Capricorn
Chapter 26

Capricorn as a Parent:
* is tender and sensitive
* may have difficulty relating to young children
* relates easier to older children
* will teach the child good manners
* provides plenty of educational stimulation

*

1 week later...

Adena stayed in a hotel for a few days. She never left or called anyone. Everyone she knew at the party, which wasn't much, all tried to contact her but after a couple of days, they all stopped, taking the hint. It was hard to ignore Craig. Every time he called, her heart skipped a beat and she would almost answer, but then she would remember what Fee Fee had said, everything she learned, and that kept her quiet. Taye continued to call but her feelings were the opposite of his. Her heart didn't skip a beat. She would literally get nauseous. After a few days, she blocked him.

She had insomnia, barely sleeping at night, and hypersomnia at the same time, for a couple of days she slept for over 10 hours during the day. After a few days of that, she tried to at least leave the bed. So she soaked in her pina colada baths, read 4 novels, did crossword puzzles, and binged on Disney princess movies, they brought her back to the days when things were simpler, she knitted a few pairs of gloves, hats, and scarves. She ordered room service and a masseuse.

Then one day, she sat up and decided enough was enough. She looked at more apartments but ended up picking the apartment she and Ron saw on that worst day ever. The only thing good about that day was finding it. She then called, they checked her perfect credit and she paid the deposit and every other fee. 

Now she was standing in her empty apartment with the key in her hand and smiled. She went straight to the window and looked at the view. It was a view of the Hudson and in the distance, she could see the Statue of Liberty and she could see every huge skyscraper in Manhattan. She did it. She finally got that apartment she always wanted. All by herself.

However, she had no furniture. She couldn't sleep on the floor and all the furniture that she and Taye went half on, he could have. She didn't want anything in her new place that ever belonged to him. So, she got her things together and took the subway out to Long Island.

She went home.

Her parents were surprised and happy to see her standing at their doorstep. On the hour ride over, she prepared herself for the conversation they would have. Different emotions all at the same time. Adena sat there, trying to be calm and not get upset or cry, she's done far too much of that already. Her father lectured her one minute, bashed Taye the next, told her she was the world and deserved better, and went right back to lecturing. Her mother was...well very maternal. Her instinct kicked in. She cooked her favorite meal. Four-cheese lasagna. It made her think of the fact that Craig had actually made it for her and not Missy. She kept hugging Adena close while trying to calm down her father once his lectures and Taye bashing got to be too much. She was also very curious about 'the mysterious boy'. Craig. Adena couldn't get into it. She probably wouldn't see him again and it hurt to talk about him. 

By the end of the night, she was exhausted. This is what you get when you don't talk to your parents for weeks. She had weeks of conversations in just a few hours. The conversations and advice were needed. She couldn't do this by herself anymore. She fell asleep on the couch, her head in her mother's lap, while she stroked her hair.

The next day, her parents took her shopping. Her mother's interior decorating skills kicked in as they walked into Ikea and her father basically gave her his credit card. He figured getting his daughter all new furniture was the only way to help her right now which Adena appreciated. She was going to be living on a tight budget from now on. Later that night, they took her back to the city and were the first to see her new place. They were happy and very proud of her, though her father was weary of her living by herself. It was either this or her living with the devil himself. At least she was on the 15th floor. Usually, murderers, robbers, and bums never made it that far up unless they were actually looking for a specific person. He gifted her with a million bolt taser and pepper spray and he said he was going to take her to the gun range even though her mother flat-out refused.

She hugged them close, promised to call every Sunday as she usually did, and told them she loved them. When she shut the door behind her, a couple of tears rolled down her face.

It was time to grow up. She was on her own now.

Her parents had helped her put her bed together and Adena smiled as she made her queen-sized bed. She ordered 3 satin and chenille bedding sets in navy blue, raisin, and black. She smiled as she properly placed the throw pillows down and then jumped into bed and smiled happily. She ordered in Chinese and made her list of things to do for the next day.

