. “What’s over?”
He knew what the hell I meant. “You and I are over.” I announced it like I was calling out the winning raffle ticket number at a bazaar. “I can’t do this anymore.”
“I see.” Tyson was silent for a good two, three minutes and so was I. He didn’t hit me, so things were looking up. “Zoe, I think you’re just feeling stressed. Obviously something bad happened. You weren’t even going to work or anything, so it must’ve been serious.”
“Yes, something very bad did happen.”
“Okay, and if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s cool too. But don’t let this affect us, baby. We can get past this.”
He was so sincere. I was seeing a side of Tyson I never even knew existed—a sensitive side. It almost made me want to keep him, but that was out of the question. “No, we can’t get past this. I made a mistake, a terrible one, and this is all my fault. I take full responsibility for it. I played with other people’s emotions to benefit myself, and I can’t do it any longer. I have to burn the bridges with all of you and move on. My place is at home with my husband.”
“Hold up, what do you mean by burn the bridges with all of you? All of who?”
Shit! I slipped! “It was just a figure of speech,” I mumbled, trying to play it off. “I meant burn the bridges with you.”
He looked puzzled. “Oh, I thought you meant something else.”
I opted to play dumb. “Something like what?”
“Ummm, never mind. Let’s get back to the matter at hand.” He took me by the hand and started playing with my fingers, one by one. “I can understand if you need some time to yourself, but I don’t want to lose you.”
“Tyson—”
“Just hear me out. Please!”
“Okay.” I agreed, even though I knew nothing he could possibly say would make a difference.
“If it’s because I’ve been putting too much pressure on yo
u, I’ll back off. We can do this on your terms. I promise.”
I was about to tell him that the situation was useless when all hell broke loose. I saw it and heard it at the same time. A rock hit my car, shattering the back window. “What the fuck?”
Tyson tried to prevent me from leaving the service bay. “Let me handle this, Zoe!”
“Handle it? Fuck that!” I pulled loose from him and went out into the sunlight to confront the bitch.
She was leaning on my car, smiling like she had just been crowned Miss America. “So, you’re the tramp that’s been fucking my man? Keep coming around him, trick! I just love fucking up your car!”