The unveiling

2nd night since Nichelle came home....
Basket ball reunion

Zach POV

I needed advice and some support so what did I do?
I hollered at my boys.

"Still can't play" Jeffrey said shaking his head.

"Cmon man you tryna win or nah?" Danny said frustrated.

"You seem like you got a lot on your mind" George asked. Making me hesitate to say it. I was way too nervous to say it but I needed to confess to someone.

They all stopped when they noticed my attitude and mood change. "Zach"

"What's up man?"

After a long 60 seconds I finally had the courage to say it out loud.
"I kissed her" I confessed and was met with silence.

"Motherfu-" Jeffrey started off saying.

"Wait I know this ain't who we talking about right?" Danny asked.

"Not that woman we told you to fire, right?"

"Who'd you kiss Zach?"

I sighed before responding "Vanessa"
"Well she kissed me- but I-"

"Oh nah I'm out" Danny said running to the side to grab his things.

"Tell me you're joking?" George said.

"I'm not"

"How'd that even happen?" Jeffrey asked upset.

"I warned yo ass" Danny yelled from afar.

"Ever since she had the robbery situation she'd been staying by my father and I of course would check in on her because she works for me"

"And we'd just end up spending time together, on the nights I was too drunk to drive my father let me stay by him and well" signaling that thats how it all happened.

"Well what?"

"She tripped on one of Amira's toys and I caught her. Then she just pulled me in for a kiss"

"Did you kiss her back?"

I hesitantly nodded, they all sighed and looked away.

"Have you told Nichelle?"

"Everytime I tried to tell her it's like something would happen in that moment"

"You have to tell her" they all agreed.

"When did this even happen bro?" Danny came back. "Like 3 days ago"

"The sooner the better" I sighed.

"Do you love Nichelle?"

"Of course I do man, what kind of question is that?"

"Well obviously not enough because you allowed this to happen. She deserves the truth from you" George said. He didn't know what he was saying. I don't know what came over me but I know that I love Nichelle and I always will.

"Shit" Danny said scratching his head. "You know Nichelle got the anger issues of the Tasmanian devil"

I know. That's why I'm scared.

"Make sure you wear some kinda bullet proof vest cause knowing Nichelle she might shoot your ass" Jeffrey still said upset. Making me even more disappointed in myself.

"And make sure you fire her!"

"Aye man, even though we're all upset and disappointed. Just know we still gonna be here for you and hold you accountable. Just tell her and tell her soon man"

"We might just have to be away from you for a lil when our wives find out but we'll be here as soon as we can" Danny said. Knowing his wife I understand.

I sighed and dragged my hands over my face.

Nichelle POV

I was on cloud nine. Zach loved the whole thing. He was moved and I could tell because my baby was crying and happy all at the same time.

I love him so much and I just hope that this grand gesture would reassure him that I'm here and I always will be.

Once we made it home, we could barely keep our hands to ourself.

We had been glued to each other since. It's been two days together and Amira came in last night but was knocked out. I've been waiting for her to wake up to spend my whole day with her.

As we laid in bed naked, Zach rubbed circles in my back and I finally meant to tell him to important news.
"I took the whole year off to be with you both" his eyes widened in surprise.

"Really?" He asked and I nodded. "I love you Zach. I love my family more than anything" he stared at me and within seconds he placed his lips on mine.

He wasted no time and we went straight into business.

He must've missed me for real because he had enough stamina to go for 3 hours. By the time he had to go to work, we both couldn't get up.

"Hello? Hey Mark, I'll be coming in late today. Something came up" he said making me chuckle. He hung up the phone and continued drawing circles on my back.

"What came up Zach" he looked over at me and rolled on top of me. "This" he pressed his member against me.

Not resisting, we went at it again. After the next 30 minutes, he finally released me so that he could freshen up and get ready for work.

I laid in bed sore from all this work out and watched him get dressed.

"I missed you" he said while fixing his tie.

"I can tell" we both chuckled.

"I missed you too and I'm sorry I overworked myself to the point where I spent less and less time with you guys" he nodded and came over to the bed. He kissed me on the forehead.

"All that matters is that you're home now with us" he smiled before grabbing his briefcase.

"I'll see you after work baby" I smiled at him and puckered my lips so he could kiss me which he did.

He walked out of the door and dropped myself back in the bed.
Feels good to be home.

"Heyyy nugget" I hear him say, which means my girl is up. I got out the bed and found one of his shirts to put on and my underwear.I head out to get my baby.

Once I walked out and she saw me she immediately got out her father's arm to come to me.

"Mamaaaa" she hugged me tightly.

"I missed you mama"

"I missed you too bug"

"Alright ima leave you two" he kissed her forehead .

"Be good you two" he said looking at us both and pecked me before leaving.

"You want to do something exciting?"

Her smile reach her eyes "like what?"

"Momma look at me!" She said as we both jumped on the trampoline. You guessed it I took my baby to the trampoline park.

We were having a time. Though I think I'm unfit because why was out of breath?

"Mommy is gonna take 5 minutes okay?" She nodded "stay where mama can see you"

"Yes mommy"

I walked over to Chantel who was sitting at the table reading a magazine.
"I don't know how she's still going" she put it down. "She's a five year old Nichelle"

"You're like a 10 year old in adult years" I laughed at her statement "you're tired"

"How's it been without me?"

