by J. Nichole
I was hungry. “What do you have in mind?” I asked. To save time, we ordered pizza while he started packing his bag for his trip. He told me about his new weekend routine, and I said, “Wow, I’m surprised she agreed to that.” Although I was happy he could spend time with Yara every weekend, it meant we wouldn’t see much of each other.
“Don’t worry,” he said taking a seat beside me. “I already have a babysitter lined up, and next weekend we can give her a try.” He smiled. I was glad he had plans to make sure he could continue having a life, but I wondered how Veronica would feel about him having someone watch Yara while we were on a date.
I didn’t linger much longer. Russell needed to pack for his trip and I needed to put in some work before a few home visits. “See you next weekend,” he said as he hugged me tight then kissed me, the kiss leading to a full make out session in front of his door. I laughed and wiped the side of my mouth as I walked down to my car.
When I finally made it home, I lounged on my couch with my computer in my lap. I had picked up two new clients, who each wanted to sell their homes. One was downsizing after the kids had graduated and left for college; the other, sadly, was getting a divorce.
I ran the comparisons for their neighborhoods, and smiled when I saw how much I could sell them for. Another celebratory trip may be in my future. Before I called it a night, I checked my Facebook account and had a request from none other than Veronica. I closed and re-opened my computer when I saw the request. This chick had to be some sort of crazy. I opened her profile, and scrolled through the few pictures I could see without accepting her friend request. Pictures of Yara, mostly, then a few of a fine ass, dark-skinned man, one who looked much like Russell. In one picture he was even leaned over her, planting kisses on her neck. Why the hell was she worried about Russell?
I closed my computer and started getting ready for bed. As I laid in bed, I sent a message to Russell.
Anaya: Sweet dreams and safe travels.
Before my phone could hit my nightstand he had replied. I smiled reading the words ‘Dream of me’ on my screen.
Dream of him I did, all types of nasty dreams, dreams that made me wake up thinking he was there with me in my bed the way my body had reacted. My head rose from the pillow and I fanned myself when I realized it was all a dream. I pulled myself out of bed and into the shower to cool myself down and get ready for the day.
On the way to my office, I sent Russell a text that hopefully he’d see as soon as he landed.
Anaya: My dreams last night were pornographic.
My phone rang before I could even park my car at the office. “Anaya,” he said sounding out of breath.
“You alright?” I asked, worried something happened.
“You can’t send me texts like that. I just landed, and it’s going to be a long week just thinking about what you could have dreamed of.” He paused and I offered to give him all the graphic details. “How about save it till tonight,” he said with a low growl.
“Tonight it is,” I agreed, and we hung up. If only tonight weren’t so far away. But a busy day would distract from the throbbing between my legs and the erotic details in my mind.
With my laptop open on my desk, I opened the thread of emails I had from Brent. The latest, another change to the living area as the owners weren’t excited about the built-ins taking up two feet of their space.
With a deep inhale, I pinched the bridge of my nose before responding, “Scrap the built-ins.” I’d have to find another place for them to have functional storage. The next few emails from him were just updates on the other sections of the house, which were thankfully coming along as designed with no complaints.
The next email was from our website, an inquiry about one of the properties I had just listed that weekend. The person was requesting a showing, and provided their availability. I replied with the best time to meet, which happened to be in the afternoon. I added it to my calendar and finished emptying my inbox.
When I finished I got up to look for James, and found him typing away on his laptop in his office. “Hey there,” I said with a smile met with his side-eye. “What’s that all about?”
“You’ve been too busy with your design project.” He waved his hand through the air. “I’ve been getting hit with extra properties.” I hadn’t realized my time away from the office had caused anyone any extra work. I apologized and asked if there was anything I could do to help. “You’re missing the point here, you’re too busy to begin with.” He smacked his lips. “How are you going to help?”
I stuck out my lips and agreed. “Guess I’ll save my question for later,” I said biting my lip.
James puffed out a breath of air. “What is it needy?”
I grinned. “That’s why you’re my favorite. I have a showing this afternoon, inquiry from the site. But you know I’m always skeptical about those.” James was the one who schooled me early on about the dangers of meeting folks I’d never met before at a house for the first time, alone.
He looked at his watch. “What time?” Now that I was asking, I should have coordinated with him first. I told him the time and he said, “Okay, but listen, we aren’t doing the let’s check under the hood viewing, okay?” he warned, and I agreed. If they liked what they saw we’d need to schedule another showing after discussing their income qualifications.
I walked out of there and finished my list for my new clients. Scanning James’ listings first, favor for a favor, I added a couple of his houses before continuing through to other agents. The house I was showing was a bit of a drive so I closed my laptop and headed over to James’ office to grab him. “You can ride with me, I’ll bring you back.”
He shook his head. “No ma’am, I have places to be after. I’ll follow you.” When we pulled up to the house, the client wasn’t in sight. So I unlocked the door and did a walk around before they arrived. “This house is nice. I could bring a client or two over to take a look if you don’t seal the deal today,” James said as we waited in the kitchen.
