harlem's perspective.
"Good night Mrs. Williams!" My favorite employee, Jasmine, and my receptionist, Alexia, say as I am about to walk out of my salon. They're both wiping down and sanitizing the waiting area of the salon.
"Good night girls. Jasmine can I talk to you for a second?" I ask her.
"Of course." We both walk to the back of the salon to my office and have a seat. After doing a lot of thinking and going through potential candidates applications, I decided to just promote someone from within to run my salon while I'm gone. And honestly, Jasmine is the best one here. She comes in early to help when she doesn't have to, she stays late if she can, she cleans, she knows the ins and outs of this salon, she's literally the perfect candidate.
"How are you Jas?" I ask her, just to get the conversation going.
"I'm good, and you?"
"I'm great because I have a surprise for you today." I smile at her. "I'm promoting you to manager!"
"Are you serious? Omg!" She excitedly asks.
"Yes! I'm gonna be working on a skincare line from home and spending more time with my kids so I need someone to take over and make sure everything runs smoothly here and I know you can do it. I'll still come in every once in a while to check on things but I trust you."
"Thank you so much!" She exclaims.
"Girl, you know I wouldn't choose anyone else but you. I just have been busy all day doing paperwork and such, so I haven't had time to talk to you about it. But we can start training tomorrow morning so I can show you how to keep track of expenses, pay bills and all of that other stuff. And you have my number so after training, if you ever need me to come to show you how to do something or ask any questions I'm here."
"Okay. Thank you so much again!" She says.
"No problem." We both leave my office and she finishes helping clean while I go home. I had such a long day.
I take the short drive to my house and sit in the driveway for a second before going inside. Christian's mom got here this morning, so we were up early running around like chickens with our heads cut off. Then, I came in today and had to deal with so much stuff. I honestly need a glass of wine and a nice bath, but there's no way in hell I'm getting any peace and serenity with 3 kids.
I grab my purse and keys and go inside the house, being welcomed by the smell of already cooked dinner. I drop my keys on the accent table by the door, which just collects our keys and other random items, and go into the dining room. The kids were already sitting down, eating chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans.
"Hey, Harlem. I got a plate for you in the microwave." Christian's mom welcomes me as she walks to the table with her plate and juice in hand to eat with the kids.
"Thank you. Is Christian home yet?" I ask her, hugging and kissing the kids.
"He said he had to work late or something. I can't remember. He didn't call you?"
"No. I'll call him." I go into the kitchen and grab my plate out of the microwave, get a bottle of water, then go sit and eat with the kids and my mother-in-law.
I hate when Christian does this. I don't mind him working late, or going out after work, but why can't he call and give me a heads up? Why can't he at least just text me and let me know? Like sometimes he can just be so inconsiderate.
"So, what did y'all do today?" I ask the kids, trying to take my mind off of Christian.
"Grammy made us do school work. But it's ok because we played outside after and we had ice cream for snack." Harlem says.
I chuckle at her. She swears she's snitching on somebody.
"What about you Jeremiah? Did you enjoy your day?"
"Yeah. Granny helped me with my letters and numbers and writing my name." He smiles.
"That's good. When we're done eating, you gotta show me your writing."
We continue to eat dinner and talk. We sat and ate for about 30 minutes, and Christian still does not come home. After dinner, I take the kids upstairs to start getting them ready for bed while his mom cleans the kitchen.
I give Caleb a bath first, since he needs to be in bed early. Being around my kids just make me so happy, especially spending these little intimate moments together. Like seeing Caleb just smile and try to talk to me while playing with his bath toys is so precious. I love being a mom so much, even if it's hard.
I give all of the kids bath and put them to bed, then go take a shower myself. I'm so pissed off that my husband hasn't even thought to call or text me, I don't care if he called his mom.
After my shower, I go back into our bedroom and to my surprise, my husband is there, sitting on the edge of the bed, taking off his shoes. I roll my eyes and don't say anything to him because, why should I? Instead, I go straight into the closet to get some pajamas for the night.
He comes in and tries to hug all up on me, but I push him off of me. "I know you mad at me."
"Christian, I'm not in the mood. Just leave me alone." I grab an oversized tee to sleep in and some underwear, then go back into the bedroom.
"I can explain, though. I had to solidify some things for the Miami trip and-"
"You didn't even call me, Christian! You called your mom, and you couldn't even call or text me! It would've been nice to know my husband was going to be home late tonight." I snap. I start to lotion my body down before getting dressed.
"It slipped my mind honestly, Harlem."
I ignore him. I already had a long day and I don't feel like going back and forth with him. I finish putting on lotion and throw on my pajamas before climbing into bed.
"Don't starr ya shit." He says. "I'm really sorry babe. I called my mom just to check up on the kids and I didn't even think to call you and I know I'm wrong for that. But I don't want to argue with you."
For some reason, I'm overly emotional tonight and I start crying. My period must be about to come on. "Christian, you didn't even think about how I would feel."
He sits in front of me on the edge of the bed and holds my hand, trying to comfort me. He knows exactly how I get when I'm PMSing and how to handle me. "I know, I'm gonna make sure I call you from now on." He promises.
