Into The Deep End - A Roman Reigns Story

42

Unaware of the chaos that awaited him, an upbeat Joe strolled down the hallway towards Sasha's apartment, armed with a box of red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and a spring in his step. He couldn't wait to tell her all about his productive first day in acting class. Perhaps from there he would be able to segue to the other reason he was visiting her; that he felt the need to clear the air about a certain conversation between them in Pensacola. He recalled the look of shock on her face when he mentioned the sacred M word. She had said nothing in response and very little afterwards. To be fair, he wasn't expecting an immediate response but now they were back home and it was relative silence from her end. Maybe he was being paranoid but he couldn't shake off the feeling that he had made things awkward between them. He hoped that wasn't the case. He needed to know that they were fine and that they weren't on shaky ground because of what he said. The cupcakes would be a great conversation starter, especially as they were her favorites.

He knocked on the door to her apartment, startled the door flew open almost immediately.

"Ty!" Sasha exclaimed, her shoulders slowly slumping with disappointment when she saw it was only Joe, who stood there looking confused. "Sorry," she mumbled, stepping back for him to enter the apartment. "Thought you were T.K."

Pushing his sunglasses to the top of his head, Joe frowned at her unusual demeanor. She seemed jumpy and agitated and even panicked. Even more worrying was she looked like she'd been crying. Peering closely at her, his eyes narrowed. "What happened to your face?" he demanded, gingerly touching the corner of her left eye which looked swollen and bruised. His expression hardened. "What the fuck! Who did this to you?"

Lowering her gaze, Sasha shook her head. She'd tried to ice it down but obviously it hadn't helped much. "It's nothing. It's fine-"

"Don't gimme that shit!" he snapped, "That ain't nothin' and you're not fine. You look like you're expecting to get jumped or something." When she kept silent, anger began to well up within him. "Sasha, tell me what happened."

Gosh, he was flipping out already and that was not what she needed right now. Still, she took a deep breath and relayed the traumatic events that occurred earlier in the day. For all the despicable things her ex-boyfriend had said and even attempted, it was the look on her son's face that she couldn't get out of her head. The disappointment, the contempt, directed towards her. Like she had sold him down the river for crawling back to his deadbeat father for help. It hurt her heart, her soul. If she could turn back time she would have stayed away from Tyson and continued to pretend like he didn't exist like she always had, if only to wipe away that horrid look T.K. had given her.

Joe listened to Sasha's story, growing more and more furious at the thought of that piece of shit putting his hands on his woman. "That motherfucker!" he fumed, pacing back and forth in the kitchen, his shoulders rippling angrily beneath his T-shirt. "I'll kill him! I'll beat his fuckin' ass!"

Sasha sat back down on the kitchen table where she'd been waiting for T.K. "Babe stop. It's not worth it."

"The fuck are you talkin' about? He tried to force himself on you! He assaulted you! Look at your face! And why didn't you tell me about this sooner?"

"You were busy, I didn't wanna bother you," said Sasha.

"Maybe I was, but you could have at least texted me," Joe countered, "It's been what, two, three hours since it happened? Why would you keep something like this from me?"

"Keep your voice down, Mia's in my room! And it wasn't like I set out to keep anything from you! Please don't overreact-"

"Overreact? If I heard correctly your ex-boyfriend walked into your own home and tried to rape you! What if he-" he started to say, then stopped, refusing to complete the horrific thought.