Savannah stood near the window; her fingers entangled in the fabric of her curtains. Her head throbbed with the dull pain of frustration. Thomas always played the same game every other Friday. Call her so that she would drop what she was doing, get the boys ready, just to make her wait for him while he took his sweet time getting there. Thank God the only connection between the two of them were the kids.

Nicholas was asleep against his book bag and Jake was fiddling with his action figures. They were so eager to spend the weekend with their daddy that it was all she could do to keep them off the ceiling and she felt sad for them.

She remembered what it was like growing up in the Mitchell residence. Her father, Alexander Mitchell was a lawyer, and a very good one at that. His mornings were full of depositions and researching law books and most of his evenings were snagged by other lawyers wanting to pick the brain of one of Baltimore’s finest attorneys. All Savannah could remember was her mother’s sad eyes and the rumblings in her own stomach as they sat at the dinner table, waiting for Alexander who always said he was only twenty minutes away, but seemed to keep his family waiting for hours.

Jake, her oldest, stood up and walked over to her. “I thought you said he was coming?” He looked up at her, his brown eyes begging for an answer.

“I know baby. I’m sure he’s on his way.”

Jake turned slowly shoulders slumped and hopped back onto the couch. She sucked her teeth and glared out at an empty street. This was one of the more irritating things about trying to co-parent with someone else. This was adding to her fatigue from earlier. Work had been taxing. Her boss had managed to ask her for a hundred things plus hold six meetings … it was just too much for her to take on over an eight-hour day, especially on a Friday. Bad enough she had to leave the house an hour early for one of those stupid meetings he had scheduled that morning Savannah managed to get her work done, though, despite the interruptions. There was no way that she would ever let them see her not busy. Marketing was a field that she had wanted to be a part of since she was in high school. She worked her magic on simpler projects like making her cousins more attractive to the opposite sex. Then as she got older, she began making fliers and suggesting changes to a neighbor’s day care business. Before long, she was looking up courses to take that would lead her to a career where her skills would be useful and lucrative.

Savannah had always dreamed of a picket fence, a house full of kids and a husband she would race home to after work. All the hours at the office were supposed to support her dreams, but whoever was granting wishes had obviously not been listening to hers because she just had the house and kids. The stress of not having a husband made it difficult at times.

Doctor and dentist appointments, laundry, cooking, cleaning, and the quality time she had to ration out to each boy required significant finesse. She loved being a mother, but she could not deny the fact that it was hard. It deepened the respect she had for her mother who had raised two girls. On the other hand, her time with Thomas seemed to support the argument that it was just as hard with a husband as it was without one.

A honking horn made her jump and she peered out to see Thomas’s SUV pull up in her driveway. She turned to the kids. Jake had heard the horn also and was running over to her. Snatching the door open, she smiled stiffly at Thomas.

“Stop playing. Where are my boys?” He grinned. Savannah had to admit that he was a handsome man. Over six feet tall and weighing around 200 pounds, he wore his features well. He had always kept his haircut short, and his goatee trimmed to perfection. Thomas owned a nightclub with one of his friends from school, so he felt the need to always wear something expensive. He was doing very well for himself and always paid his support on time. As a father he was great. It was the husband role that tripped him up.

Thomas loved female attention. He seemed to crave it. He tried his hardest to be respectful of her whenever she had come to the club on his invitation, but she always felt that he had fondled or even slept with a few of his regulars. The smug glares from the women did little to convince her otherwise. Of course, Thomas only denied it every time she mentioned the strange looks she was getting from the other women. But, in life there was only so much a person could hide before being caught. When Angie showed up on the doorstep with a belly protruding through her dress, Savannah had gotten the answer she knew all along. She sent Thomas’s belongings with Angie and changed her locks.

“Nicholas is asleep.”

Thomas sucked his teeth. “Why did you let him go to sleep?” he complained. He pulled out his cell phone and glanced at it. “I told you I was coming around five.”

“Yeah, but as you can see it is almost seven. A phone call would have been nice. I may have had something to do.” She stared at him, a wall of frustration building up inside of her.

“I had something to take care of first. I didn’t have time to call you.”

“All I want Thomas, is a little consideration. Especially for Nicky and Jake, who have been waiting for two hours. It’s not fair to them.”

“Fine. I’m sorry, okay,” he mumbled. “Are you going to let me take them or what?”

Savannah moved from the door and Jake rushed forward into his father’s large frame. “I’ll bring them home Sunday night.”

Savannah walked over to the couch and picked up her sleeping son. Kissing him on the cheek she handed him over to his father and pressed her lips to Jake’s forehead. “You have fun baby, okay?” He reached up and hugged her tightly before rushing to the car. “Nicky’s inhaler and spacer are in his bag. I packed extra underwear and pull ups for Jake. He’s using the bathroom but just in case you want him to sleep in them at night.”

“You keep babying him. He won’t need those things with me. I’ll get him together.”

Rolling her eyes at Thomas, she closed the door behind them and retreated to her bedroom. Sighing, she stretched her weary body across the comforter and closed her eyes. All she needed was a little time to rest her eyes.

************************************************************************

Savannah yawned as she sat at her kitchen table scribbling a list onto a piece of paper. She had slept through most of the night and some of the morning. She planned to get up last night and get some of the laundry done. But, when she cracked her eyes open at ten o’clock the following morning, she had to rearrange her to do list. She was only thirty-three but an organizer that held her grocery lists and kept track of doctor’s appointments had replaced her little black book a long time ago.

She thought of Thomas who seemed to be having the time of his life and sucked her teeth. Why was it that men were able to walk away so easily, without any sense of responsibility? Men could just make babies and then decide that it was too much responsibility and leave. Mothers, whether it be because they were a part of the process from conception to birth, could never be so callous. At least not a mother in her right mind.

It just wasn’t fair. He got to party. And sleep in if he wanted. He didn’t have to worry about late nights and sick kids. Or worry about school stuff. She folded the piece of paper up and stuffed it into her jeans. “First stop, Club Walmart,” she mumbled.