I was setting out the listing details when the doorbell rang. James offered to grab the door and when I turned and saw Veronica standing in the foyer, I dropped my pen. “Come right on in,” James said walking towards me. “This is the agent.” But as he tried to introduce me, Veronica said my name. James looked between Veronica and me before he said, “Oh, you know each other.” I grinned tersely as she nodded her head.
I shook off the curse words that were itching to be released, and pulled on my professionalism. Maybe she was in the market. I wouldn’t let her stand in the way of my money. I handed her the listing and proceeded to show her the house.
She made small remarks about each room, but when we entered the master she said, “Yes, this would be perfect for us.” I ignored that considering I saw her with a man on Facebook. But I guess when I didn’t jump at her first clue, she continued, “Not like he’ll see it much, because he travels all the time. But when he is home it’ll be enough room for the both of us.”
I didn’t bite, instead I said, “It is a nice size master.” For the price, it should be, over five hundred thousand dollars. I wrapped up showing her the remaining rooms on the second floor and as we made it back to the kitchen I said, “You have my information, if you’re interested give me a call.” I walked her to the front door and opened it before she could say anything else.
I walked back into the kitchen, where James was leaning against the counter. “I take it y’all aren’t the best of friends,” he said with his eyebrows hitched.
“You’d be absolutely correct.” I had told James about Russell, but hadn’t mentioned his daughter or baby mama, yet. “That’s Russell’s baby mama.” James’ mouth opened wide and his hand flew in front of it.
He mumbled behind his hand, “Get the fuck out of here.” I nodded my head. “So she’s looking for a house and she wanted to see your listing out of all the houses in Northern Virginia?”
I shrugged. “I think she’s on some bullshit.�
�� I shook my head. “I’m sorry for wasting your time.”
He placed his hand on my shoulder and said, “Oh no, honey, even in the midst of a hectic schedule I’ll always have room for someone else’s drama.” He cackled. “And why didn’t you tell me you were over there playing step-mama, girl?” He shook his head.
“We have to catch up. I’ll tell you all about it.” I led us to the front door and locked up behind me. I looked around the front of the house to be sure Veronica was gone.
“What you looking for?” James asked from behind me. “Wait, you don’t think this woman is crazy do you?” I shrugged. “Oh shit, this is going to end up like one of those crazy ass movies?” He walked me to my car and said through my open window, “Make sure you have Billy Porter play me in this made for TV movie, okay?” He laughed again and I couldn’t help but join him.
“Thanks again, and when we are both free, let’s hit happy hour.” He nodded his head and walked back to his car.
On my way to the design site, I contemplated the many different ways I could tell Russell about his crazy ass baby mama. A text wouldn’t suffice, and cursing him out for her actions was pointless. I landed on calmly telling him about my showing of the day, and letting him come to his own conclusion about how delusional she sounded.
That had to wait though, because I was on site, and they were wrapping up the construction, which meant it’d be time for me to come in with the decorations of the living areas and kitchen.
I walked straight in, and saw Matt on his phone. If I had a thing for white men, he’d be the first one on my list. He was naturally tan, with dusty brown hair and dark-brown eyes—I admired him while he wrapped up his call. “Anaya,” he said with his hand outstretched. “This place has come along well.” He smiled. I looked around and had to agree; even without the built-ins the living room still had character.
“It did.” My nose wrinkled. “I’m ready to pick out the finishes,” I said clapping my hands together. Although I didn’t have the final say, I had to present the family with specific options to choose from.
Matt pulled out books of floor, cabinet, and hardware samples and noted each selection I made as we sat across from each other on the hard floor. “Alright, I think that’s it,” I said as I stood.
By now, Russell should be back in his room. I called his phone hoping to get an answer while I drove home. “Hey,” he said with loud noise in the background.
“Hey, do you need to call me back?” I said feeling like I was yelling for him to hear me.
“No,” he said and as he did the noise became distant. “I’m going to head up to my room. How was your day?” he asked.
I wanted to make sure he was in a good place to hear what I had really called for so I started with the design project first. “I’ll take pictures next time I’m there to send you.”
“You should have been taking pictures of the progress to use for your portfolio,” he said determined that this would happen again.
“You’re right.” I heard the door of his room open, and I said, “I also had a showing today.” I explained to him that it was a website inquiry and that I brought James along. “Never know who will show up at one of these things.” He agreed. “This time it was Veronica.”
“Veronica?” he repeated. “My ex, Yara’s mama, Veronica?” I softly replied as he continued. “Why the hell is she looking at houses, and why did she look at one of your properties.”
“Same. I had all the same questions you are asking, but no answers.” I thought back to her remark in the master bedroom and laughed. “Apparently, she’s moving in with someone and that someone also travels a lot.”
“What the fuck?” I was glad he was in his room so he could have all the reactions he was now having. “Babe, I need to call you back.”
We hung up and I stalked Veronica’s Facebook page one more time, no recent updates.
But in case she was doing the same, I made a post.
Dear #FutureHusband, it’s us against the world. Be ready to have my back, ‘cause I have yours.
