Secret Love

Chapter 35

"TONI MICHELLE!" Toni stomped into the kitchen.
"What the fuck do you want?!"
"Why did you leave the damn dishes like this? We have a dishwasher for a reason."
"Who are you yelling at?" Janet looked around.
"What else is here, Toni? Do you see anyone?"
"Oh so we're being sarcastic now?"
"Obviously!" Evelyn and Katherine came into the kitchen.
"What is going on?" asked Katherine.
"Toni here left the dishes in the sink all crazy, knowing we have a dishwasher that I asked her to put the dishes in."
"Girl, it's dishes. Calm your tits."
"Don't tell me to calm down, Michelle."
"I can say whatever I want, Damita." Katherine and Evelyn watched as the two women went back and forth. It has been like this for the last few weeks. One of the ladies would get upset about something and it would turn into a big argument. For a couple that rarely ever had an argument this was so far out of the ordinary. "Well, fuck you too then."
"Fine!"
"Okay, enough!" said Evelyn. Janet rolled her eyes and went upstairs. She was almost seven months along and her belly was getting heavier. When she made it up, she stopped in to do some organizing in the nursery. The ladies had decided to go with the colors blue and light gray for one twin then green and white for the other twin. The beds were set up and they already had the names picked out so they could have it put on the wall above their cribs. Denim had taken such pride in helping set up this room. He pretty much came up with the layout of the room. Janet looked around the room. They couple had a baby shower a couple weeks ago so they had a bunch of stuff for the boys. Janet sat in the rocking chair and imagined her babies.
"Hey." She looked up and saw Toni.
"Hey."
"Excited?"
"More than you can imagine. I've been pregnant twice in my life and both times it was taken away from me. I hate how I became pregnant, but once I heard those heartbeats, I knew I couldn't give them up."
"Yeah, I'm so happy to see you happy."
"Thanks, baby." Toni bent over to kiss Janet.
"No problem." Janet stood up.
"Well, let me get up. I have to go and take the boys for their wedding practice."
"Oh, you're doing that?"
"Yeah."
"Okay. I was going to do it but okay."
"Well, if you want to do it then go ahead. I'll go and talk to the wedding planner."
"No, you wanted to do it, so go do it."
"Toni, if you want to do it then do it."
"Janet, stop being difficult."
"Oh I'm being difficult?"
"Yes. Yes, you are."
"Well, I guess I have the right to be, seeing as how you've been difficult these past few days." Toni scoffed.
"Oh, well nice to know I'm so difficult."
"Good."
"Good."
"Fine!"
"Fine!" Janet stomped downstairs.
"Boys, let's go." Denim ran to Janet while Diezel wobbled to her. She led both of them to the car and left. In the kitchen, Evelyn and Katherine were trying to figure out what was wrong.
"What is going on with them?" asked Katherine while fixing some tea.
"Girl, I don't know. They've been arguing like this for weeks."
"Did something happen?"
"Not that I know off." Katherine handed Evelyn her cup.
"So did Toni ever figure out what was going on with those women that were pregnant by Keri?"
"Oh yeah. They weren't his. Those women were so happy."
"I bet they were. He's a nightmare."
"JANET DAMITA!" The ladies jumped as Toni came stumping into the kitchen looking for Janet. "DID HER ASS REALLY LEAVE?!"
"Toni calm down. What is the problem?" asked Katherine.
"She could have at least told me she was leaving." Toni grabbed her car keys and went to the garage. Soon after the older women heard her car leave the house.
"My goodness." said Evelyn.
"Those two will drive me to drink."
"Me too, girl." Evelyn's phone rang. "Hello......you're outside......great, here we come." She hung up.
"They're here?"
"Yep. Let's go!" Katherine and Evelyn grabbed their purses and headed outside. Making sure the door was looked they walked towards the two men waiting by the car.
"Hello, gorgeous." said the man to Evelyn. He kissed her cheek. She blushed.
"Hey, handsome.
"And don't you look beautiful today, Katherine." said the other man.
"Why thank you." He kissed her hand.
"Shall we go?"
