Read the Warning Label First Read online

  Maybe before, but now that we were involved a position like that, under me, just wouldn’t feel right to him.

  “Well, everything is going to be okay. You’ll have another job in no time. In the meantime, I got your back.”

  Did I just say that?

  Geez, his love had definitely changed me!

  ***

  It was the day before Thanksgiving, which was my mother’s birthday.

  Four of her five children were at the hospital.

  Of course Lauren had called and sent gifts but hadn’t shown up.

  My mother seemed better, happier or maybe it was that she was just glad to be surrounded by all of us.

  It felt good to see my brothers and sister, as well as their spouses and kids, all in one place.

  Tristan was officially introduced to everyone and he appeared to have been having the time of his life as he chatted and shared conversations with my brothers and brother-in-law.

  “So, will there be a wedding soon or what?” Cheyanne asked and my mother smiled in agreement.

  I hoped so.

  But I didn’t think that it would be as soon as I’d hoped it would be.

  Tristan was still looking for a new job and so far, he hadn’t had much luck.

  It hadn’t been all that long yet but I could tell that he was becoming frustrated.

  Of course my bank account was loaded and though I’d never been the type to want to help out a man in trouble with his finances, I was ready and willing to help Tristan if he needed me to.

  But so far, he hadn’t had to ask.

  Hopefully some of the jobs would start reaching out to him soon but I was sure he had a good bit of savings to carry him for a while.

  He was good with money, just as I was, so hopefully he always kept a stash for a rainy day.

  “We will see,” I finally responded to their question.

  We talked about a few random things and then my mother decided to drop a bomb.

  “I’m ready to come home.”

  My sister and I both looked at each other with surprise.

  Personally, I couldn’t believe my ears but it was about time.

  She’d been ordered by a judge to be committed a few years ago for a certain amount of time but she had come and with all of the doctors suggestions and concerns and because she’d wanted to stay there, we’d just made sure that we paid the bill every month, even after she had served her time and was free to leave.

  It was like one those crazy hospitals that you think of off the top of your head, no, it was the real expensive kind.

  It was almost like an independent retirement community, except for crazy people.

  We’d wanted to make sure that she was comfortable and for four thousand dollars a month, she’d definitely had better been.

  But now she wanted to come home.

  My situation had changed, but I was still willing to let her come and stay with me but instead she’d said that she wanted to be on her own.

  We agreed to get everything situated for her and have her in a place as soon as possible.

  It would be rather nice if she could finish living out her life the way that she was supposed to and without hiding in some hospital because she was scared to really face the reality of a broken heart.

  But for some reason I got the feeling that she was back and that she was going to be just fine.

  Who knows, maybe she would find love again.

  Well, maybe that was pushing it a little.

  Leaving the hospital, I felt so much joy in my heart.

  I felt so much happiness.

  As Tristan drove, I smiled and reached out for him to hold my hand.

  He quickly glanced at it but instead of grabbing it, he peered back at the road as if he hadn’t seen it.

  What the hell was his problem?

  I wanted to ask but decided that I wasn’t in the mood for an argument, so I turned to look out the window instead.

  We hadn’t argued too many times, but when we had, they lasted for hours.

  He wouldn’t stop until he got his point across, and I wouldn’t stop until I had the last word, because nine times out of ten, I was right.

  But as I said, we’d only had a few disagreements.

  Once we arrived home, I gave him all the signs that I wanted to be a little naughty but he ignored them.

  I couldn’t have been any clearer if I’d stripped down butt naked and bent over, but he didn’t seem to be paying me any attention.

  I was confused by his actions.

  While visiting my mother, he seemed just fine so what was his problem all of a sudden?

  “Tristan, what’s wrong?”

  At first he didn’t say anything but once I stood in front of the television, he finally looked at me and spoke.

  “You told your brothers’ that I lost my job.”

  In all honesty, I had only mentioned it to the oldest one to see if he knew of anyone that was hiring.

  “I’m sorry. I was just trying to help.”

  “How? By making me look bad?”

  His tone was different and I didn’t like the hostility in his voice so I tried to defuse the situation.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  Tristan sat back on the couch and picked up the remote.

  I guess maybe I had overstepped a boundary or two but I was just trying to help. He’d been so stressed since he’d lost his job and I was just trying to get him back on the right track.

  But he was a man and I guess I had to let him be one and find his own way.

  So, I guess I had some making up to do.

  I inched closer to him.

  “Move Tori.”

  I ignored his request and got down on my knees right in front of him.

  I reached for his zipper and he swatted at my hand for all of two seconds before he allowed me to tug on the zipper and unbutton his pants.

  I smiled at how easy he was to become submissive.

  And with that thought, I freed his protruding penis and I apologized…with my throat of course.

