Lust and Lies (The Jamie Reynolds Chronicles #1) (24 page)

Besides, unlike Toni asking, I never asked him to move for me. I was just starting to establish my career in New York/New Jersey and hadn’t had a need for a tax job these past few months. I felt happy and everything was lining up for me.

“Babe, all I’m saying is I miss you and want you to move down to Norfolk when I get back. Maybe you can start looking for a home and we can buy a house. I know you’ve been saving money and I get separation pay while on deployment, so it’s extra money. We can use this money towards a new house. I will trust your judgment and you can look while I’m gone. I just want out of base when I get back. Maybe you can even start planning our wedding.”

I understood what Toni was saying and had to respect it. We had been living two different lives, and as much as I enjoyed it, I knew he wasn’t happy with it all.

“I understand, babe, and yes, I’ll take the time away to restructure everything and start to make my move to Norfolk,” I said with a heavy heart.

“Okay, this means you won’t find any more work in New York or New Jersey, and you’ll find a tenant to rent the house, and move to Norfolk,” he said as if he needed to explain all of the steps I needed to do to make it happen.

“Yes, babe, I’ll make it all happen before you get back.” It was easier said than done, but I was willing to try my best to make it happen.

***

Man, I was ready to get this deployment over with. Everyone was driving me crazy. This was his first deployment, but everyone was telling me scary stories of the experience. I even spoke to a few of the wives, and they began giving me their rundown on everything. Telling me how a deployment changed the guys, but I didn’t listen to them, as Toni and I were solid and had been apart off and on for so long we would be fine.

“Are you ready?” Wendy, one of the navy wives, said to me has we all waved good-bye to the ship as it began pulling off.

“Ready for what?”

“You’ll see,” she said as she smirked and walked away with her three kids.

I was not the typical navy wife. I had a career, I didn’t live in Norfolk, and I didn’t have any kids. It seemed as if most of these ladies didn’t have much of an identity outside of being a navy wife. That was not me, so I hoped Toni wasn’t expecting me to be a real navy wife when he asked me to relocate my life to Norfolk to be with him.

I felt like an outsider with these ladies as I walked by myself back to the car until one wife ran over to me.

“Mrs. Hall? Are you Hall’s wife?”

“I am and you are?”

“Hi, I’m Natalie, John’s wife.”

I felt bad because I didn’t know who John was. As a matter of fact, I didn’t know anyone from the ship. They all knew me, but I didn’t know any of them. I heard a few names, but they all were called by their last name, so I really didn’t know anyone’s first name.

“It’s nice meeting you. Hall said this was your first deployment. This is my third, so if you need anything, let me know.”

“I’ll be fine, thanks,” I said, being antisocial.

“Hall said you’re looking to buy a home and move down soon.”

I hated that this chick was in my business already, so I stopped and spoke more in detail to hear her out. Since she knew about me and I knew nothing about her, I was trying to be polite to my new city.

“Yeah, Toni wants me to make my way down to Norfolk to get settled and stuff.”

“I’m a real estate agent if you need help finding a house.”

I was a little shocked because I’d never met a navy wife who had a job, let alone a career, since I’d been in Norfolk.

“Shocked I have a career?” she said as if she were hearing my thoughts.

I just laughed. “I’m new to this whole thing, so I’m just trying to get adjusted, and most of the other wives are so different from me,” I said, trying to be nice about the other ladies.

“Not many wives work, as the guys make enough money to support them or they have kids and stuff to take care of when the guys leave. I have a daughter myself from my first marriage, and my ex-husband and I share custody, so I can work and have support when the guys are gone, unlike most of the other women.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Have you thought about the area?”

“To be honest, I haven’t thought much about any of this place, but I have the rest of the day, so I was planning on driving around to check out my surroundings.”

“Would you like some company?” Natalie asked.

At first I just wanted to say no, please go away, but I decided to be nice and said, “Sure, that would be nice if you have the time.”

“My daughter is with her dad, so I’m just chilling all day.”

Natalie and I spent the whole afternoon together, our first stop was to the NEX, which was located on base and was my first time going. She gave me the tour of everything, the best places to eat, buy drinks and things to do both on and off the base. Natalie was very helpful and even cleared up some misinformation Toni gave me over the last few months about the navy. She even helped me understand why everyone kept saying the guys come back different after a deployment.

