I picked up the last folder and was getting ready to walk past him when he grabbed my arm and pulled me close to him. I stood directly in between his legs as he took his hand and placed it under my chin lifting my face to his. With his glasses on his hazel brown eyes had an extra sparkle. He brought his lips to mine and gave my top lip a gentle suck before placing his lips fully against mine, letting our tongues touch just once before pulling back and letting his thumb brush across my lips. I could feel my clit swell against my boy shorts and my most delicate part felt like it had a heart beat. My body felt like it was about to float from beneath me and I didn’t know what to make of that kiss. My breathing had deepened so much so that you could clearly see my chest rise and fall. I couldn’t figure this man out and it was threatening to drive me mad. What is it about him that made him such a mystery?
“Why don’t you have dinner with me tonight Chyanne? Me and you. You like the CheeseCake Factory?”
I nodded and he got up with his body placed right next to mine, chilling me. He walked over and gently snatched his suit jacket from the back of the chair and once again he left me standing there. Just me, my thoughts, and my wet underwear.
We never made it to dinner. April called me right after that to go to the school and pick up her boys. She would never make it from her job in time and she didn’t want them to be taken to juvie hall. Apparently Jonathan, the eldest who was seventeen, was about to get jumped and the twins, Aaron and Aaden, weren’t having it so it turned into a five on three brawl with April’s sons being the victors. By the time I made it to the school it was two-thirty and the twins were sitting in the principal’s office looking smug.
“Sexy Chy. Mom sent you to get us,” Aaron called out to me. That was his name for me. I don’t know why he did that.
“Yes, Aaron. What the hell happened?” I asked when I saw the bruises and cuts on their faces.
“You know how it is Auntie Chyanne,” Aaden answered. “Niggas thought they were about to jump Jo-Jo and that aint happening. You dig?”
I cringed at his vernacular and looked around for Jo-Jo. “Where’s Jo-Jo?”
“Coaches got the team doctor checking him,” Aaron answered. Even though he and Aaden looked exactly alike, they were as different as night and day. “You know he has to play next week for the homecoming game. Are you coming Sexy Chy?”
I nodded. “I plan on it. Where do I need to go to sign you guys out?”
They both pointed to the double doors. “Go through there and ask shawty at the desk.”
Aaden and I were going to have to have a talk about his language. Both of those boys looked like their father who resembled Morris Chestnut, but ten times better. Jo-Jo looked like April. I got up and made my way through the double doors as Jo-Jo was coming towards me. I almost fainted looking at the big bruise across his torso. He was holding an ice pack to his eye and what was left of his shirt in his hand.
“Dang Jo-Jo! What the hell,” I said before I could stop myself. The whole office turned to look at me.
“Stop tripping Chyanne. I’m all right,” he said with that dimpled smile plastered across his light, bright face. His hazel and green eyes stared at me with a sparkle. He walked over to me and hugged me. He towered over me. I could see he had a fan club. Some little big booty and big chesty girl walked over to him, handing him some water and a towel.
“You need anything else Jo-Jo,” she asked him. It was clear she was infatuated.
“Naw baby girl. This is good.” He kissed her forehead and she giggled before walking off. I didn’t know what to say, especially when another group of young girls called the other a fat bitch and mumbled about what he wanted with her.
“Come on, Jo-Jo. Let me sign ya’ll out.”
I shook my head as I walked with them to check them out. April was known to act a fool when they got in trouble at school. We walked over to the front desk with Jo-Jo’s arm casually thrown across my shoulders.
“You know your mother is going to act a fool right?” I asked looking up at him.
He shrugged. “Well what she want? Me to get my ass kicked?”
I cocked my head back, shocked by his choice of words.
“Sorry Chyanne. But I am not taking no as—I ain’t getting beat up for nobody!”
“Did you have to get Aaron and Aaden in it?”
“Those two damn fools—”
I snapped my head around at him again.
