Never in a million years

2

Tamera

I walk into the restaurant where meeting Kayla for our once a week lunch date. "Hey boo" "hey sexy" I laugh as I sit down and place my purse next to me. "I'm loving the all white pants suit and that shirt makes your breast look amazing" "that's what I said when I put it on this morning." "So how's your week been?" "Well I just got off of my last leg of the book tour as you know and- wait why am I telling you this you're my assistant you already know" "yes but that's the reason we go on these once a week lunch dates to have a time where we just eat and don't worry about work." "Well personally I've been relaxing lately I spent two days in New York to treat myself" "how was it? Did you bump into any sexy New York men?" She wiggles her eyebrows at me, I roll my eyes at her. Before I can open my mouth and say anything our waiter arrives. "Hello nice to meet you I'm Alice and I'll be serving you today. Would like to start with drinks or are you ready to order?" "We're ready to order. I'll have shrimp scampi with extra shrimp please and a glass of white wine" "and I will have steak well done, with mash potatoes, asparagus, and a glass of red wine please" "okay, I will just take your menus and your orders will be out soon" "thank you." As soon as the waitress is out of ear shot I turn my attention back to Kayla. "I don't know how many times I have to tell you. I am focusing on my career right now" "you haven't dated in 3 years" "and look at how good I've done for myself, plus I found out his ass was a lying cheating son of a bitch" "I never expected that from Jake, he fooled me" "yeah me too" "that don't mean you can't find a man to give you some" "kay I need you not to worry about my sex life" "I'm your assistant I need to assist you" "I don't pay you to assist my sex life that's not in your duties" "it's in my best friend duties" "If you need to know I am perfectly fine with my vibrator" "sad" "just because you have a husband who you can get it from anytime you want doesn't mean my sex life is sad." Now it's her turn to roll her eyes. "I'm just saying, you know I love telling you about the freaky shit me and Bryson do but I wanna share stories back and forth" "I wish you'd stop telling me about your sexcapades" "oh no you don't" I squint my eyes at her but I can't help the grin that spreads across my face. "You're right I'm happy one of us is getting some" "exactly" "but I'm still okay with my vibrator it gets the job done." Alice approaches the table with our food which smells delicious. "Enjoy" "thank you." We start in on our food and for three minutes we are both silent enjoying our meals. This shrimp scampi is so good, I'm a seafood kind of girl. My second favorite food is cajun shrimp but I love seafood all together. Buy me seafood and you have my heart."This food is the bomb" "you don't gotta tell me this steak it perfection" after a couple more bites we look at each other "switch." Some things never change. We take a couple bites of each others food before switching back. "Girl that shrimp was touched by God himself" "I told you, and that steak melts in your mouth when you chew." I pick up my glass drink some of my wine. "So how's my god kids" "the terrible twins?" "Don't be calling my babies that" "it's true Ayden drew on my goddamn wall the other day, I tore that behind up, now April she be playing in my make up and she think I don't know, Imma put fire to her behind real soon too" "leave them alone, they just kids" "bad ass kids, but you right, I love them lil demons to death. I can't wait for you to  have some of your own" "one day, but for now I'm happy with my Ayden and my April." It goes silent for a couple minutes before she takes a sip of wine  and clears her throat. I already don't like where this conversation is about to go but I don't say anything, I just wait for her to speak. "You know tam, I know Jake was a liar and a cheater but you kind of didn't help" "what do you mean, you saying I made him cheat?" "No I'm not saying you made him do anything because that was his own decision but you became absent emotionally" "you justifying his shit now" "no I'm not justifying anything just hear me out." I take a long sip of my wine as I continue eating my food while I listen to her.  "Towards the end of the relationship you became emotionally turned off. You guys stopped having sex, your phone conversations became shorter and shorter, you barely made time to see him, when he would talk it was like it was going in one ear and out the other" "I was graduating college and I wanted to make a career out of my writing so I would land on my feet after graduation" "see you say that and that may be true but it's not the complete truth" "Kayla please" "it was him, you felt yourself losing him and it was changing you, then when you lost him completely you had already emotionally broke up with Jake. It was only a matter of time before you cut ties, then when you found out what was going on you used that as a reason to break up with him. You didn't even feel crushed or hurt about the break up. Yeah you were down and yeah you cried but it was never about Jake." I swallow down the rest of my wine as I call Alice over for a refill. After she refills it I take a long sip and sit my now half full glass down on the table. I take a couple moments to think of what I'm going to say. "Okay" "okay? That's it?" "I really don't want to talk about him" "okay fine." "You want dessert?" "I would but I have to pick up April from dance" "when's her recital again?" "two weeks, not this Friday or the next but the Friday after, the 20th" "okay I'm putting that in my calendar right now" "she'll be happy to see you there" "I know, I miss my baby girl." Alice comes back with the check. "My treat" "tam you pay almost every time, I'll pay" I slip my card into the check holder before she can pull her wallet out."Too late" "next time it's on me" I laugh at her annoyed face as I drink the rest of my glass. "You my best friend I like to treat you" "well you're my best friend and I would like to treat you sometimes" "and you do.. when I let you" that makes us both laugh. "At least let me leave the tip" "okay okay." Alice comes back with my card and kay pulls out a few twenty dollar bills and hands it to Alice. "Thank you so much" "no problem" "enjoy your day Alice" "you guys too." We both get up to leave and kay turns to me. "Listen tam you know I love you and I'm just trying to look out for you" "I know and I love and appreciate you" we go in for a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "What's on your agenda for the rest of the day?" "I have a meeting with some people. I want to open up my own publishing company here in L.A. and eventually New York. Those are just for starters. I want to publish my own books under my own company and help up and coming authors get there books out there like how I did" "I'm so proud of you best friend, everything you set your mind to you see it through, I couldn't be more happy having you as a lifelong friend and sister" "awee kay thank you, you don't know how much you mean to me" "I'm sure I have a good sense of how much. What you doing after the meeting" "going to see my mom, cook her some dinner, talk and catch up" "well tell mom I say hey and I will see you at the office tomorrow morning" "okay see you boo, be safe" "you too."