• • •

I was hoping the name was a coincidence, hoping that this woman, Elijah's wife, wouldn't have come to my job to do whatever it was that she wanted.

But no. It was Leah Baker in the flesh, standing in the coffee shop looking directly at me.

She and Maria were talking, so when Leah's gaze met mine, Maria turned around to see who she was looking at, "Oh there's Ken. I told you her cigarette breaks are never long."

Leah laughed but it didn't reach her eyes, "I was hoping it wouldn't."

"I'll watch the register for you." Maria offered.

I shook my head, "You don't have to. She's leaving."

"Am I?" She asked in amusement, "We haven't even talked."

"I don't care. Don't ever come to my job about some shit like this."

I was upset, maybe to the extent that some would call it overreacting, but I hated being ambushed. Why would she approach me at my job? Why would she approach me at all?

Maria looked between us, "You want me to call security?"

"Is that really necessary? I'm just trying to have a conversation with the woman who's fucking my husband."

"Yeah, I'm calling Derrick." Maria asserted, "That's something you do on your own time. Don't bring that in here."

Exactly.

"I'm not sure what he's told you, but we're trying to work it out. I don't know where you fit into that, so it'd be really nice if you willingly exited the equation."

"Girl fuck you." I replied angrily, "I don't even know you and you call yourself coming to my job."

"You don't have to 'know me'. I know Elijah, my husband. And here you come ruining a marriage."

I was wondering if the bitch was delusional. I never planned on repeating what Elijah told me, so as I badly as I wanted to point out the fact that the marriage was over the second she cheated, I didn't.

But I still found a way to say, "I can't ruin something that doesn't exist. Please walk out the door before I hurt your feelings."

The customers were getting a show today.

"You can't hurt my feelings." She laughed, "Elijah goes through phases. At first, he's attentive, he wants to know everyyyything, and then he doesn't care. Right now, you're in phase one. When phase two comes, I'll show you the way to your therapist's office so hopefully, you won't try to kill yourself." She paused and winked, "Again."

Her words were meant to hurt me, and they did. Mostly because I wasn't expecting her to know that.

I hadn't told Elijah that.

"Eat a dick and die, Leah. I would show you the way to your therapist's office, but you'd probably fuck the doctor." I paused and winked, "Again. You bird ass bitch."

She removed Derrick's hand from her arm like it was infected, "Don't touch me. I can walk out myself."

"Well get out." He spat.

Maria was still taking orders, trying to pretend nothing was going on, "Look either order a coffee or leave. You guys act like you've never seen an argument before."

"Bye Kensley. Enjoy the rest of your day."

• • •

Maria let me go home early after she saw that I wasn't in the right headspace. I didn't go home though, I went to the field and tried to decide how I felt.

I wanted to talk to someone, but the people I usually went to for advice, Ari, My dad, I couldn't.

So I just laid there.

My mind kept drifting to what Leah said, and I couldn't figure out how she knew that. Only 5 people knew about it: myself, my parents, Jailyn, and my grandma. If she'd just mentioned Demetrius, I'd understand because it was public record.

My medical files weren't.

The words I said to Jai about Elijah being a dog that eventually goes home at night replayed in my head, making me sigh in annoyance because I didn't understand why I thought his wife would be okay with that.

In that same vein, to me, Elijah made it seem as if the marriage was over on both ends. It was now clear that she wanted to still be with him.

So, I had no problem having sex with him but I now wanted him to get a divorce.

The problem with that was that I didn't feel like I had the right to tell him to get a divorce. All I could do is tell him how I felt about it and hoped he agreed so we could continue to do...this.

I was so deep in my thoughts that when Lauren sat down beside me I almost maced her ass.

"I'm not a bear." She laughed, "Just Lauren."

I just smiled because I wasn't really in the mood, but this was her spot, "You gotta make noise. A lil tweet or some."

"Might as well tweet since I stay doing bird shit." She sighed, "Ca-cawww."

Well, she said it not me.

"I think we all have our bird-days." I replied "But if we're never birds, how are we supposed to fly? Like soar past all the bullshit that we used to settle for? It's just looking at it from all sides."

She laughed loudly, "Wow. Put that on a t-shirt."

"I'd bet my whole paycheck that nobody gonna buy a shirt that says 'I'm a bird ass bitch'."

"Girl I'd be the face of your brand. Mama bird."

Lauren was an easy person to talk to, and she quickly took my mind off what happened earlier. I could tell that she wanted the distraction too, but I wasn't going to ask why.

Eventually, we both stopped talking, choosing to let unspoken admissions occupy the silence.

For some reason, I wanted to fill it and found myself thinking this must've been how Ms. Tracey felt when she stood there ordering muffins and telling all her sons' business.

I'd just decided to talk about it, "Leah came to my job." as Lauren spoke over me, "I killed somebody."

"Woahhh." I held my hands up, "You first."

Because... What?

"Marc brought her over there. He said she just popped up." She shook her head, "But her car wasn't there, she had a bag. It's no way."

"If you were gonna do that, you should've killed Marc ass. Or at least a two for one special."

Lauren blew out a breath, "I was supposed to be going to visit my parents for a few days. Lani wanted to see Marc's mom, so we go there, and then I realized I left something at the house. I go in, she's in my bathroom. I just... I've never been so angry."

I didn't know what to say, "I'm sorry you had to experience that."

8/10?

