Independently Foolish: Career Successful, Relationship Foolish!

By Dr. Erika Jones BA MPA Ph.D.

Upon meeting Mr. Wrong, with every lie, multiple disappointments, infidelity, an abortion, many tear breaking encounters, she still tried to work things out. No matter what happened, what he did, and even being unavailable for many nights, she kept hope alive. After being in a non-existing engagement, a miserable marriage, mental and emotional abuse, she finally found her strength to leave. Strength came with a price though, loneliness, anger, sadness, and a broken heart. But, this is where she learned self-respect. Self-respect is priceless. The lesson behind this all is, no matter what you do in a relationship to “earn” a ring, you cannot marry a man that don’t want to be married. You can cook, clean, and even be as sexy as possible, nothing will work. The lesson here is you can be on top of your game and still be foolish. Opposites do not attract, they divide.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9781728360584

Dr. Erika Jones BA MPA Ph.D.

Dr. Erika Jones was born on the south side of Chicago. Throughout her childhood, she moved around a lot living in mostly the south suburbs. She became a mom at the early age of 16. Being a teen mom motivated her to push for success. She skipped a grade in high school going from a sophomore to a senior and went straight to college. She received her Bachelors of Art in 2007, her Master’s in Public Administration in 2009, and her Ph.D. in Public Policy & Administration in 2018. She is raising 3 beautiful girls. She spends her spare time advocating for social justice, writing, and reading books. Her career of choice is Finance/School Administration and has been for the last decade.

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© 2020 All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 05/12/2020

ISBN: 978-1-7283-6057-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-6058-4 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Introduction

When is Enough, Enough?

Independent Accomplishments

The Whore House

The Engagement

This Damn Wedding

The Marital Home

Jealousy

Make or Break

Take Out the Trash

The Aftermath

Making Things Final

To My Surprise

Independent Lessons

Meet the Author

Keynote

This book is

dedicated to my baby girls, Daizha, Zuri, & Zoey who are my strength, my hearts, and my motivation to live. I can only pray that you three learn from mommy and not be successful, independent, and foolish like I was.

Introduction

I t’s amazing how women deal with men that are hazardous to their health. How much love is too much love? When is it time to just walk away? It is going to take a death to occur, for a woman to lose absolutely everything, or for the man to actually leave? Women are the most precious beings in the world and are the first to be taken advantage. Is population the problem whereas there are more women in the world than men? There has to be something to keep women dealing with these low down, ain’t shit, no good men they keep. It could be sex; however, you can get that anywhere. I have yet to find the answer to any of these questions but, hopefully after reading this book, the women of today can clearly see when they should walk away and stop being taking advantage. Someone once told me that it is harder to find a good man, than it is to find a good woman. Is this true? Don’t be surprised that it was a man that told me that. Many men are selfish beings and their egos are way too high. A man could have no job, no car, and bad credit but, think that he is all that and a bag of chips. In contrast, a woman could have a couple degrees, her own car, own house, and own job, and men feel like that is what they are supposed to have. Women are not rewarded for what they do or what they have. The baddest bitch gets cheated on these days whether they are celebrities or not. When is it time to just give up on a man and say enough is enough damn?

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When is Enough, Enough?

I t all started off one day when I was bored and decided to hit the city with my cousin. I was recently broken up with my baby daddy and only had one child. I was young, innovative, unwise, and very inexperienced. When I pulled up on the eastside of Chicago to meet with my cousin, I had no idea that this one day of boredom could cause a sistah so many years of pain. I met up with my cousin Sweetie and she was super excited to hook me up. I never thought I would be one of those chicks in need of a hook-up, however, I let the bs go on. I met one guy who was totally not my type and as my cousin saw that I was irritated, she decided to find a better looking friend. She hooked me up with this cat named Mook that I wasn’t very interested in either, because he was walking. I gave him my number and decided to go home. His real name was Chris but he went by Mook on the streets.

To my surprise, he called me the next day to ask me if I wanted to go to the show and since I was dating, I figured it would be a great idea. This man wasn’t my typical type. He was a little heavier than I liked and he was a man of the streets, which I never typically date. I decided to let him take me out. What I am trying to figure out is, was this a mistake? I decided to drive because I didn’t know him very well. He met me in the city in a two door navy blue, Cadillac Eldorado sitting on twenty Monobloc’s. I was glad to see he was driving at least. At this point in time I was 19 and I thought these qualities were attractive, however, it should’ve been to a teenager. He was 26 and probably had no business talking to me anyhow. I was pretty mature for my age though, so I went with it.

After dating for a few weeks I realized that the lies starting coming in. First he told me that his children were 5 and 6, and then I found out that they were the same age. I also found out that he may have a possible child, which proved not to be his in a later DNA testing. Was I in way over my head? Nineteen dealing with a man and all these damn kids? I also ran into him at a party where he brought some lesbian girl with him claiming to be his baby mama. Is this where I should have ran away or what? He had a lot of male friends and they all seem to be hoes or cheaters. I still cannot see where our attraction hit off to end up together 15 years later. We were definitely opposites!

Mook was a very handsome young man, about 6"1, 215 pounds, with a good paying job, however, his lifestyles didn’t match mine and I guess that is why they say opposites attract. I started to enjoy the fast life, the dares, and the fun, not knowing that this same fun would be very irritating to me later in life. I went out with him basically every weekend and tripled or quadrupled dated with all his friends. Each time we went out I noticed there were many different women. This made me a bit uncomfortable because I felt that when I wasn’t around him he too was probably with many hoes. Guess what? I was right!

As years went on we decided to make things official. I fell in love with him in a couple years time. I enjoyed the non-commitment until I realized I felt that I was selling myself short. I started getting hunches that he was being unfaithful to me and again I was right. I broke into his voicemail by putting in his mother’s house address and heard some things I totally didn’t agree with. There was one girl