Monogamy

Chapter 3

Now that everyone has taken a 5 minute break to collect their thoughts and get their minds together, everyone takes their seat and prepares to get back to the session. Dr. Zhane asked them "how's the kids?" "Fine." Both Ivory and Melo responded. "That's good. I want to step into a place that's going to test both of y'all. Y'all ready?" Melo and Ivory nodded to respond to the question. Dr. Zhane leans in front of them and asked "have either one of you ever thought about cheating or have cheated on your significant other within the 7 years of being married?" Melo turned away from Ivory because he's guilty; Ivory did the same. Dr. Zhane felt the quietness in the room and observe their body language. She then ask Melo the question "which one have you done?" Melo takes a deep breath and then he says "I've cheated on her. Yes I did." Ivory looked at Melo as if she was surprised but at the same time she wasn't surprised. Melo then looked at Dr. Zhane and said "the reason I've done it because the woman I've cheated on her with had made me happy again. When I'm with my wife, I'm not happy at all but I do be happy to be with my daughters." "So why not get a divorce from her and be with the woman who makes you happy?" "Two reasons I will tell you, 1: I was hoping that maybe we would get this love thing back together and for 2: just like she (Ivory) said, I don't want our kids growing up without both parents in the household." "So how does the side chick play a part in your life or in this equation?" "She's there to make me happy when I want to be happy." "Did you have sex with her?" Dr. Zhane said while staring deep into Melo's eyes. Melo said "no. We would kiss and cuddle and just be laughing and talking about things that bring happiness within the relationship me and her (the side chick) share." Ivory got up and got in his face with anger in her voice, screaming "that's bullshit! You know you fucked that girl! You fucking liar!" She then pushes Melo head out of anger. Melo sits there just feeling nonchalant to her anger; Dr. Zhane gets up to separate Ivory away from Melo so she can calm down.
      After being calmed down and ready to resume with the rest of the conversation, Dr. Zhane looked back at Melo and asked him "when did you start developing feelings for another woman?" "It was on our 4th anniversary." Ivory got even more upset as she heard the response. Melo then proceeded to say "I'm not going to pretend to act like we were both happy during the anniversary. I was struggling with money because my job had cut my hours and I was working whenever I would get called in and that caused me to have depression. At first my wife was there being supportive and pulling her weight paying most of the bills. I was applying to other jobs but things were hard because I was told 'we'll call you.' You know that means they won't and none of the jobs did call back. I had to apply for unemployment. As time would go on, like we were 3 years into the marriage, that's when I would hear the smart remarks about how I'm not a man, I don't pull my weight no more, when am I going to get another job? Like that shit would eat me up and I would start to drink to deal with the disrespect and the pressure that was on me. Arguments would occurs in front of the kids, shit would be toxic. Then one day I came to her (Ivory) to talk to her about going into business and she wouldn't show no support. She would pass me on until her money started going down bad." Dr. Zhane looked over at Ivory and asked her "is it true?" Ivory pouted because she don't want to admit to the fact of Melo's statement; she nodded yes and Dr. Zhane asked "why did you act that way towards him? Towards the idea of earning money when you were the one taking care of things when your man was down bad?" Ivory responded with a salty response "I was frustrated. He was the king of the household; bringing home the money, providing, being lovable, just the person I believed a man should be. I had my own money, I did make sure I held it down too but money became scarce on his end for a year." "How did you earn money?" "I was a receptionist at a hospital." "Did you start to develop a different outlook on him overtime?" "Selfishly yes." "Why though?" "Back to what my mother taught me. Don't get me wrong, he does an amazing job with our children but I needed him to get back on his feet. We had a system when it came to the finances but the system became broken. When he came up with the business idea, we weren't speaking to one another at the time so it was like I didn't care to hear what he had to say." "So now, after hearing both sides of the story, let's go back to the day of y'all's 4 year anniversary. How did you (Melo) come in contact with this side chick?" Melo rubs his legs because hands are sweating from being nervous. He's about to reveal something that Ivory doesn't know. Melo says to Dr. Zhane "well when we were at Hawaii for our anniversary, we went there to escape the things that made us angry at each other but I was done with her, I was done with how she disrespected me and when I saw I wasn't getting the support or rarely any, I looked at her different. So when we was at the hotel, I went to the bar where I was chilling to myself. The music was bumping that night too but then all of a sudden, the DJ played a romantic song but I didn't feel romantic until her best friend showed up." Ivory was shocked when he said that, so was Dr. Zhane. Dr. Zhane had got up to go to the bar and grabbed a bottle of whiskey, went back to her seat and drink some of the liquor to prepare herself for more of what Melo have to say.
    Ivory asked Melo "so my best friend is the woman that you've been dealing with all of this time?" "Yeah. She was there for me more than you were!" "How Melo Anderson?" "She was there for me emotionally and mentally. When I was at the bar by myself, she came up to me and we hugged, it was a cool hug, nothing to it; she asked about you and I told her I didn't want to talk nor think about you and then I broke it down to her why I feel the way I do. She understood and then when I brought up the business idea to her, she was fully supportive and to see somebody else, who isn't my wife, be supportive of my ideas and understand my situation, that is the day I became attracted to her. Then we danced to one song and afterwards we went our separate ways. That's when I saw your face and got upset all over again and just went to sleep." Dr. Zhane had put her bottle down and then asked "did y'all (Melo & Ivory) have sex while on vacation?" "No. We took turns taking care of the kids and when she wanted sex, I would lie and say that I just masturbated so I'm not horny and then I would go to sleep. The anniversary was a disaster." "When did this business begin and what kind of business is it again?" "The business began when she didn't want to work at the hospital anymore. She then wanted to invest into the business with me and then we started a food business because we both like to cook and everyone mostly liked our cooking." "I think that's around the time I first met y'all as well. So Ivory, was that true or any truth to anything he said." Ivory staring at Melo with fire in her eyes, she responds with "yes it's true! I wanted to see where this business can go if I decided to quit my job. I wanted or really I should say I needed a guarantee that this will work so I took a gamble on his idea." Dr. Zhane looked at Melo and asked him "Melo, how do you feel hearing that?" "It sounded like she was in it to gain something for herself and if things failed, she can put all the blame on me." Ivory responded saying "yeah I was since you like fucking with people best friends!" "Fuck you!" "No fuck you and her! Fuck your raggedy ass mother too!" "Bitch fuck your dusty ass, no front teeth having, bottom teeth looking like railroad track having ass mother!" "Hey! Hey! Hey! Cut that shit out right now. We're not doing that in my office." Dr. Zhane says to both Melo and Ivory, restoring control back into the office.