The Johnson Sisters by Tresser Henderson

of talking about this. Nothing is going to change,” he said, sliding his shorts off. “You know as well as I do both of us have issues to work through with us and our past. Yours is checkered too, Serena. I think you want to break this curse you think has plagued the Johnson women for generations. I don’t see it as a plague. I see it as women choosing their situation that dictates their destiny. I also believe women teach men how to treat them.”
    â€œSo I taught you how to treat me?” I asked.
    â€œYes,” he said convincingly.
    â€œWhat? Did I teach you to make me feel unworthy, unloved, what?”
    â€œThe love is there and it’s real. Your worth is something you have to find within yourself. I can’t do that for you. Nor did I ask for that job. As for the lesson to be learned here, you chose to go down this road with me, and that road was clouded. I cheated. You cheated. We knew what it was. You know about my baby mama, my son, and other women I’ve been with. I know about you and the men you been with. It is what it is,” he said, pulling the curtain back farther. He took off his boxer briefs and was standing in front of me naked before stepping into the shower and closing the shower curtain.
    â€œSo, just like that I’m supposed to accept this?”
    â€œYou don’t have to accept anything, Serena,” he answered. “I know I want you in my life.”
    â€œBut only as your girlfriend, not your wife?” I asked.
    â€œExactly. Even though I love you, I haven’t gotten over you cheating on me, and I’m pretty sure you haven’t forgotten about me cheating on you. You want to take all of this baggage into vows said before God like it’s going to make our situation better. I’m sorry, but I’m not about to do that.”
    â€œIt would make me feel better. All I’ve asked for is the ring. We can wait a couple of years to get married to see where our relationship takes us.”
    â€œYou say that now. As soon as I give you the ring, then you will be hounding me about when are we getting married.”
    Tyree might have had a point.
    â€œI know you, Serena. As soon as you get what you want, you find something else that’s wrong and beat me over the head with it until you get that, and then so on and so on. It never ends with you.”
    â€œYou don’t know that,” I lied because everything he was saying was the truth still. For some reason I couldn’t get out of my head that the ring would prove his love to me.
    â€œWho are you trying to kid? I wasn’t born yesterday. You and I have a dysfunctional relationship, and I refuse to commit to that for the rest of my life. I always knew if I ever got married, it would be ’til death do us part. I’m not ever going into it lightly. Babe, I don’t want you to leave me, but you are not going to scare me into giving you a ring. I fear God more than I fear losing you, and I will not play around when it comes to marriage.”
    What could I say to that? Even I knew I could not compete with God. Not that I would ever try to, but what Tyree was saying made sense. It angered me that it did, because I wanted what I wanted and that was the ring and then us getting married to one another.
    I don’t know how long I stood there thinking about what he said, but I finally snapped out of my thoughts and spoke to him.
    â€œI’m leaving, and I’m taking Nevaeh with me,” I said, giving up on this conversation, knowing it wasn’t going anywhere.
    â€œI thought you said you wanted me to watch her,” Tyree said, cutting off the water and opening the shower curtain. He reached for his bath towel and wrapped it around his waist. As mad as he made me, Tyree looked so sexy with the water trickling down his dark chocolate skin. His muscles rippled as the water made its way down his body.
    â€œI changed my mind. My sisters would love to