Ex-Terminator Life After Marriage by Suzetta Perkins Read Free Book Online

tomorrow’—no good-byes or apologies.
    “He would slip back home, wanting to have sex with me because he knew it was good, and he knew I would let him. Even a couple of months before the divorce was final he showed up at the door—must have had a fight with the new girlfriend—and I let him in.
    “Sitting in the courthouse listening to the judge talk about our lives, our assets, why we no longer could be husband and wife, chilled me to the bone. I looked at William with that smug look on his face—I’m sure he was thinking freedom at last. But when the judge announced my settlement and then proclaimed that our marriage was dissolved, a smile formed on my face. I said to myself, it isn’t over yet. You see, Mr. William James Lewis, I’m carrying your baby—the one thing you always wanted…a baby.”
    “Ooooohs” and “ahhhhhs” came from the group.
    “Ohhhhhhhh my God, Ashley,” Sylvia said. “Why didn’t you tell anyone? The court would’ve figured the baby into your divorce settlement.”
    “No need. When I get up enough nerve to tell William, he’s going to wonder what it will take to win me back.”
    “You go, girl!” Mona exclaimed. “You are one tough sister. Had me fooled.”
    “May I have a drink?” Ashley asked. “I’ve got nothing else to share. And I’d like a group hug, too.”
    Everyone laughed and huddled around Ashley. Claudette even rubbed Ashley’s nonexistent stomach.
    “Make him beg,” Claudette said. “Make him beg.”
    “Who said I was going to take him back? I never said I wanted him back; I said, he’ll wonder what it will take to win me back. There will be no going back. No, no, no, no, no. When I was begging and pleading, he turned a deaf ear. When I bared my soul, he looked at me in disgust. Now I’ve got something he really wants, but I’ll have the power to deny him. He’ll have visitation rights and child support to pay. Oh yeah, I still love that man, but me and my little one, hmph, we have other plans and they don’t include the baby’s daddy. Now, may I have a drink?”
    “No!” everyone shouted. “You’re going to have a baby!”

Claudette Beasley
    “Whew,” Claudette said. “Everyone’s files are so tedious, but mine…they aren’t full at all.
    “I met Tyrone about sixteen years ago at the NCO Club at Fort Stewart, Georgia. My girls and me loved to go to Fort Stewart and check them fine servicemen out. There ain’t nothing like a brother in a uniform.
    “I was shaking my groove thang for real when Mr. Tyrone C. Beasley walked over to me and said, Lawd have mercy . I was still switching my tail—I was a size ten back then—and ooohhh my, those brown eyes could melt a sister down. He asked if I wanted to dance, and I told him I was already dancing, couldn’t he see. Yeah, I had a smart mouth back then, too. He looked at me and said what the hell. Next thing I knew, we had the floor to ourselves because that brother was getting downnnnnnnnn.”
    Claudette’s arm went up in the air and around…then down to the floor. The group giggled as she demonstrated her point.
    “Me and T, as I called him, dated awhile, and after a couple years we decided to make it legal. We were doing everything else anyway. The paper just made us respectable. We got married in a little church just outside of Atlanta. Had ten bridesmaids and ten groomsmen in that church—most of them were family.
    “As stories go, the familiar gets old after awhile. We tried to keep it fresh, but we fell into that real marriage thing—work on the job, work at home, eat, sleep and maybe time to hang out with your boys or your girls. And it didn’t help when I decided to go to beauty school on top of my part-time job. See, I had plans for my future.
    “I forgot to tell you that two months before we got married, me and Tyrone found out we were pregnant with Reebe. To make matters worse, Tyrone got rifted from the military—surplus. That didn’t do well for his ego. I think it