  ***

  I smiled as the delivery man sat the roses on my desk.

  Someone must be in a good mood today, I thought as I reached for my phone to call Tristan.

  To my surprise, he didn’t pick up so I called again, but still I didn’t get any answer.

  It was the middle of the day and since he still didn’t have a job, I wondered what it was that he was doing.

  The holidays had come and gone and it was now March and Tristan still hadn’t found work.

  I had put in at least a hundred applications for him online, but we hadn’t had any luck as of yet.

  But I was glad that he wasn’t as down and out as he had been in the beginning.

  As far as I knew, he was simply using what money he did have wisely, and continuing to look for work.

  I’d questioned him about filing for unemployment but he refused initially and so I could only assume that whatever was in his bank account was enough to carry him for a while.

  I found it sweet that even though he had to be cautious with his spending, he still decided to do something to make my day.

  If only he had answered his phone so that I could have told him Thank You.

  My phone started to vibrate and I hurriedly picked it up assuming that it was Tristan but it wasn’t, it was Delilah.

  I’d only spoken to her briefly around Christmas time to check on Bryson and send her some money as my Christmas gift to him.

  I was very short with her and limited with my words when we’d spoken. I’d stayed on the phone with her for all of five minutes but she still didn’t seem to be getting the hint.

  Against my better judgment, I answered the phone.

  “Hi! I’m surprised that you answered. You’re kind of hard to reach these days,” Delilah said.

  I didn’t respond to her comment so she continued.

  “Well, I need to talk to you about something,”
she said.

  I immediately rolled my eyes.

  I could only imagine what it was and to be honest, unless it had to do with Bryson, I really didn’t care.

  But just as Delilah started her next sentence, Tristan beeped in on my other line.

  “Delilah, I’ll call you back as soon as I get some free time and we can talk then,” I said to her, clicking over to the other line before she’d even had a chance to respond.

  “Hey baby, thanks for the flowers,” I said.

  “What flowers?” Tristan questioned.

  “The roses that you had delivered to me just a little while ago silly,” I said to him.

  “I didn’t send any roses Tori,” Tristan said and by the sound of his voice I could tell that he was serious.

  I got up to look at the flowers and to search for a note or a card. There wasn’t one.

  Well who else would send me flowers?

  “Who are they from?”

  “I don’t know. There isn’t a card. I thought they were from you,” I answered him honestly.

  Surprisingly he didn’t continue to question me about them, which told me that he had been the one to send them and was lying or playing some kind of trick.

  Knowing the way that he was, he would have continued asking about them and dying to know where they had come from, so I smelled them and rolled my eyes, deciding to play along with his little joke.

  Saying nothing else about the flowers, Tristan began to talk about starting his own business, which definitely had my interest.

  I was all ears when it came to following your dreams and taking that step toward entrepreneurship.

  But then things went in a different direction.

  I’d assumed that he was talking about starting his own accounting firm and maybe even trying to take some of the loyal customers that he had dealt with for years with him but instead he said something about opening a chain of laundromats.

  I can’t really say that it was a terrible idea.

  It wasn’t.

  It was actually an okay idea if he had them built in uptown areas or close to colleges or maybe even in low income areas.

  Someone was always bound to need a laundromat. But like I said, it was in a totally different direction.

  Tristan was so professional and I just thought that he wanted to stay in that line of work.

  But obviously, he was on to his next dream.

  I guess it wasn’t all that bad.

  We talked for a few minutes more, than I had to let him go to prepare for a meeting.

  I thought more about his business venture and figured that it could actually bring in a good amount of cash.

  Tristan stated that I could join in as a partner if I’d like to, and I might just have to take him up on his offer.

  After all, I did have plenty of extra funds to take a few risks with and we were both good with money and numbers so maybe we could make this thing happen.

  Together.

  Yes, I liked the sound of that.

  ***

  “Well, where are you now?”

  “I came by my house for a second. I’ll be there in a few.”

  Though Tristan had been staying over at my place for a while now, of course he still had his own house.

  It was paid for and his, so at the end of the day, we could always fix it up and sale it if we needed to.

  I couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing over there. I surely hoped that he wasn’t planning on bringing more junk to pile up at my house.

  There wasn’t any more room for anymore clutter.

  Living with him, more or less, had definitely taken some getting used to.

  We were completely different when it came to keeping house and respecting each other’s personal belongings and some days I wanted to go through the whole house and label “Do not Touch!” on all of my stuff.

  I grew up with four other siblings and although there were plenty of times that space was limited, we learned to keep our hands off of what didn’t belong to us and to respect each other’s property.

  Tristan didn’t know a thing about that.

  The other day I walked in on him using my deodorant.

  Maybe that isn’t a big issue for some but for me…I damn near had a fit!

