Page 63 of Til Death
My mouth turned upside down. I rolled my shoulders back before reaching for my glass. “There’s nothing for her to handle. What he has going on has nothing to do with her.”
Roman stroked his jaw. “True, but it can’t be easy.”
Xylina’s teary-eyed face appeared in my mind. She rarely showed any emotions other than being happy, so knowing how much the situation with her dad upset her put a bad taste in my mouth.
“She’s fine.” My voice came out a little more forceful than I meant. “Xylina’s strong and she’s a fighter. Phillip’s sins won’t affect her.”
I could tell my words caught him off guard. Not too long ago I would have never defended Xylina, but now…
“Anyway, enough about me and my marriage.” I shook my head. My marriage was still on a timer, but I couldn’t lie and say I wasn’t looking at it differently.
“You right. Let’s talk about your birthday next week.” He grinned and rubbed his hands together after setting his cigar and glass of brown liquor down. “I reserved a section at Treasure and I?—”
“No strip club.” I shut him down instantly.
“C’mon, man, what better way to bring in the big three five than seeing some ass and titties.”
I shook my head, taking another puff of my cigar. “You know shit like that doesn’t impress me. Plus—” I paused, lifting one corner of my mouth. “I got in-house ass and titties I can look at. Why waste money on random females.”
Roman looked displeased by my words. He enjoyed strip clubs, and since he always ran from commitment and filled his time with women he met on hookup apps instead, he couldn’t grasp what I meant.
“That’s cool and all, but seeing the same person everyday gets old. I’d rather have new and fresh bodies surrounding me.”
“You know at some point you’re gonna have to grow up, man. We’ll be forty before you know it and continuing to go on like this is distasteful.”
Roman waved me off. “This is still our prime. Once I hit forty I’d’ve gotten everything out of my system.”
“If you say so, man, but settling down and having a family is all I’m worried about. My career is thriving better than I expected. My only goal now is to have a few kids and enjoy the fruits of my labor.” I puffed on the cigar again.
“I can respect that. You’re a good man, Yosiah. I’ve always admired that about you, my friend.”
We eventually shifted the conversation to other things, speaking about nothing of importance, but it was a nice break from everything going on around me. Between Havana and cycling, I had been able to keep sane these past five years. Roman wasn’t as big on cigars as me, so he didn’t spend a lot of time here, but still it was always nice connecting with my long-time friend and basking in the fruitful lives we both led.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” I took my eyes off the road briefly and glanced at Xylina.
Taking her eyes off her phone momentarily, she twisted her head to face me and batted her lashes with a small smile on her face.
“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you, hubby.” Her head tilted to the side slightly.
“Turn left at the next stop sign, then make another sharp left.”
The GPS continued giving instructions to the address she typed in. My birthday was the day after tomorrow and Xylina insisted on taking a small trip to celebrate. I wasn’t sure what she had up her sleeve, but we had been on the road for a little over an hour. We had just turned into the Lake Cashmere areaand were currently going through the small town that sat at the base of the mountains. It was about twenty five minutes from Lake Cashmere Ranch.
“Just trust me, this birthday will be one you’ll never forget.” Out of the corner of my eye, I glanced at her.
The trial with Simone had gone well and Xylina was offered a full-time position as her stylist. Since learning the news she had been in higher spirits. Her smile had returned as well as the light in her eyes. Her attitude was the same, except a bit more tolerable. Even sex with us had become more frequent the past week. She hadn’t mentioned her dad since the day she told me of their meet up and I didn’t ask in fear of dampening her spirits again. I took it as if she didn’t mention anything then he must not have been bothering her. I had been trying to do better with being patient and more understanding with her as well. I no longer dreaded going home or having a conversation with her. It turned out Xylina had more going on with her than just being self-absorbed and shopping. She had substance whenever she applied herself.
“I was told about this place from one of my InstaFlik followers. They said it’s great for couples and celebrating. From the pictures I saw online, it looked beautiful too. It was also voted in the top twenty places to visit.”
“I’m not big on celebrating my birthday, you know?” Normally my parents threw me a dinner on my actual birthday and afterwards I went to Havana to relax. The last time I actually celebrated my birthday was when I was with Sierra.
“Well I am and I have a lot to make up for.”
I thought about my previous birthdays as a married man. We had never spent one together since I was always out late. Even so, she always got me a gift. It was always expensive and normally something she was more interested in than me, butI still thanked her. Mostly I believe it was because she loved shopping and used any excuse to do it.
We turned down a stone path with blooming trees on each side. I noticed the leaves weren’t normal. They were thinner and spiky, orange and yellow.
“Those trees are called Waterfall Japanese maple trees,” Xylina mentioned, looking up from her phone and around. We had driven uphill toward Mount Cashmere.
