Free Diary of a Mistress by Miasha Page B

wasn’t like he had syphilis or something that you can only get from sex. Crabs can come from different things, not necessarily sex. She believed him, but only after she did some research on her own and double-checked with her doctor. I thought Carlos was going to tell me he didn’t want to deal with me anymore after that. But he took it better than I thought he would. I guess because it didn’t put a dent in his relationship with his wife. But his kids, though. I know how much he loves those boys, and I would think he would be ready to fuck me up for putting them in that position. But all he did was make me promise that from then on I would have sex only with him. How ironic, his married, cheatin’ ass asking me, a single woman, for monogamy.
    Monica closed the book and gripped it in her hands. She squeezed the book with all her might until her hands hurt.
    “Rita!” Monica shouted.
    Rita rushed back down the steps. “What, Monica?” Rita asked, worry all over her face.
    Monica just sat silently and still while tears poured down her cheeks. She thought back to the time her doctor had told her that she had crabs. She thought back to the looks on her sons’ faces as she put the shampoo on their little bodies. She felt so bad, like she had failed as a mother. She wished she could have protected her children from shit like that. But she never expected to have to protect them from their own father.
    “Monica, what? What did he do?” Rita asked, still waiting for a response, trying to break Monica out of the zone she was in.
    “He gave my children crabs, Rita,” Monica said slowly and dazedly, as if she were in a trance.
    “What do you mean?” Rita asked, her face scrunched up.
    Monica began to explain, “He told me he got them from the gym. The doctor even told me that it was possible. But he really got them from her and brought them home to me and my kids.”
    Rita’s face produced a look of sorrow as she shook her head in disbelief. She didn’t have any children, but C.J. and Chris were her godsons, and she loved them like they were hers. She didn’t know what to say to Monica. What do you say to something like that, Rita thought, as she shuffled through her mind trying to find the right words.
    “I never told you or anybody because I was embarrassed. Plus, I didn’t want to hear the negative thoughts. You know, people telling me that it was bullshit that he got crabs from the gym,” Monica said, still staring into space.
    “Well, how did he give them to Chris and C.J.?” Rita was confused and curious.
    “That’s the thing about crabs; they can get in bedsheets and clothes. That’s why I believed his ass when he told me he got them from the gym. Even the doctor said he could have gotten them from a toilet seat or some equipment,” Monica told Rita.
    Monica wiped her face with her hands. She looked over at Rita, shaking her head. “Rita,” she sang, as if she was warning Rita of something, “he really did it with this one.”
    Monica’s left leg was shaking vigorously. She was furious. She loved her two kids to death and would kill for them, as she thought any mother would. She kept picturing the time when her sons would scratch and squirm, irritated by their condition. She wasn’t concerned so much about herself, it was her children she felt bad for. How could he bring something my kids’ way and then continue on with that bitch like it was nothing? How trifling is that, Monica thought.
    Rita was shocked speechless. If Monica had kept the crabs situation from her, Rita was sure there were other incidents that may have pointed to Carlos’s cheating that Monica had failed to tell her about as well.
    “And this is the man I trusted with my life. The way shit is being spread these days, I could have gotten AIDS from him, my own husband. It’s not supposed to be like that. A married woman—or man, for that matter—should not have to worry about shit like that. I shouldn’t have to make my own