How Karma Found Jesse Again|18+

SEVEN

I might be a grown woman and everything but in my culture? Age is nothing but a damn number. They have to approve of who I'm with. A 24-year-old gang leader who was arrested at 19 for attempted murder and theft is never going to just magically disappear from my parent's minds.

There's no way in hell.

"Look, I knew he was getting out but I didn't think he'd go over to your job. He was asking Ryan for weeks where you worked and everything and I made sure he didn't tell you. He was bound to find out and come by your office anyway but not right after he literally got released." Paola shakes her head, playing with the ring on her finger

Justine has a smirk on her face as she leans back into her seat, as we're all sitting at our kitchen counter. She shakes her head and looks down at her lap and I look at Paola with a questing gaze and she mirrors my confused expression before I ask Justine, "Why are you smiling like that?"

Justine looks up with a grin and says, "I know that you really want nothing to do with that man but...you can't deny him forever. At some point y'all will get together again he's made that very clear."

"Excuse me?" I scoff and she nods her head not backing down, emphasizing her stance further.

"We all know how stubborn he is. You simply will not last as long as you think you will especially since you're not into dating anybody right now, which he's going to take advantage of. I hate to say it but...I think he might've ruined you for anyone else."

"That's not true!" I say, "If I wanted to date someone I could, I'm just---"

"Really busy right now." Justine and Paola finish off in unison and I roll my eyes. I can't help that I repeat this a lot since everyone seems to be so concerned that I haven't even been on a date since I was 18. I find myself having to defend myself and bringing my job into it every time.

Paola interjects, "Look I could care less for Jesse especially since he always refused to call me by my actual name and resorting to Paula instead, but Justine's right. You're not as over him as you think you are. And what better way to get over someone than to get under someone else?" Paola grins tapping her fingers against the counter.

I cringe, "I'm not hooking up with anyone just to 'forget' about Jesse."

She groans loudly, "It's a figure of speech dammit. I'm just saying to expand your horizons. Meet someone new, there's more to life than Jesse Duran. You owe it to yourself to be young, dumb, and adventurous is all I'm saying." she shrugs and Justine nods along with her in agreement

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The next few days after Jesse's release were pretty quiet, to say the least. He hadn't come into my office or the whole building for that matter.

I took that as a good sign that he would leave me alone but I wasn't sure of it. So I decided not to get my hopes up just yet.

I decided to take a break from looking at my laptop screen and lay on the couch inside of my office instead.

Getting up from my desk, that's where I headed towards. I'm glad that I decided to dress up a bit more comfortably today because I could not waste all my cute outfit ideas just to slave away in my office for no one to really see besides Carter and Leslie whenever they barge in here.

Today was a chill Thursday with not a lot of work to do so yeah I came into work practically wearing sweats.

When I get to the couch I sit down and decide to lean back and lay down slowly. When my head finally touches the pillow, I release a sigh of relief and decide to shut my eyes enjoying the tranquility that the office has to offer as I'm met with complete and utter silence.