He shamefully dropped his head. “Sorry. They came out of nowhere. One minute I was slanging niggas off of me and the next I see these two fools slamming niggas.”
“Must y’all use the N word like that,” I snapped.
“Sorry Chyanne. I’ve been working on that though. Ever since you showed us that DVD about the march on Selma and those other DVD’s on Emett Till and what not.”
I nodded. “Good.”
I asked the principal’s assistant to get me started on checking them out and waited for her to get me the proper paperwork. Aaron and Aaden came in and they along with Jo-Jo gave colorful commentary to me on the fight. I had to admit, I was happy they helped their brother and ended up winning with the odds against them. Come to find out, some little boy was mad because he thought Jo-Jo was talking to his girlfriend. I shook my head. Something stupid but they had to defend themselves.
“Come on,” I said to them once the process was over. I swear it was like Jo-Jo was a celebrity. Everybody was waving and speaking to him like he was the star of a show. Being on the football team and the star wide receiver had its perks I suppose. Hell he didn’t even get suspended. We stopped at McDonalds and picked them up some food for now and I took them home with me until April got off. I know she was pissed because of the way she was snapping when I called her and told her they were home with me.
“You should have let those bad motherfuckers starve,” she snapped and yelled. “They get on my nerves! Their daddy needs to come and get them. I am sick of this mess Chy! Sick of going through this shit with them!”
I shut up and let her vent. Truth is, I didn’t think the boys were that bad. They just needed April to listen to them and be there for them more. I helped them all with their homework until I heard April’s car door slam. The laughter going on at my dining room table immediately ceased. April banged on my door. I looked at the boys and their eyes immediately focused on their homework.
“It’ll be okay.”
That’s all I could say. I opened the door and April almost knocked me down, going right for Jo-Jo. She hit him so hard across his already bruised face that it brought tears to my eyes.
“April, why you hit him?”
She ignored me.
“You think I send your fucking ass to school to get into fights Jo-Jo?”
Jo-Jo had backed into the corner in my dining room.
“They started it Mama.” Aaron said.
She reached over and smacked him too. “You shut the fuck up! I aint talking to you!” Aaden got up and moved before her hand could connect with him, but she caught him anyway. He got what his brothers got.
“I am sick of ya’ll! Ya’ll hear me? Every damn day it’s something! I have to work all of these fucking hours and pay for shit for y’all and you ungrateful fools want to be in school fighting and acting like idiots? And I should whoop your ass Jo-Jo! You don’t cause enough problems so now you want to drag them into your mess!”
I could tell by the look on Jo-Jo’s face that he’d just about had it. And so had I. I had seen this mess too much for my liking. So many times April had gone after Jo-Jo in anger, especially after their father left. April’s face was red and twisted with anger. All three of her sons towered over her, but right now she looked way bigger than them.
“Mama, I’m tired of you putting your hands on me,” Jo-Jo said through staggered breaths and tears. Before I knew what happened, April had balled her fist up and went at Jo-Jo like he was a grown man. I jumped over my sofa and rushed over as fast as I could.
“Who the f
uck you think you talking to,” she yelled at him. Jo-Jo shielded his face and just stood there, but I could see that he was at his breaking point when he balled his lips and his fist. He came out of the corner and pushed April away from him. She stumbled back, but didn’t fall. April picked up the vase from the table and I grabbed Jo-Jo before she could hit him. The vase crashed against my wall. Aaron and Aaden were yelling and crying for her to stop. She followed me and tried to swing over and around me to get to him.
“April stop!!!” I screamed at her because if she hit me in my head again I was going to turn around and whoop her behind. I managed to shield Jo-Jo until I got him to my bedroom and pulled the door closed.
“Chyanne get the fuck out of my way! He put his hands on me with all that I do for him. I am going to kill him!”
I stood in front of my door with my hands on the knob. April tried to get past me and I pushed her back.
“Back up April. That’s your child in there—”
“Exactly! Now move out of my way—”
“Mama please . . . .” Aaron pleaded. Aaden had tears in his eyes as he stood beside his twin. “Wasn’t his fault Mama. They were trying to jump him. He had to fight back Mama. He had to.”