"She was there like she belonged, you know? Isn't it enough that she has sex with him? Isn't it enough that he takes care of you— provides for you? Why would she come to my house?"

The questions were rhetorical, and for that I was grateful. It wasn't my place to point out the very obvious fact that Marc was the reason why she came to their house.

"I'm barely sleeping." She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes, "I feel like crap. That's somebody's daughter, and they'll never know what happened to her because I fell in love with a piece of shit."

"When do you plan on leaving?"

A defeated smile crossed her face, "I don't."

I just stared at her.

"You said Leah came to your job?" She prompted.

My story couldn't touch hers, but I told it anyway leaving out the parts about Leah knowing stuff I hadn't told anyone.

"You're planning on telling Elijah, right?"

I shrugged, "Yeah I guess."

"Then don't worry about it." Lauren assured me, "He'll take care of it."

There was no way for me to know that he already knew and was taking care of it.

• • •

Elijah Baker

Anger.

Is what I felt.

More than angry, pissed the fuck off.

This woman. I'd given her— I'd tried to—

I don't know how Kensley would feel about being approached by Leah, but I didn't want that typa drama and shit in her life. Not because of me.

She was always happy, always in a good mood, then here comes a bitch who, for some reason, wanted to pretend like she wanted to be with me.

Because I wasn't sad anymore? I didn't pay attention to her even before Kensley came, so she did she want me to be miserable with her?

It took hours before Leah walked into my house, and she paused when she saw me sitting there, "Sitting in the dark? What's wrong?"

"What make you feel like you even deserve to be in the same space as her?"

She saw that it was no point in pretending to not know, "That's the standard you hold her to? Telling me I don't 'deserve' to be near her?"

Leah was held to that standard before too. Now, I was trying to decide if I wanted to call Zi or do it myself.

"I tried to see it." She laughed while walking over to me, "That's why I went there, but it's nothing. She's nothing."

She'd finally stopped in front of me, kneeling down, "You're so mad, but you can't do shit about it."

"You sound like a damn fool."

"Do I? If I go missing, ask yourself, where's the first place people are gonna look?"

I leaned closer, "Ain't nobody looking for you, Leah."

"The person you have following me doesn't check my Facebook? That status about how I feared for my life got so many likes I figured you would've heard about it."

Leah knew me better than most people, and that was my fault. I could pay somebody to admit to it, but then I'd be like Christian.

"Them same people you lying to, making them posts for, ain't give a fuck about you. Still don't give a fuck. When you get off that lil shit, you still miserable. Still don't have nobody." I wanted to choke her until her eyeballs popped out.

"So? You ruined my life. I'll be damned if you get to enjoy yours. I'm the reason you even have a degree, this house, any of this shit. Because of the sacrifices I made."

My mind was racing, thinking of ways I could kill her and get away with it.

The only conclusion I came to was that I should've drowned her when I had the chance.

• • •

Kensley Parker

When I finally made it home, I found myself in the parking lot typing in names on Google.

elijah baker dallas texas

The search brought back a lot of people, but my Elijah wasn't one of them. I tried narrowing the search by adding more words.

elijah baker dallas texas 27

Nothing.

I shouldn't have been Googling his name anyway, but he didn't have any social media, and I wanted to find out... something.

elijah baker dallas texas 27 lawyer

My head hit the headrest in annoyance when it came back empty again. How hard was it to stalk somebody on the internet?

"What the fuck do I gotta type?" I mumbled.

It occurred to me that Lauren likely had social media, but that'd be weird to go on her page in search of Elijah.

Right?

I leaned up and looked around the parking lot to make sure he wasn't somewhere waiting to pop out and catch me being creepy.

It took seconds to find her page. It took seconds to search their last name in mutual friends.

I stared at the page for minutes, and as I was about to click it, an incoming FaceTime call kept me from going on Leah Baker's page.

Jailyn with the perfect timing.

After telling her I was on my way up, I reached for my bag and keys, locking the door behind me.

My phone dinged and the second I looked down, a hand wrapped around my mouth slamming my body into the car.

It wasn't extremely late, but there weren't people outside. Had the hand not been around my mouth, I could've screamed and people would've likely heard me.

But no matter how hard I bit the hand, struggled to get loose, I couldn't.

I'd pretty much given up when the hand left, and the pressure was lifted. I was spun around and there was Elijah, a cold look on his face, "Stop. Sitting. In your car like this."

If my heart wasn't trying to beat out of my chest, I would've choke slammed him, "Are you fucking serious?!"

"I was standing there for more than 10 minutes. You didn't look up from your phone not once."

"And?!" I yelled loudly, pushing on his chest, "You went to the extreme to prove a point about something that might not even happen to me!"

He briefly closed his eyes, and when he opened them back the expression was gone "Lower your voice."

What in the fuck?

"Your crazy ass wife is already coming to my job and now you crazy too? Bye Elijah."

"She did that because I finally gave her divorce papers. It won't happen again." Elijah put his hands on my face, forcing me to look at him, his voice soft, "And It's not safe, Kensley. I'm sorry I went about it that way."

I hated that I was more concerned with him getting a divorce than the fact that he just scared the shit out of me.

That should've been the only warning I needed.

• • •

chile. lmao. eli saiddd stahp sitting in that car. if somebody you were thinking ab being w/ did that... is the relationship done or do you try to understand?

thanks for reading 💕