If only she could sleep. She never slept well alone and even when she left Taye, Craig took his place and she got used to that too. She looked at the empty pillow next to her, running her fingers across the soft fabric, wondering what it was like if he was laying right there, those lovely thoughts helped her sleep. However, it made her dream about him...

The next day, she went grocery shopping and tried to stock up on her cabinets and fridge. No more pizza and Chinese, she needed to save her money. She also let the movers in and told them where to put everything and struggled to try to put her coffee table together herself. Frustrated, she took a break and sat down on her new plush couch. She scanned through her feed but then some memories popped up that she didn't want to see. 

She realized Taye was still following her, and vice versa. He had been posting old pictures of them and sappy captions of how he missed her and loved her. It had hundreds of likes and encouraging comments. Some even sent them to her and asked what was going on. She didn't answer, she didn't need to give them anything to gossip about and twist around. It was none of their business. She rolled her eyes. It was all a bunch of bullshit. He still loved her yeah, maybe, but he loved ratchet pussy more.

What did he see in Felicia? She was the complete opposite of her. She was one of Missy's good friends for a reason. Trailer park ghetto, slept with every guy in their zip code, even married men. She didn't care. She was selfish. Rude. Conniving. Trashy. Manipulating-

Then she paused on a selfie of Taye, a black and white photo of him looking out a window. A window at his mother's house, she recognized as soon as she saw it. A comment under it was what really caught her attention though.

feefee69: 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

And there she was. Why so many heart eyes? Goddamn, she was extra thirsty. Jesus. Didn't she know everyone could see her lusting over her husband? But we already established that she didn't care.

Adena tried her best but she found herself clicking on Felicia's page. She wasn't at all surprised at what she found, well besides the fact that she had 15,000 followers, but of course, you would if your ass was the focal point of almost every picture. She even had a few ass tattoos. Really Taye? This was what he was into now???????

Her bio read:

Fee-Fee
Public Figure (Adena laughed out loud at that one)
New York 🗽
All I talk is shit and sports 💩🎱
Gemini ♊ I Bi 🌈I Always High 😎🍃I #BLM 

Why did he bother marrying her if this was what turned him on? He literally picked the exact opposite of her. Did he despise her that much? How could he still want to be with her when he had this thick wanna-be IG model who liked sports and women just as much as he did? She should've stopped there but she kept scrolling. More pics of her ass; her ass in a bikini, her ass in the pool, her ass with other girls with big asses. Pictures of her partying, kissing girls, and even one with Missy. She wasn't mad at Missy anymore but she wondered how she didn't know it was Taye she was also fooling around with if they were so close. Then her heart stopped, she came across a dark photo, there was a red exit light in the background, and a guy was facing her, his back facing the camera, she was holding him in a close embrace, arms around his neck, head resting on his shoulder, her tongue tickling the guy's earlobe. The guy was dark-skinned and had a big bald head she could recognize from anywhere. 

The picture was posted the day before her birthday. 

She felt herself getting hot and she scrambled down the rabbit hole to see if there were more pictures of them together. She shouldn't have, she knew it but she was so upset and couldn't help herself. 

Another picture she found was much worse. Or at least felt much worse. It was a picture of Felicia and Craig together, cuddled on the same couch that he had kissed her on just last week. The picture was taken a month before today, a couple of weeks before they even met. 

Felicia was a slut extraordinaire but she wasn't a liar. 

Everything she had said that night was true. Now she had proof. 

"Ma'am? Ma'am?" a voice called to her. She looked up and forgot the movers were still there. "Is this all you'll be needing from us?"

"Yeah. Thanks, you can let yourselves out" she said as she rushed into her bedroom and slammed the door. The movers left immediately, they didn't want to get caught up in the mess she was mad about.

*

Most typical Capricorns are not much interested in team sports.

*

Adena didn't know what got into her, maybe she temporarily lost her mind. Or maybe she was just a woman badly scorned. She was never the type of person, to seek revenge, but here she was. She didn't go out and fight these people, no. She found ways to get back at them in other ways. Taye deserved it the most and the most was what he got.

