There was no time to consider what words could break the awkward silence now blanketing the room as Keila pulled Brianna into a tight embrace. Being younger and shorter, Keila wasn't sure what constituted comforting, but she employed the things her mom used to do for her whenever she had a meltdown that wasn't of her own making. She held on tightly and made random shushing, soothing noises with her voice and rubbed her friend's back. Finally, the tears subsided and the girls pulled apart.
"Is my head swimming, um, yeah, but I would never tell anyone what you shared with me tonight. I don't understand it. Maybe in a few days or someday, I will, but right now I promise I won't leave here judging you or ready to call your parents. I get not being understood, in the big and small things, so you talk to me anytime about whatever you want. I'm your friend and that's all there is to it."
"Well, I think I got lucky twice then. I got Michael, and now I have you."
"You're stuck with me, so tell Michael he's going to have to loosen up because we are going to need at least a few girls' nights out."
"Oh, yeah, I bet that's going to go over just great," Brianna said.
Brianna hugged her friend one last time, then she finally shooed her out of her space. She set her alarm for thirty minutes earlier than usual. Tonight's brush-off would need to be mollified and she knew it. Instead of waiting for him to call her, she would catch him before he left for his morning run. It was all about the preemptive strike.
Chapter 5
Michael and Brianna had been together almost a year and a half, and frankly, the man couldn't believe his luck. When he first signed up on the Purposeful Mate website, it was to eliminate the emotional hassle of dating in his social circle. Being with the vacuous debutantes whose greatest life goals were to go from daddy's money to a husband's had lost its appeal a long time ago. There wasn't anything wrong with them sticking to what they knew, but it wasn't for him. His current place in the world wasn't the place he grew up in, and although treating a woman like a princess was always his goal, his tolerance for spoiled princess behavior was practically non-existent. Michael had a tested and proven solution to that manner of foolishness. He explored and perfected his method in college and it turned out that a well-spanked bottom led to a repentant tongue and resolved issues quickly.
The first time Brianna had gotten huffy with him, they'd been having a discussion about one of her professors. He hadn't minded her passionate feelings on the professor's stance or the fact that he agreed with the said instructor, but when she felt like he was winning their little debate, Brianna tossed her napkin on the table and stormed from the room, letting the slammed bedroom door punctuate her feelings. Michael was completely taken aback. Brianna storming off in a fit was new. She was passionate for sure, but fits of temper hadn't shown up so strongly before. Part of him was glad she was being more herself. Earlier on, it had seemed like she walked on eggshells, afraid he would dump her, but this behavior was too far on the opposite end of the spectrum.
He didn't know if his warning her to settle down or if his agreement with her professor was the bigger trigger, but it took him clearing the table and shutting down the kitchen before he was calm enough to deal with her mood. Up until this point, all of her spankings had been love taps, single pops on a covered backside that simply stood as a warning of things to come. Tonight, he planned to amplify things to full measure. After a thorough dressing down on the ills of losing her patience with him, a difference in opinion and slamming the door, Brianna found herself duly informed that this was exactly the way he planned on moving forward.
"This is the last conversation I intend to have on the subject, Brianna. If you're serious about being with me, then you need to be one hundred percent sure that discipline at my discretion is something you can live with, forever. I don't want a spoiled rich wife who thinks that stomping around and slamming doors is the solution to any problems we might have."
"I said I was sorry for slamming the door. Why isn't that good enough?"
"Are you sorry you did it, or are you sorry I'm calling you on it?"
Her pause was all the answer he needed.
"It's your choice, and we can continue to go around on it, but I won't change my mind. You say you can handle and even like me making decisions and being in charge, well, consequences are a part of the package."
"We could try different consequences. Get creative," she said, reaching to put her arms around his neck to snuggle in and kiss him.
"Do you really want to drag this out? I don't. This wasn't a part of my plans for tonight, but here we are, and I'm not one to shy away from duty."
"So, I'm dating the only man on the planet who isn't afraid of commitment."
Since seducing him out of his decision wasn't working its usual charm, Bri was pacing the length of his dresser occasionally catching his eye in the mirror and, apparently, she was wildly interested in his bottles of cologne and assortment of cufflinks that hadn't found their way back into his jewelry box.
"Are we having a discussion, or are you stalling?"
"What do you think?"
"Why are you stalling?"
"Um, it's going to hurt. The last time you were this annoyed with me, you said it had to be on my bare-naked ass and it wasn't going to lead to sex. Sorry, but none of that makes me want to hurry."
"I guess that's fair, but one thing should make this all easier, I love you."
"I love you, too, but—"
"No buts. I love you, and even though this will hurt, you know I'd never cause you true harm. What you did was unacceptable. We deal with it and move on."
"Can we move on with mint chocolate chip and snuggles on the couch?"
"If you're a good girl through your whole spanking, I might consider it."
"What if I try really hard? I can promise to try."
Michael held his hand out to her. "Come on, my little door-slammer, and put yourself over my lap."
