Independent Women - the Complete BWWM Romance Series Boxset Page 11

  Tamika felt guilty because that was exactly the kind of game that she played with her own body. Kalena looked at her with sympathy and she averted her eyes.

  “So ladies, I have to start back hitting the gym. I want to do some weight training, are the two of you in?”

  “I’m in,” Kalena said, “I’ve already been doing some weight training and I wouldn’t mind the company.”

  “Umm I’m going to have to bow out,” Tamika said.

  “Okay, well then me and you are going to need to set up a schedule Kalena, you know that I’ll flake after a couple of weeks and I want to be more consistent.”

  “Girl don’t tell me that because I’ll be at your door three times a week early in the morning, you’ll get tired of me.”

  “That’s what I need right about now, especially as I get older. I want to start better habits now so that I can keep my body right.”

  “Okay let’s do it then, and don’t get mad at me for waking you up at four in the morning. I work out early to get it out of the way so that I can get on with the rest of my day.”

  “Four in the morning? Oh hell no, I’m not trying to get up that early.”

  “Welcome to my world, sweetheart,” Kalena grinned.

  “Okay, I’m going to need a drink to even think about that.” Crystal got up from the table and headed to the kitchen to grab a bottle of wine, a corkscrew, and three glasses. She returned and poured the three of them a healthy portion of the bottle of Pinot Noir.

  Tamika looked at the glass of wine longingly and Kalena stared at her to see what she was going to do. She sighed deeply and began to resent the child that was inside of her. It was already messing up her life. Why in the hell did she want a baby in the first place? She was barely three months pregnant and the lifestyle changes were already happening. This was supposed to be a happy time in her life but she was miserable.

  “Okay what the hell is going on?” Crystal asked, “You don’t want to work out with us and now you’re looking at the wine glass as if I put poison in it.” She stared at Tamika so hard that she could have burned a hole in her.

  “N-nothing,” Tamika stuttered.

  “Bullshit, now tell me before I act like a damned fool,” Crystal warned.

  “I’m pregnant,” Tamika admitted.

  “Whaaaaaaaaaat!! Congratulations! Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked excitedly.

  “Because I’m not happy,” she said as tears began to well up in her eyes.

  “Oh no baby, what’s wrong?”

  “I slept with my boss Jin, I wasn’t sure if the baby was Reggie’s or not, but I found out that it was. I tried to tell Reggie that we were having a baby but then I chickened out because he kept going on and on about not wanting a baby, he was so upset by the conversation and I couldn’t do it. Now I don’t know what to do.” By the time she was finishing with her rant, huge tears were streaming down her cheeks.

  Crystal looked at Kalena, “Did you know about this?”

  “Well I knew about some of it, I didn’t know that she found out that the baby was Reggie’s,” Kalena said.

  “Wow, I can’t believe that you two would keep something like this away from me. Under any other circumstances I would be pissed but I’m going to save that for later. Babe, you have to tell Reggie that you’re pregnant, and you need to thank God that the baby is his. Are you 100% sure that it’s his? You don’t want him to be surprised by a half Asian baby in the delivery room. I think he’ll notice.”

  “I’m sure,” she sniffled, “I don’t know what I want to do.”

  “What does that even mean?” Kalena asked.

  “I don’t know what it means right now,” Tamika snapped, “Please can we not talk about this right now? I want to get my mind off my problems, not dwell on them. When I’m ready to chat about this shit, I’ll let the both of you know. For now I’ll just sit here and watch the both of you drink wine.”

  Kalena and Crystal looked at each other; they didn’t know what else to say. It was rare when Tamika snapped so it had to be very serious. Crystal had to bite her tongue because she was dying to ask about how big Jin’s dick was. Did all Asian men have small dicks? Was the sex good? Why in the hell would she want to cheat on fine ass Reggie?

  In an effort to change the subject, Kalena disclosed her business, “So ladies, I have a sibling on the way.”

  “What? Your mom is pregnant? What is the world coming to?” Crystal asked.

  “No goofy, my mom isn’t pregnant. My dad got one of his side chicks pregnant and my mom is sitting around like an idiot.”

  “Oh my god,” Tamika said, “So she’s going to stay with him?”

  “That’s what it looks like. Now get this, the girl is from the church.”

  “Oh hell no, no disrespect to your dad but I would have castrated his ass and set that bitch on fire,” Crystal said.

  “I’m with you,” Kalena admitted, “I don’t know how my mom can tolerate so much of his shit. I’m not violent, but I want to go and whip some ass.”

  “So what is your dad saying about all of this?” Crystal asked.

  “I don’t know, I haven’t spoken to him. I heard the news from my mother and I told her to let him know that I’m done. I don’t have to deal with his shit anymore. Him and that girl can go to hell. That chick has stayed in my mom’s house when she didn’t have anywhere else to go and was probably fucking my dad the entire time! I don’t get what people see in his old ass.”

  “Girl, stop playing. You know your dad is fine, and he’s been aging really well. He’s not even 50 yet, he’s hot, and he has some power. You know that women flock to that shit,” Tamika suggested.

