Love and Morals

Chapter Two

Althea.

I threw my head back and roared with laughter, forgetting all about the horrendous day I had suffered. Reaching for another spoonful of delicious Ben and Jerry's, I continued to listen to my best friend discuss how she escaped from another one of her booty calls.

"And then I just left!" She concluded, shrugging nonchalantly.

"Just like that?"

"Just like that." I shook my head at her. "What?! Girl please! I was not about to stay there only to wake up in the morning to have that 'relationship' talk."

I watched as she ran a hand through her thick natural curls, fluffing it out slightly to let it bounce. The one thing Olivia spent the most amount of time and money on was her hair. Endless amounts of money gone on trying out new products to tame her mane. I had to admit though, it was beautiful.

"Liv, Kyle seems like a good guy, what's wrong with giving him a shot?" I asked.

"Kyle? Are you talking about Kyle Bedford from the corner store a few blocks away?" The deep voice behind me cut off Olivia before she could answer. "Isaiah Bedford's son?" I turned to face my husband as he stood behind the sofa wearing some sweats, a sweatshirt and one of his many pairs of sneakers.

"Yeah, that one!" Olivia answered, never taking her eyes off her ice cream.

"Is he still tryna get at you?!" He asked, wrapping both of his arms around my collarbone and resting his head on my shoulder.

"He succeeded, she just doesn't want the commitment." I answered.

Olivia rolled her eyes and placed her spoon down. "It's not that I don't want the commitment, it's just that Kyle's..." She hesitated, as if not finding the correct words. "Clingy."

"Broke." Marcus added.

"Annoying."

"Broke."

She glared at him and I couldn't help but laugh. "Just a bit too needy."

"Broke."

"And he doesn't even like taking care of his own son! Well, that's what the mother of his son says anyway."

"Broke ass!" Marcus sang as Olivia pushed him and my eyes widened.

"He has a son?! Olive, you've been fooling around with this dude for how long and I had no idea he had a son?"

"It's cos I knew this would be your reaction!"

My jaw dropped. "Of course this would be my reaction, you're sleeping around with a guy who has baby mama drama! End it! End it now!"

"I'm going to, don't worry. I'm getting real tired of serial dating anyway. All it leads to is just meaningless sex." She sighed. "I just want a relationship like you guys." I felt a blush rise up into my cheeks as Marcus brushed his lips against my temple and squeezed me. After all these years, he still had the craziest effect on me. "Hey, Marcus, got anymore friends?"

I laughed, knowing that she'd run through most, if not all of Marcus' guy friends and not had an interest in any.

"You've tried them all and disliked them all, Liv." She pouted.

"Oh wait, baby, that's not true. She took a liking to Greg." I pointed out, whilst Olivia waved the statement off.

"Correction: I took a liking to Greg's-."

"Okay, I'm out." Marcus stood up, raising his hands. "This is getting quite nasty."

I frowned. "Where are you going?"

"Just to play basketball with the guys and probably watch the game after." He kissed me tenderly on the lips and playfully ruffled Olivia's hair to her annoyance.

"Tell Greg I said call me!"

"Satan's just waiting on your ass, Olivia." They laughed as he left.

"What's wrong?"

I finally looked back at her, my face still in a frown. "I may not be a sport fanatic but I know for a fact that basketball season hasn't even started."

"Uh oh." Olivia adjusted her position and fully faced me now, watching me intently.

I ran a hand over my face and sighed. "He's avoiding me again."

"You still think he-."

"I don't think, Liv, I know. Every time something goes wrong with the pregnancy, he acts off towards me for a few days. Almost as if he-."

"Blames you." She finished for me as I nodded. I'd noticed the changes last year, but I said nothing to him, instead I kept it bottled up. I noticed that he would find as many excuses as he could to go out or to not be around me. It hurt. It hurt more than anything to be honest.

"Listen to this. We got back from the clinic at 11am. 11am right? At 11am in the damn morning, he said he was going to go to sleep cos he was tired. We went to bed at 9pm last night, he had more than enough sleep. He just wanted the excuse to get away from me." I bit on my lower lip, pushing the tears back at the rejection I felt. "He blames me for yet again another failed attempt."

"Oh, Althea!" She pulled me towards her in a hug and held me tightly.

"What if it is my fault? Ever since that surgery on my uterus you know things haven't-."

