Brianna flailed her hands wildly. “But I am confused.”
“Who was that guy you were outside talking to earlier?”
“Oh,” Brianna puffed out loudly. “Just a neighbor!”
“Ummm hummmm.”
“Don’t start. You know I’m not even on the market right now,” she said, patting her tummy. “Besides, he’s not even my type.”
“Whatever chick, you keep telling yourself that lie.” Charrise commented with a laugh.
__________
Brianna and Charrise met Kasy and Selena at the Cheesecake Factory. Brianna had been craving cheesecake. The restaurant was crowded as usual, but Brianna and Charrise had made it there just before the rush and had been seated in a booth that was tucked away in the back of the restaurant.
When she saw Kasy walking through the crowd, at first, she couldn’t tell which woman was with him. To his right was a dark brown woman with short, curly hair. She had a square face that made her look masculine, but large brown eyes that softened her appearance. This girl would be a good fit for the job. But when she looked again, she noticed a woman with a young face and silky jet-black hair that bobbed at her chin. Her face was beautiful, striking, and a bit familiar.
As Kasy continued to walk through the crowd, it became obvious to Brianna that the familiar look of the gorgeous girl was due the family resemblance she had with Kasy. This girl was not at all what she had imagined her bodyguard would look like, and Kasy had some explaining to do.
It wasn’t until the pair was escorted right up to the table that Brianna noticed the long scar that went up the side of Selena’s face. She was immediately curious to find out the story behind the wound. Just as Kasy started to introduce Selena, a waiter arrived with appetizers.
“Damn,” he exclaimed. “Y’all couldn’t at least wait till we got here to order?”
Charrise cut her eyes over towards Brianna. “You know greedy over here just couldn’t stand to wait.”
Kasy gave Brianna a knowing look and sat down. The waiter began to place an array of appetizers in the center of the table. Hot spinach dip, roadside sliders, fried mac and cheese, crab wontons and tex-mex eggrolls.
“Well, at least I tried to order a little something to please everyone.”
Kasy and Selena sat down at the table, and everyone loaded their plates with their own combinations of starters and dug in. Between bites, Brianna attempted to perform a conversational interview with Selena.
“So Selena,” she began. “Kasy’s been my right hand man, but I guess I’ve been taking up too much of his time, because he insisted that we get you down to here to fill in the gaps. You think you’re up to the task?”
Selena wasted no time in listing her credentials. “No doubt,” she said with a thick but sultry New York accent. “I’ve been through a lot back in NY, and let me tell you, I always come out on top.”
Brianna was impressed. “Well, I don’t know how much Kasy has told you about me, but I’ve just come off of a real tough year, and really, I just want you to know that I appreciate you coming down here to help me out. I think we’ll be good friends, but more importantly, I think we’ll do great business together.”
Selena smiled. “I agree.”
“We just moved, but once we get settled in, I’d love for you to stop by and spend some time with me and my sister. How are things at the Westin?”
Selena’s mind wandered back to the Jacuzzi tub. “They’re wonderful,” she smiled.
“Great!”
The waiter reappeared to take their orders. One by one, they each told their choices to him as he jotted them down on his pad in a hurried pace.
Before they knew it, the table was overflowing with steaming hot food. They all dug in, and silence engulfed the table as everyone devoured their meals.
Chapter Three
Charrise and Selena blended in with ease as they drove down Interstate-85 south. The four-door Toyota Camry attracted little, if any, attention at all. All the nervous energy Charrise had when she first started making these drives nearly a year before, had totally vanished. Those days, she stayed either in the middle, or far right lane, managing to go no more than five miles over the speed limit. It didn’t take long before she realized that driving that slow wasn’t doing anyone any favors. She bobbed and weaved through the other cars with little effort. She could do this drive in her sleep. Selena sat in the passenger seat, looking out the window as they drove through one small town after another.
“You miss your family yet?” Charrise asked, breaking the silence of the ride.
“Ummmm,” Selena thought before answering. “Yes and no. I mean, I miss them, but it’s nice to be away. Even nicer not to be surrounded by men all day,” she said with a laugh.
“Oh yeah, that’s right. You didn’t have any sisters.”
“Nope, just me and the boys.”
Charrise shook her head. “I don’t know what I would have done without my sister. Even better, I don’t know what she woulda done without me!”
“That’s the way I feel about my brothers, but there are just some things boys will never understand about women. And don’t even get me started on them being over protective!”
“I bet!”
“They wouldn’t let any guys get within a 50 mile radius of me.”
“Don’t tell me you’ve never had a boyfriend.”
“Not a real one, but let’s just say, I had to learn how to sneak. That wasn’t easy either. It always seemed like the guys I liked were my brother’s friends. They were too scared of my brothers and dad to say anything to me, and I was too afraid that we’d get caught if they did.”
“So what’d you do?”
Selena looked at her with eyes that asked if she would hold her secrets.
Charrise did a quick glance around her shoulder. “It’s just you and me girl! I won’t judge you!”
“Ok, my oldest brother had this one friend.”
“Uh huh.”
“It was his best friend, you know. He was like a part of our family.” Selena paused.
