"Graycen, that's unethical! How are you going to get rid of the nail section like that?!" Tonya, one of Graycen's worker, was whining and complaining to Graycen for the last hour about how Graycen was making a wrong decision. "Manicures and pedicures are your biggest income and-"
"For fuck sake," Graycen finally snapped as she was burning the ends of a client's hair, "i'm doing someone's hair and you're in my ear like a gnat, Tonya!" Finishing up the client's hair, she collected the money gracefully before going into the backroom for her food.
"I'm not done saying what I have to say, Graycen!" She rolled her eyes as soon as she heard Tonya enter the backroom too. "You're fucking me, Aaliyah, and Ruth over! What are we supposed to do?!"
"I don't know, Tonya!" Graycen argued back, popping her food in the microwave. "A smart person would figure out what she'll be doing instead of whining! The nail department is taking up too many funds and I have to do what I have to do! This is only temporary."
Tonya sucked her teeth before placing a hand on her hip, "That's selfish of you, I'm done working for you. Work for yourself!"
"I've been doing that for a long time hun," Graycen smartly replied back before Tonya walked out the room, "I don't need you."
The whole salon workers were upset with her decision to remove the nail department so she sat alone and ate by herself. She kept telling herself that she wasn't going to continue stressing herself. Definitely now that she wasn't only taking care of herself. She was also taking care of her baby. As she was watching YouTube videos on how to do different braiding techniques, a notification banner appeared on top of her screen.
"The hell does Taehyung want?" She asked herself in her head before clicking on the message.
From Taehyung:
I need a huge fucking favor I know I'm not your favorite person in the world.
From Taehyung:
I need you to come to my place before nine thirty tonight because my family still thinks we're married.
You can't tell them you wanted a divorce? :/
From Taehyung:
Nobody in my family has ever gotten one. Come on.
Well technically, you do now. I don't want to do you any favors. Just tell them the truth.
From Taehyung:
Please, just do this for me.
Fine.
graycen,
I left work at seven and by the time I got home all I wanted to do was just lay in bed but for some reason I felt obligated to do Taehyung this favor.
"Where are you going looking like that?" My sister whistled, eyeing me down as soon as I picked up my keys on the kitchen counter.
"Taehyung's place."
Her eyebrows shot up and her expression turned serious quickly, "For why though? Is it another counseling session?"
"He didn't tell his family about us divorcing yet so I am acting like I am married to him-"
"- oh hell!" She kissed her teeth before walking over to me. "Why are you returning favors for that man? Don't tell me he still has that effect on you."
"What effect?"
She shook her head instead of answering me, "It's annoying, it's your choice just be safe. If I was you, I'd be sitting home and eating pizza."
"I hate pizza." I frowned in disgust before checking the watch on my wrist. "I'm about to go, how do I look?"
"I mean you're just dressed in a loose dress and sandals," she shrugged before complimenting me, "you look beautiful though. You're glowing." I jokingly winked and flipped my hair, showing off my cockiness before leaving.
The whole car ride I was thinking about turning back around. I mean was I really ready to pretend like everything was okay? How was I supposed to keep my composure when I'm acting like I'm still married to him? Whatever. I stared at myself in the compact mirror for the longest time and I guess since my headlights were still on Taehyung noticed I arrived.
"They're going to be here any minute now and you're sitting in your car!" He yelled from his front door. "Come in!" I glanced at him before turning off my car and locking the doors. "Thanks for doing that, I thought you'd say no."
"I wanted to." I replied back after walking past him.
"Take off your shoes."
"I'm sure I know the rules," I retorted while kicking off my sandals and neatly putting them on the shelf by the door, "I used to live here."
"Can we agree that low blows won't be acceptable tonight?"
"It's after eight and I can be anywhere but here, I will do what I want to do. You're not my husband anymore, okay?" He narrowed his eyes at me, leaning over his sink where I can see him.
"God Graycen, we can't even do this little thing without us arguing!" He exclaimed with his eyes still on me.
"I mean what do you expect when we haven't fully talked out our problems?"
He tiredly sighed before shaking his head, "What the hell? We already talked out our problems, Graycen. I told you what I needed and you never listened, you went all the way to-"
"- Australia." I completed his sentence for him. "Aren't you tired of arguing over the same thing? Stop acting like me leaving was an ultimatum when we never even had ultimatums in our marriage."
"You gotta be kidding? It was an ultimatum, Graycen." He argued back using his hand gestures to help him. "I had given you a choice by pleading for you to stay."
"And you know what?" This time I entered the kitchen and stayed by the entrance of the kitchen. "I made a choice, I made a choice before Drew, Australia, or even my salon." The counter was supporting Harry's body as his elbows were basically leaning on them as he was watching me make my point. "You made a choice, we decided to get married. I had my name dropped for you and I even had my eggs cracked for you. We chose to love one another."
Taehyung lightly chuckled before standing up straight, "We chose to love and honor one another-"
"- I know-"
He talked over me causing me to just shut up, "You didn't honor me, Graycen. You didn't give a damn about what I needed from you."