"Same old, same old"

"Me and Lionel are doing great, I actually think he's going to propose" she said excitedly

"Oh really?!" Me geeking out with her "that's exciting! I'm happy for you girl"

"Yeah, trust me in super excited"

"Ouuu we need to start planning and finding dresses" I said.

"What gave it away that he might propose though?"

"Well he's had a sudden interest in jewelry stores"

"Ohh is that so?" She smiled and we squealed together again.

"Alright let's calm down a little" I did a quick woosah.

I grabbed one of the magazines not because glimpsing Amira. "Hand me one of these, I haven't read a magazine in a minute"

Mindlessly scrolling through pages I noticed a familiar face...

"Zachary Anderson, new beaux?"

"Huh?" I said more to myself. It looked like they were leaving somewhere together and then in the next picture he was eating ice cream with her and she had what appears to be his blazer on.

"Chantel you know anything about this?"
I showed her the pictures "yeah I found them there that night"

"Why didn't you tell me anything?" I questioned

"For starters both of yall broke yalls phones at the same time and by the time you got it back it slipped my mind" she shrugged. Fair point.
That did happen.

"although it was something I wanted to speak to you about"

"He said she's just his personal assistant and that you know about her" I nodded

"I do, she does good work."

"I just don't get why they're here together" Getting a little annoyed.

"That night you guys had a fight and she volunteered to get him out of the Christmas party to and I quote" she raised both hands and did air quotes
"Cheer him up"

Cheer him up?
Who does this heifer think she is?
Her man leaves her and now she wants to cheer mine up?
I could feel anger rising up in me.
Zach wouldn't cheat on me. No he wouldn't. No matter what.

I know Zachary. Maybe Marionela was right I should've kept a closer eye on her.

"Hmmm"

"What are you thinking?"

"Different ways to strangle Zachary"

"Oddly enough, I already knew that"

"Maybe I'm tripping, it's nothing right?" I waved it off. "I trust Zachary and he would never attempt to cheat on me with another woman" I shook my head.
But why was I still feeling the need to find out if I was right?

I looked at Chantel who really knows me too well. "I'll open up the blogs and do some research"

I went to grab Amira who was reluctant on leaving but at the mention of McDonald's she was out the door before me.

I was driving home with Amira and my mind was just making up scenarios and it was driving me nuts.

I'm just going to ask him when he gets home. He might be a little offended but I just gotta know. To calm my nerves you know?

I pulled in our driveway and walked in with my baby.

"Time to shower baby"

I ran her bath my little sugar loved a bath tub.
She got undressed and got in. I made sure to make it extra bubbly.

"So did you miss mommy?" She nodded with a big smile.

"I did a lot!"

"Oh good mommy missed you too" I pouted "I had nobody to play with"

"I played with Miss Vanessa, but she's nothing like you mommy" played with Vanessa...

"Where'd you play with Vanessa?"

"At pop pops house"

"Ohhh what kind of games did you play?"

"We played everything, Barbie dolls, and dress up and with all my other toys!"

That made me a little sad to think she found another adult person to play with other than me. That's my own fault though.

"I'm sorry mommy couldn't play with you before but I'm here now" I said while pushing some hair out of her face.

"It's okay mommy. You're here now" she smiled at me. She's such a sweetheart.

"Thank you baby"

"Maybe we can play with nana and miss Vanessa" the combination here made me nauseous. Absolutely not.

"Vanessa and nana Maira are very nice"

"One time nana took me to the museum of ice cream" before she rambled on I asked because I needed to know what else happened in my absence.

"Did pop pop go with you guys?"

"Nope it was just me and nana and it was so cool!" I felt like something ticked it me. Like a ticking time bomb I was ready to explode. Why was she with Maira alone?

"I'm happy you had a great time"

"What other fun things happened when mommy was gone?"

"Ummm" she thought, it felt bad to pick my baby's brain but there was a need to know.

"Nothing else"  I sighed. Okay that's not too bad. Zachary knows I don't like Amira going anywhere with Maira alone. I want her to be supervised when she's with that woman.

"Oh and mommy I got so scared one time!"
I pouted. "Why baby?"

"There was lightening and thunder" she put on a scared face and trembled.

"Ohh noo my poor baby" I cupped her face. "It's okay, daddy kept me and Miss Vanessa safe" she said proudly.

Alright I'm about tired of hearing her name. It almost seems like she was everywhere every time.

"Oh yeah, how did daddy keep you guys safe?"

"Daddy let me and Vanessa sleep in his bed" my heart dropped.

What?

"What do you mean baby? Was he in the bed too?" She shook her head "nope daddy stayed on the couch."

"Ohh" I sighed in relief but I was still boiling.

Amira rambled on about every other exciting that happened in my absence.

Once she got out the shower, I had already made up my mind about confronting Zach but this couldn't wait anymore.

Anger was consuming me and while I had some kind of control over it I decided I was going to confront him at the job.

I opened my door and was met with the mail man "Hi, Mrs. Anderson?"

"That's me" he handed me a envelope
"can you just sign here?"

There was no where telling me who sent it. That's weird, I thought.
I signed and let him go. I shut my door and opened the envelope .

It was a picture and I didn't realize but tears slipped out of my eyes.

"Mommy you okay?" Amira asked frowning. I quickly wiped my tears. "Yes baby come on let's go by titi Chantel"
She nodded unsure but tagged along anyway.

I was about to go beat Zachary's ass.