"That still doesn't make anything your fault though! Are you trying to say that the tumor was your fault?" She asked accusingly and I shook my head vigorously. "You need to talk to him. As soon as he gets back, you need to talk it through."

That was easier said than done. "You know how Marcus is though, he won't admit it. He's most likely to tell me that I'm just imagining things or whatever. I'm not telling him anything."

"Althea."

"Olivia." I pulled away from her, returning her pointed stare.

The buzzing of her phone interrupted our staring match and she reached over to answer it.

"I'm sorry boo, but I have to go." I nodded and we both stood up, getting her stuff together.

"I'll call you later."

"Yeah, and you better talk to him!" Rolling my eyes, I pushed her out of my house and decided to keep myself occupied upstairs until Marcus finally returned home.

I didn't want to confront him. I didn't want to ask. But I knew that Olivia was right. If it was bothering me as much as I said it was, I had to talk to him. I had to tell him how I felt so that we could move past this. Although I loved my husband to damn near death, I hated revealing my feelings to him, simply because of the fact that as opposed to dealing with it head on, Marcus had a tendency to sort of brush it under the carpet. Regard it as something that was minor when in fact it was something that bothered me.

Like I said, though, I loved him to death. I would do anything for that man. He'd had my heart ever since I first saw him walk in through the doors of one of my friends' parties. The first thing he did was grin and the entire house had erupted in cheers, signifying that he was well known and loved. Instantaneously, I was attracted to him. That boyish quality drew me to him and before I knew it, we were in love and married.

At first, Olivia didn't like him, claiming something about how he thought he was a hot shot, but the longer we were together, the more she warmed up to him. In her words, I changed him for the better.

I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I didn't hear him open and close the bedroom door. I looked up at the clock and saw that it was nearly 12am. Damn, had I been stuck in my thoughts for that long?

"Hey babe."

I sat and observed all 6"4 of my husband, staring at his sepia coloured chiselled face, that perfect pouty bottom lip that I loved to nibble on and the five o clock shadow that surrounded his visage. I watched as he removed his sweatshirt and his gray wife beater, leaving it in the laundry basket. "How was the game?" I asked as I followed him into the bathroom, watching him in the mirror as those beautiful dark brown eyes quickly made eye contact with me before looking away just as fast.

"Uh, it was good, I guess. Just like all the other games." He smiled at me briefly before brushing his teeth. I waited until he was finished before speaking again.

I suddenly felt confident all of a sudden. The fact that he was outright lying to me gave me new confidence. "It's funny, actually." He walked past me and I crossed my arms over my chest that was covered by his old basketball jersey. "Olivia reminded me that the season hadn't started yet and last I checked," I pointed to the single item of clothing that I had on, "basketball was the only sport you liked to play."

He sighed and stopped moving. Ah, so I was right. He'd been lying to me. I walked up to him and placed both hands on his shoulders. "What's wrong, Marcus?"

He held onto both of my hands and squeezed them before turning to me. "Nothing," He kissed me softly but I didn't believe him.

I frowned. "So why the lying? Is it something I did?"

"No! No, it isn't."

"Are you sure?"

He turned me around and pulled me towards his bare torso. I let my head rest against his chest, hearing the familiar heartbeat. "Positive, what would make you say that?"

"I just..." Where had all that confidence from earlier gone? "I've been feeling as if every time there's a problem with me getting pregnant, you act off towards me. Avoiding me. As if it's my fault."

He held me tighter as he shook his head. "What? Baby, I would never think that."

"So why do you avoid me?"

"I don't avoid you, Althea." He turned me around and hugged me. "I've jsut been stressed a lot with work as of late and it's been driving me crazy."

"Is it your boss again?"

"Hell yeah! He's been on my back for the past 6 weeks non stop. I didn't want to bother you with my problems because... well," He looked down sheepishly and I couldn't help but give in and smile up at him. He could be too damn cute for words. Damn that boyish grin amd the hold it had over me.

"Why don't you tell me all the things he's done and maybe I can somehow help you?"

"So I'm forgiven?" He began to walk towards our bed and so as not to fall, I followed him backwards.

"Only if you tell me what's wrong from now on as opposed to running away and avoiding me."

I heard him muffle a groan as we collapsed onto the bed and I knew that talking was going to be the last thing we did this evening. Not that I was complaining.