Maura And Her Two Husbands

Chapter 7 Curses

A man is coming to look at the refrigerator. I won’t be able to make it home in time. Is there any way you can get off early and meet him?

Maura looked at Sidney’s latest text message. She imagined how Flora the Admin Assistant in her office might have answered if Sidney had been her husband:

“You ain’t been having no trouble meeting a man after work. What’s the problem now?...Tell your mama to meet him...”

But, Maura didn’t want to give Sidney the pleasure of receiving any catty remarks from her. Anyone with sense knows there’s a lot to be read between the lines of catty remarks. It leaves a door open for hope and reconciliation. Sassiness tells a man a woman’s heart is still in his hands. Maura did not want to convey anything to Sidney. She debated whether to answer him at all, lest he construe a message from her as an olive branch. It had been ten weeks since she spoke to him and by now she felt at home living amongst her clothes on hangers in the living room. Maura had literally turned the room into a huge walk-in closet. Restaurant food and Chinese take-out nourished her body. She kept bottled water in an ice chest. A cheap microwave sufficed if she needed anything warmed. She placed it atop a wrought iron shelf Sidney had picked up from an antique store. She contemplated buying a mini refrigerator for the room and sitting Sidney’s African stool on top of it—anything to insult Sidney’s sense of beauty and order.

Maura was glad she wasn’t bothered with any of his Friday night business. Her hand had become very familiar with her clitoris. Being separated from Sidney by a few feet had liberated her. And she had Sidney's man Cornrows in her fantasies. Maura's trashing of Sidney’s living room and sharing his man, if only in her head, was much better than any separation. She was prepared to go on like this the rest of her life if she had to. She felt such a life was safe and secure.

“Yes I still live in our house, but my heart is so far gone, I might as well be living in China.”

That would quieten the women in her office. They had to throw a man out to punish him for his sins. She had come up with a better punishment for Sidney. She lived right under his nose and yet denied him any access.