***EXCERPT*** TFLC

The First Lady’s Choice

When life seems to throw the biggest curve ball, where do you go? How do you dodge it? Where is your safe haven? When the chips seem to fall in all the wrong places, who are you supposed to run to?

Here I am a thirty year-old married woman with nowhere to go. Just as I thought this day couldn’t possibly get any worse, it did. Waking up this morning, I never could have imagined the outcome of a confrontation; a confrontation over someone else’s indiscretions to add insult to injury. All the proof that has made itself present to me was about to drive me mad; I had to bring it to his attention.

Although I knew, he would be angry from being accused of such a God-awful act, however this angry I didn’t anticipate. I couldn’t have anticipated him to overreact the way he did. The sadistic smile he brandished after he lashed out was the nail in the coffin. Angry I can see, denial, sure why not but abusive—HELL NO. I never would have pegged William to be so heavy-handed.

I bitterly laughed to myself at the term heavy-handed for it was a true understatement. To be a man of the cloth, he certainly could have fooled the hell out of me. The sad part is no one would ever believe me if the events of late were spoken aloud. Pastor William P. Foster was an upstanding pillar in the community and an outstanding preacher of the word. No one would ever believe that he was a proven cheat and now wife-beater could be added to the list.

Maybe not “beater” because I managed to fight him back enough to get away. The fact that he put his hands on me period was enough really to see I was married to a complete stranger. All because he was called out on his indiscretions, he lashed out. In all honesty, I was doing my best not to exaggerate without hearing his side of the story first. When I had every right to show up and show out over the new discoveries, I tried to be a Christian about it. Now it seems my calm demeanor was pointless.

Fleeing the supposed safety of the place I called home, I found myself wondering aimlessly around town. Dallas Texas had never seemed so large until tonight. It never bothered me, the endless exits to nowhere that were steadily appearing on the expressway. Tonight, it was a constant reminder that I was stuck with absolutely nowhere to turn. The closest family member to Dallas lived in Galveston; there was no way I would make it without crashing.

After all, I had worked a full shift and not to mention waiting around forever for William to return home from a weeklong business trip. Only the imagination would make me guess where he really was or what he was really doing while away. No telling whom he was away with, for that matter. Nothing else could surprise me about him at this point. He has proven to be a true narcissistic prick with a temper.

“Who is it?” A deep voice asked through the door. The sound of the voice always brought a sense of calmness to my fragile nerves but today it seemed impatient.

“…” As bad as I wanted to shout my name, the frog in my throat didn’t allow it. It was a given that he would look in the peephole anyway so I could never understand why he would always ask. Finally, the locks began to turn and the door was opened.

“What are you doing out so late?”

“Sorry to interrupt… I…” I couldn’t form a complete sentence to save my life. Here I was standing on a friend that I had practically written offs doorstep late on a Friday night. My life was in utter turmoil and sadly, my mind was tempting to slip into the gutter.

‘What the hell is wrong with me?’

“Megan, what’s going on?” Tremaine asked. He sounded generally concerned.

“Tre, is everything okay?” A female voice said on the other side of the door. I never imagined someone else would be here so late.

How stupid was I not to realize he would have company. Tre was a very attractive young man with women all over Dallas chasing in behind him. Common sense would have told me he wasn’t alone because he never made a move to invite me inside. He had only stood in the gap with one massive arm braced at the top of the doorframe and the other holding the door. While he spoke with his female company, I made the conscious decision to leave.

“I apologize for interrupting your evening, it’s nothing. I don’t know what I was thinking.” I rambled out attempting to flee as quickly as possible. The intense look he shot at my retreating form didn’t go unnoticed. Like a bullet, his hand shot out to pull me to stop abruptly.

“What the hell…” He was trying to focus in on something. In the process of looking everywhere but directly at him, I almost forgot the real reason I came here.

“Just go back…”

“What is that on your face?” He questioned.

“Oh, that…”

“Yeah, that…”

“It’s…”

“Don’t you dare tell me it’s nothing? Who did this to you?”

“Tre, calm down,” I tried to get him to lower his voice.

“Calm down? CALM DOWN?!”

“TRE, we are in the hall remember?”

“Come inside.”

“No, I don’t want to intrude.”

“Come on,” he pulled me into his apartment despite my many attempts of pulling away. In the back of my mind, I feel some type of way showing up on his doorstep this way but I didn’t know where else to turn. I have always despised being helpless but here I am, what I hate most. Desperate… Destitute…. Destroyed… A disaster… A damsel in distress well on my way to becoming bitter.

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