Amber shook her head. “No,” She grabbed for the opportunity to steer her friend’s opinion of Charles towards the right path. “It was good,” she reflected on the steamy past night. “Quite amazing…” She trailed her words. She could still feel his kiss and the way he feather touched her skin. She could still imagine him inside her as they both rose into clouds of ecstasy. Clearing her head, she forced herself to focus. “I’ve never felt like this before with anyone.” She wanted to convey her feelings in hopes that her friend might understand. Just thinking of him now, especially after their night together, gave her butterflies in her stomach. It was almost a nervous feeling, but the thought of seeing him sent quivers down her body.
“Don’t you dare say the L word.” Melanie warned.
“I wasn’t going to.” Amber defensively retorted. She felt her cheeks grow hot, hoping that nothing showed that shouldn’t have.
“Okay good.” She placed a hand on her heart dramatically. “That was close.” She pretended to wipe her forehead teasingly. “You can’t do this to me!”
“Oh hush,” Amber raised her hand in a silent playful manner. “It’s none of yo’ beeswax bitch.”
Later that afternoon, tiny baby Abel was the center of everyone’s attention. Sasha looked rather comfortable in her hospital bed, holding the mini bundle of joy in her arms. There were sobs of happiness and tears of laughter in the room between the three women. The tension was over and everyone could rest easy now that baby Abel had reached the world safe and healthy at barely seven pounds.
*
“Beep…Beep…Beep” The sound of Amber’s alarm ruthlessly cut the silence causing her to jump up wildly. She moaned and slapped the snooze button for five more minutes while cuddling in her warm purple comforter. Waking up like this at eight a.m. always threw her mornings in disarray, just as her hair appeared, horribly messy. That was the reason she had to be up early, to straighten it. She had a mission today and she couldn’t let a simple hairdo spoil it.
When the alarm went off again, she sat up slowly and yawned, stretching in her pink silk pajamas. She had made up her mind the day before as to what she was going to do and practiced what she was going to say to him a thousand times. She felt over rehearsed, which definitely might be a problem in the near future. What if she got tongue-tied and something else came out instead? She had a habit of over-thinking things. The only challenge would be to make it through work the rest of the day after she said what she needed to say.
Walking over to the mirror on her vanity desk, she muttered aloud. “Pathetic,” she scratched her head and then wiped the sleep from her eyes. She could see the dark circles of stress congregating just below them. “God let this day be good…” she begged silently to the air, stripping down into her comfortable naked self. Examining her goods in the mirror she wrinkled her nose. Too much curve accentuated her body until she felt far from perfect. She was thin, but goodness her ass was big. She smacked it, and then watched it jiggle. “I really need to work out, don’t you think Tito?”
She looked at the big brown ball of fluff staring up at her. Somewhere beneath all its fur there was a thin kitty with a personality all of its own. He was definitely a loveable pain the ass, only purring and looking for pets some of the time.
She rolled her eyes at him. “You butt,” she mouthed. “Yes, you Tito.”
The cat didn’t budge. It just stared at her with big luminous eyes, shining blue and bright. It demonstrated no interest in her whatsoever, or even the slightest intention of moving from the lazy spot he lay in. She walked over to her closet, fumbled through her dresses while debating what to wear. Finally, she settled on something plain and simple. She wasn’t going there to impress him today. She was going to get answers. Her heart was growing fonder of him by the day. She wanted to know where they stood, or at least what she was to him. If she was going to be some girl that he hit and quit, she wanted to know now so she could move on. But for some reason her stomach had a sour feeling about the day ahead. He was wealthy and she was a good time. Perhaps he didn’t think anything else beyond that.
Upon showering, shoving down breakfast and skipping out the door, she stepped into her small white 2001 Honda Civic. The poor thing had seen many bad times. It was covered in bumps and scratches. Tales could easily be spelled out just from looking at the old beat up clunker. But it was her baby, and she liked to call her Jasmine. The car hummed to life, spewing out cold air. At least her A/C worked correctly. It was the one good thing about old Jasmine.