Michelle again paused before telling Tanya the end. She silently shed tears as the ramifications of her actions looked her in the face.
"The best thing," Michelle continued, "was for me to have an abortion.
So three weeks after I found out that I was pregnant, I made an
appointment to have it done."
"No Michelle. What have you been thinking to not tell Charles? You
have made him to believe all this time that he is going to be a father and
the truth is he's not. What are you thinking?"
"I know, I know."
"No you don't know. You have no clue of what you have done or what
you are doing." Tanya continued, "That man loves you and his unborn
child more than anything. His new family is all he talks about. No
Michelle, no."
"Tanya, please don't say anything."
"No, I won't say anything, but you're going to say something. You're
going to tell him because if you don't, I am going to tell Cupid and let him
deal with it."
"Tanya please, I will handle it in time. Please don't do this."
"You have a week to break the news. I can't believe this. Let me tell
you something. It was because I couldn't find a good man and had been
treated badly by the men that I did trust that made me give up on men.
Then, a woman who said all the things that I wanted a man to say swept
me off my feet. She turned out to be no better than the men I allowed to
hurt me. Now I sit here and listen to you tell me this. I guess I should
have been blaming sisters like you for making brotha's treat us the way
they do. You are sorry!"
Tanya stood and looked at Michelle with tears in her eyes.
"These tears that you see are for the love that I know Charles has for
you. Get use to them, you will learn their pain."
Tanya dried her face and walked calmly out of the kitchen. She
removed her sweater from the closet and proceeded to tell Cupid and the
rest of the group that she couldn't participate in the morning festivities.
"Is everything okay baby?" Cupid asked.
"Yes everything is fine. Just an emergency at the office is all." Tanya
lied.
"Thank you for the opportunity to de-virginize your group. I hope the
invitation will remain open for a later date. Baby, can you walk me to my
car?" Tanya said as she grabbed Cupid's hand.
"Sure."
As the fellas said their good-byes, Cupid excused himself from the
table to fulfill Tanya's request. The short silent walk proved to be more
than she could handle as her conversation with Michelle replayed itself
in her head. As she fought off emotion and held back tears, she softly
kissed Cupid on his lips and told him she loved him. He again asked if
everything was okay as he opened her car door and released her hand.
"Yes baby," again she lied, "everything is fine," and with a half-hearted
smile got into her car and drove away.