The Hookup At LA Fitness

You Ruined My Fucking Life!

Hey, I know it's been a while since we last talked and I hate that I left you on a cliffhanger but I felt like getting Stacey's side of the story fills in a lot of gaps in the story and makes more sense. Anyway back to where I left off: I went through Chris's phone that night and found out that the person he was texting about "work" was actually his wife and mother of his kids. I feel literally sick. I feel like a horrible person. I locked his phone and laid down in my bed as I stared at my ceiling thinking to myself and debriefing what I just seen. It all starts to make sense now..him saying he stays with family so I'd never press him to go over his house when in reality he has a double life, him leaving when we were chilling at my place to help with a "project" at work..I can't believe I could be so clueless! As I took my eyes off the ceiling and focused my eyes on him sleeping soundly in my bed my first instinct was to cook sugar in a pot until it caramelizes and pour it over his face while he was sleeping but he's just not worth it, I decided to do something even more drastic yet strategic..I lock his phone and go to sleep. I wake up before him and make myself breakfast, get dressed, and come back to my room to see if he woke up and the instant regret of not throwing the caramelized sugar on him settles in but I let it pass. Since he was still asleep I went through the photos in my phone to find the picture I took of Stacey's number and call it. It rings three times and finally someone picks up "Hello, is this Stacey Hughes?" I say with a lump in my throat. I could tell she was nervous as well by the way she responded "Yes, who is this?" I didn't want to go into details too much over the phone especially if Chris is still at my house asleep or not..he could wake up at anytime and lord knows what he'd do if he found out I was doing this. I finally say "Hey um, I don't want to say my name or anything yet but I wanted to talk to you about Chris. I found his number in your phone and wanted to reach out..can you meet me out for coffee in an hour?" After I said that it was silent for 30 seconds but it felt like 30 minutes. The silence was so loud and the suspense was killing me! I wasn't sure if she would think it's a prank call, if she would start cussing me out for calling her, or whatever else. She finally responds and says "Y-yeah, we can meet at this local coffee shop off 115th called Emilio's. We'll talk there" her voice was cracking and you can tell she was getting emotional but trying to force herself to hide the pain..it was scary actually. It's as if she already knew what I had to say when I told her that. We exchange our goodbyes and hang up, 20 minutes go by and Chris comes downstairs. "Good morning my love, didn't expect to sleep in so late. How'd you sleep?" The fact that he could keep up with this act is borderline maddening! I can't believe him! I looked him in the eyes and immediately told him "Look we can't keep doing this." and his facial expression immediately changed from blissful to concerned as he says "Wait what'd I do? Is this because I nutted in you last night? I won't do it again it was just in the mo-" "No just stop Chris" I interrupted him before he could even finish. "It's not about that. I've gotten back with my ex and I'm moving in with him so we can't see each other anymore." Once again I hear nothing but silence..I can't handle all the suspense I had to deal with today! He just stands there looking down at the floor for a good minute or two before grabbing his jacket, keys, and leaving without even saying anything. It's probably best he left peacefully because he'd only open a bigger can of worms if I were to hear what he had to say! Anyway, he pulls out the parking lot and leaves as I get ready to meet with Stacey. I was the first to come to Emilio's and ordered myself a caramel cappuccino, I wasn't sure what she wanted so I decided to wait until she came but I took it upon myself to take care of the bill..I mean it's the least I could do since I'm going to tell her such heartbreaking news. As I drink my coffee and scroll through twitter reading people's hot takes on topics nobody cares about, I look up to see a black woman around 23 or 24 come through the door and recognize it's Stacey. She looks even better in person! She isn't wearing anything too flashy but she looks absolutely gorgeous. Her hair is in a sleeked back ponytail dressed in a white graphic tee and blue jeans, a gold chain with a cross looped on it and a couple of bracelets and rings that shine dimly when it collides with the sunlight. It's not red carpet worthy but the first thought in my mind was she deserves so much better than Chris. She scans the coffee shop as if looking for someone, since I've already seen pictures of her on Facebook I recognize her face so I waved her down as soon as she looked in my direction. She comes to my table and sits down as we greet each other. I try to break the ice by saying "Care for any coffee? It's my treat." she smiles in gratitude and says "Yes please! Thank you, I need it after dealing with two twins running me crazy on my off day. Lucky for me their grandma was able to pick them up and keep them for a while" I let out a soft chuckle and order her a Macchiato. As the waitress goes to fix her drink she looks me in the eyes and says "I think I get the gist of why you wanted to meet but I just wanted to hear you say it. I'm not mad but I want to cut to the chase to end my speculation" I hesitated for a moment, I don't know of a respectful or nice way to say that I've been fucking her husband! Why would I choose a coffee shop to say this? What if someone hears us? The waitress comes back to serve Stacey her drink and I finally build up the courage to tell her everything. I