"I needed to go!"
"And you did what you had to do," he sighed before picking up the pot that was on the stove and walking past me, "that's why our marriage was full of ultimatums and they were all yours. If you ever needed me as much as I needed you, I can assure you no matter how badly I thought I needed to go I wouldn't ever leave you. That destroyed me, Graycen. I'll tell you what, we evolved and as we evolved you changed for the worst. The sad thing is we've gone through a lot."
As he was setting up the table I followed behind him to debunk his theory. I didn't change, I know I couldn't have. "I didn't change, Taehyung! All I did was grow as a individual! We have been through a lot in our marriage and we all know how that went but right now we're going through the worst. We have to fight this, Taehyung." He finally finished going back and forth in the kitchen so we were right in front of the door, staring at one another. "Taehyung, we have to get through this. We have to get over the rain and build a bridge and not a wall that'll blind us. No matter how this story ends."
"I don't think our marriage was worth fighting for," he blatantly said, "and to be quite frank with you I don't think we're worth fighting for now. We didn't fight a battle together, Graycen. We fought one against each other." After he said that, there was a knock at the door and I already heard his sister's mouth from outside of the door. "Are you ready?" He looked over at me like he didn't just tell me that we were worth nothing. It was his mother and sister.
Thank God I was strong enough because I could've cried right there. I just nodded my head and wore a fake smile as soon as he opened the door. It's not like I didn't know how to wear a fake smile, I've done it for a lifetime.
"Hello to you both!" His mother, Soomin, cheered at us both. She hugged Taehyung first then she made sure to hug me cautiously. "My husband couldn't join us tonight, I apologize. Instead I bring you the ladies!" All she knew was that I was pregnant again.
I lied through my teeth, "It's an honor to see you both. I missed you guys!" Jisoo finally hugs me then we're all sitting at a table and I'm disgusted at how Taehyung can act like everything's okay with us just because his family will be crying if he ever gets a divorce.
"You know, Graycen?" His mother finally acknowledged me because half of the dinner she's only been acknowledging her son's achievements which is fine. I just don't like how I can be home instead of at a dinner that had nothing pertaining to me. "I think it's good you guys tried again. A fail can always turn into an achievement."
I knew my hearing must've glitched. I haven't even touched my food mainly I was playing with it. I didn't have much of an appetite. Placing my fork down, I nicely responded. "I don't think my miscarriage was a fail. It just made me more of who I am now. Now if you excuse me I kinda have to use the bathroom. Pregnant woman always have to use the bathroom for some reason." I felt so awkward but I hurried into the hallway's bathroom and I stayed on my phone until I heard that his family left.
As soon as they left I opened the bathroom door to leave but to my surprise there was Taehyung standing there. "Listen I apologize for this, I shouldn't have said what I said earlier and I apologize for my mom-"
"- you really can't apologize for your mother, Taehyung." I frowned with my hands across my chest. "You know I care for you more than you think. I care for you so much that I can sit there and act like everything was perfect! I can sit there and act like this baby wasn't just some accident."
"Excuse me?"
I was so pissed, "Excuse me? You heard what I said, Taehyung. This baby was an accident, you can't tell me that when we had sex even when you were thinking about divorcing me that you wanted me to be pregnant! It just happened that way because we had sex."
"So you're not happy with-"
"- don't even ask me that fuckin' question or I'll ring your neck." I threatened, pushing past him. "Don't try to make it seem like I regret being pregnant because I admitted that I got pregnant unwarrantedly. I am six months pregnant and yes I do have the cons of dealing with back pains or whatnot. I'll tell you what though I didn't sit in that divorce room telling myself that I had options."
"Okay Graycen." Taehyung sighed, tired of fighting anymore. "I apologize for even going that far."
"What your mother said made me realize that things really played badly between us," I shared, shaking my head, "we had sex when you wanted to leave me. How dumb can I be? I'm having my divorced husband's baby."
"Graycen-"
"- I think I should go home before I start going crazy." I grabbed my shoes but he took them from me. "Give me my shoes, Taehyung." I didn't raise my voice I was too old to have that much energy inside of me. I was so agitated that I was calm.
"Not until we talk-"
"We already talked," I raised my voice then took a deep breath to calm myself down, "you said what you had to say. Let me go home."
"Listen I apologize for what I said ear-"
"- you were just being honest." I said uninterestingly just trying to leave. "You were wrong because we were worth fighting for. I seriously fought for the both of us, I might've lost but it still feels good that I tried." Looking at his eyes I was confused if this was even the person I even met in high school. "I wanted to fight until I was bloody and tired for us and I succeeded with that. I wanted to fight until death do us part because that's what I vowed to you. Nothing has ever changed that."
Taehyung handed me my shoes without saying anything. He was too tired to fight and I couldn't blame him. "I loved you too much to have had my mistake end our marriage and I wanted to win that battle."
"But you didn't."
After putting on my sandals, I made my way to the front door but before I left I turned around. "You should've let me win that battle because you confusing me into having sex with you destroyed me. And if it wasn't for this baby I wouldn't ever talk to you again."