Guillaume, Her French Husband

“Nothing much. I guess I am finally coming out of the separation anxiety now that I came back to work full time…” she began circling her index finger around the rim of her glass before she looked up. “I guess I was just really craving some adult conversation. Anything that is not about Doc McStuffins or some weird sponge that lives in a pineapple under the sea.”

Lara laughed.

“You know I actually happen to love SpongeBob, right?” she asked and Ashley rolled her eyes.

“Why?” she asked. “What is so special about that damn show? And how is it that he lives under the sea? He is a sponge for Pete’s sake. He should be floating in the worst case scenario.”

She shook her head again.

“It’s a cartoon, Ashley. Give him a break,” Lara pointed out as she took a sip of her wine.

“Well, it’s pretty disturbing. And confusing to my kid too…I mean, I am literally a few months away from walking into my house to find him trying to drown a kitchen sponge.”

Lara smiled and shook her head.

“I think kids are actually smarter than we give them credit for. And that being said, I hardly see a future where you will walk into your son trying to drown a sponge.” She bit her lower lip and then raised her glass to her lips.

“Tell that to my sister. She had her tablet inside the kitchen sink because my niece was trying to wash out a virus.”

Lara raised an eyebrow.

“A virus?” she asked and Ashley nodded.

“The poor sweet thing heard her mother saying that her tablet was not working anymore because she picked up a virus from the office and it was right after the whole big hand-washing campaign because it was flu season…” Ashley shrugged. “Long story short, my sister walked in and found her eight hundred dollar iPad inside a warm soapy bath.”

Lara took a long sip of her wine. It was all she could do not to burst out laughing.

“Yeah, yeah…go on and laugh. You should be thanking God your kid came all grown up. You have no idea what this Nick Junior life is all about.”

Lara shook her head.

“Nick Junior?” she echoed. “Am I supposed to know who that is?” she asked and Ashley forced out a laugh.

“Actually, it is a TV channel for kids, King. Try and keep up with the obvious, will you?”

Lara rolled her eyes.

“Well, between two jobs and everything else, I don’t think I have enough time to keep up with current affairs let alone the latest kid shows.” Lara slowly drummed her fingers on the counter and shrugged. She could not help but feel that there was something more that Ashley was not saying. “Ash, are you sure everything’s okay? You are not really being yourself.”

Ashley took a long deep breath.

“Everything’s fine…as far as I can tell.”

“And?” Lara pressed.

“MJ is spending the weekend with his father,” Ashley finally said.

Lara took another sip and shook her head.

“He spends every single day with his father. So what is so special about this particular one?” she asked.

“Matthew and MJ are not at the house,” Ashley said simply. But her answer only seemed to peak Lara’s curiosity. “They are at Matthew’s parents’ house down in Virginia.”

Lara silently gasped as he looked at her. Even though Ashley was of African American descent, her biracial aspect seemed to speak louder than anything else especially when it came to her parents in law.

Her very racist parents in law.

As far as they were concerned, Ashley was just another ni**er that their son unfortunately had to come across. Lara had always found it difficult to understand how a perfect man such as Matthew could have been born to such terrible people. And as far as Matthew Junior was concerned, ‘Ashley the Darkie’ could never be good enough to be a mother to their ‘little sh*t of a grandson’.

Suddenly, it all made sense. The late night talk. The way she had been working so hard that particular day. It was probably all to get her mind off what was really going on in her life at the time. Keeping her mind off that she would be going back to an empty house for the next two days.

Keeping her mind off her son being with the same people who had swastika tattoos and burnt crosses at midnight.

Lara reached out and gently touched Ashley’s hand.

“They have never wanted to meet him and now that MJ’s there, they suddenly want to see him?” Ashley asked as she circled her finger on the rim of her glass. “Why now? What the hell do they want with my son?”

“They probably just want to reconnect with Matthew and besides, he is there with MJ. You think he would take his eye off MJ for even one second?” Lara asked as she looked at Ashley who sighed loudly.

“He actually told me that he would be staying at Kimpton Morrison,” she pointed out.

“See, you have nothing to worry about. MJ is not even under the same roof as Vivian and Don,” Lara said.

Ashley bit her lower lip and she was about to pour another glass of wine when Lara took the bottle from her.

“No, honey. I have to drive back home, remember?” she said as she pushed the bottle away.

She felt her heart go out to Ashley when she saw a tear roll down her cheek.

“Enough about me. I don’t want to talk about this anymore….how about we talk about you,” Ashley said as she brushed the tear off her cheek. “Let’s talk about you.”

Lara shrugged.

“What about me?” she asked. “You and I both know that my life is pretty much boring. Hosting at the Exotic Terrace for five hours a day…come here and wait tables in this ridiculously short shorts and then yet another failed audition…” She shook her head. “Same old, same old.”

“I thought the auditions have been going really well,” Ashley pointed out.

“Well…that’s a relative term,” Lara said in a soft voice. “I mean, I have been getting a whole lot of audition dates but none have really been panning out.”