6. A Close Shave

It was a miracle Taissa had managed to reach the kids' school without getting herself into a road accident. She was sure she'd have, had there been no snarl-up on the way. Her mind had been preoccupied — was still — with the thoughts and emotions trampling over her like an outraged herd of elephants. Heck, she'd even forgotten to turn the car to selfdrive mode.

She parked the car and rested her head on the wheel. What to do? she asked herself that question for the nth time that day. She'd had a roll in the hay with Channing Chevrolet. Up an alley. She palmed her face. 

This is very bad. 

If she was going to get drunk, why did it have to be with him? Why couldn't she have been with another person, at least then she wouldn't be feeling this down in the dumps. For fucks sake, he was a playboy! He probably saw her as nothing but a tool to satiate his manly needs for the night. Fuck, he was probably in between another woman's legs right now. The worst part was that she'd betrayed Aeneas. It really did feel like her dead husband had been angry at her this morning. Although, she'd tried to forget Channing, had spent a whole hour in a hot aromatherapy bath in order to purge herself of his touch. But deep inside she knew it wasn't going to work, she couldn't clean his touch inside her. It'd been a bitter pill to swallow and her betrayal hit her the most. If only—

'Mommy!'

She raised her head with a start to see a boy who looked to have ants in his pants in front of the car door. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath. 

Forget this, Taissa. You've got your kids to look after.

'Hi, Yannis, my baby!' she said as she opened the door. The boy immediately flew into her not-outstrecthed arms.

'Mommy, I missed you,' he said into her chest.

'Me, too, baby. I'm sorry.'

'It's okay,' Yannis said, pulling out of her arms. 'The school bus was sorta fun.'

She smiled at this, brushing his moppy red hair out of his face. 'Where's Naima?'

'I dunno.' Yannis shrugged. 'With her friends, maybe.'

'Go get her?'

'Okey.' He chucked his backpack into the backseat and ran back into the school only to come out seconds later with a group of girls behind him.

'Hi, Mommy,' Naima said, hugging her mother who had now gotten out of the car.

'Hi, Mrs. A,' her friends said.

'Hi, girls. How was school?'

'Twas good,' they said together like a Greek chorus.

'I guess we'll be going now,' Wanda said.

'Okay, bye, see you tomorrow,' said Naima.

'See you tomorrow,' said the girls and they were gone.

Five minutes later they were on their way home. The car was silent for some seconds then Naima brought her phone out and Yannis leaned forward from the backseat to turn the car radio on.

'Mommy,' he said, 'can I get a bike for my birthday?'

'Uh,' Taissa murmured. Why was he asking that now? She had bills to pay and her salary was becoming insufficient for them, she barely made sure the kids were oblivious to this fact. A bike was pretty expensive, unless she got a secondhand. But a preloved bike wasn't the ideal birthday present.

'Excusez-moi, Mommy?' 

'I'll think about it.'

'Really? Thanks you, Mommy.'

'I make no promises, Yannis.' She knew the boy like the back of her hand. When the said day arrived and she got him no bike he'd insist she'd promised him.

'Uh,' he mumbled and sank back into the seat, looking down in the mouth.

'Mommy?' It was the daughter this time around.

'Yes, sweetie?'

'We're having a field trip next week. Well, our teacher said it's more of an excursion.'

'Okay, to where?'

'C.C Arkitexs,' Naima answered. 'Ain't it cool, Mommy. We get to see Mr. Chevrolet in person.'

'Uh, yeah, I guess it is. Good luck.' What a coincidence. She couldn't help remembering what had transpired yesternight. Although she'd been drunk she still remembered everything vividly. He'd felt good inside her, she'd felt all of him, every inch of his big manhood had filled her. She shivered at this memory, no matter how she tried to forget that night it refused to go away, it was etched in her memory. She'd been euphoric till she passed out with sheer exhaustion, it'd been very long for her, and she'd never done it up a wall before. Maybe it was because she'd never had anyone else before, or because it'd been long for her, but she couldn't deny she'd loved every moment of it, even if she was now regretting it. The feel of his mouth on hers, oh God, it'd been like heaven, her moans and his own groans, it still fired up her blood. She sighed, pity he was a playboy. Not her type.

Who're you kidding?

She knew he was every inch her type. He had muscles in all the right places that she admired. Had loved the feel of it under her hands—

'Mommy!' the kids screamed.

'Look out!' Naima screamed further.

She jerked out of her wanton thoughts in time to see a truck in her way and swerve out of the lane just before she crashed into it. 

Her heart was beating wildly against her ribcage. The kids were screaming. Her head was pounding on one side. 

She stopped the car by the side of the road and looked down at her hands which were now shaking uncontrollably. That was a really close shave. If she'd looked up a second later, she'd have crashed into the truck full force. She put a shaking hand to her chest to calm herself. Her kids had stopped screaming and Yannis was now crying, Naima was still in shock.

Fuck, what have I done? 

The truck driver was already on her side of the road. The older man looked really mad enough to strangle her. 'Fucking hell! Are you insane? Have you frigging lost your nut? Did you want to put me into trouble? If you wanna commit suicide why don't you effing go do it in your house?' the man raged, his face as red as bad rash. Then he heard Yannis crying and frowned staring intently at the back but the smoked glass allowed him the view of nothing. He looked back at her. 'You've even got a fucking kid in the car! Are you fecking high?!'

She couldn't blame him, she wanted to apologize and get away quickly before she got a traffic ticket.

'I'm so, so, sorry, sir. I had a lot on my mind so I wasn't concentrating . . .'

The man scoffed. 'You'd better not get yourself fucking killed. If you know you can't drive, get your effing husband to do it!' He stormed off.

Taissa exhaled slowly. 'This is all your fault,' she said to herself then held her head in pain, her headache seemed to have intensified. She looked back at her kids, Yannis had quietened down but was still sobbing, Naima looked scared.

'Mommy?' she whispered, her eyes as big as train headlights.

Taissa turned the car to self drive mode and input her destination and got into the backseat with the kids. She undid Yannis's lap belt sat her son on her lap. The latter buried his head in her chest and continued to sob. She pulled Naima close to her and hugged her to her chest too.

'Mommy?'

'I'm sorry, my babies,' she said. 

One conclusion came to her mind.

Channing Chevrolet was toxic to her.