"We shall." The 1st man opened the passenger door for Evelyn before going to the driver's seat and the other man opened Katherine's door to the back seat before going to his side. Once everyone was buckled up, they drove off.
"So Evelyn, how are you?"
"I'm great, thank you for asking. And you, sir?"
"Amazing, now."
"Why now?"
"You're with me." Evelyn was blushing hard.
"Katie, how are you?" asked the other man.
"Very well. You?"
"The same." Katherine showed all her teeth. "So we were thinking of taking you ladies for a picnic in the park today. How does that sound?"
"That sounds lovely." said Evelyn. The foursome drove for a while, heading to the park. In the front seat, the driver was holding Evelyn's hand while they shared passing smiles and glances. I'm the backseat, Katherine was receiving several kisses on her hand and cheek.
"Joseph, stop it." She giggled. He continued to kiss her hand. The two continued to giggle with each other. After 10 more minutes, the two couples pulled up the park. The gentleman had the ladies wait in the car while they got the things ready.
"I saw y'all back there, Kathy."
"Stop it, Evelyn. Plus you have no room to talk with all the flirting you and Michael were doing."
"Flirting! Me? Never!" The two ladies laughed with each other while watching their ex-husbands set up the table. The ladies had been secretly spending time with them again. During Toni's time in her coma, the ladies found emotional support in their former partners. Eventually, that sparked a flame that had been out for years. Once Joseph finally agreed to start seeing someone about his anger issues and started apologizing for all of his mistakes, Katherine couldn't help but fall in love with the man she met when she was 18. For Evelyn, once Michael confessed that not long after their divorce he left the other woman and made it his mission to win Evelyn back, she couldn't resist anymore. The ladies explained to the men that their daughters were dating each other, and they all felt that they needed to be close friends, especially after Janet proposed to Toni. The four had become very close friends. Though it was a beautiful reunion, the two women knew that their children would need some major convincing to forgive these men. So for now, secret dates and phone calls it was.
"Okay ladies. Are you two ready?"asked Michael.
"Yes we are." The men led them to a table that was beautifully set with the ladies favorite foods, fruits and drinks. Once there, the men each handed the ladies a flower, their favorite flower to be exact. The women just blushed and took their seats on each side of the table. The men sat next to them and they all began to place food on their plates.
"So Katherine, Evelyn, how are the girls?" asked Joseph.
"Oh my goodness, they have been arguing so much lately." said Evelyn.
"What about?" asked Michael.
"Pointless stuff. Dishes, clothes, just dumb stuff."
"I think the pregnancy is getting to be a lot for Janet. She's almost seven months. I remember how that was for me." said Katherine.
"Oh so do I." said Joseph.
"What are you trying to say?"
"Katie, when you were pregnant with her, you bit my head off constantly. I was scared to come home so days."
"We'll you should have been. I was sick of being pregnant and she was heavy." Everyone laughed.
"Girl, so was Toni." said Evelyn. "I'm surprised I was even able to have more after her. The fact that I even wanted to have more, she was such a headache while I was pregnant."
"We'll it's fate they found each other then, because they're still headaches now."
"Oh that reminds me, are we still planning to tell them soon or do you ladies still want to wait?" asked Michael.
"I don't know, I am sick of hiding our relationships from the people we created." Evelyn laughed.
"Exactly, why are we acting scared of them. We raised their sticky butts." said Katherine.
"We should just go up to them and say we're seeing their fathers again."
"Yes we should."
"That's exactly what we're going to do."
"End of story." The ladies high fived.
"So when are you going to tell them?" asked Joseph. The ladies were silent.
"Umm...Evelyn you got this right?"
"No Kathy, I think you got it." The men just shook their heads.
"What happened to the 'we raised them?" Michael did some hand movements.
"It's hard you guys. We don't know how they're going to react. You guys hurt them pretty bad." The men looked down. "Listen, how about we invite you guys to a dinner we're having soon. Michael wants to introduce us to his new girlfriend and Towanda has one big news to tell us. How does that sound?" said Katherine.
"Just let us know when to be there."
"Cool. Now let's enjoy the rest of this food." The older couples spent about another hour making jokes and conversation. However, the impending doom of the men showing up to the family dinner was shaking the ladies to their cores.