mean EVERYTHING. From the hookup at the gym, to the date at the mexican spot, Chris saying that her calling him was just work, our exchange earlier today, EVERYTHING!!! She sat there for a second looking down at her coffee just staring in disbelief and disappointment. "I knew he was up to something when I went through his phone for the first time. I found out he was on hookup apps called Grinder or something like that. I had tried my hardest to ignore it or pretend like it never happened because I couldn't face the truth or raise our children in a house where their parents aren't together." My heart sank to my stomach for a second. "He's on Grinder?" I said. "Yeah, I don't know how many people he's been with but you aren't the first and probably not the last" she said with pain in her voice. I'm feeling sick to my stomach at this point..he's on hookup apps fucking not only me and his wife but MORE PEOPLE?! We just fucked raw AND he nutted in me, what the fuck? "I'm so sorry this happened to you" I said. "It seems like you already knew though" Stacey takes another sip from her coffee and gazes out the window. "I knew for a few years. When I first found out he beat me so bad I had a black eye that lasted 2 weeks..I didn't even go to work. Told them I had a death in the family and was on bereavement in order to cover it up and keep drama from spreading at the workplace. People knew me and Chris were together, if they saw my eye they'd know and it would put both of us at jeopardy. I stayed in the house the entire time out of embarrassment and all I could do is cry." I see tears begin to form in her eyes as she stared off into the distance before grabbing a napkin and dabbing it on her tear ducts to prevent her mascara from running. "I want you to know I'm not mad at you for telling me this, I have no doubt that you didn't know what was going on. He's a very manipulative person and a good liar. He's been living a double life for so long and I have yet to know the extent to all of his lies." I look her in her eyes and say "I know this is hard to hear but you need to listen to me. We need to confront him and you need to leave him. I know you're doing this for your kids but you know it's only going to get worse the more that you allow it. Letting him disrespect you is also disrespecting yourself and lowering your expectations for a man when you know you deserve so much better. I don't know you..but I can tell you're a strong, intelligent, beautiful woman that deserves a better life than this. It may take a while but this too will pass." She looks at me and tears start rolling down her face, surprisingly not ruining her makeup but that isn't important right now. She holds my hand and says "Thank you." We finish our coffee and head back to her place to begin our plan on how to confront Chris. I follow after her car as she leads us to her place and we arrive in a suburban neighborhood surrounded by houses I could only dream of living in, as I'm following her car she turns left into a driveway and parks outside the garage of a house. The house is painted entirely white with a garden of yellow and pink petunias sitting outside the front porch. When I realize this is their place I start to realize how big of a liar Chris really was. First of all, they lived in a three bedroom house..NOT an apartment..A HOUSE!!! What happened to staying with family until you can afford one? The nerve of men. I parked down the street so my car wouldn't give away the surprise and head into the house. As I walk in my first impression is beautifully decorated it was, a lot of the furniture was white with accents of gold and red here and there which was surprising considering the fact that they had twins so to me it's kind of bold to have anything white in the house knowing it'll get ruined. The only place of the house I really paid attention to was the living room considering that's really the only part I was in at the time. In the living room they have a white sectional with an ottoman to match and a big arc lamp hanging over it, what I would assume to be a 70 inch flatscreen built into the wall with a digital image of a fireplace blowing out heat underneath it, a few family pictures hung up on the wall, and a huge white table with gold accents sitting in the middle of the room. It was honestly the house of my dreams. Anyway, the plan was to call him and have him come over to see the two of us together, and as he realizes he fucked up she tells him that they're over and to kick rocks with no socks. If only it was that simple..if only we knew how crazy it would really get. She calls Chris and he answers with the ugliest, nastiest, attitude. I almost couldn't believe it was him..he was always a gentleman to me so I couldn't believe he had this side of him. "What do you want Stacey like damn you're always calling me what the fuck do you want?" Stacey and I locked eyes instantly and she gave me a facial expression that kind of meant "yeah bitch I told you this man is evil". She finally says "Damn I was gonna tell you come over because I just cooked but never mind" His tone changes as he says "My fault baby I'm just irritated as fuck, I'm 10 minutes away from the house I should be there soon. The kids there or at yo mom's?" She replies "At my mom's why?" He chuckles and says "Well it's lowkey been a while since we had some alone time..let me take you out for dinner and after I can do that thing with my tongue that you like" THIS NASTY ASS BITCH! YOU JUST NUTTED IN ME LAST NIGHT THEN WANT TO FUCK YOUR WIFE?! THE NERVE! She laughs back and says "Boy you're so stupid. I guess I can find something to wear..I'll see you when you get here." They exchange goodbyes and hung up. Honestly, she's as good a liar as he is...her performance was so flawless it was concerning. We wait for what I think was 20 minutes