I felt bad after hearing about the living conditions Toni and the guys had to go through over the next six months, so I could understand the change in the guys after a tour. Natalie and I became very close and she even helped Toni and me find a home in Portsmouth, which was like twenty minutes from base.

Since I had two houses already and worked freelance, she advised us to use Toni’s credit to buy a house. Since I had power of attorney, I had permission to pull up Toni’s credit, and to my surprise, Toni had all kinds of crap on his credit.

“Hey, babe.”

“Hey, JR, how is everything going? Have you gotten my letters?” Toni asked, referring to his letter about the phone being bugged so we couldn’t talk in detail.

“I did and I understand. Natalie is helping us find a new house, so I pulled your credit and found a few interesting items on it.”

“Why did you pull my credit?” Toni said very angrily.

“Babe, I told you last week I was going to pull it to see how much we can afford. I can’t use my credit to buy a house since I already own two houses, and you told me this was fine and you trusted my judgment.”

“So you think you’re better than me?”

“Wait, what are you talking about?”

“Look, I’m tired of you and that stick up your ass, thinking you’re better than me. I get it, I don’t own a home and you own two, so what?”

“Okay, I’m going to hang up now because you’re tripping and I don’t understand what is going on with you lately.”

“Fine, hang up, then,” he yelled as he hung up and the phone went dead.

I was shocked because the last few times we had spoken, he’d gotten worse and worse. It was only three months into this six-month tour and I was trying to understand this madness, but Natalie had prepped me for this kind of behavior, as the first tour hits the guys so hard. I was hoping Toni was stronger than this, but it looked like he was so far gone and there was nothing I could do about it. It hurt, as his words got more hurtful as time passed, and even his letters started to be out of character. He would often call when they got off the boat and apologize and talk about how crazy everything was and say he was trying.

Because I was still working, I found ways to stay busy and not think about Toni, but my movie was wrapping up in a few, which meant I had less than six weeks to get my life together in Norfolk. I didn’t want to make a decision on the new house until Toni got back, so I decided to sneak away to Atlanta before my life officially changed and Toni came back and I became a real wife in Virginia.

Closer to Atlanta…

“Hey, Angela, I’m here. How far are you?”

“I’m right around the corner, will be at Chow Baby’s in like two minutes.”

“Alright, I’m ordering a glass of wine, do you want one?”

“Look at you, are you driving?”

“Yeah, I’m driving. I’ve switched to wine since it doesn’t affect me at all, so I can enjoy two glasses without any issues.”

I learned about my tolerance for wine during my dinner dates with David.

“Oh, okay, I’m parking. I’ll see you inside.” Within seconds Angela was joining me at the table. I gave her a hug and we picked up like old times.

Angela and I enjoyed dinner and talked for over an hour. I finally came clean with her about everything. I told her everything about David, Toni and my new life in Norfolk. She was shocked to hear about my and David’s “friendship” and even more shocked to hear Toni and I got married.

“Why did you keep all of this from me?”

“I don’t know, I was embarrassed, confused and lost,” I said as tears started to well up in my eyes.

“Don’t cry. I would never judge you and I’m happy you’re happy. Toni is a great guy and I know how you felt about David, so I’m glad you found an exit from him. You said your life is back on track, so you’ll be fine in the end. I know Norfolk is new, but it is closer to Atlanta,” Angela said, trying to cheer me up.

I loved Angela; she was always my biggest supporter no matter what crazy mess I got myself into.

Ring, ring.
I looked down and saw Terry calling me.

“Hey, I have to grab this.” I excused myself from the table to talk to Terry.

“Yo.”

“Where you at?”

“At Chow Baby’s with Angela. Why, what’s good?”

“I thought you was coming out with me tonight?”

“Relax, I’m still coming, but it’s only nine p.m., since when do you go out this early?”

“Oh, you got jokes. What time you coming down?”

“Maybe like eleven or so. Why, what’s up?”

“Nothing, man, I’m just asking.”

“Oh, okay, well, let me finish up dinner and I’ll hit you up later.”

“A’right, one.”

Terry had been mad at me because I’d been in town a few times in the last year and really hadn’t been chilling with him. Mainly because I worked on Saturdays and hung out with David on Thursdays and/or Fridays.