He went from dropping off his short-tempered dancer to heading to pick up his best friend and business partner, Jackson, from Dulles airport. He spent the time sitting in traffic thinking about and remembering that first time the whole way. Michael and Jack were working on a merger with a company who wanted to get into the American market, to acquire a third company and purchase some buildings in the capital for condos and office space. Things had been going well, but they had recently hit a wall with some inspections and permits. Jack was coming in to put in some face time with their associates.
While Michael was running through his day, finalizing details, picking up Brianna and dropping her back off to campus, Jackson Simmons started his day wandering around his condo gathering things for his trip to Virginia.
Jack and Mike met in New York, back when they both attended CUNY—the City University of New York—at Hudson. They'd both come from modest means and had dreams of becoming rich captains of industry. The plan was to take the business world by storm, with Jack as a marketing guru and Mike as a real estate mogul. Dreamers, that's all they were when they partnered up on a project in one of their first-year courses.
Mike, as he was known then, wasn't nearly as creative as Jack, but he could sell ice to Eskimos. Jack knew that whatever pitch they put together, no one would deliver it as well as the guy he sat across from when the semester started. So, when it came time to partner up, he approached him with the idea of pairing strengths to weaknesses. Jack would create, and Mike would deliver. It was a partnership and friendship that had been delivering tremendous returns ever since.
After graduation, their dreams didn't take off quite like the lightning they'd hoped for sitting in that class. They both had to endure entry-level positions, building up capital and Jackson's move to follow his then fiancé. But, the friends never lost touch and traded ideas back and forth during the wee hours of the morning and late nights until they hit on one they knew would work. Jack put together the plan, and Mike pitched the idea to the investors they found. It was like their old school days and their
success was like getting A's all over again. The rest was multi-million-dollar history.
Michael and Brianna were like family, and Jack couldn't wait to be with his family again. Living in New York City was great for business, but it did nothing to soothe the loneliness that was always beneath the surface. Relocating wasn't an option, as long as he kept working like it was his first day on the job instead of what should be the midway point to his last. He wasn't anywhere near ready to retire, even though he had more than enough money to do so, at least part-time. Work was his life because life hadn't worked out the way it was supposed to. It was times like these he missed his Julia the most.
It had been a long time since her death, but there was always a part of him that missed her like it had just happened. Michael was like a brother to him, and he was also a huge part of what had pulled Jack through Julia's death. Brianna was a feisty breath of fresh air. She kept his buddy on his toes as well as utterly and gushingly in love. In all the years they'd been friends, there had been no shortage of gorgeous women on Michael's arm, but the look in his eyes when Brianna was in the room, well, that was one he recognized. His friend had fallen hard.
Visiting Michael and Brianna gave him comfort and reminded him of all that was still missing in his life. Bri, in all of her boisterous and youthful enthusiasm, reminded him of Julia when they first met. Oh, how she would've loved Brianna.
Chapter 6
Julia had always kept her humor and positive attitude, even when there was so little to be positive about. Her mind was encircled in a silver lining.
Jack had taken a modest start and his four-year degree and turned it into a financial empire. His one constant being the love of his life, Julia. They'd met when he was a freshman at Hudson and she was working in her parents' restaurant during her senior year of high school. Jackson would pop in for soup and a sandwich during the winter months, between classes, and swap out the soup for a salad during the warmer ones. He had a sweet tooth and said he always saved room for dessert. It was usually a slice of one of Julia's mom's delectable pies. The woman did unimaginable things with coconut. Her cakes, pies, soups, and sauces had him humming after each bite. Up to the day she passed away, he always marveled at what that woman could do with a piecrust. Julia's family slowly became his and they became imprinted on one another's lives.
Jack and Julia would talk a bit each day, once her tables were covered, during his visits and twice as much during the spring. Julia was on a seriously relaxed senior year schedule and Jack's between class break was significantly longer. He, realistically, could have gone back to his apartment but had grown fond of the quick-witted, often razor-tongued, intelligent girl and her family. Her mother had taken to serving him special off-menu items and sending him home with leftovers. Her father was more reserved but offered gruff hellos, raised brows, and the occasional smirk. Mr. Pachoute ran the front, while his wife ruled the kitchen. Their daughter, however, had aspirations instilled in her to go beyond her immigrant parents' restaurant business. Successful as they were, her parents pushed her hard toward more academic goals that would take her beyond the grueling seven days a week schedule that they'd maintained for decades.
When Julia got accepted to Duke University, she was ecstatic. As soon as Jackson appeared, she was all over him with the news. Over the months, he had become increasingly important to her and was a huge help with her application processes, having just completed his own only a year prior. They'd been on a few non-date outings and even shared a couple of meals away from her father's watchful eyes, but Jackson was a gentleman and refused to take things further until Julia graduated. She might've been eighteen, but she was still in high school. His experience, although not much older than she was, was far more vast. Jack had several experiences with older women, two of his mother's friends, that he was wholly grateful for every day. Supervision wasn't his mother's strength and his father had bailed when he was three. Without the discipline of football and his coach, Jack knew his life could have turned out differently and in the worst possible ways.