This scene broke my heart. I could feel tears burning my eyelids. April stood there with this wild look in her eyes before she looked over at her other two sons.
“Get your shit and let’s go! You can keep his ass over here. Nobody I clothe and feed is going to put his hands on me,” she said and pushed her way past Aaron and Aaden.
They stood there looking at me and my closed bedroom door. I don’t know what the look on their faces read. Don’t know if it read help, I want to stay with you, or what.
“I said let’s go!”
They went to the table and grabbed their book bags quickly making their way out of the door. She slammed my door on the way out. I dropped my head and went to lock my front door when I heard her pulling out of my driveway. I started to clean my kitchen and picked up the glass from the vase that she broke. My whole front room and dining room was done in black and snow white. I shook my head and looked at the juice that had spilled on my all white carpet. I left Jo-Jo in my room until he was ready to come out. It took him a full thirty minutes to decide to do that. By then I was done scrubbing my carpet with Shout, baking soda, and Oxy-Clean. He stood in the entry way leading to the front room and the dining room looking broken.
“Why she don’t like me Chyanne,” he asked. It was times like this that I hated April. She had broken his spirit so many times. And when he was like this he was a big kid. He wasn’t the mature young man who was in all advanced classes. He was a kid. A little boy who wasn’t quite sure his mother loved him. Hell, I wasn’t so sure. I do know that she made them all pay for their father’s mistake. For him leaving her, she made them pay. Tears rolled down his handsome face.
“She does Jo-Jo. Your mom just has a lot on her shoulders. She loves you.”
I patted the sofa beside me so he could sit down. We sat quiet for a while. We both watched Smackdown on my forty-seven inch flat screen.
“I talked to Daddy,” he said.
My eyes got wide and I asked, “Say what now?” I turned the volume down and looked at him.
“I talked to daddy. Me and The Twin Towers.” That’s what he called his little brothers who were almost bigger and taller than him. “He came to the school last week and this week. Gave us all a thousand dollars.”
“Did you tell your mom?”
He shook his head. “Daddy doesn’t want us to.” He stared straight ahead at the TV. “We have been talking to him since he left.”
“Really? Why don’t you guys tell April?”
“Because then she would be mad and we wouldn’t be able to see him no more. He wants us to come and live with him.”
I slightly turned towards him and propped one leg under the other on the sofa.
“Oh, wow! Where does he live?”
“Alpharetta Country Club.”
“For real? Jonathan is doing it like that now?”
He smiled and looked at me while he nodded. “He came to get us last Saturday and took us to his crib while mama was at work. He’s got a fiancée. She’s pretty. Nothing on Mama though. They have a big ass crib Chyanne.”
“Language Jo-Jo.”
“Sorry. Daddy said they gave him his old job back and then promoted him to VP so he got a fat check.”
I nodded. I was happy for Jonathan because I believe that was one of the reasons he and April had so many problems. He had lost his job at the architectural firm because of the economy and I was so glad he got that back and then some. Jo-Jo stayed with me the whole weekend. Aaron and Aaden came over every day and set up the PS3 or the 360 in my front room with him. Those boys loved each other. I even got in on some of the butt kicking action on Madden 2011. Aaron and Aaden shocked me with the way they joked on each other’s girlfriends. Aaron said he liked them like me, thicker than a snicker and he told Aaden that the skinny chicks he dated needed to eat a couple of biscuits with gravy. I laughed so hard at those two. Jonathon called me to come over and see Jo-Jo. I didn’t want to get in the middle of that so I made other arrangements. I gave Jo-Jo the keys to my car, told him to be careful and he and his brothers met their dad somewhere. I had no idea what I would tell April.