"Dude what is wrong with you?" one of Taye's friends asked as soon as he picked up. He was the third person to ask that, but the first over the phone. 

"I don't know what you're talking about," Taye said with a sigh. "What's wrong with you?"

"You must've been hacked then. Man check your page because if it isn't you, someone is doing the most."

Taye rolled his eyes and hung up. He was at the gym and was gonna go back to working out but if someone got into his page, he had to report it. He opened the app and he was surprised, to say the least. He was logged out and he couldn't get back in at all. Shit, it was true. They got in and changed his password. Shit. 

So he had to look at his page the old-fashioned way. Online in a web browser. He typed in his username in the search bar and was surprised yet again. All of his pictures and posts were deleted and replaced with embarrassing ones. The first one he saw was an old selfie that he was embarrassed about. The picture was of one of the worst lineups ever done. It was one of the reasons why he kept it bald or really short. 

It had to have been one of the guys. He shook his head but he couldn't delete it. He called his boy back. "Ok, this shit ain't funny. What's the password?"

"It wasn't me bro! And apparently wasn't you either."

"Duh! I wouldn't post anything like that" he said, "Where you at? I can only look but I can't touch anything."

"I'm here at the crib."

When he got to his friend's place it was worse than he thought. The bad lineup picture's caption said, "New haircut. What you think?" The comments were embarrassing. He was getting roasted like a turkey on Thanksgiving. There were embarrassing videos, some he didn't know even existed. Videos of him making a fool of himself, being drunk, smoking weed, pictures of him before he got his abs. He was really self-conscious about how he used to look. It was back in the days when he never took his shirt off. 

There was only one person who could have kept all of these videos. But this wasn't like Adena at all. Was she really behind this? What's worse was he couldn't even delete them. "What the fuck?" he said with a sigh. 

"I reported it," his friend said. But it was too late now, hundreds of people have already seen it. 

"This is a new low, even for her."

"Um it gets worse..." his friend said and Taye gave him a look. He scrolled past a few embarrassing photos and videos and there was a picture of Felicia. The caption started with, "Yes I did it. I cheated on my wife with this girl and she knew I was married. I'm saying this to clear my name and ask for my wife's forgiveness. She didn't deserve this."

"Holy shit!" Taye said. The caption detailed everything that happened. Now everyone knew. Felicia was also tagged in the photo. People were upset, and shocked, especially all the people who were fans of Adena and no one was a fan of him. He can only imagine what they were saying on Fee Fee's page. She was gonna kill him. 

It got worse again. His friend kept scrolling and there were candids of Adena walking around downtown, on the subway, on the bus, and in the grocery store but they looked like paparazzi photos or photos a stalker would take. The captions on each one were very creepy, mostly saying how much he loved and missed her and how beautiful she was. Most of the comments were, "Bro delete this." "You need help." "Do you know how crazy you look?!"

"Dude have you really been following her?" his friend asked. 

"NO!"

"Who is taking these pictures? Obviously, Adena can't take pictures of herself like that."

"I don't know! Missy, Kim, maybe that stupid ass DJ she left me for."

"She left you for that DJ?"

"I don't know! But that's where she's been staying all this time and I haven't seen her since the birthday party HE threw for her. They had to have been fucking because he went all out."

"So your crazy ex is making you look like the crazy ex."

"Yes!" Taye said as he got up. "Keep reporting it. I gotta get outta here" he said and then paused. "Wait. Pull up her page."

Adena's page was the same. She hadn't posted anything since she went to stay with Kim and then with DJ boy.

"Click on her story. She updated that" Taye said. He did.

Adena was outside of a shop. She was holding her phone selfie style. "Hey everyone, so you may have heard about what's going on in my personal life. And yes it's all true. I'm in shock. I'm hurt. I'm disgusted. This relationship can't be saved and all I can do is move on. But before I do, I'm going to do this" she said and walked into the store. It was a pawn shop. Taye watched as Adena showed the man behind the counter her wedding ring. "How much can I get for this?" 

The man checked it out, held up the ring, and looked through his computer. "This is a nice ring. It's worth about $3000."

