In the first book of the series, a woman scorned is nothing to play around with. Still seething over her husband’s sudden request for a divorce, Keyonna vows to keep her marriage intact on paper until she feels like ending it no matter how her choice affects her husband and child. While Keyonna is seeking the ultimate revenge, Mika is involved in a secret romance with her high school sweetheart, a relationship that her friends thought was over when she had a baby with another man. Sydney’s on-again/off-again relationship with a handsome doctor is jeopardized when a love interest enters her life. Finally, there’s Tyson whose engagement should be a celebratory moment and could be if he wasn’t so worried about what his family will think about steps he’s taking with the love of his life.

In It’s Complicated, relationships aren’t just tested, they are solidified or blown to pieces.

Keyonna

“I don’t know what’s wrong with him, Daddy! He’s crazy as hell!”

Across from me at our usual table at Taco Mac, Sebastian started laughing, that quiet laugh people make when they’re trying not to be heard by the other person on the phone. It wouldn’t matter. Daddy knew Bash was with me. I couldn’t blame my friend from laughing. If I wasn’t still upset, I’d be laughing right along with him. As I told my father what happened at my job, remembering the look on Shawn’s face when I threatened to put my shoe up his ass was hilarious.

“Sign the divorce papers and be done with him,” Daddy ordered. “Stop being so damn stubborn.”

“I’m not being stubborn,” I argued. “There’s a difference between stubborn and petty. After everything I did for him for ten years, that nigga got the nerve to file for divorce! I promise you, he gon’ have a problem with me for at least half that time. He’ll get his divorce when I decide it’s time. Ol’ big head bastard.”

“Alright then.” Daddy signed in that exasperated way that indicated he’d given up. “Do what you want. But I’m warning you, lil girl. if this behavior between the two of you causes me not to be able to see my grandson, you and Shawn are going to have a bigger problem than divorce papers. You hear me, Keyonna?”

“Yes, sir. But it’s not going to get to that. Shawn is stupid, but he ain’t stupid-stupid.”

“Yeah, that’s what you think. I’m gonna go now and call Keilan. Call me later.”

“Bye, Daddy. Love you.”

“Love you too,” he replied gruffly then hung up the phone.

I looked at Bash and smiled. “Oooh, he’s mad-mad.”

“It’s not like you and Shawn don’t give him a reason to be. If I didn’t adore you so much, I’d be mad at you for calling me every day to vent about your husband,” Bash teased.

“Ex-husband.”

Sebastian took a sip of his first vodka-cranberry of the night and shook his head. “Not until you sign those papers.”

As usual, Bash and I were the first to get to Taco Mac. Our entire crew operates on CP Time, including the white boy and the Hispanic chick. I expected Tyson to be late. He’s always five to ten minutes behind everyone else. Plus, his energy has been off today. He’s usually the most talkative one in our group chat but he barely said anything today. Even when I called him, something seemed off.

“Have you talked to Tyson today?” I asked Bash.

“Yes. I invited him to meet up with me and Eva this weekend and he brushed me off. What’s up with him? Do you know?”

“Nope. But you bet I find out when he gets here. He better show up too.”

“Do you think something’s going on with him and Myles?”

“Trouble in paradise?” I snickered. “I don’t think the most perfect couple in Atlanta ever has issues. Unless they’re pulling a Kirk and Rasheeda on us?”

“Who?”

I forgot Sebastian doesn’t watch Love and Hip-Hop. He’s too smart to fill his head and his time with ratchet reality TV. I’m not being sarcastic either. Sebastian really is too smart to entertain ghetto. That’s what I love about him. He’s articulate, a great communicator, and although he was raised in the ghetto, he’s not ghetto. Maybe it’s because English ghetto is so different than American ghettos. I don’t know. I’ve never been across the pond. All I know is that Sebastian is a cool dude. As I explained who Kirk and Rasheeda were, Tyson, Justin, and Sydney joined us at the table.

As always, Justin looked like he just left the gym. I don’t know how he gets so many girls when all I ever see him wearing is workout clothes. Style must not matter to women that much anymore because Justin pulls some of the baddest bitches in Atlanta on the regular. He’s such a ho, but that’s my baby bro.

