Another Chance Book I of III

Book III-Chapter 10, The Conversation

The Conversation

Royal's POV

Royal Prince Anderson Sr. was what most the people would call a success.  He was well educated holding a Master's in Music History and was now a doctoral candidate, had a great job in his field as a Professor at the University of Chicago, had a beautiful home, a beautiful, talented wife, a lovely daughter who had married a man that truly loved her and his son was a true musical genius who was embarking on a career that looked to be aimed into the stratosphere.  For an inner city kid he had accomplished more than he ever thought he would when he arrived on the campus in Chicago as an undergrad.  He had been a really good father to his children who loved and respected him.  And over the years he had become a good husband to Savannah, but he had not always been so.  While he was  good provider and honestly loved his wife, he had grown up in an environment in Detroit where part of the measurement of a man was how many women he could run, have sex with and how well he could keep his primary woman in line while he was doing it. 

 His father had been a hard worker and did the best he could for his family.  He worked in the factory,  building Fords and made a good wage that allowed him to buy a small but attractive home in a black neighborhood.  Some of his neighbors worked in the factories too, others were janitors or owned and drove trucks if they were more entrepreneurial.  There were a few teachers also, but most of them were found among the wives in this hardworking neighborhood.  He looked after his kids and went with his wife to the school conferences  and such...but he was also a player and remained one until he died.  HIs mother was resourceful and also worked and contributed to the household and put up with his father's philandering so that their 4 children could be taken care of by both a mother and a father and frankly, that they had enough money to live above the poverty line.  Most of the men in the neighborhood had similar attitudes and so these were the examples of manhood that Royal grew up seeing.  He was what folks would call a light skinned, good looking brother,  so he had as much play from women as he could handle and sometimes more. He was very smart and had won full scholarships to the University and did extremely well academically in both undergrad and grad school.  However when he left for college, he took himself and his attitudes along.  He enjoyed his freshman year and was extremely well liked by both the guys and needless to say the young women.  He had pledged Kappa Alpha Psi with 1 of his homeboys from Detroit and had plenty of sex and women to keep him satisfied and entertained.  There was only one problem...he had a very distinct idea of the kind of woman that he would marry and choose to mother his children and that criteria did not apply to any of the woman he was sleeping around with.  Most of them were pretty and some of them were smart but he wanted what most upwardly mobile men want in a wife.  Someone that he could trust  and that would raise his children well. Someone who had not been with a bunch of guys either and therefore presented herself to the world as a lady but could handle herself and him in the bedroom.  He had found that woman in Savannah his wife of 25 years.  She was from a good upper middle class family from Atlanta and knew her value.  He truly loved her but old habits die hard and when Prince was 4 years old and Torrey 7,  he had almost lost his wife and children over a woman that he knew was not worth it when he began the affair.  It had nothing to do with Savannah...she treated him well, cooked for him,  took excellent care of his kids, made him a beautiful home, was gorgeous and educated and was wonderful and enticing in the bedroom.  He just got bored sometimes.   If the kids had colds or fevers and Savannah's focus rightfully was on them during those periods of time,  he felt neglected and his behavior became like that of a spoiled child.  His selfish sense of entitlement had gotten him involved with Vicki, an attractive dancer at one of the many gentlemen's clubs near the airport, where he went sometimes with friends.