"Good" Taye's friend said with a sigh. Taye looked at him. "Man if you had gotten her a $100 ring you would be KO'ed."

"No, I worked my ass off to get that ring. I basically cleaned out my account. I'm still paying it off!"

"Only 3 grand? How cheap" Adena said. Taye scoffed. "I guess that'll do," she said and the man nodded and started ringing it up. Adena turned the camera back to her. "Well, there you have it. This ring will help pay my rent in my new place since I just moved out. Lesson learned and that is: Don't get mad. Get even" she said with a devilish smirk. She blew a kiss and the video ended.

"She posted that a couple of hours ago. I can't see which pawn shop it is so you can get it back-"

"I don't want that shit back! What would I need it for?" he said, "I can't believe this shit."

"Yeah, Mom's gone real crazy on her son right now."

"Stop calling her that" Taye hissed, "In fact, never mention her again. I'm outta here."

Taye walked home so he could blow off some steam and get some fresh air. He was reeling from what Adena had done and everyone was blowing him up asking what was going on. He was basically getting framed that's what was going on. He had to turn his phone off because scam calls were coming in back to back as well as scam emails. Was he in a technology twilight zone?? He needed a break from the phone anyway. He unlocked the door and walked in and wished he didn't. "Ugh what is that smell?" he groaned. He held his nose as he walked through the apartment. He walked into the kitchen and found the microwave beeping.

He opened the door and found a big old, disgusting, smelly fish inside. 

"WHAT THE FUCK!" he shouted, but that involved him not holding his nose and he inhaled the foul smell. He gagged as he opened windows, turned on the AC, even though it was January, and got rid of the fish.

He went into his bedroom and saw all the drawers and closets were ransacked through. She came back, got her clothes, microwaved fish, and left. When did she start acting so immature? He looked into the bathroom and sighed with relief as he got out a few scented candles she left behind and lit them. He couldn't believe this. 

He decided to go to the lobby and sit out on the back terrace. It was as cold out there as it was inside his apartment but at least it didn't smell like old fish. He shook his head and turned his phone on. He may need to stay with Mom tonight. 

The phone rang as soon as it came on and got service. It was a local number. He almost didn't answer it due to the spam calls but he answered anyway. "Hello?"

"Hello is this Dontaye Houghton?"

"Yeah, what do you want?" he asked gruffly.

"Oh...uh, my name is Howard Browne, I am the supervisor over at Firth and Hinton."

Taye sat up, he applied to them months ago and they interviewed him last week. He thought they had forgotten all about him. "Oh yes, hello Mr. Browne. I apologize for that."

"Just reaching out to let you know that we won't be taking you on as of right now. Your resume was great and so was your interview so we may keep you in mind in the future when we need to hire again."

Taye sighed, "Well if my resume and interview were so great, then what's the problem?" He really didn't need this right now.

"Um fair question, I would get new references, to be honest. 2 of your references have never answered our calls or emails. We did talk to one reference but unfortunately, she didn't have anything nice to say about you. That's what made our decision."

"Who did you speak to?"

"Well, I can't say but update your references, and good luck on your future endeavors."

Then they hung up.

Taye sat there, defeated. Who the hell wanted to ruin his life now? First Adena and now...

Wait, he said SHE didn't have anything nice to say about him. Two of his references were his boys, who obviously dropped the ball and didn't call them back but the third reference was...

Adena. 

He was seething. If this were a cartoon, his whole body would expand, get red and his head would literally explode.

That's it. He's had it. She could call him a liar, a cheater, she can bash his name and do immature shit like leaving fish in the apartment but now she was going after his professional reputation. She really stooped that low and was trying to ruin all of that too. He may not get to ever work in this town again if she keeps this up. This had to stop now. She was getting in the way of his bag now.

"Ok Adena, I got something for your ass. This is war" he said to himself angrily. 

*

"When people don't want the best for you, they are not the best for you." - Gayle King (Capricorn)

*

https://youtu.be/hRN6vgjqcgU