I turned and opened the curtains. The place was filled with trash. I didn’t even realize it when I first walked in because the note caught my attention.
“What the fuck is all this?”
“You never used to curse so much.”
“I started the moment you left me to care for our son. I didn’t have a choice.”
That wasn’t the truth. I rarely cursed, but the fact that this man had come back, and brought all his things after all this time just got my blood racing and made me so damn mad.
There was a knock on the door, and I didn’t wait for him to react.
“Marta, what are you doing here?”
She looked at her watch, “Meeting, have you forgotten about it?”
I shook my head and then she pushed the door wide open.
"No one turned up last week, so I thought that you guys were interested."
She laughed, "We did, but you know us. We're always late. You must have got there and then saw no one and left."
She had a point, I wasn't the most patient woman in the world, not after Ed left. I hinted that he was here by moving my head to the side so that she could see him.
“Oh, you’ve got company.”
Ed wiped his hands on his faded jeans and said, “Hi, I’m Ed. Nia’s husband.”
“Uh-huh, you mean ex-husband.”
He ignored her as he stood in the middle of the living room and I didn’t know what to do. The man had come with all his things, and it was clear that he wasn’t leaving in a hurry as I saw all the trash bags at the corner. Marta forced us into my apartment and then shut the door behind us.
“I can’t leave. You see, I’ve got things to sort out here,” I sighed as I thought about grabbing my stuff earlier and then going back to Hunter’s. Now, I was stuck at home with my ex. The one that who didn’t even know his son.
There was this awkward silence, but then there was another knock at the door.
“Tiana and Lena, what are you doing here?”
“We came to take you to the meeting girlfriend. You didn’t show up last week, and you’re not returning our calls. We’ve got twenty minutes until it starts and you need to be there.”
I shook my head thinking that I wish I could leave, but I really couldn’t.
Marta blurted out, “She has company!”
Then she pointed at Ed, who was now sitting in my living room and smoking a cigarette a dirty habit that I used to tolerate back then. I used to think that he needed a stress relief and smoking was something that he liked doing. My stress relief used to be the comfort of knowing that I was in a relationship. One, in which the man wouldn't leave me. I was wrong back then. I should have talked to Hunter properly about how I was feeling at the time. Hunter admitted that he should have done the same with me too.
“We need to get to the meeting!”
Tiana said with her hands on her hips.
I couldn’t believe that she was here and with the girls. Curiosity got the better of me, and I wondered how they managed to resolve their differences after weeks of being at each other’s throats.
“Yes, but I live here with my wife and son,” .
Marta took it out of his hand and Tiana was by his side helping him up.
“You’re her ex-husband. You can’t just come here and then move in without her permission. Nia’s a lady, and she needs to be treated as one.”