“Go on,” Charrise urged.
“So he would be over to the house all the time. He would spend the night and everything. We were tight. Nobody really cared, cause like I said, he was like family. Anyway, one morning I was up early before everyone else, and he just happened to be up too. I think all the boys had gone out the night before, and my dad was already at work. We were chillin’ watching this movie. It was some Spike Lee movie. I don’t remember which one. I just remember that it was a lot of sex in it. We were both at that age, with hormones raging. Before I knew it, he had slipped his hand under my nightgown, and I was letting him finger me. You know when you’re fifteen and you ain’t never had none, fingering is the best thing ever!”
Charrise laughed and nodded. “I remember those days.”
“So you know what happened after that. It started with fingering, and ended with fucking.”
Charrise belted out a loud laugh. “How did ya’ll keep that quiet?”
“It was hard, but he had as much to lose as I did, so he never said anything. We just snuck around. I got so good at sneaking, that I ended up catching that son of bitch with his real girlfriend!”
“Say what?” Charrise asked dramatically.
“Girl yeah! We were supposedly secret boyfriend/girlfriend for like two years. All that time, I thought it was a secret because my brothers and dad would trip. Come to find out, it was because I was never his real girl friend.”
“What did you do when you found out?”
“Besides have a broken heart, I went after him… and that bitch.”
“Damn!”
“That’s how I got this scar on my face.”
Charrise looked at Selena’s scar as if she hadn’t noticed it before, but she had. She and Brianna had discussed the scar and the possible situations that would have yielded that type of mark on someone’s face.
“Usually, when I had a beef with someone, I cou
ld tell my brothers. They’d always make me fight my own battles, but they also had my back, just in case I couldn’t beat someone solo. But in this case, I couldn’t tell them.”
“Right… right.”
“I ended up following them for a whole day. I watched him do things with her that he would never do with me. Taking her out to eat, shopping, to the movies. That muthafucka had never even bought me a damn thing. Said that he didn’t want nobody asking me where I’d gotten it from. By the end of the night, I was furious. I mean the level of rage in me was crazy. I’d never felt so mad and hurt at the same time before. I ended up charging at them in the darkness. It was an ambush, like something in the movies, or at least that’s the way I remember it.” Selena chuckled. “I don’t think he even realized who I was when he pulled out a knife. He was just trying to protect himself. Cut me right down the side of my face. Blood was everywhere.”
“Damn.”
“They started to run when I fell down, but I called out to him. He must have recognized my voice because he ran back to me. Told the bitch to keep going without him. She didn’t even hesitate.”
“What’d he say?”
“Not a damn thing, he already knew what it was. He just took me home. He told my family that some girls jumped me. Of course, I didn’t dispute it. I just let him make up a story. When my brothers asked me more questions, I wouldn’t tell them anything. I told them to let it go, and eventually, they did.”
Before Charrise had a chance to make any comments, she realized that it was time to exit the highway to get off on Lenox Rd towards Lenox Square Mall. Even though Charrise knew exactly where she was going, she still didn’t say anything about Selena’s scar or what she’d just shared. She didn’t really know what to say at first.
When they made it to the first light, she put her arm around her and pulled her close. “I’m sorry you had to go through that alone. But just so you know, you’ve got two sisters in me and Brianna. We might not be able to fight like your brothers, but we’ll always have your back.”
“Thank you,” Selena whispered.
Charrise found a parking space outside of Neiman Marcus and headed inside with Selena beside her.
“So what’s next?” Selena asked like a curious child.
“Next we make a quick key exchange, maybe do a little shopping, and then we head back home.”
“That simple, huh?”
“Yup,” Charrise said as she stopped quickly to look at a pair of pink Jimmy Choo crocodile print sandals.
She made a mental note of their location and headed out of the department store. She pulled her iPhone from her purse and checked her messages. Her new connect, Monte, would meet her in the food court. Monte wasn’t as talkative or handsome as Andre had been, but that was just the way Charrise liked it.
After her experience with Andre, she didn’t want or need any reason for things to get messy again. These trips were strictly business, except of course, for the great shopping. It was the only non-business luxury she allowed herself. She’d convinced herself that shopping made the trips seem believable, just in case anyone was following her. She knew that the odds of that were slim, but she would take any excuse to make a few fashionable purchases.
In the food court, Charrise spotted Monte standing in the Chick-fil-A line. Even though she didn’t know much about him, it was obvious that he was a sucker for a chicken sandwich and waffle fries. It never failed, every time she met him, he was either in line, or on his way out of the line. Monte found himself a booth in the middle of the food court, and Charrise followed his lead. When the two women approached the table, Monte looked up quickly. He eyeballed Selena for a moment before inviting the pair to take a seat.
“You not eating today?” he asked in a deep baritone voice.
“I’m good,” Charrise responded. “You hungry Selena?”
“Yeah a little.”
“Ok, go ahead and grab something.”
As soon as Selena walked away, Monte had questions. “Who’s the new girl?”
“Security.”
“What the fuck you need security for with me?” he asked, getting defensive.
She rolled her eyes. “Not for you! For home. But today, I’m showing her the ropes.”