Chapter 4
The next couple of weeks were a blur. Jo-Jo went back home the following Monday after he and April’s altercation. He told me he had talked to her and she said it was okay for him to come back home. I was happy about that. October was here so fast that I didn’t even realize it. It had been raining and thunder storming like we were in Seattle. Work had been crazy. With the extensive media coverage on our old executives it was a wonder we could still even get clients, but they were coming left and right. I don’t know what Aric was doing or saying but it was working. Although we hadn’t shared one of those kisses again, the late night hours didn’t let up and the flirting was undeniable. So was the sexual tension. I had been trying to stay my distance. You know keep it professional since I seemed to lose my good sense whenever he came close to me. I didn’t know what it was about him that made me forget all about that rule I had of never mixing business with pleasure.
I looked at the clock as I pushed the send button on the email I was sending out to the whole office for Aric. It was just an email he asked me to send out every week thanking everyone for their hard work. This email included numbers for everyone’s bonus too, which I was happy about because we hadn’t gotten one in two years. He had already told me that we wouldn’t be working late today so as soon as five o’clock hit I was out of there.
My phone buzzed. “Chyanne let me see you in my office for a minute.”
That thick New York accent had a lot of women drooling and their panties dripping wet. There was something else mixed with it that I couldn’t place.
“Sure,” I answered before logging off my computer. “Do you mind if I step into the restroom first?”
“Not at all.”
I clicked off the phone and quickly went to the restroom to handle my business. I gave myself the once over in the mirror. The black high waist pencil skirt and black and white collared button down shirt showed off all of my assets and then some. Truth be told I looked like a school teacher who dressed way too sexy. I laughed at myself. Even though the only skin I showed was what the skirt left of my calves, my breasts, hips, and backside would not be denied. The Spanx did a good job of pulling in all of the extra meat on my bones. I hated a muffin top look. Nothing was worse than seeing a plus-sized sister in tight fitting clothes with no extra support. My black and white head band still had my fro sitting nice and pretty and the band kept my hair out of my face. I washed my hands and then looked at my black CL pumps to make sure there wasn’t a scuff on them. I was a shoe whore . . . sue me.
I made my way back to Aric’s office and waited for him to end a phone call before he addressed me. He must have
been talking to an old friend because of the casual conversation he had going on. I looked around his big office. A small family could live in here comfortably. Books lined the wall on a floor to ceiling bookshelf. The big window behind and on both sides of his desk kept the sun, when it was out, shining in. I sat on the burgundy Tudor style sofa after I added some water to the few plants he had. I turned around to look at him just as he bit into a peach. The way he bit down into that thing made his lips enclose around it and suck on it. That gesture made my core bud start to jump. Juice from the fruit slid down his mouth and chin. What he didn’t catch with the paper napkin he had in his hand and he licked it away with his tongue. Once he hung up the phone he looked at me. I watched as he stretched his tall body before he came to join me on the couch. He smelled so damn good. He took his glasses off and stretched his arms wide as his head fell back on the sofa.
“Are you busy tonight,” he asked. “Around eight?”
“No. Why? You need me to stay?”
He shook his head. “No. I was on the phone with a friend from college and business associate of mine. His bosses are having a little get together with some other business associates and he asked me to come. Think you could join me?”
“Yeah, I guess. Sure.”
“Damn,” he said as he sat up, leaned on his legs and looked at me as he clasped his hands together. “You don’t have to sound so excited about it.”
I giggled a bit and waved my hand. “No. I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that I was thinking about if I had anything to wear,” I lied.
“I am sure whatever it is you decide to wear you will look good in it. Should I pick you up at about seven?”
I nodded. “Sounds good.”
I looked at the clock on his wall. He stood and so did I. “Oh yeah, if you don’t mind, ask a friend of yours to join you. My friend is new in town and needs someone to talk to.”
“I’m sure that won’t be a problem.”
“Good,” he said, watching me as I left his office.
As soon as I got to my desk I called April. She was the only friend I had so of course she was the one I would ask. I called her at work, but she wasn’t there so I called her cell.
Full Figured 3: Carl Weber Presents Page 16