Sydney, our other resident THOT, is just as bad as Justin if not worse. She’s gets coochie and dick, sometimes both in the same night. I’m not hating on either one of them because we all have a little ho in us. I haven’t had a chance to explore that part of me yet. I got married at eighteen and was faithful to Shawn for ten whole years even though he didn’t deserve it. When I’m ready to try some new dick, Sydney is going to be my wingman, but she better not do me like she did Mika. That last thing I need is a fuckboy like Miguel in my life. I’d be under the Fulton County jail if a man got me pregnant and abandoned his kid. Mika wasn’t even going to hook up with Miguel until Sydney kept pushing and pushing her to have a “we were on a break” fling while London was in Colorado.

I’ve been trying to get Mika to do something about Miguel for years. She has enough friends and family for that scumbag to come up missing and it never be linked back to her. All of Justin’s goons in the SWATS would be happy to make it happen for a few stacks which I know her other baby daddy can afford. Unfortunately for her, Mika is way too much of a sweetheart to have someone hurt Mateo’s father. She’s not like me and Sydney who will pop off at any sign of disrespect. It takes a lot, maybe too much, for Mika to snap.

“Where y’all been?” I asked the late arrivals. “Y’all can’t be on time for shit!”

“Why are you so loud?” Justin laughed and scooted into the booth next to me. He kissed my cheek and reached for my margarita to take a sip. I slapped his hand so fast!

“Boy, what you doin’? That’s top shelf! You better get your own!”

“You are so stingy!”

“And don’t touch my food when it gets here either,” I warned the mooch. “I ain’t ate all day.”

Sebastian smirked and I knew he was dying to correct my grammar. He didn’t though. We’ve been friends long enough for him to know that I’m going to talk how I want when I want.

“Are you doing the intermittent fasting I told you to do?” Justin asked.

“No, fool!” I laughed. “I’m poor. That’s why I didn’t eat.”

“Or her nerves are bad because Shawn pulled up on her,” Sydney joked.

“Bitch, that’s not even funny!”

“Yes it is,” Sydney laughed. “Aww man, I wish I had been there. I can’t believe he doesn’t know not to pull up on you by now.”

“He’s going to keep pulling up on big sis until she signs those papers,” Justin said. “Sign the papers, Keyonna! We’re trying to get you to go out with us and we can’t do that when you’re still married and celibate.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m far from celibate.”

“When’s the last time you got some Vitamin D?” Justin asked.

“Why is that your business?”

“Because if you were getting’ some, we’d already know. It would have been in the group chat minutes after it happened. Who you savin’ it for? Bash?”

Both Sydney and Bash looked up, startled by Justin’s question. I wanted to stab him with my fork. I told him that I might have a little thing for Sebastian in confidence that it would stay between us. It be your own best friends, I swear.

“I’m not saving anything for Bash,” I lied. “Shut up. I’m just not a ho like you. So anyway, what’s going on with y’all?”

“Same old shit,” Sydney said and picked up the menu like we didn’t already have that thing memorized.

We’ve been coming to Taco Mac every Wednesday for the last three or four years. Everybody here knows us. They know what we drink and eat. We don’t even have to order anymore. Our server just starts bringing us our regular food and drinks when she sees that most of us have arrived. Laurie even knows whose turn it is to pay. Sydney was just trying to avoid looking at her brother. Justin and I noticed that right away.

“You two must be beefin’ again,” Tyson stated bluntly. “What happened now?”

“Like I said, same old shit. My dear sweet brother refuses to remove the stick up his ass.”

“No, your brother just wants his sister to not bring strangers to the apartment. You can do all your ho shit somewhere else.”

“You can move out if you don’t like my ho shit,” Sydney fired back. “Keep talking shit, Bash. I am so sick of you judging me. One day you’re going to say the wrong fucking thing and wake up homeless.”

“One day you’re going to screw the wrong fucking person and wake up with an STD,” he countered back.

Justin, Tyson, and I glanced at each other quickly. Obviously Sebastian wasn’t aware of Sydney’s brief run-in with the clap. Some strong antibiotics cleared her up, but catching Chlamydia a year ago certainly taught little sis a thing or two about protection.

“Why don’t you two stop?” Tyson interjected, ever the peacemaker. “The fact that you two are still arguing about the same thing three years later is your issue that you two need to fix. The rest of us are tired of it. Every time all six of us are in a room, y’all start arguing.”

“Eww!” Sydney wrinkled her nose at Tyson. “What’s wrong with you? Why you got an attitude?”

“I don’t. I just don’t feel like hearing the twins fight today. Can we talk about something else?”

I glanced over at Bash. He nodded slightly. Yup, something was definitely up with Tyson.