“Oh aiight,” he responded, offering her the fries with the key cupped in his hand.
“I don’t mind if I do,” Charrise said as she grabbed a waffle fry and a key out of his carton. She then replaced it with a key of her own.
As Selena was making her way back to the table, Monte was exiting.
“It was nice to meet you…” he hesitated.
“Selena,” she told him with a smile.
Monte nodded and headed towards the mall exit.
“That was quick.” Selena said, sitting back down with a salad.
“We’re professionals,” Charrise smiled. “Quick and efficient.”
__________
Brianna smoothed out the piece of hair she’d coiled around her finger and walked slowly towards nurse. She was a short, white lady with auburn hair cut into a sleek bob. She had a wide smile with straight white teeth.
“Hello Ms. Campbell, my name is Amy.” She smiled and led Brianna beyond the double doors of the doctor’s office. “How are you doing today?”
Brianna smiled politely, attempting to conceal her nervous energy. Her eyes darted down the long hall. The walls were adorned with pictures of pregnant women and babies in a matte finish inside silver frames. They complimented the light lavender paint perfectly.
The nurse led Brianna to a bathroom. “We’ll need to collect a sample from you. Use one of the containers on the shelf, write your name on it, and place it in that door.” She pointed to a small metal door on the wall. “When you’re finished, meet me in room two. The doctor will be in to see you shortly.”
Alone in the restroom, Brianna frowned. She despised public restrooms, and although this one was much nicer than average, she still hated the thought of pissing where strangers had done the same thing or more. She squatted over the toilet, careful not to let her skin come in contact with the seat. She hovered there and steadied her hand in the proper position, allowing a steady stream to fill the cup.
This is it. Today would be the day she’d find out for sure if she was pregnant. Even though all the signs were there, a part of her wouldn’t believe it until it was made official by a professional. Brianna put the lid on the cup and closed it behind the metal door. She walked into the room that Amy had directed her to and waited for the doctor.
“Ok, Brianna. It’s good to see you.” Dr. Abner said as he entered the room. He glanced down at his chart. “Do you know the date of your last cycle?”
“Honestly Doc, I really don’t remember.”
He smiled. “Well, we’ll need to do a quick ultrasound on you. That way we can—”
Brianna cut him off. “Ultrasound? So that means I’m really pregnant?”
“Oh yeah, you’re definitely pregnant,” he laughed.
Brianna lay back on the examination table.
Dr. Abner explained. “An ultra sound will allow us to measure the fetus and give us a good idea of how far along you are.”
Brianna was speechless. It was as if she was hearing this information for the first time. The confirmation of pregnancy weighed so heavy on her, that she couldn’t lift herself up to face the doctor. She couldn’t even make a sound to validate that she’d heard anything he’d said.
She heard the door open as Dr. Abner continued to speak. “Amy will take you down to the ultrasound tech and we’ll go from there.”
Brianna lay stone faced on the table with her shirt pulled up and a blanket covering everything below her waist. The ultrasound technician squeezed a dollop of warm lubricating gel on her belly and used a probe to search for the baby.
On the screen, Brianna could only make out a black pit surrounded by a gray static haze. Then she noticed the technician focusing in on the black pit. She turned the volume up on the
ultrasound machine and out of the speakers, Brianna could hear the rapid ‘Ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum…’
“Is that…”
The technician nodded and smiled. “That’s your baby’s heartbeat.” She pointed toward the monitor. “You see that?”
Brianna sat up on her elbow and stared at the monitor. “That peanut looking thing?”
“Yes, that’s your baby. Now look closer, do you see that little flicker?”
“Yes,” Brianna said as a tear escaped her eye.
“That’s the heart beating. It’s strong and healthy. Now let me take a few measurements for the doctor.”
Brianna lay back onto the table and wiped away her tear. She quickly sucked in all of her emotions, determined to hold herself together.
Back in the examination room, Dr. Abner entered. “Looks like you’re about eight weeks pregnant, dear,” he announced.
Everything he said after that was a complete blur to Brianna. She didn’t remember leaving the doctor’s office or driving home. She woke up in her bed and picked up her phone to check the time. It was 2:00 the next morning. She couldn’t believe she’d slept so long.
Brianna looked down and realized that she was only wearing her panties and bra. She looked at the floor and noticed her clothing tossed to the side. The first thing she wanted to do was look in a mirror.
She rushed into her bathroom and turned on the lights. Turning to her side, she looked at the small round bulge that was forming on her belly. It didn’t quite look like a baby bump, rather just like she’d just finished eating a big meal. She turned another 90 degrees and looked over her shoulder. From the back, her normal hourglass curves were still defined.
The sound of the baby’s heartbeat rang loudly in Brianna’s head. ‘Ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum…’
Chapter Four
“Herman make sure you turn those ribs before they burn!” Lorraine shouted to her husband who was operating the grill.
“Rain who cooking this food? Me or you?” Herman screamed back. “You know I know what I’m doing on this grill, and I’m not letting nothing mess up my son’s graduation day. He’s only the second Campbell male to graduate high school!” he beamed with pride.
Trapstar Double book (Parts 1 & 2 Boxed Set) Page 12
