"So how was my date choice?" Toya asked as we walked into my condo.
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"On a scale from 1 to ten, I'll give it a solid 3." I took her coat and put it in the closet.
She smacked her lips and stale faced me. "You were having more fun than me."
"Because you can't dance. How you gon pick dancing and can't dance."
"Whatever."
"Heels." I held my hands out to take her shoes. "I don't like people walking on my floors and carpet with shoes."
She rolled her eyes and handed me her heels. I put them on the shoe rack.
"Can I have a seat or do you need to pull out the furniture plastic?" She said sarcastically.
"Very funny." I said not amused.
She sat down on my couch.
"This is nice." She said looking around. "You decorated this?"
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"Yes I did." I said taking off my own shoes and coat.
"Impressive." She said looking around. "I bet you have women running all up and through here huh?" She said testing the waters.
"If my Mama counts, then yeah." I got a wine glass and some wine and poured her a glass.
"Rashad, be real. You're a successful doctor who is not that bad in the looks department. You're not a saint." She looked at me skeptical.
"Saint-no. But I'm not a hoe either." I opened up a bottle of water.
"You don't want any wine?"
"I don't drink." I sat on my couch, drinking my bottled water.
She looked at me, was silent then, spoke, "Who is the real you Rashad?" She said with a slight attitude.
"I'm giving you that."
She laughed and shook her head. "Save us both the pain of the future and give me the 100 percent of who you are. Are you a womanizer? Do drugs? Closeted gay? Maybe you beat women? Who the fuck are you?" She said in an angry tone.
"Why are you getting angry?"
"Because I know men. I know how you like to seduce women with a mask of being someone else, then rip it off right as our hearts become dependent on you. That's not happening to me again. So tell me who you are or I'm leaving? This I don't drink. I love God act. I am not fooled."
"I don't know what else to tell you Letoya. I am who I put out to be."
She got up and went to the closet to get her coat.
I closed the closet door.
"Move." She said in a low threatening tone.
"Time reveals all character. Let me put in the time, and you'll know who I am. That's the only way." I looked in her eyes.
She let out a slight smirk. "You know where time got me? Time got me isolated from my family. Got me black eyes when I didn't do things the way he wanted. Got me beaten within an inch of my life. Laid up in a hospital bed with broken bones and broken limbs. My fragile body, broken like glass. The only thing keeping me alive is my heart that wouldn't give out, although I begged it to. That's what time got me. So you can keep your time." She got her coat out the closet and heels off the rack.
"Time dealt me a bad blow too. Left my newborn baby and fiance in a grave yard. Why? Because of my alcoholism. They trusted me with their lives, and it ended with me running the car into a river and them drowning to death. All because I chose to drink and drive. And when the rescuers came, I was the only one they could keep alive.
I would give anything to get them back, but I can't. So now I have to live with the guilt of that everyday. My faith isn't because I'm perfect its because I'm not. I cling to God so hard because he is the only one that has forgiven me. And I made the choice to live for him after that. That was five years ago. For Five years I have starved my flesh of anything not of God, including sex and my alcoholism. Turned to health to keep me sane and from falling back.
Yes father time dealt me a bad blow, but I never stop waiting. Never stopped believing God would give me a second chance at love. That's who I am. Take it or leave it." I held my hands up in defeat.
She looked at me, then the door.
Deanna POV-
"Goodmorning Sunshine." Shep looked over at me as I opened my eyes. The sunlight beaming in his room.
"Goodmorning baby." I smiled and pecked his lips.
"You feeling okay?" He asked, running his fingers through my hair.
"Yeah." I looked in his eyes.
"How was it for you?"
"Everything I imagined." I blushed. "What about you?"
"You see I went to sleep and didn't wake up until now."
I chuckled and he smirked.
He looked at the clock. "I don't feel like going, but gotta do what I got to do." He sat up. He had practice.
The covers falling down, revealing his perfect muscular back and butt.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed his cheek.
"I'll be here waiting when you get back."
He pulled me onto his lap.
"I'mma be looking forward to that." He said licking his lips.
"Me too."
Our lips connected.
"Love you." He said against my lips.
"Love you more. Enjoy practice." I hugged him, then he went to take a shower.
I fell back on the bed like it was one big cloud. Life was beautiful. 🤗
