“Hey, you! I was just about to hit you up and ask what happened with your meeting with the mayor and to tell you the food at Tati’s birthday dinner was to die for. We didn’t get a chance to really talk about everything.”
“Chelle—” I interrupted. “I don’t know where to start. I’ve lost it all, Chelle. Everything! My job, possibly my husband?—”
“Your husband? What’s going on? Where are you, Tanya?”
“Terrance had a stroke and heart attack,” I began.
“Oh my God! Send me your location. I’m on my way! Where’s Tati?”
“She’s with Trista crying and acting the fool walking the hallways.” I was beginning to feel relieved, so I tried to calm down knowing my girl Chelle was on the way. “My entire life is falling apart! I can’t seem to catch a fucking break! God is punishing me, Chelle. I’m being punished for my actions.” I cried, feeling a wave of guilt rush through my bones.
“Stop talking like that, Tanya. What are they saying about Terrance? Is he going to be okay?”
“He’s in surgery still. He found out about everything, Chelle. He knows about it all.” I broke down. “After I left Mayor Mason’s office, I went back to my office to send off my letter of resignation and to grab all my personal items. She forced me to resign because she said the affair between me and Judge Brandon was misconduct, and if I didn’t resign and she had to fire me, she couldn’t guarantee the press wouldn’t find out. Brandon’s wife not only went to his chief judge, she went to the mayor directly and gave her all types of proof of the affair. Once I got to the house, I never told Terrance what happened because I was asleep by the time he got home. The next morning was Tati’s birthday, so I wasn’t going to dare say anything then.”
“That’s a lot. I’m so sorry you’re going through all of this. Look, keep telling me what happened despite all the noise in the background. That’s just me moving about. I’m leaving out my house now so I should be there in fifteen to twenty minutes max.” Chelle clarified because she was making up a bunch of noise in the background.
“It’s fine. I truly appreciate you coming to be with me.”
“Girl, you know I love you.”
“I love you, too.” I cried.
“Please stop crying. Finish telling me what happened. You seemed a little off last night at the dinner. I figured it was work related because I had a feeling it was going to go bad with the mayor. When I didn’t hear from you, I didn’t reach out figuring you must have worked something out with her. I was hoping that no news was good news.”
Sniffling, I tried to get myself together as I continued. “I wish that were the case. I made a big birthday breakfast for Tatiana then she left with Jamal. While I cleaned the kitchen then went to my room to get dressed, Terrance left to get his hair cut. Whenhe got back home the shit hit the fan! When he went to get his hair cut, he decided to take my Lincoln. I had left my box of belongings and file with all the pictures the mayor gave to me of the evidence. It was all in my trunk. Mind you, I had no clue he had my car or why he felt the need to look in my trunk. The story he told me was that he went to get a car wash, and when he went to get the dry towels out, he saw the box and file.”
“Well, damn! Classic seek and you shall find type of shit. That’s so crazy!”
“Right! He came home and confronted me, and when I tell you he was pissed. In all the years we’d been together, Terrance had never looked at me with as much rage in his eyes as he did yesterday. Then his voice is already deep, so imagine how loud it vibrated through my bones when he started going off. It was bad…really bad.”
“You should have called me.”
“Chelle, that was the last thing on my mind. I mean really. I already had to play it off like nothing was wrong around Tati when I had just gotten fired from my damn job and now was being confronted for sleeping with Brandon.”
“Speaking of, have you heard from Brandon since all of this has happened, and does Terrance know about us also?”
“Brandon texted me yesterday, but I never responded. I’ma take an educated guess and say he was disbarred for misconduct because from what I can see of the text he is pissed.”
“Pissed at who though! He’s responsible for his own actions when it comes to his household. He needs to be pissed at his wife for doing the absolute most. I get her being upset, but to ruin the lives of others because she couldn’t keep her man satisfied is just downright selfish.”
“I know, but still. To answer your question,” I changed the subject not wanting to discuss Brandon with Chelle, “no one knows about me and you, and I pray it stays that way. I can’thandle much more, and if it were to come out that we’ve been sleeping together, too, I could only imagine the chaos around that. I can see it now. Ex Cook County prosecutor fired for cheating with Judge Mason along with her lesbian paralegal.”
“I’m so sorry, Tanya. I feel so bad.”
“It’s not your fault. Hell, if anything, you’re the one ray of sunshine I have left. It’s just bittersweet because at the same time we have to pretend to be something different around everyone else.”
“I told you the moment I knew I was in love with you that when you were ready to let the world know about us being in a relationship that I would be there every step of the way. Coming out about being bisexual is not easy. Trust and believe I know because I went through the very same thing obviously. The only difference with me was I wasn’t married with a child, and I don’t give a damn what people think of me.”
“You sure know how to make me feel better,” I joked. “I have no intentions anytime soon to ever come out about anything. Here’s comes Tati. I’ll let the people at the front desk know you’re coming so they can tell you where we are.”
Changing the subject, Chelle and I continued to talk as she helped to console me while I waited for her to get to the hospital. She and I had worked together for over nine years and had become the best of friends. Three years ago, our friendship went to a different level. Chelle worked as a paralegal in my office. Nights that she and I would work late she’d sometimes work in my office. This one particular night she made a pass at me, and I went for it. I knew that Chelle was bisexual, I just never thought that she would be into me. Also, I never thought I would ever dip into the lady pond. She caught me at a weak moment and turned my ass out right there in my office. After that I was hooked, but not on women, only her. Since I had always portrayed to be opposed to same sex relationships, and everyone that knewme knew that about me, I kept the fact that I was bicurious to myself. Chelle and I were the only ones that knew about our relationship. She knew about my affair with Brandon as well as all of the ends and outs of my marriage because she was also my best friend.
When I discovered that I was bisexual I didn’t know how to process those feelings. All I knew was that Chelle had seduced me, and it was the best sex I had ever had in all of my life. I enjoyed it so much that it had become the only thing that I could think about. I’d find myself having sex with Terrance and fantasizing about Chelle. Before I knew it, Chelle and I were having sex several times a day. I had fallen in love with Chelle on a level that I knew she and I could never be because I wasn’t ready to fully accept who I truly was.
As Tatiana and Trista walked back into the room, I heard what sounded like Jamal’s voice calling out her name.
“Tatiana! I know you see me, silly ass girl!” Jamal spat.
