Seeds of Tomorrow

19

July had come about in all its humid glory. Thankfully work had slowed down although Victor winced seeing his checks that were no longer padded with overtime. Just normal checks. The kind of check he'd be elated for a few years ago but it felt like a blow to the chest to be making five grand a month versus nearly twelve. Pretax of course.

Though he'd been home by six most nights and on the weekends over the remaining weeks of June, Raquel was spending less time with him, stating she wanted to feel like herself again and not just Sergio's mom or Victor's wife. She wanted to go out with her friends like she was single.

The first time she'd brought up wanting to go to the club, Victor had blown a gasket. She may not have been married legally but she has a man and a child at home, why the hell did she need to go out with her single friends?

"If you don't trust me just say that," she had spit with venom.

Victor trusted her, that wasn't the issue. He didn't trust her hoe friends or the men who'd be drunk in the club. Ok, so maybe he didn't trust her fully. The going out shit was new, she hadn't been a partier before and it did worry him.

And it was becoming an increasing thing. The first week she only had gone out once, the second week both Friday and Saturday nights and that third week, she went out four times. He could check her bank activity and she was where she claimed but she was spending a hundred and up each night out at the club.

On the most recent outing, she didn't come home until around five am the next morning. Promptly showering and retiring to bed. Sergio was up by eight so Victor handled the house and went to chill at his dad's. Raquel hadn't even awakened until late that afternoon, texting him to find out where he was and if he could bring her Pedialyte home.

He had been ashamed by her behavior but the text had triggered a vent session with his pops.

"Is it appropriate for a mother to be going out til five in the morning when she got a man at home?" Victor blurted out.

Fernando chewed on a toothpick thoughtfully, "Depends, is she trustworthy or a hoe?"

"I don't even know no more;" he admitted, "She's been out three times this week with her single friends. Like she just started this shit a couple weeks ago. How she gonna be pissed off at me for never spending time with her yet now that I'm home she gonna run around acting single?"

Madison had been lingering in the dining room folding laundry on the table, "Do you think maybe she feels like she missed out on doing the young single stuff? I know you two got together young and had the baby young...maybe she is trying to make up for lost time?"

"Fuck, maybe, but that shit don't sit right with me. I bust my ass and come home and she's already halfway out the door," he said bitterly, "If she ain't happy with our situation, maybe she needs to say that. And it's not the going out that pisses me off, it's the amount she's going out. Once a week? Be home at like eleven? Cool. Three nights a week and now you ain't even coming home until the morning? That feels like some hoe shit."

Interest piqued, Madison stopped her folding session to join Victor and Fernando in the living room, "How would she feel if you did the same, are you able to go out?"

Victor took a swig off his Modelo, "I don't even know. The thing is, I don't want to go out! I mean, I like taking her out and having a good time. Going out with the homeboys all night ain't my thing, I'm tryna be a family man, you know?"

Fernando stroked his mustache thoughtfully, "You bring this up to her at all or just not saying nothing?"

"I told her I didn't like it the first night she went out and she got all hyphy with me, just feels like a giant 'fuck you're, ya know?"

His father nodded, shifting himself in his wheelchair, "Aye, I ain't tryna cause no issues but that wouldn't sit right with me neither."

Madison nodded, she wasn't going to say anything until Fernando spoke up but it felt like Raquel was checking out of their relationship, or at least, definitely wasn't respecting it.

Victor returned home with Sergio bringing Raquel leftover menudo Madison and his grandma had made. It wasn't a peace offering so much as it was a "don't worry about cooking since you're too hungover and neglecting your duties as the woman of the house" sort of thing.

Raquel was sprawled on the couch watching some stupid reality show in oversized grey sweats that were rolled down at the top and a snug-fitting wifebeater.

"Oh you're home," She said voice crackling.

"Mommeeeeee!" Sergio shouted, throwing himself on the couch so that Raquel had no choice other than to cuddle him.

"There's my boy," she smiled, "Did you miss me?"

Victor fought back the words that were flying through his head, "There's menudo on the counter, I'm going to take a shower and then I'll give Victor his bath."

He wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt that she was just finding herself but for the first time in his relationship, he felt insecure and worried about their future. Typically his pops could find some sort of rational explanation about situations to ease his mind but even he seemed to come up empty-handed.

Having grown up in a dysfunctional broken home, Victor had never wanted that for his own son. Of course, Sergio wouldn't have the home life Victor had but his son deserved two parents in his life at all times.

Raquel had Sergio in the bathtub when Victor emerged fresh from his shower. She had the door open and was seated on the toilet fully clothed as she wrote what appeared to be a lengthy paragraph on her phone. Sergio slid back and forth in his bath creating waves.

"It's a tidal wave!" he yelled to his father, grinning.

"Cool!" Victor told him trying to give him a happy face.

Raquel glanced up, closed out her messages, and crossed her legs not speaking a word to him. The tension was so thick it could be cut with a knife.

He disappeared into the kitchen, opening a bottle of Modelo before retiring to the couch. Victor felt like he was losing his girl. Was it because he spent so much time out of the home trying to provide for them? The thought pissed him off. It wasn't as if he were out with friends, he was sacrificing his time and body so they could live comfortably, did she not see that or did she simply not care?

Raquel brought Sergio into the living room, sitting him between her legs on the floor so she could put two French braids in his hair like she always did.

"You going to eat that menudo?" Victor asked dryly.

"After I get Sergio in the bed, yeah."

"It'll help your...hangover," he told her, the words coming out more venomous than he intended

Raquel didn't respond.

"I'm gonna go lay down, you got his bedtime, yeah?"

"Always do," she muttered.

Except for when she was out all night, Victor reminded himself as he swallowed the last of his beer and rose to his feed.

"Night, son," he told Sergio, "Love you, buddy."