as we sit in the living room talking until we hear Chris unlocking the door, my heart skips a beat because this is probably the boldest shit I've ever done..I literally feel like I'm in a Tyler Perry movie! Chris opens the door and the first thing he sees is us. You can tell by the way he looks that he's drunk and I say that because I can literally smell the booze all the way from the couch. Stacey gets up and says "Hey babe, I met someone out for coffee and crazy thing is he says he knows you, remind me Chris how did you guys meet?" Chris was dead silent. My heart was literally doing backflips in my chest! I didn't know how he would react or what he would say especially if he was drunk. "Oh yeah, we uh..w-we met at the gym some time ago" he says nervously. Stacey starts laughing uncontrollably to the point where it begins to scare me. "Of course you're fucking drunk!" He raises his voice and yells in protest "Shut up bitch I'm not drunk" Stacey screams back "You're a liar! You smell like a fucking bar I know you're drunk! And why did you gonna leave out the part where you fucked him?" After that Chris immediately charged at Stacey and pushed her down to her feet as he makes his way towards me and attempts to swing at me! Luckily he was so drunk that he was sloppy in his attack so I was able to dodge it but he put so much power into his punch he ended up falling face first, knocked over the lamp, and flipped the couch over in the process. Stacey gets up and rushes to the kitchen to grab a knife in order to defend herself in case he were to come at her again. Chris gets up and begins to charge back at us but backs off once he sees Stacey is pointing the knife at him. Stacey's face turns red and tears start pouring down her face as she yells "You ruined my fucking life! You beat on me, you cheat on me, you lie to me, you made me have your kids just for you to not even care for them, and all I ever did was be good to you! I swear to god Chris if you take another step I'm gonna fucking kill you!" At this point my body is numb and my legs are shaking..how did it come to this? I need to do something before this house ends up becoming a crime scene. After a moment of silence Chris starts trying to calm Stacey down. "Baby, listen to me I know you're mad, I know you may hate me..but please put the knife down. I'm sorry! We can talk about this. If you want a divorce I understand" but Stacey isn't going for it and I can't blame her. "Now you wanna fucking talk! After I used to beg you just to listen! I don't wanna talk anymore Chris. Fuck you!" Stacey runs toward Chris and he tries to run away but he's not fast enough, Stacey stabs Chris in the chest and he lets out a scream before falling to the ground. I stood there paralyzed in fear witnessing it all not even knowing what to say or do. One of my biggest fears is being stabbed and to see someone get stabbed in front of me made me want to throw up..and I did. I ran outside wiping my mouth off as I called 911 to send an ambulance. I didn't like Chris don't get me wrong, especially for putting his hands on a woman, but I didn't want him to die. If he did I at least didn't want his blood on my hands. After I called the police I came back inside and hear Stacey crying as she's pacing back and forth. I realize quickly that I have to be the person of reason in this situation. "Stacey the police are coming soon, put the knife down. Get yourself together and calm down it's going to be okay." She starts hyperventilating and says "It's not fucking okay I just killed my husband! I'm going to jail..who's gonna take care of our kids?" We take a long pause between her sentence but I can hear Chris's breathing. "He's wheezing when he breathes but he's breathing nonetheless. He's still alive and the ambulance are on their way, I think he's going to be fine." The neighbors are all watching from their windows and porches as the police and ambulance arrive a few minutes later and ask us what happened. We give the police the story and provide them with our information for further investigation later as they lift Chris onto the stretcher and take him to the hospital. Stacey decides to go with Chris to make sure he's okay and I go to my car and leave. I go straight to my apartment to decompress and try to fight back tears. I hate that this happened to me..I hate that I had to see that. What if he did die? It's all my fault..I should've known he was up to no good. I should've just minded my business instead of getting involved with his wife, I should've just left him alone when D'Angelo told me to. The guilt is weighing heavy on my shoulders and I don't know what to do. I reach in my phone and call D. "Wassup handsome" He says flirtatiously. "H-hey D um, can I please see you?" I say as my voice starts cracking. "Yeah baby what's wrong? You good?" I couldn't hold it in anymore and burst into tears. "Where are you?" he says with concern in his voice. "You home?" I can't even form a sentence I just keep crying. I can hear him getting emotional "Bae you're scaring me, where are you dude talk to me please I'm worried about you" I finally get the courage to talk and say "Can you please come over bro please I can't sleep alone like I need you" at this point he's already in his car "I'm 15 minutes away just wait for me, are you safe?" he says. "Yeah but I'm not okay" I can hear him on the road now and he says "Just stay on the phone with me til I get there I'm coming. Unlock the door for me". Sure enough he comes by and makes his way upstairs to my bed, holds me as I cry in his arms and tell him everything. I feel like he was mad that I was with Chris but he was more concerned about me than upset about him. After I told him everything we just sat in silence for a few hours together laid up in my bed as he held me until I drifted to sleep in his arms.