Coach Patterson and his wife were Jack's ideal couple and parent material. Jack had raw skill and strength on the field, but he was wild. Patterson agreed to let him walk on in his sophomore year with a lot of stipulations. The first of which was that Jack got his grades up and live with his coach and his wife during the season. By the time he was a senior, captain of the team, and ready to step out on his own, Jack was living with the couple full time. He wasn't sure his mother even noticed his absence. Her boyfriends consumed her time quite thoroughly. Even though he loved the game, Jack knew an NFL career wasn't his destiny. He wasn't willing to risk permanent injury. Jack had dreams of building his own empire and he was more interested in making money than spending it. Coach and his wife had secretly harbored both NFL and university dreams, but as usual, Jack's arguments and reasoning were sound. He'd take the modest scholarship to any CUNY school and finish his degree. Then he would get a job that would pay for him to complete his master's. All the while, he would learn, work and save, in order to open his own consulting firm. Jack had the vision and he had a plan.
"You're late!" His raised eyebrow had her retract her accusatory tone immediately. He had that way about him. Before Jack entered her life, only her mother could stop her cold with a single look. Her father was outwardly gruff, but inside, he was all soft and gooey for his only child.
"Sorry, I mean Maman was getting worried." His look only softened at the edges so she added, "Maman made stew for you."
She was practically buzzing with energy. Jack was a little shocked that she wasn't actually giving off a sound or levitating.
"How about I sit? I get the sense that all this energy is about more than stew."
"Oh, it's about so much more. Let's sit back here. I have a little bit of time before I need to help with dinner prep."
"A secret meeting. I'm intrigued. Well, you have my undivided attention."
"I sort of did something on a whim, and it happened."
Jack had to take hold of her hand, while keeping an eye on the counter for her father's glare, just to keep her from furiously tapping. Jack looked directly into her eyes and he could feel the tension slipping through her fingers as her breathing calmed. He'd started doing that while he was helping her study one late night at the restaurant. No words were exchanged. He would simply stare into her eyes until he could tell she was settling down. When the little contest of wills was up and she had taken a breath and looked away, it was his cue that she was ready for more talk.
"What did you do?"
"I applied for a school I thought was way out of my league. One I wasn't even considering, and I did it late. It cost me all of my tips to get it sent off. I didn't want to waste Papa's money on a long shot, but I just wanted to see if I was good enough. I was. I totally was."
"Could you back up for a quick second and let me board this train of thought? What school?"
"Duke. I got accepted to Duke University. The Duke University. Can you believe it?"
He sat back in his chair without removing his hand from hers and informed her that he wasn't nearly as surprised as she thought he would be upon hearing the news.
"I can absolutely believe it, but I didn't even know it was one of your top three choices."
"Well, it wasn't, at first, but I was talking to my counselor one day and it came up. We knew it was a long shot, but I had all of the components to complete the application, so I just did it. And, today, I got the thick envelope."
"Wow! This is great news. Congratulations. Your parents must be stunned."
"I haven't told them yet. I haven't officially opened it yet. I know it's silly. Just seeing how thick it was, I knew it was a yes. I didn't want to be taken down by the details."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that Duke is a lot more expensive than any place around the five boroughs, plus there's my city and state scholarships to consider. How can I ask my parents to pay full price for some
thing that's already been marked down?
"They might surprise you." Jackson was a spirit divided. He, of course, wanted to see her fulfill a dream, but there was a part of him that hoped he might be a part of that dream and her future. It had been a fun year getting to know Julia and her family. Since they weren't really dating and only saw one another in controlled environments and situations, a lot of the pressure was taken off. It also meant he could never really stake his claim on her heart, but unbeknownst to her, she already had a gigantic one on his.
He was going to miss all of the delicious dishes he'd come to love, but Jack knew deep down that he wouldn't likely return once Julia was gone. He would miss her too much.
"Come on, let's go open the thick envelope if you don't mind me tagging along."
"I would love it," she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the kitchen.
Four years did not go by quickly. Julia did go to Duke University, and she worked her butt off to do it. She held down both an on and off campus job, but at the end of it all, she was ready to start her new life back in New York as Mrs. Julia Simmons, RN. It would be a good life.
Finishing his bachelor's degree during her junior year had been as hard as he imagined, but Jack didn't stay away from the restaurant like he thought he would and took to spending holidays with the Pachoutes each time Julia came home. As soon as he walked across the stage to accept his degree, Jack packed his bags and headed to North Carolina to work and wait out Julia's degree completion. For her, he was willing to put New York in the rearview mirror for a few years. The moment she hung up her cap and gown, Jack made sure he was ready for her to slip on a wedding gown and ring, ready to never look back.
The Daddy Arrangement (Sugar 101) Page 5
