Finally Free (Roman Reigns)

Chapter 2

All of those old butterflies came rushing back to me and they were just as strong as they were then. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Joe. How could someone that fine get finer?! But of course I had a glow up of my own and he certainly noticed.

I was stuck on Joe for awhile after he left and hoped that one day he'd return but I knew that he wouldn't want me if I was still living in the hood with nothing going for myself so I took his advice and went back to high school and eventually college. Once I got on campus, I realized that it was best if I moved on instead of holding out hope for something that would realistically never happen.

"What's wrong with you?" my husband, Bobby asked from across the table, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I raised a brow. "What do you mean?"

"You're sitting over there smiling to yourself," he pointed out, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

I laid my fork down and chuckled. "It's sad when you have to question your own wife's happiness, don't you think?"

I regret the day I met Bobby Lashley. I was in my first year of college at his alma mater. Bobby was a star college football player that graduated years before and went on to the NFL. It was homecoming when he decided to pay his old stomping ground a visit. It wasn't love at first sight but certainly interest and attraction. We exchanged numbers and quickly began dating.

Maybe I'm a bad luck charm because about 6 months into our relationship, he tore the ACL and MCL in his right knee. He tried to make a comeback but was never the same player and struggled through the next season where he battled stress fractures in his lower leg and more surgeries to clean up his knee. The team doctor eventually recommended Bobby call it quits before he ended up wheelchair bound.

We married soon after his retirement and that's when I learned about his finances. Bobby was spending like crazy, owning multiple luxury cars that he never drove, he even had a multimillion dollar vacation house in Miami that he hadn't slept a full week in. Let's not even get into what he was buying and spending on his family and old friends. Bobby wasn't broke by any means but he didn't have what a man making his kind of money should have saved up in case his career and income abruptly came to a halt.

We did alright at first but then he wanted to go out with his NFL buddies who were still being paid and tried to keep up with their spending habits: designer from head to toe, the newest cars, blowing over 10k in casinos every time they went. Next thing you know we'd downgraded from a mansion to the suburban home we currently lived in.

Bobby accepted a high school football coaching position just to have side income now that his NFL money was slowly drying up. He still had his big star mentality and would show up late and make demands. He'd yell at the players when they messed up on the field and eventually parents began pulling their children from the team. The straw that broke the camel's back was when he showed up on the sidelines one Friday night drunk. A local community college snatched him up and it went well for a while but Bobby's problematic behavior returned and he was once again shown the door. He blamed everyone but himself. By then, I'd graduated and was pulling in a 6 figure salary so that in addition to what he had left was enough to keep things afloat in our household so he stopped trying to find work.

The more time went on, the more his personality changed for the worst. This was not the man I married. This man was the very embodiment of an asshole. Now I was just living off the memories of who he used to be and how he used to treat me.

I got up and started running water for the dishes. "And I'm surprised you're still here. Don't you usually have somewhere to be on Friday nights?"

Bobby walked up behind me and I felt his arm extend. Closing my eyes, I braced myself for impact but he was just putting his plate in the sink with the others.

"Yeah, you're right," he leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow."

We didn't discuss it but he knew that I knew. For a while I wondered about the blonde that made an appearance in the comment section of everything Bobby posted on Instagram. This was about 2 years ago. I ignored it because I realized that he was indeed a celebrity and for every celebrity, there are stans. Then all of a sudden Bobby began acting secretive, never laid his phone down and started dragging in the house late at night. When I asked him about it, he'd deflect and act like I was being paranoid. Then came the anger, "I'm a grown ass man. I don't have to check in with you every time I move."

Something told me, 'check out her page, check out her page.'

I noticed familiar places in the background of her pictures so this Lana was living right here in Pensacola and everything started to make sense. I tracked her down and did the 'sitting in the car with my homegirls waiting for her to come outside' thing but decided against it because 1. She'd definitely call the police and the expungement would've been done in vain if I still ended up losing my job and gained an assault charge. 2. I should be going after my husband who exchanged vows with me, not the other woman. 3. The more I thought about it though, maybe there was a benefit to this affair. If she kept him and his anger away from me a couple times a week, so be it.

Sometimes I wondered why she didn't just take him but no one wants to deal with his ass 24/7. I don't know why I did. I guess I'm like my mom after all. Yes, I have a college education, yes, I live in a nice neighborhood but I guess in this case, the scenery changed but not the situation. When you look at her relationship with my stepdad, we both settled down with abusive, cheating men that we knew wouldn't change and neither of us made any moves to leave.

Later on while browsing Facebook, my hand was itching to look up Joe Anoai. I used to spy on him all the time after I was released but decided to stop torturing myself when he announced that Glenda had the baby. I really need to cut the 'Glenda' stuff out. I didn't know anything about her to have a negative opinion. It was just hating because she had what I wanted. There was nothing of interest there so I Googled him.

Apparently, his wrestling career was successful because 'Roman Reigns' seemed like a big deal and was widely regarded as the face of the company. A quick glance at his Wikipedia showed that he signed in 2010, a few months after he'd moved to Tampa. Admittedly, I haven't watched wrestling since the days of The Rock and Stone Cold but now I found myself going back down the WWE rabbit hole, catching up on Joe's career.

It's funny how things work. When I made my move, Joe was unavailable because I was underaged and he was leaving. Even if he'd stayed, he'd still be unavailable because he was engaged. Now he's back and I'm unavailable. Timing is clearly not on our side.