Page 20 of The Marriage Rebound

“I know you’re probably a hungry boy. But I don’t think she wants to see you right now. I’ll see if I can sneak you downstairs later. But I don’t . . . You have to stay up here and be good and quiet. Just for a little while, and then I promise you, I’ll take care of you.” I gave him a kiss on the top of his head.

After setting him on the bed, I quickly scanned the room, looking for my purse. It was sitting in the chair in the corner. Rummaging through it, I found my phone and was happy to see that the battery hadn’t died since it hadn’t been plugged in last night.

I paced in small circles, rubbing at my temples. There was a battle of drumlines going on in my head and my stomach bubbled with unease. I had to fight back the urge to vomit again. I needed to brush my teeth. Maybe if I got the stale cotton taste out of my mouth it would help keep me from upchucking.

As I brushed, more fragmented memories from the previous night came back. I’d been wasted. So very wasted. And lonely. That was why she’d been here. She’d come because I’d called her. She’d come even though she was mad at me.

And now she was hurt. She was downstairs, and she was hurt because I’d called her.

My stomach lurched and bile burned my throat. Oh god, was this my fault? This was my fault. No . . . if she hadn’t left in the first place . . . I blew out a hard exhale. “Focus, Sasha,” I harshly whispered to myself. I’d kept it together downstairs; I needed to dig deep and keep that energy. Courtney needed me. This was my chance to be there for her, to take care of her.

I rinsed my mouth out then picked up my phone. Looking after Courtney was my top priority right now. This wasn’t transactional. This was because she was my wife, and I cared about her. I loved her. And she was hurt, and I needed her to be not hurt, especially because she was hurt because of me. I scrolled through my messages until I got to Khadijah’s number and quickly fired off a text: 911! Courtney hurt. I rubbed Vuitton’s head then kissed him, promising to bring his breakfast up before I made my way back downstairs.

My phone started ringing before I even got to the bottom.

“Hey—”

Khadijah cut me off and started with questions. “What do you mean she’s hurt? What happened?”

“I don’t . . . I don’t know for sure. I was asleep then I heard it. A thud and a yell. She . . . she fell on the stairs.”

“What! She fell down the stairs? Like all of the stairs? How far down the stairs? What is hurting? Tell me everything.”

There was an urgency that popped into her voice, which increased my anxiety but also made me feel better. She was just as concerned about Courtney’s well-being as I was, and I needed that right now. I needed someone else to care. Not that I expected her not to, but I needed the confirmation, the support.

I told her what little bit I could with Courtney hollering in the background that it wasn’t a big deal and not to worry about it. Khadijah said something low, which I assumed was her relaying information to Shae.

“We’ll be there shortly,” she said, then disconnected the call.

I tentatively sat back down next to my wife, noticing how she tried not to wince when she attempted to resituate herself. “They’re coming over.”

Courtney rolled her eyes. “I told you it wasn’t a big deal.”

Her comment set off a spark of annoyance. “Damn it, Courtney, can you stop being so damn stubborn? You keep sayin’ it’s not a big deal, but you can’t even move your wrist right now. What if . . . what if it’s more than a sprain? You need to at least have it checked out. And you should be glad I called Khadijah instead of takin’ yo ass to the ER.”

“I’m surpr . . .” She stopped and shook her head. “You know what, you’re right. Thank you for callin’ Doc.”

I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes at her. “Were you ’bout to say you’re surprised I care? Really, Courtney? Really? If anyone should be surprised by someone carin’ or not, it’s me. Cuz only one of us walked out on our spouse. And it sure as hell wasn’t me.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, fuckin’ seriously. You left me, Courtney! The fuck! You. Left.”

She barked out a harsh laugh and shook her head. “Typical. You’re right. I’m the villain in this scenario like every other fuckin’ time. I’m tired. I’m hurt. And I don’t wanna do this right now. Go put some clothes on before they get here.”

I stared at her. The sloshing of nausea seemed to intensify in my stomach and the drumline in my head amped up, making my eyes ache and my ears hot. I couldn’t believe she’d imply I wouldn’t care about her and then play the victim when I called her out on it. Now she was dismissing me because she was done with the conversation. She didn’t want to deal with it . . . deal with me anymore, so I’d been fucking dismissed. I thought her coming last night when I needed her, and this morning I was trying to step up . . . I fought back the prickle of tears and blew out a shaky breath. Courtney was hurt. We needed to get her taken care of.

Without another word, I stood and went to put on something more appropriate than the tank top and panties I currently wore.

Chapter 10

Courtney

It took about a half hour before Shae and Khadijah showed up at the house, and in that time Sasha said very little to me. She came down, she took care of Vuitton, and she gave me one or two questions of “How you feeling?” or “You need anything?” But for the most part, she refused to say anything else.

I should have apologized for dismissing her and for trying to imply she didn’t care about me, but the words stayed lodged in my throat. There was still so much anger and frustration with her and how she acted. I was annoyed more than anything else, but it had been a low blow for me to accuse her of not caring. Maybe. I mean I would have never expected her to be as petty as she had been for the last couple of days, but here we were.

“So, do you want the bad news or the good news first?” Doc asked.