He's Like a Drug

Kum ba yah

Regina sat in her car attempting to calm herself. Her eyes were closed and she was taking slow deep breaths.  She knew how fly her mouth could be. Although she felt like she had every right to be pissed, she still needed to compose herself. Removing the keys from the ignition, she reached over and grabbed her purse off the passenger seat. "I can do this. I can be a rational adult and be respectful, even if I don't like the circumstances I'm presented with." She fluffed out a few curls from her natural curly afro and straightened up her blouse. She placed her small coach purse over her shoulder, straightened her back and held her head high as walked into the Longhorn restaurant. When the hostess greeted her, she gave him a big smile. "Good afternoon, will you be dinning alone today?" He asked grabbing a few menus from his stand. "No, I'm meeting guests. They should actually be here already." She responded as attempted to find a familiar face in the crowded restaurant. It was surprising to her that so many people were here in the afternoon on a weekday. She expected it to be dead. "Oh, I see, and what name would the reservation be under?" The tall slender man asked as he replaced the menus and pulled out a note pad with names written on it. "I believe it would be Long" She stated adjusting her purse on her shoulder. It felt kinda awkward for her, because she rarely wore purses. She preferred to wear jeans and pants with pockets. Her wallet was actually a baby sock filled with a few singles, credit cards, her and the kids ID and insurance cards. That was kept in her bra, she would frequently lose purses and wallets a s a child so she came up with this idea. It worked better than just Stuffing random items in different parts of her bra, because the money would get wet from her sweat and her cards would poke her. "Yes, here we are....right this way please." He spoke up breaking her out of her thoughts. The hostess jestered for her to follow him. Nodding her head in understanding she casually scanned the faces of the people whose table she past. She also checked out the different food items they had so she could get some idea what she wanted to order. Regina wasn't a picky eater, and it didn't take her long to make up her mind, but this whole situation had left her without an appetite. In the few weeks of her finding out about Jeannette and Ronald she had lost 20 pounds. Her head was always swimming with questions like "why was I not good enough?", "why her?", "when did it start?", "was she really my friend?", "did he even still love me?", "did they do it in my bed?". It was so bad, she would get up at 1am and go to the gym just to run on the treadmill and elliptical till she was exhausted enough to actually get some sleep. "Here you are ma'am. Can I start you off with something to drink while you look over the menu?" The hostess asked and he pulled out her chair for her. She took the seat that was offered and looked around the table at what everyone else was drinking. There was sprite, water, and something dark, but she doubted it had liquor in it, because there were bubbles. "I'll take strawberry daiquiri" She responded with a smile hunching her shoulders. Although it was early in the day, she knew this conversation was gonna be tense so she wanted something to soothe her nerves. "Hey! Come here and give me some love! I haven't laid eyes on you in forever!" Rain said coming around the to greet her. "She scooted back and reached up to accept her embrace. Although she wasn't happy about having her business all out in the open, Teegan hadn't actually done anything to her so she didn't have any hard feelings towards her. "I know right." Regina said chuckling. "Girl, you look good. You done lost some weight huh?" Rain commented as she went back to her seat. "Hey, thanks for coming." Ronald greeted her. She simply nodded her head to acknowledge him. She across the table where Jeannette was seated quietly looking over her menu. As if she could feel her starring at her she raised her head and they locked eyes. "Hey." Jeannette greeted her quietly. Regina sighed and looked around the restaurant to see if the waiter was coming with her drink, she needed that ASAP. Regina interlocked her fingers on the table and lowered her head. She took a few deep breaths and concentrated on remaining calm.
"We were just talking about planning a trip to Splash Lagoon for the kids in a few weeks before you came in. I think they would have a ball." Rai said to break the akward silence. Regina nodded her head and gave her attention to Rain. "Since it's not that far I was thinking we could drive so we could sight see on the way. You know they have hotels at the park and we could stay the whole weekend." As she listened to Rain go on about the vacation they had been planning she glanced back and forth between Ronald and Jeannette to see their reaction. Before she could get her thought together to voice her opinion a large glass placed in front of her and she waisted no time sucking almost half of it up through the large straw provided. "Aww shit." Ronald mumbled under his breath. "Thirsty are we?" Rai commented chuckling. "Mmm..." Jeannette sighed and leaned back in her chair, preparing herself for the bullshit that was about to fly out of Regina mouth. Regina chose to ignore the comments and speak her mind. "Ok, so I was asked here to talk about how to incorporate Jeannette into the children's lives without all the drama. I don't necessarily need closure for our so called "friendship" She stated while signing quotation marks with her fingers. "I'm also not looking for apologies or half ass promises regarding our failed marriage." She said looking Ronald in the eyes. " While I have no doubt that Jeannette will care for my children when their with the two of you and show no malice or ill attitude towards them, I'm not about to just be on some Kum ba yah shit." She shook her head.  "Y'all got me fucked up if Y'all think imma just go and act like I didn't just find out one of my best friends was fucking my husband, and is now in a relationship with him." She paused to take another drink. "I think it's a great idea that we go on a trip together, I haven't been in the company of my friends in a while and truth be told I do miss Y'all." She said looking at Rai. "But if Jeannette is going count me out." She finished off her drink just as the waiter came back to the table. "Are we ready to place orders now or do you need a few more moments?" He asked looked at everyone. "Well, I'll have the..." Rai began before Regina cut her off. "You guys go ahead and enjoy, I got things to do." She said reaching in her purse to pull out a $20 bill and laid it on the table. "No, Regina don't go yet. Let's talk about this." Teegan spoke up pushing her chair back getting ready to get up and follow her friend. She understood where Regina was coming from, vyt they still had things they were supposed to discuss. Jeannette and Regina had been missing from all the gatherings "the crew" had, because of their disagreement and she wanted to see if they could come together and be like old times. "Nah...I'm good. Call me later love." Regina commented leaving the table.  "Well....it's safe to say we all saw that coming." Jeannette  whispered to Ronald. "BITCH!...." Regina started to cuss her out for her sly remark, but decided against it. She took a deep breath and pushed her chair back into the table and walked quickly out of the restaurant.
Once she was in her car she slammed her purse on the passenger seat and and hit the steering wheel a few times. "FFUUUCCCCKKKKKKK" She screamed, trying to relieve some of her pent up anger. That damn "meeting" was pointless. Other than the buzz she got from downing that drink on an empty stomach, it served no purpose. They hadn't resolved anything, she was more angry than when she came, and she was starving and felt a headache coming on. She sat there for a few more minutes trying to calm herself because she didn't want to drive so angry, but when she saw Teegan headed towards her she turned the keys in the ignition, put the car in reverse and quickly backed out her parking space. She noticed Rain waving to her and begin to jog in an attempt to catch her. Regina put the car in drive and peeled out the parking lot almost hitting the back of an SUV backing out of a parking space. She swerved to avoid them, but didn't slow down until she was on the main road. "They got me fucked up!" She said chuckling as she put on "the worst" by Jhene Aiko on pandora and turned up the volume.