  “But he’s married! I’ve seen women throw themselves at him my entire life and I just find it to be disgusting. Now I’m about to have a sibling, he’s nasty.”

  “Does that mean that you’re going to stay away from the baby? That’s flesh and blood,” Crystal said.

  “That’s flesh and blood that shouldn’t even exist. I’m going to pull a Beyoncé and stay as far away from all of them as I can. Maybe I’ll deal with it when the kid is older, but all of this is just too much for me to deal with. I didn’t participate in this foolishness and I have no intentions on making their drama my own. Besides, if I see the chick, I’ll probably knock fire from her.”

  “We don’t need you seeing her and acting ghetto. But other than angry, how do you feel about it?” Crystal asked.

  Kalena shook her head fast and tried to suppress her feelings, “I don’t know how to feel. The fact that this is happening is downright ridiculous. I don’t have the time to worry about any of it, I have my own drama going on right now.”

  “What kind of drama is that?” Tamika asked.

  “Girl, just dealing with Tommy has been crazy. He wants a real relationship with me and I’m with someone. I’m not about to mess up what I have. He and I are good friends and we need to keep it at that.”

  “If anything he’s the person that your ass needs to be with,” Tamika said, “It’s clear that he cares about you. All he does is talk about you when he and Reggie are hanging out. The best relationships start out as friendships.”

  “Or they end up being ruined. I would rather have him as a lifelong friend than to fuck it up.”

  “That’s just dumb, besides you can’t care about that new dude too much because we’ve never even met him. How is he your boyfriend but he’s never met your best friends?” Crystal asked.

  “You will meet him soon enough so pipe the hell down, he’s just super busy with work. I’m lucky if I even get to see him most of the time.” Kalena was trying not to get defensive, but they were getting on her nerves. Weren’t they supposed to be on her side? Tommy needed to stay in his lane and stop trying to kiss her. She considered telling them about the kiss, but that would have required her to tell them that she kissed him aback and that it was one of the best kisses that she’d ever had.

  “Whatever, I don’t believe you. You’v
e never hidden a guy from us before. What’s wrong with him? Is he ugly? You know that I won’t judge,” Crystal snickered.

  “He’s not ugly, he’s just busy. You’ll meet him soon, I promise,” she laughed.

  “We better or I’ll personally make it my mission to find him, and you don’t want that,” Tamika said.

  “The last thing I need you doing is snooping around in my business.”

  “Exactly, so make sure that I don’t have to.”

  Everything was back to the superficial conversations that they loved so much.

  #Chapter4

  “So you’re one of those shallow chicks, huh?”

  Corey

  Crystal looked just as good as she felt. Getting back on the dating saddle made her feel alive, she’d been sending flirtatious texts back and forth with Corey all day and now it was time to make good on all of them. That man had no clue about what she planned for him. He was so damned sexy and that cocky mouth needed to be put to good use.

  She spun around and admired her appearance in the mirror, not many women her age could pull off a bandage dress, but she looked phenomenal. It wasn’t as if she was huge, but she was healthy and her curves were just showing off. The dress was purple and she paired it with a pair of nude pumps. Her hair flowed down her back, her accessories were simple, and her makeup was done to perfection. He’d only seen her in corporate attire so his dick was going to jump when he laid eyes on her.

  It was time for her to have some fun. It had been an emotionally exhausting week. Dealing with her friend’s drama made her realize that her life really wasn’t so bad. Sure she had a brother in prison, and a cray cray for a mom but that was small in comparison to some of her friends’ issues. She’d reconciled that her brother was exactly where he belonged and that her mother needed medication a long time ago.

  Her brother Andre was older than her and in prison for theft. He couldn’t keep his grubby little hands to himself and always thought that he was entitled to the five finger discount. Whenever he was out of prison it never lasted long. His compulsion to steal and scheme was too great. Working for the things that he wanted was a foreign concept to him. He’d stolen from Crystal more times than she could count during their childhood. He stole everything from food, to jewelry, to money. She would never forget the time that he’d taken the necklace that her grandmother had given her and pawned it so that he could get the new pair of Jordans that had just come out. Her grandmother had just passed away one year before, and she hated having to live in the same house as him. Her mother didn’t do anything to him, and actually scolded Crystal for not locking her jewelry away.

  That’s when Crystal knew that she was going to have to make something of herself. She vowed to never live the way that she grew up. She loved her brother but it was hard not to resent him and she tried to stay as far away from her mother as she could. She couldn’t help but feel relieved when her mother moved to Arkansas because the cost of living was cheaper. Granted, the move was full of drama because her mom was upset that she had to move. She thought that Crystal was going to finance her life, and was sorely mistaken. Her mother had used her for long enough. When she got her first job at McDonalds, her mother took half of her paycheck every week, claiming that she had to start pulling her own weight and that bills didn’t pay themselves. She was only 15, and she let it ride because it wasn’t worth arguing over and her mother was able to get a brand new pair of shoes every two weeks, so she was happy. When she turned 18 she couldn’t get out of the house fast enough.

