A broken marriage.
A new job.
She works as a Personal Assistant on the ForNoah Youtube channel.
Noah is on the autistic spectrum and she fixes things for him.
He's a shipwright and creates beautiful works of art.
She's a woman starting over who meet...
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It was a date. I figured it out and opened up a little. It's confirmed Maurice is a nice man. He's outstanding, kind, funny, a little sweet, and hot as sin. He treated me well while I worked on his project with his sister and Noah's sister. The type of black man they write movies about. A firefighter who cares, and he's a good friend to Noah. He's becoming a good friend to me.
I look up into his beautiful hazel eyes. He gives me just the smallest smirk at the end of the date. Maybe not a forever future with Maurice, Mr. Black Kryptonite.
His minty breath is fresh with just a hint of the wine from dinner as he leans in for the end-of-date kiss. My gaze travels up his slick suit to meet his eyes. The light from the porch brings out his smile, and he moves closer. He's a firefighter and his body reflects his work, strong, tough, confident. Black kryptonite was an à propos nickname for him. He's inches away from my lips.
I turned at the last second, and his thick lips hit my cheek. My stomach drops. The sexy red dress seems a lot less sexy. His perfectness weighs me down in a way that is without words. This isn't close to right for me. My heart thumps against my gut. It's what I should want. He's a steady kind of guy. Hell, I could go for a right now, it doesn't have to be forever, but something isn't right.
"Thanks for the evening. I really enjoyed it, I need to check on the kids." I rush to fill the awkward space. I reach my hand behind me, turning away from him. Shoving the key into the lock and taking a step through the door. Then turn back.
"Call me, Tari," he smiles at me. Maurice says with his full black kryptonite drop-dead gorgeous smile. I nod at him and enter the house.
The door clicks closed and my curly hair rests against it. A cushion for my heavy heart. It's as if my life is on the precipice of repeating. Months ago when my ex was outside and the beats of this life sounded like a song on loop. A pile of all my mistakes in a pool of fear. All my perfection piled on top of each other, waiting to crash down again to the beat. Running from my mother's pain, my father's death, our house sold in debt from the hospital bills. When I was in college, everyone around me was young, but I felt ancient. I tried to get in and out as fast as possible, racing to the end with no college money.
Then I met Theo, and he was good. I breathed when I met Theo. In some ways, I haven't breathed since I was a little girl. I needed stability, Theo was that. He had a plan for life and the things he wanted. When Theo asks to marry me, I could only smile at him because it felt set in stone. As if it was meant to be. And finally, I had my rock. He's a good man, and I fought for that marriage. I fought for that life; I fought for that house Theo and I bought together. Something stable, something that was ours together. A family. I got the stable I always wanted. Theo told me he loved me daily. Until he cheated on me. I thought it was a rough patch when the; I love you stopped. On the first court order visitation, when I looked into his eyes, what day; I really understood our marriage, our life. It was over. I couldn't debase myself and ever accept him back. That might have been pride, self-worth, or basic self-preservation, but that meant Theo could never be what he was to me. The day I saw him and his new wife in the car. His engine was on idle, waiting to pick up our kids for his custody time. His engine idle was like every one of his I love yous. Simply waiting to drive off. Just a busted rearview mirror, with a broken stereo player that repeats the same lyrics that all rhyme.
I head upstairs to check on the kids. Noah Left a note on the door with what time they went to bed and when he left for the workshop. I checked the time on my phone and that's about the time we pulled up in the drive, missed him. My fingertips push the door open just a bit and inside my little man and space girl are sound asleep. I head back downstairs to my room. The phone screen lights my brown skin, I dial.
"Jo-lee, ......."
"How'd it go?"
"It was a date..."
A/n: When I wrote this book I wanted Tari to be more than a strong black woman. I wanted people to see the other side of a strong black woman. The shut doors. The unanswered tears, the heartache, the multigeneration connections. I am not sure I am going to get it in the first draft of this. I hope to pull it off though. I feel like there are two scenes in this series where I get close. Driving to the interview and this scene.
As always when you star or leave a comment fairies have an orgasm and everyone wants to help that little fairy get hers. I have a 3 post coming up after this one. 1 short two long so it's a busy week next week. Be on the lookout plz. Thank you for reading.