  Have you seen the amount of hair that men keep under their arms?

  Go get your own damn deodorant!

  I’m just saying.

  And then he didn’t even bother to go out and get him some, even though he knew that he was out.

  So, I suggested a late night Walmart run.

  I know it seems petty, but that was only one of the many things that drove me crazy.

  I’d never lived with a man before so I didn’t know what to expect, but secretly I prayed every night that he would wake up the next day and decide to go back home.

  Oh, but I still loved him though.

  He had been working day and night, brainstorming and coming up with ideas for the laundromats.

  I was glad to see that he was at least trying to be productive instead of sitting by the phone all day waiting for it to ring.

  Speaking of, I’d found the time to ask Hunter, my boss, about clearly passing over Tristan for the position but to my surprise he stated that they contacted him at least ten times before even pursuing other candidates.

  I found that unbelievable, especially since Tristan wanted that job with everything in him.

  He’d been waiting for that phone call like the old folks were waiting for the Rapture; watching day and night.

  Ready.

  And I know for a fact that they had the correct number because I’d emailed it to Hunter that same day.

  Something just wasn’t adding up.

  I was sure that Hunter didn’t have anything to do with the mix-up but I couldn’t say the same about the rest of them.

  I was sure that a few of them didn’t like me all that much, until they needed me to do something for them. But I could have cared less whether they liked me or not.

  No one was going to mess up my check.

  It was just that simple.

  With Tristan still out, I decided to do a full house cleaning.

  And little did he know whatever I found on the floor was going in the damn trash!

  And I ain’t playing!

  After two hours of cleaning, and scrubbing and sweeping and moping, I realized that Tristan still hadn’t made it in.

  I found my phone, which I’d accidently thrown in the trash, and gave him a call.

  He didn’t answer.

  Here lately, that had started to become the normal.

  And my mind was definitely starting to wonder.

  I was different when it came to certain things and a lot different and less judgmental than I used to be. But don’t give me a door or an opening, unless you wanted me to step through it.

  Because trust me, I would.

  Why wasn’t he answering his phone?

  Before I had a chance to talk myself out of it, I grabbed my keys and my purse and headed out the door.

  Maybe I was overreacting or maybe I wasn’t, but we were about to find out.

  I pulled up at Tristan’s house and to my surprise, his car wasn’t there…but another car was.

  Without hesitation, I got out of my car and headed to the front door.

  Instead of knocking, I tried to use my key except…it didn’t work.

  What the hell is going on here?

  Just as I balled up my hand to knock, the front door flew open.

  “Can I help you?” she asked.

  Oh, you have got to be kidding me!

  I looked at the woman standing in front of me.

  She was pretty, I guess if you liked the whole light-skinned, hazel eyed chicks, but she still didn’t have a thing on me.

  But at the end of the day, she could have been the ugliest woman I’d ever seen and it wouldn’t have made a damn difference.

  Tristan was a dead man!

  I was so
furious that I was beginning to see red.

  You mean to tell me that all of this time a woman had been staying at his house?

  A woman was staying at Tristan’s house?

  I glanced down at her hand.

  And not only was she wearing a ring…but also a band.

  Wait a damn minute…so he’s married?

  Though she was innocent in the matter, I felt as though I wanted to push her down.

  I know, after all, she was the wife apparently, so I had no right but that’s how I felt.

  How did I miss that?

  How didn’t I see this?

  How did I miss the signs?

  Come to think of it, there were none.

  At least not any that pointed towards a wife.

  “Who are you?”

  I was just going to walk away but instead, I decided that she deserved to know the truth.

  “I’m Tori. Where is Tristan?”

  “Who?”

  What did she mean who?

  “Tristan? He lives here. Well, at least he owns this house.”

  “I’m sorry you must have the wrong house. Me and my husband, George, owns this house,” she said, nodding to the truck that was pulling up on the other side of my car.

  George was a white man.

  I let out a deep breath.

  Though things still weren’t adding up, at least she wasn’t his wife.

  She went on to tell me that the house had been seized by the bank and that her and her husband had gotten an incredible deal on it.

  After I apologized for bothering her I hurried to my car and got in.

  Tristan was a s good as dead!

  One thing I did not tolerate was lies or secrets and boy did he have some explaining to do!

  I was sure that I had been at the right house.

  I’d been there with him several times, so I knew that that was the house and that he at least used to live there.

  Why didn’t he tell me that the bank had taken it?

  Had they taken it because he lost his job?

  I thought he told me that it was paid for.

  But what I was even more upset about was the fact that he’d just told me that he was at the house.

  At what house?

  You don’t have a damn house!

  I was livid but one thing was for sure, Tristan had better have one hell of a reason for his actions or…