Fight for your love.

As I write this story, it has been exactly 1 year since Tia transitioned to the spiritual realm. To remember her on this day, I’ll share another story. 

The sweetest thing Tia used to say to me was “I don’t play about you.” And if she was talking to someone else she’d say “I don’t play about him.” She’d prove it over and over again throughout our relationship through her selflessness, her thoughtfulness and her loyalty. She figuratively fought for our love and one time almost literally. Here’s what happened.

We were leaving a Mike Epps comedy show and found ourselves in an excessively crowded elevator lobby. We were trying to squeeze our way to the elevators leading to the parking garage. While waiting for the elevator, I hear a male voice aggressively say, “you need to watch where you stepping.” Initially, I didn’t respond because he wasn’t talking to me and this fool would have to have been insane to talk to my woman like that. Well, the negro was insane and he was talking to Tia.

Tia was standing behind me and the guy was behind her, so I had to spin, twist and flip my way between the people to confront the dude. I pushed Tia behind me. We would exchange pleasantries 😉but the situation was under control. Under control until Tia began to share a few pleasantries of her own. Home girl was fye with them words. She was quick, clever and she knew how to find your biggest insecurity and sink her heels into it. She hit ole boy with so much so quick. But it was what she said about his shoes that escalated the situation.

“Don’t nobody care about yo whack ass or them whack ass shoes!” I knew she hit a button because he had specific responses to her comments. That fool said, “These shoes are exclusives. You can’t get these.” She knew she had him. She replied, “n-word them ain't no m-fn exclusives. He got those.” (pointing at me) 

There’s so much happening at this moment. First, I was a little hurt because Tia let it slip that she didn’t like my sneakers. If she thought his sneakers were whack and I had the same pair of sneakers, that meant she thought my sneakers are whack too 😔. Second, we were still crammed in this lobby tighter than shoulder to shoulder and we had gotten loud. Everyone else had grown uncomfortable because you think the worst when in the middle of conflict after midnight. Lil buddy was smoking a cigarette so the people beside and behind him were trying their best not to get burnt. They were dodging and swerving like a defensive boxing drill. They didn’t want any problems so they didn’t say anything to the guy. Meanwhile, myself (and unfortunately Tia) wanted ALL the smoke which made me uncomfortable. 

I wasn’t about to allow my wife to fight with me. First off, my job is to protect my wife and allowing her to tag-team fight a man with me is NOT protecting her. Therefore, I begin shifting my attention from the guy to calming Tia down. Again unfortunately, she wasn’t ready to calm down and that made me mad at her. So then, Tia and I got loud with each other. I’m telling her to calm down and she’s telling me that dude got US messed up. But she didn't say "messed'. We confused the hell out of ole boy and that’s when the elevator doors opened!! We’d push our way onto the elevator and the guy disappeared. 

Tia and I would argue for a couple more minutes. I wanted her to understand that  I’m going to always do what’s best for our family and it’s imperative that she respects my decisions. If I’m really being honest, I may have said something like "you better do whatever I tell you to do." That comment wasn’t received very well. We were stuck in the garage line for about an hour. First we sat in silence. Then we began to replay what had just happened. It became comical. Grins became smiles that erupted into laughter.  “Can you believe we just got into a fight after almost getting into a fight because you stepped on a dude’s shoe?” She gave me this big bright smile and said, “Yes, because I don’t play about you.” Tia, I miss you and I will always love you.

Fight for your love, FIGURATIVELY speaking.