“Honestly, I wasn’t expecting it either.” I laughed, and she cocked her head, questioning my motive with her intense brown eyes. “I just mean that moving in with one another is a big step. There’s a lot happening in both our lives, and we have to make sure that it’ll all blend together. I have no doubt that it will, because I do love you.”
“And I love you and when the time is right, then I would be all for it, but you’re right. It’s a bit premature. We have Cody to think about and while I know Cody likes me.”
“He loves you,” I corrected.
She smiled. “While I know that he loves me, I also know that he’s young and we need to tread lightly when it comes to him. Understood?”
I nodded. She was wise to say that, and she was most definitely right. Before I met her, I had done well at wearing my feelings on my shoulder and dusting my shoulders off regularly.
“Okay. We’ll rehash the issue later.” I leaned in and kissed her.
She sighed. “I’ll be over at six for dinner?”
“I’ll be counting down the minutes,” I said. I waited for her to open her door, then watched her go inside and wave goodbye. I turned around and headed down the stairs to my car.
When I got inside, Cody asked the question. “Is she coming?” he asked.
“She’ll be here at six.”
I heard him do a celebratory dance in the backseat and I smiled to myself as I started the car and backed out of my parking spot. I was celebrating too.
***
When I pulled into the driveway, I knew that I had a lot of things to do before getting ready for Tasha to get there. “Take your suitcase and go in and unpack, will you?” I asked Cody.
“Sure thing, Uncle Matt.” He grabbed his suitcase and hurriedly went inside. I pulled out my suitcase, then went to the mailbox and grabbed the mail that we had for the past couple days. I fumbled with my suitcase and the mail and went up to the front door. Cody had left the door wide open, so I walked right in.
When I got in the house, I dropped my suitcase and leafed through the mail. Besides bills, bills, and more bills, there was a package addressed to me. I looked at the block lettering. I didn’t recognize the writing. I opened the package and found a DVD. I opened it up and found a letter. The letter was also written in block lettering. It read as follows:
Watch this and you will see your precious girlfriend isn’t as innocent as you think. She will do anything to get what she wants. Consider yourself warned.
I read through the note twice and frowned at the conclusion. It didn’t make any sense to me, and I was a little worried about watching the DVD, but then reminded myself that I had nothing to worry about. Whatever was on the DVD meant nothing. Tasha and I had a solid relationship, and anything on that DVD wouldn’t change that, at least that’s what I hoped.
Just watch it. You don’t know what’s on there, so you can’t consciously say that. My mind kept trying to warn me that something horrible could be on there. I contemplated whether I wanted to even watch it, but I knew that I had to, because I wouldn’t be able to think about anything else, if I didn’t. I looked up the stairs to make sure Cody was still up there. When I was sure he was in his room, I went to the den. Nerves slowly took root.
I stood at the DVD player, DVD in hand, and again considered not playing it, but instead dropped it in the DVD player and turned it on. I stepped back from the TV and pushed play. I had to wait for it to warm up, but once it did the first sounds I heard were moaning. Once a haze left the screen I was met with an instant porno.
My mouth hung open. I stared at the screen in front of me. Two people were having sex for the camera. I wanted to first ask what this had to do with Tasha and then it became obvious as the woman that was moaning out in pleasure was the love of my life, my future wife. I looked away from the screen, my heart racing as I wondered why she would wa
nt to stoop so low as to make a sex tape. Then, I wondered who was on the receiving end.
The note read that she would do anything to get what she wants. I muted the sound, so Cody couldn’t hear, then turned back to the screen to watch the scene play out. I don’t know why I kept watching, other than it was like a bad accident on the highway, you’re horrified but you must see what happens. I wanted to mentally try to figure out why she would hit that level.
“Uncle Matt?”
I panicked and quickly turned the TV off, then shot a look at Cody. “What do you want?” I snapped.
His eyes got big and I was sorry that I snapped at him like that. “I, uh…” he stammered. He glanced at the screen, but luckily, I had gotten it turned off in time.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “What’s going on bud?” I asked. This time, I was calmer.
“What’s for supper?” he asked. His voice was shaky. I had never yelled at him like that before and he had to be thinking that something was seriously wrong. Something was wrong, I just learned that Tasha made a sex tape and that it was circulating around.
“I thought I would throw on steaks,” I said in a calm voice, well, as calm as I could muster. I had a fire brewing deep inside of me that I had to fight with all that was in me to water it down.
Cody nodded, still looking at me as if he were in shock over my initial blow up. “Okay…And Tasha is still coming, right?” he asked.
Yeah, back to Tasha. I remembered being so happy that she was going to be coming to have dinner with us. After the trip to Atlanta and everything we’d shared, I wanted to believe we were meant to be together, grow old together, with our very own family. Now, I was left wondering if I even knew what kind of woman she really was.