I'm another part of town, Toni was ranting to Kenny. "Kenny, it's just so inconsiderate. How could she do that?" Kenny stared at Toni. "Like she doesn't let me know that she's leaving and she just completely disregards that I was supposed to do that with the boys. And you know she called me difficult today. How can I be difficult? I'm an easy going person." Kenny went back to working in the sound board. "If anything she's the difficult one. I mean she yelled at me about so damn dishes. Who does that? Ughh. You know what, I'm not going to do them. They can sit and rot there for all I care. She needs to do them. And it wouldn't hurt her to clean up elsewhere. You know she leaves her socks on the floor of the closet. Like is she expecting me to pick them up?" Kenny was confused. "I mean, am I a maid? No! So she can pick her own shit up. Well I mean she does pick up the boys' clothes but that besides the point. She could pick up in our room. Just like she nags ne about my music sheets, I can nag her about her socks."
"TONI! Shut up!" She stopped pacing and just looked at him.
"What's your problem?"
"You! You've been ranting about pointless crap for about 30 minutes. I don't even know why you're mad at her. Like seriously, you sound childish."
"But Kenny.."
"Sit down and be quiet, Toni." She says down in the chair next to him. "What is going on with you two? You guys never fight like this." Toni thought for a second.
"I really don't know, Kenny. It's just that lately everything she does infuriates me. My patience is so low and everything just makes me mad. Plus she's almost seven months along and I think she's getting uncomfortable."
"Then maybe you guys should talk about that because a lot of the things that you've been complaining about doesn't warrant an attitude much less an argument."
"What makes you say that? The things she did really upset me."
"You mean her sock being in the closet, where they should be and her taking the boys after saying she was going to?" Toni rolled her eyes.
"Well when you say it like that, of course it seems like it isn't a big deal."
"No, Toni. Any way you say it, it sounds dumb." Toni folded her arms. There was a knock at the door. "Come in." Toni's sisters came in. "Sweet are y'all ready to kill this recording?"
"You know it, boo." said Tamar. "Toni living legend. How you doing?" Toni rolled her eyes. "Eww what's with the stank attitude?"
"Yeah, Toni Roni. What's wrong?" asked Traci.
"Her and Janet got into an argument." The sisters laughed.
"Yeah right. What y'all fight over? Who loves who lord?" asked Trina.
"No, no more like they were getting nasty and one of them wanted to keep going but the other was tired." said Towanda. They laughed.
"No, they had a legit fight." said Kenny. The girls stopped laughing.
"About what?!" asked Tamar.
"Well..."
"Something stupid." Toni was interrupted by Kenny.
"It was not stupid. It was actually a serious thing."
"Like what?" asked Trina.
"Janet left her socks in the closet." said Kenny. The girls were confused.
"Okay, so. Isn't that where they go?" said Traci.
"Oh but they were on the floor of the closet." Tamar rolled her eyes.
"Toni, seriously?"
"That wasn't it."
"Oh yeah, get this. This is big you guys. Janet took the boys to their suit fitting for the wedding after telling Toni she would." The sister acted dramatic.
"How dare she do what she said she would do." said Tamar.
"That's damn near cheating." said Traci. Toni folded her arms again.
"You guys are so mean."
"Toni, if you guys don't grow up. Y'all are fighting over things that just two months ago y'all thought we're cute." said Trina.
"Maybe you're right."
"Of course we are. Now let's knock out this session." The sisters all took their place inside the booth. They spent about an hour and a half recording their vocals. Once they were finish, they all decided to go to Toni and Janet's house for dinner. Toni was making some chicken and the ladies were not missing out on that. When they got there, Toni saw Janet's car. Going inside, the sisters went into the living room and watched tv while Toni looked for Janet.
"Janet, where are you?"
"In the boys' playroom." Toni went in and saw the boys playing.
"Hey, mommy's babies!" Denim dropped his toys and ran to hug Toni. Diesel followed behind slowly. She hugged and kissed them.
"Mommy, guess what."
"What's up?"
"Mama got me a white suit. I looked handsome."
"That's good, baby."
