Page 79 of Certified To Handle You 2

“Look what you just did,” I said, kissin’ Isley’s head while I rubbed her back and tried to calm her down.

“What I did?” Pluto asked, her voice goin’ up all over again. “You always do this shit. Every time Zurie do something, you come running to save her like she ain’t never wrong.”

“I ain’t savin’ her from nothin’. She is a fuckin’ kid.”

“I don’t give a fuck what she is!” Pluto screamed. “I’m tired of her waiting until the last minute to tell me shit. I’m tired of everybody in this house expecting me to fix everything, and I’m tired of you acting like she can’t be corrected because she cry to you.”

I stared at Pluto ‘cause I ain’t know who the fuck I was lookin’ at right now. My wife had always been a lil’ soft with the kids, even when she was mad. She might fuss, pop somebody, take a phone, or make somebody sit they ass down somewhere, but she had never hit Zurie like that.

The way she was standin’ here now with her face tight and her chest movin’ hard made it clear that this argument was about a whole lot more than some cheerleading shit.

“She was wrong, and I’m gon’ handle it,” I said. “But you slapped her in the face and then tried to jump on her while I got Isley in my arms. You don’t see nothin’ wrong with that?”

“There you go,” she said, lettin’ out a dry laugh. “Taking her side again.”

“I ain’t takin’ nobody side. I’m tellin’ you what the fuck just happened.”

“You always make excuses for her, Pressure. Every time I try to discipline her, you come behind me and make me look like I’m wrong.”

“You was wrong this time.”

Her eyes got wide, and I knew she ain’t like hearin’ that shit from me.

“So she can talk to me any kind of way?”

“I ain’t say that.”

“She can roll her eyes, raise her voice, wait until the last minute, and leave me to clean up every mess she make?”

“I ain’t say that either,” I told her. “But you ain’t about to stand here and act like puttin’ your hands on her was the only way to deal with it.”

Pluto shook her head and looked away from me, but she still had more shit to say.

“You don’t know what it’s like being here all day dealing with everybody,” she said. “You get to leave. You get to do you,and I’m in this house with four kids pulling at me from every direction.”

“I know you tired, baby.”

“No, you don’t.”

“I do know,” I said, feelin’ my patience gettin’ thinner. “I see you, Pluto. I see everything you do, but that ain’t got nothin’ to do with you hittin’ Zurie like that.”

She looked at me for a long second before wipin’ her hand across her face. The anger was still there, but I could see somethin’ else under it now. She looked exhausted. She looked hurt, and she looked like she ain’t know how to hold all the shit she had been keepin’ inside her.

“I’m tired of everybody telling me what I’m doing wrong,” she muttered.

“Ain’t nobody said you doin’ everything wrong.”

“You just did.”

“I said what you did just now was wrong. That ain’t the same thing.”

Pluto shook her head like she ain’t wanna hear nothin’ else I had to say. Then she turned and started walkin’ toward the other side of the house.

“Pluto,” I called behind her.

She kept walkin’…

I stood here watchin’ her leave while Isley cried against me, and I had to fight the urge to go behind Pluto and make her finish this conversation. I wanted to know what the fuck was goin’ on with my wife, but Zurie was upstairs cryin’ after gettin’ slapped by the woman who had loved her, and my newborn was worked up from all the yellin’.