Chapter 3-When to tell my kids

Weeks passed quickly, and I met my ex at the drop-off spot. I didn’t let on that I knew about him and Tara, but I would let my girls handle it in their way. I went home and texted Pam. “Are we still on for tonight, and how many know what’s going down?” I asked.

“All of them, don’t worry, she will think twice about meddling in your custody order again, I’ve talked to Ciara a bit this week and she’s told me exactly what her dad’s girlfriend has been saying to her, and I won’t repeat it, but She needs to be knocked down.” Pam texted me. I quickly texted Tara, “Are we still on for tonight? I want you to meet Pam and Trinity.” I said before laying my phone down to finish my hair and makeup. As I was walking into the living room, I saw Tara’s car pull up in front of my house. “Are we taking your car or mine?” she said. “Mine, I prefer to drive, unless you want to drive separately. I might not come home tonight, I may go to Pam’s.” I spoke. “Yeah, you take your car, I will take mine.” She said, getting back in her car, watching me pull out of the driveway before she followed behind me. I called Pam.

“Plan’s a go. She’s driving herself.” I spoke. “Ok, I need her license plate number and the make and model of her car.” I read off from my rear-view mirror. “So, when will you tell your girls we are seeing each other?” She spoke. “Too soon, girl, too soon, give them some time, this will be difficult on the., Is Daria sure she wants to go through with her part of the plan?” I asked before pulling into the club parking lot. I saw Pam’s jeep waiting, packed with Trinity, Mercedes, Sydney, and Daria.

We all set up our table and ordered our first drinks. We didn’t tell Tara about it because she wasn’t one of us, and until a few weeks ago, neither was I, but I am truly blessed that I met these girls. After my 2nd drink, we headed out to the dance floor. After an hour, I excused myself to get another drink, and Pam followed me. Just then, Tara came rushing up to the bar. “I need to leave now.” She said with tears in her eyes. “Why what’s wrong? I asked with fake concern. “That bitch with the long dark hair, the tall one just fucking kissed me.” She said, slurring her words. “Daria? Why would she do that?, She and Pam are dating.” I said again with fake concern. “Well, she did, and I’m not staying around here if she’s coming on to someone who is not a lesbian. You can hang out with these weirdo, but I won’t, grabbing her purse and heading out the door. Pam and I looked at each other and started to laugh. Trinity came flying towards us with her phone. “Now the final nail in the coffin.” She said as she dialed 91 and walked outside. We followed. “Yes, I’m on the sidewalk of 8th and Main, there’s a woman who looks to be intoxicated behind the wheel of a

2015 Ford Focus, Color Blue license plate number MW8510, yes she looked to be stumbling and she spoke to me and was slurring her words quite bad, Thank you.” She said before hanging up. Just then, we saw Tara’s car pull out,dand rive to the stoplight, and the blue and red lights fflashed

We watched as she moved through the stoplight and pulled over. We went back into the bar and finished our drinks, and before long, I was saying goodbye to the girls. I checked my BAC, and I could drive a SUV with Pam; the others took an Uber home. I helped Pam into the house and got her settled before going to bed myself. I woke up to my phone ringing over and over again. When I answered it, it was Ryan. “Hey, I hate to call you this early, but have you seen or heard from Tara since last night?” He said, sounding worried. “No, she left without telling me. When I returned, I went to the bathroom, and all her stuff was gone.” I said not to tell him the truth. “Well, pictures were posted from last night, and she was kissing some girl at the club, and I need to find out what in the hell happened, and where in the hell she stayed last night.” He said before hanging up on me. I heard a sigh behind me. I smiled when I saw Pam lying there with her eyes closed. “Who turned up the sun? Why is it so bright?” She spoke.

“Honey, you had a lot of Tequila last night. I barely got you into my house and up the stairs. You are not a coordinated drunk. I love you, but that was insane,” I said, trying not to giggle at her. She lay there with her eyes closed tightly, before she looked under the blanket, then looked at me and said, “Hey who stole my pants?” I started laughing.”I didn’t think you wanted to sleep in those clothes, so I put you in one of my nightshirts for the night. Your clothes are folded up on the dresser;, no one stole your pants.” I spoke

A Month passed, and things progressed between Pam, and I, we had many discussions about when to become open with our relationship, I was holding back, nervous of how my girls would react or take the news that I was now dating a woman. A week after this, Ciara came home from school in a bad mood; she didn’t want to talk to anyone and was mean to Nikki, so I sent her to her room for the night. Nikki was asleep as the night wound down, and I was lying in bed. I looked up to see Ciara standing at my bedroom door. “Are you ok, Cici?” I asked, hoping she would give me some insight into what’s bothering her. “Can I ask you something, and you be truthful with me?” She said.

“Climb up here on my bed, baby girl, what’s bothering you?” I asked as she entered my room, closed the door, and climbed up on my bed with her blanket. “Are you and Pam dating?” She asked. “Yes, we are dating, but no one knows but the 2 of us, But I think the girls are catching on, and I was waiting until I felt it was the right time to tell you and Nicole, not that I didn’t want you

girls to know, but I know the divorce was hard on you and your sister, and I don’t want you to feel like I’m replacing your dad or that’s the reason we did divorce.” I said to be 100% honest with her. “I only found out this week at school, because Jeremy Eldridge started a rumor that you were dating wwe wrestler Bayley, and I called him a liar, but he said he had pictures to prove it, and he showed me Bayley’s Instagram page, I told him that didn’t mean anything, that you are friends with Bayley, and the other girls in the photos, but then he showed me one of Bayley kissing you, and it made me mad.” She said, wiping tears from her eyes. “Honey, I’m sorry you had to find out that way,” I said, pulling her into a hug. “I wasn’t upset that you’re dating a woman, that you’re dating Pam, because I like her, and you seem happy with her. I’m angry that he was the one to tell me, and he called you some awful names, and he made some homophobic comments about Bayley/Pam. He was going to post on Reddit and Facebook how she’s gross for putting herself out there as part of the LGBTQ community, and she shouldn’t be a role model to young and teen girls. I wanted to hit his mom, but he made me mad because Pam is good to us.” She said her face turned red. “Do you want me to email your advisor and let her know what Jeremy is doing?” I asked. “No, because it will make his torment worse,.Now that I’ve talked to you, I’m not so mad, just irritated that he had to have his nose in someone else’s life other than his own.” She spoke. “Do you want to watch a movie with me before you go to bed?” I asked. “Can we? What about that new Megan movie that just released?” She spoke. I turned on the movie and then turned off the light. Twenty minutes into the film, I heard her snoring softly. I smiled to myself, then grabbed my phone to text Pam who was in Chicago IL for Smackdown and wouldn’t be back to San Jose for a couple days, but I needed to tell her that CiCi knew about us and it was no longer a secret, but we had to tell Nicole when she came home.

A few days later, Pam came home, and Ciara and I told Nicole that Pam and I were dating. She was initially confused, but quickly accepted the idea, and then Ciara, Nicole, and I became a family of 4. Pam would take the girls to school, help with homework, and sit and cheer Ciara on during a basketball game she was at her dorm. The girls went off with their dad, and when I got home, I opened my mail to find a packet of papers from the court. Ryan was taking me back to court for primary custody of the girls.