Twenty-Four
Russell
I tried to ignore Veronica’s attempts of fucking with Anaya, but interfering with her job was taking it too far. As I waited for her to answer her phone, I thought about all the reasons she could possibly have to be pulling these stunts, and they all landed on the same thing; she didn’t want to see me happy. “Hello,” she said with an expectant voice.
“Veronica,” I said with a deep exhale. “Listen,” I didn’t ask if she was busy, or had time for this conversation but she didn’t ask if I wanted her to interfere in my relationship so I called it even, “Anaya told me she showed you a house today.” By the time the words left my mouth, I was pacing the floor.
I heard her laugh, and I couldn’t believe it. I had to run my hand through my beard to calm my anger. “Yeah, thought she could always use extra money. I know they work for commission, right?”
When we were together, Veronica was sweet, kind-hearted, and gentle. I could have never imagined her as the woman on the other end of the line now. Callous. I shook my head as I tried to understand what happened to the old her. “Veronica, are you even looking for a house? You haven’t even mentioned you were trying to move.”
She sighed. “Things change all the time, right?”
“You know, we never did talk through what happened when you cheated on me. I never completely told you how badly that shit hurt.” I sat at the end of the bed with my head hung. “It’s taken me years to get over you. For a long time I thought I would never forgive you.” I rubbed my hand against my knee. “But I realize now, I have to forgive you, but there’s one thing I can guarantee, you and I will never be together again.”
“I never expected that,” she shouted.
“Then why the games?” I asked.
“I get it, you want her. I fucked up, and now you’ve moved on. I’ll have to get over our daughter being around another woman.” She was absolutely right, because I had long ago gotten over the fact of her boyfriend being around Yara.
“You act like you never brought a boyfriend around before,” I said, waiting on her to try to deny it, and when she didn’t I said, “So how about we just try our hardest to show Yara that both of her parents can be happy, stop this pettiness,” I warned.
“Okay,” she mumbled.
“And if you ever take it upon yourself to contact Anaya, it better be to tell her you’re in a happy…” I paused when I realized she may not be in a happy relationship. I didn’t really know her current boyfriend. “Veronica, are you in a happy relationship?” I asked, caring more than she deserved.
“No, he broke up with me.” My eyes widened at the truth. “We haven’t been together in a while.”
“Sorry to hear that.” I felt bad that she wasn’t in a happy relationship, but that didn’t change our situation one bit. “But it doesn’t change anything. Still, stay out of my relationship, don’t contact Anaya.”
“Would you like to speak to your daughter?” she asked.
I looked down at my watch to check the time, close to her bedtime on the east coast but I replied, “Of course.”
Veronica didn’t say anything else as she walked through the house to find Yara. “Daddy,” but hearing Yara’s voice erased all anger I had for her mother. “I miss you.”
“I miss you too, Yara girl.” She babbled something about her day and I told her it sounded exciting, because although I had no clue what she said, it made her voice climb a whole octave. “Be sweet for Mommy. I’ll talk you soon.” I only waited for her to tell me she loved me back before I hung up.
I decided to take a shower before I called Anaya back. Now that I’d handled the first situation, I still needed to tell her I’d be in Oregon for my next project, and only returning home every other weekend to save on travel time.
Before I could dry off completely, my phone rang. “Hello,” I said with the towel around my shoulders.
“Hey,” her voi
ce was calm, but I could sense she was eager for an update.
“I was just about to call you back, after I finished my shower.”
“Oh, what part did I interrupt”—her voice was now sultry—“the undressing or the toweling off?” I laughed into the phone and responded. “Too bad you’re all the way in Texas.”
“Too bad,” I said, knowing she’d really hate me being even further. “I spoke with Veronica.” She hummed into the phone. “I told her to stay away from you and your work.”
“Babe,” she said softly, “thank you. I’ll admit I was worried you failed to tell me she was crazy.” She laughed and I joined her, but it’s only ‘cause the thought crossed my mind a time or two when she cheated on me.
“I can’t confirm nor deny if she’s crazy, but if she pulls anything else I think it’d be safe to assume.” I didn’t want to keep dwelling on Veronica; she’d done enough already. “Hey, what were you doing before you called?” I asked as I finished pulling on a pair of sweats to crawl into bed.
“Just scheduling clients for the rest of the week. You know,” she paused then said, “Nevermind. Anyway, how about tomorrow we practice on our late night conversations.”
A smile crossed my face and my dick began to stiffen. “What would you like to talk about?” I asked. This would be the first time our conversations took a turn for sexy.
“I changed clothes while on the phone with you, started to pull on my pajamas but decided I’d rather lay here in my bra and panties.” I imagined her body, in the lacy underwear she loved to wear. Her ass, round enough for me to grab a couple of handfuls. And her chest—she said, “want to see how quickly you can talk me out of them”—before I could imagine her dark-brown nipples.
“Is that right?” I knew exactly what made her body quiver, but to describe it would be a challenge. “Like me flicking my tongue on your clit while I tease you with my finger?” I didn’t know if she dropped her panties, but my sweats were slid down my waist and my dick was in my hands as I listened to her breathe into the phone.