Toni knew I was close with a lot of male friends, but I started to distance myself from them because he said he never trusted any of them. The navy had made him very jealous and sadly insecure. He would even check my emails from the boat because he knew the password. I had nothing to hide, really, so I pretended like I didn’t know he was checking my emails. I couldn’t even talk to him about some of my male coworkers without him blowing up on me about them and their “intention.” I was also so confused, as I never had a reason not to trust Toni, but also since I was clueless about the people on the ship, I figured I was cool. I knew he was getting close to a shipmate named Felix. I was happy he and Felix could talk and stuff, as he always said Felix helped him stay grounded and always kept him in check. So I guess I owed this Felix guy dinner once they got back, for keeping him calm, even though I was scared to see him on edge if he didn’t have Felix to talk to.

After Angela and I left dinner, I quickly touched up my makeup and headed back downtown to meet Terry. I missed hanging out with Terry, and believe it or not, I hadn’t been out with him since his birthday party over a year and a half ago. This just wasn’t the same and my mind was elsewhere, keeping in mind this was the first time coming to Atlanta and not hitting up David. I missed our time together. It wasn’t anything physical, but the emotional connection we had was crazy and I missed it. I was itching to send him a text because I really didn’t feel like going out, but I didn’t do it. Terry kept bothering me to have a drink, but I kept declining. Outside of the two glasses of wine I had at Chow Baby’s, I didn’t drink anything else that night. After about an hour in the club I dipped out the back door without saying anything to Terry. I knew he would be upset, but I just wasn’t feeling it, so I made my way to the car and I heard someone call my name.

“Yo, JR.”

I stopped to turn around and saw David’s best friend Adam running up to me. “Crap,” I said to myself. “Yo, Adam, what’s up?”

“Good. Man, D said you moved out of town. Are you back?”

“Naw, I’m just visiting.”

“How are you doing? How’s your girl Angela?”

“Man, she is good, everything is good.” I smiled because after Angela went out on one date with him she was over him, as he only wanted sex from her and she wasn’t that kind of girl.

“You leaving? Is it wack inside? I was just about to go in. Let me buy you a bottle of water.”

I just smiled because it seemed like Adam remembered me pretty well. I used to ride with David, so I drank, but if he’d seen me solo, he knew I wouldn’t drink.

“Thanks anyway, I was just heading out.”

“Oh, okay, congrats, by the way. David told me you’re getting married.”

I just froze.

“You know my man was really feeling you, but he says he is happy for you.”

“Is he really happy for me?” I said, giving him the look. “Look, man.” I paused and said, “You know something, never mind. I’m out of here.”

“Wait, what, tell me what you got to say.”

“It’s not important. Have a good night.” I headed to my car.

“Come on, JR, don’t leave me hanging,” he yelled as I opened the rent-a-car’s door and began to pull away, leaving him standing outside with his arms up.

I really couldn’t do this now. Maybe coming to Atlanta wasn’t a good idea, as my past was all around me and I couldn’t seem to escape it. I needed a fresh start, so maybe Virginia was that fresh start I needed. I felt so sure in my mind for the first time in months.

I spent the rest of my trip checking on my townhome and my new tenant Shantal, my mother’s rental property, which was now vacant since she had to evict her tenant, and did some shopping on the low. Then I was back home in New Jersey. I finally found a tenant (my aunt) and she was set to rent the top of my home in two weeks. I moved all of my things to the basement and made my way back to Norfolk. I figured instead of renting a U-Haul I could just leave my things in the basement and come back to pick them up when Toni and I really got settled in Norfolk.

I also needed to start planning my “wedding.” I didn’t know much about planning a wedding, so I convinced Toni to have a destination wedding in the Bahamas. I spent the last month before Toni came home planning the wedding and finding houses in Norfolk. Since Toni’s credit was all over the place, I also spent the last month or so cleaning it up with the help of Natalie and the broker. We ended up having to pay off a bunch of creditors, which totaled up to five thousand dollars and still it wasn’t good enough because of his low rank in the military, so we didn’t qualify for the house. I was so depressed, but Natalie ended up helping me find a townhome to rent. I had to do everything on my own because the guys’ ship was held up again for another two weeks. At least Toni would have a place to live and call home when he finally got back.