  She moved in with a friend over the summer and then went to college. Over the summers while in college she got internships in other states so that she didn’t have to go home to her mother. Her mother would still beg for money but her pleas for help often went ignored until Crystal graduated. After that, her mom was in a shelter and she would tell anyone that would listen that it was Crystal’s fault. Although her mom was being a manipulative cunt, she paid for her mom to get an apartment every month and she paid for the rent on the place for over three years. When Crystal found out that her mom had a roommate who was paying half of the rent and she was pocketing the money, she decided that she couldn’t do it anymore. Being used by her lazy mom wasn’t something that she could stomach. It was time to focus on herself and to live the life that she’d dreamed of.

  Her dreams always included a husband and children but sometimes a person couldn’t have it all. She had a beautiful home, a career that she loved, and she was surrounded by children all day. Those were her babies, they lifted her spirits every day. There was nothing like helping to change the life of children. Relating to them was easy because at one point in her life, it was her on the receiving end of the help. She didn’t know what her life would be like without the help of community programs and amazing teachers. They all taught her that there was more to life than simply surviving and that she deserved to thrive.

  Hard work and dedication wasn’t the easy route, especially since she practically started from the bottom, but damn it was worth it. Now she just wanted someone to share it with, but since that wasn’t happening anytime soon, she was choosing to have fun. Being stuck in the house like an old maid waiting for a husband wasn’t something that she desired. Besides, how can you meet someone if you never put yourself in the position? She wasn’t expecting anything from the men that she dated but if they turned out to be something more, well she wasn’t going to stop them.

  Her doorbell rang, bringing her thoughts to the present. A surge of nervousness went through her and she forced it back down. She didn’t have any reason to feel out of sorts, he was a good looking guy, he was a great conversationalist, and she couldn’t wait to see what he was working with.

  She walked over to the door and he stood in the doorway looking just as good as he did when she met him. His taste was impeccable. He had the right amount of style without looking metrosexual. His eyes scanned over her body and he gave her an appreciative smile.

  “Wow, you look phenomenal,” he said as he leaned in to kiss her on the cheek.

  “Thank you, so do you.” She returned the smile. He was wearing a pair of dark wash fitted blue jeans paired with a black V-neck T-shirt. His navy blue jacket with black stitching showed that he had an eye for style. Men that could dress well were an aphrodisiac to her. Being seen with them was always a joy because they looked like they belonged together.

  “I’m glad you like,” he said as he spun around, “Go ahead and get a good look at my butt now so that you’re not staring at it all night,” he laughed.

  “Oh please, I’m not looking at your little booty,” she grinned.

  “My butt isn’t little. I mean I don’t have a donkey back there thank god, but I have a nice butt.”

  “I noticed, I just didn’t want to gas your head up. It already seems to be too big for your body.”

  “You’ve got jokes. Come on so that I can wine and dine you.”

  “Yes sir,” she said before she went back into her house, grabbed her things and headed out of the door on his arm. He escorted her to a smoky quartz 2014 Lincoln MKS, she knew what car it was because she’d been coveting it for over a year. She just bought a car and she was considering trading it in.

  He opened the door for her and she slid inside as lady-like as she could, giving him a view of her shapely chocolate legs. He shook his head in a way that told her that she was getting to him already. The sexual tension between them was already building up. She sank into the beautiful leather seats and inhaled the new car smell.

  “Did you just buy this car?” She asked as he slid in.

  “I’ve had it for about 6 months now.”

  “It still smells so new.”

  “That’s because I have it detailed once a week and they literally use a product with the scent ‘new car smell.’”

  “That’s hilarious. I wish I had the discipline to get my car detailed every week. I’m so bad at that, my car looks like a hurricane hit it.”

  “Th
at seems to be a woman thing. You need a man to take care of that for you.”

  Crystal blushed, “That would be nice.”

  “See if you’re nice to me, I may pick up that responsibility.”

  “We’ll just see about that.”

  “I guess we will.”

  Crystal enjoyed the momentary silence that they sat in as she waited to see where he planned on taking her. He refused to disclose the details of where they were going, it was nice to be surprised sometimes. She was so used to planning outings for her staff, kids, friends, and dates that it was great to have a break from thinking.

  “So tell me more about you,” Crystal prodded.

  “That’s such a huge question, what do you want to know?”

  “Um, do you have any siblings?” She asked.

  “I do, I have three older sisters.”

  “So you’re the only boy and the baby? Ooh, someone is spoiled!”

  He laughed, “I guess you could say that, but that’s probably because I pretty much grew up like an only child. My youngest sister is 13 years older than me.”

  “Damn, your mamma and daddy were still getting it in huh?”

  “I try not to think of them like that, but yeah I guess you could say that. Ugh, why would you put that image in my head?”

  “Hey I didn’t put that image in your head, you took it to the visual.”

  “Well I’m a visual person,” he said suggestively.

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” Crystal crossed her leg, exposing the fleshy portion of her thigh and rested her gel-manicured hand on her leg.

  “Are you trying to tempt me?”

  “It depends. Is it working?”

  “It’s definitely working.”

  “Then yes, I’m trying to tempt you.”

  “This is going to be a long date, but in a good way.”

  “It’s good that you clarified that. I plan on keeping you on the edge for most of the night. I want to see just how much you can take.”