"And because we were good, we got ice cream."
"Really...." Toni looked at Janet. "....before dinner?"
"Yes. They were really good, so they got a reward."
"Why didn't we communicate this reward?"
"Because it was spur of the moment and it's not a big deal."
"Hmm." Janet rolled her eyes. "Okay boys, mommy is going back downstairs to talk with your aunties."
"Okay, mommy." The boys went back to playing. Toni went downstairs and sat with her sisters. She was obviously upset. Tamar rolled her eyes and paused the tv.
"What now?"
"Nothing." Janet came into the room.
"What the hell was that, Toni?"
"Hey dunk." said Tamar.
"Hey. Toni explain."
"You could have told me you were going to fill them with sugar before dinner."
"Toni, it was a small ice cream. Why are you making a big deal out of this?"
"Oh like how you made a big deal out of the dishes?"
"That's because the dishwasher is right there and you completely disregarded it and don't turn this around in me."
"Why not? You're not taking my feelings into consideration. What if I didn't want the boys having sugar before dinner?"
"Well, what if I wanted the dishes cleaned?" By now the mothers had come back and were just as confused as the sisters.
"You know you can clean the dishes too, right? But wouldn't expect you to know that, seeing as how you rarely clean up after yourself."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh I don't know, maybe the several pairs of socks that are right next to the ticking hamper in our closet."
"You mean the hamper that's overflowing because someone decided to skip laundry day while I was taking the boys to their doctor's appointment?" Toni got even more upset.
"You can shut the hell up."
"Oh I can shut up? Why do I have to shut up because you don't want to hear the truth?"
"Because it's stupid."
"No you're stupid."
"We'll you're a bitch."
"So are, bitch." The mothers couldn't take it.
"BOTH OF YOU BE QUIET!" said Katherine. The lovers stopped and turned to their mothers. "I am sick and tired of this constant fighting. We are figuring this out right now. Sit."
"But mother..."
"I said SIT!" The ladies sat down on the smaller couch. "Now, what is going on with you guys? What's with the fighting?"
"She's just so irritating...." said Janet.
"She doesn't listen to my feelings..." said Toni.
"She's inconsiderate...."
"She keeps disrespecting my opinions...."
"Okay, okay." said Evelyn. "We get it but why now all of a sudden?" Toni and Janet thought for a while.
"We really don't know." said Toni.
"It just seems like everything just took a weird turn." said Janet.
"When?" asked Katherine.
"Ummm around the time of Janet's last appointment with the OB/GYN." Tamar scoffed.
"Oh my god!"
"What?" asked Towanda.
"Janet's last appointment. Remember?" The sisters thought and when it hit them, they all started laughing.
"What is it?" asked Evelyn. Tamar stood in front of the ladies.
"Please do not tell me that all of this arguing for the last few weeks has been because y'all can't be freaky with each other."
"What do you mean?" asked Katherine.
"At Janet's last appointment, the doctor told her that her and Toni couldn't have all that aggressive sex they like to have." said Towanda. Everyone turned to them.
"So you guys are just sexually frustrated?" The ladies held their heads down.
"Oh my god! Seriously?!" said Evelyn.
"I guess that's been the underlying problem." said Janet.
"Oh really, you think?" said Tamar. "Please go upstairs, right now and do whatever needs to be done for you guys to STOP ACTING LIKE CHILDREN!" Toni and Janet rushed towards the stairs. They looked back and saw Tamar giving them a stern look. They went up to the room and sat on the bed.
"So we're having our lives threatened if we don't have sex?" asked Janet.
"Apparently."
"Do you really think that this was the problem?"
"If it is that scares me."
"Why?"
"I don't want our whole relationship to be based on sex. I don't want this to be the make or break of our relationship."
"Oh sweetie, that wouldn't break us. I've already told you that nothing can break us."
"Really?"
"Yeah, even when we were doing all of this arguing, I never once thought about leaving you. I still wanted to be with you, even while you were being annoying." Toni laughed. The two kissed. Janet wrapped her arms around Toni's neck as she kissed down her neck. It was obvious that Toni wanted to take the lead on this and Janet was going to let her.
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