Sour Sugar by A Dakala

Vacation had officially started. Our daughter was on spring break for two weeks with her grandparents in Mississauga. So my wife Sandy and I decided to drive down to the beach in Destin Florida for a few days since the weather forecast mentioned it would be ninety degrees there. Plus her best friend Julie had been begging us to hang out with her and her new boyfriend Teddy. Everything seem to be falling in place, I even got woken up at two a.m. that morning to Sandy’s pantiless butt pushing up against my left side. She couldn’t see it, but I looked over at her with a smile; slowly putting my hands under her tank top massaging her breast. With no child running and jumping between us in bed we took full advantage of our time alone. I definitely put that morning on the list as one of our best love making mornings.

While I was putting the last few items into the suitcase, Sandy was on the phone with Julie giving her the address to the condo in Destin and just making small talk as they usually do. We were driving two separate cars since Julie and Teddy wasn’t staying as long as we were. Sandy’s emails from her laptop was coming in every two minutes seem like. “Babe your laptop is going off”. “Ok baby” she said. I guess it wasn’t that important since she wasn’t in a rush to see what or who it was and neither was I. Sandy ended her call with Julie and walks in the bedroom. “Babe now what was you saying?” I just laughed, “so you didn’t hear me talking to you?” “Babe, Julie was running her mouth and talking shit about she didn’t want to go because Teddy said he lost his debit card but she think his gambling ass probably gave up his entire pay check betting. She told him they were going to his bank get money then and he cursed her out.” I didn’t care what Julie and her man was going to do, they was not going to to mess up my vacation week. As I grabbed all the luggage to take to the car, Sandy was still talking about Julie and Teddy while on her laptop at the same time doing something. “I would leave his drug using , can’t keep job ass nigga.” It all sounded muffled to my ears; slowly fading into nothing being heard as I glanced back at her while walking out of the room; her facial expression didn’t seem pleasant. If it was something wrong she would mention it.

Finally on interstate 75 headed south. Gas, snacks and a few hard mike lemonades we were about to kick off the trip with a spark. Sandy was going through CDs in the car looking for some music to play. As I was switching lanes, out of the corner of my eye I could see Sandy’s laptop bag on the floor behind her. I immediately reduced the volume on the radio. “Sandy why do you have your laptop with you?” I asked. “Babe, I just brought it in case we needed to look up some places to party at”. I wasn’t buying that excuse she gave; hell we all had cell phones. Sandy will pull out her laptop out no matter where she is at and start doing work; this was proven in Aruba last summer. I had to remind her that we are on Vacation to enjoy the sun and have fun.

Every hour Julie was calling Sandy giving her an update on their whereabouts. It started to get a little annoying. The more she called the less Sandy and I talked. The more Sandy and Julie conversed the more their conversation turned into talking in codes like “yeah girl”,”umph”,”who you telling” . So when her favorite Anthony Hamilton song started to play i used that to get her off the phone by turning up the volume and singing to her. “No babe, turn that down I can’t hear Julie” she said as she was turning the volume down. Now I’m pissed off looking out of the window like a sick puppy as I’m driving. The GPS said we had another hour of driving.

That last hour seemed alot longer, the conversing between Sandy and I had stopped because she was over in the passenger seat sleep. Hell I started to feel like a Uber driver.

As we crossed the bridge to enter on to the parkway towards the condo; Sandy woke up. “Babe are we there, I can smell the ocean?” She said. I didn’t even respond or look her way I kept listening to the music. I was so ready to get out of the car. She pulled her chair up, staring out the window. That same Anthony Hamilton song started to play again; there she goes turning up the volume with her hands raised as if she were in the club. I just looked at her and shook my head. I was disappointed that Julie and her man beat us to the condo; but Sandy just told me they got there before us only because Teddy actually lives in Valdosta Georgia which is three hours from Atlanta.

I parked the car and Sandy gets out to ring the doorbell. I’m walking to the back of the car’s trunk; pulling out our luggage. I didn’t hear the door open so I look over the top of the trunk; telling Sandy maybe their in there having sex. Sandy then banged on the door once. No response. Sandy walks back to the car and gets her purse and cell phone to call Julie. There was no answer but as we walked up to the door, Teddy comes to it. “Hey Teddy, what you and Julie in here doing, we been banging on the door for a few minutes” Sandy said. Teddy had this glare in his eyes as if he had seen a ghost or snorting one. He just stood there with no shirt on, looking a little homeless rough. Julie never came to greet us. When we walked inside we notice furniture out of place, pictures off the walls and the coffee table broken as if someone had been fighting or wrestling with Ric Flair. “Julie it’s Sandy and Joe we here” Sandy said loudly. “Man Teddy what the hell is going on” I said. I dropped the bags at the door, and walked up to Teddy face to face; my fist were clutched and I was ready to square off on him if need be. He started tearing up; then crying as he dropped his face into the palms of his hands. I saw scratches on his arms and blood in his finger nails. Sandy had made her way upstairs to check on Julie. There was silence as if the world had stopped. Seconds later you could hear the echo of Sandy’s voice screaming at the top of her lungs “Oh my God, Julie”!