Lust and Lies (The Jamie Reynolds Chronicles #1) (4 page)

I Prayed for You…

Our conversation on my way back to my mother’s house was kind of brief.

“I really appreciate you calling me while I drive home.”

“Yeah, Jonathan told me about you and driving at night.”

I knew it; Jonathan must have told him to call me when I dropped him off at the airport. I thought to myself and then I remembered Jonathan was talking to him last night before I went to bed when we were driving and told him I couldn’t drive at night, telling him about my many near-death accidents while driving at night and falling asleep at the wheel.

“I can’t believe he told you that. What did he say?”

“He just said that you were driving a couple of times at night and you fell asleep at the wheel and crashed your car.”

“Hey, I didn’t crash my car, I just busted out my tires a few times,” I said as my voice got softer from embarrassment.

“You are funny.”

“Let me explain, first of all, I work a lot and went out just as much. I would work about an average of sixty hours a week between my freelance gigs and my overnight shift at Channel 2, and then I go out after work on the weekend.”

“Why do you work so much?” Toni interrupted.

“I don’t know.”

“You know.”

“No, I really don’t know.” The nerve of him trying to play psychiatrist on me. “Anyway”—trying to finish my sentence—“I would go out and then try to drive home at like three or four in the morning after working a long day sometimes. In the beginning I would just catch myself as soon as I closed my eyes behind the wheel, but the more and more I continued to drive at night, the heavier and heavier my eyes got. Besides, it only happened three times.”

“You need to be careful.”

“I’m careful now. I just don’t really drive at night anymore.”

“Were you and your car okay?”

“Yeah, we both were cool, I more so than her.”

“So your car is a she?”

“Yeah, as much as I hate females sometimes, she is a she.”

“What do you mean you hate females?”

There he went again with the analyzing questions.

“Well, I don’t really hate them, but I just don’t hang out with a lot of females.”

“Oh, you’re one of those females that hang around a lot of guys.”

“Yeah, I guess everyone knows that females are trifling.”

“So are guys,” he said as he began to cut me off. “Just be careful, guys can be sneaky. They always have an agenda.”

“So what is your agenda?” I said, trying to flip the script.

I heard nothing but silence for a second. He just knew at that very moment he was saying too much.

To break the silence, I said, “You’re right, guys can be trifling too, but I try to be careful.”

He was still speechless. “I-I wasn’t saying—”

I just cut him off. “J should be getting in around twelve a.m. or so, are you picking him up?”

Awkward silence again. “Oh, Jonathan.” He laughed. “I had to think who was J, for a second. No, his girl is. I have to be at work at ten.”

“Well, it is getting late. I have a full day ahead of me tomorrow.”

“Good night, it was nice talking to you. If you don’t mind, I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, that would be cool. I have some meetings and paperwork to finish up; then I may go out to my friend’s studio.”

“Oh, that sounds like fun.”

“What, the studio? Not really,” I replied before allowing him to reply back. “You been to one, you been to them all. Anyway, good night.”

“Oh, okay, well, good night, it was good talking to you.”

“Same here.”

“Oh, and for the record, I don’t have an agenda, I just wanted to get to know you better.”

“Oh, okay,” was all I said before hanging up the phone.

We both hung up the phone, and like always, before I went to bed, I turned the ringers off on my cell phones so I could get a full night’s rest.

***

I woke up the next morning and, for some strange reason, couldn’t get Toni out of my head. I went to check my messages on both of my cell phones. Since I was planning on traveling back and forth between New York and Atlanta, I decided it would be wise to get another cell number for New York. After I checked my New York number, I only had three missed calls but no new message.

“Hey, if they don’t leave a message, then I can’t call them back,” I said to myself. Then I went to check my Atlanta cell number. I had about six missed calls, two voice messages and a text message. I decided to check my voicemail first. Because I knew who it was, my play-brother Terry. He was the reason I turned my ringer off. Always calling or texting me at all hours to see if I was coming out tonight or to tell me how much fun he had and who he ran into in the club. Terry was a crazy dude, always getting into trouble, but if I ever needed anything, he was there for me like a real brother would be.

“Yo, J, pick up the phone, pick up the phone, man. We need to talk.” I didn’t know why he spoke to my cell phone like it was a home answering machine; didn’t he realize I couldn’t hear him leaving the message?

“Next message received at 12:45 a.m.”

“Yo, J, this is Sean, I just seen Terry and you crossed my mind. What’s good? I’m hoping to see you out tonight. Holla at me when you get a chance, one.”

It was too early to be speaking to both Sean and Terry, I’d call them later. Well, at least I would call Sean. After the stunt Terry pulled a few months ago, I didn’t want to talk to him.

I put the phone down and began walking to the kitchen when my phone text signal went off. “Oh, I forgot I got a text. It’s probably from Terry texting me to call him back.” To my surprise, it wasn’t. I really didn’t know who it was from until I read it.

“GM, I just had you in my thoughts. I hope you have a GD.”

GM and GD, that could only be from one person, but I had to make sure, I ran to my purse to pull out Toni’s number that I wrote down before I went to bed last night. I knew if I didn’t write it down before the day was out, I would have lost it in the received calls in my cell phone.

It matched. I contemplated if I should text him back; after all, he might be at work or busy.

“Oh well,” I thought out loud and wrote back: “GM, you at work? I just got up.”

It took him about thirty seconds before he responded. “Yeah, I’m at work. How did you sleep?”

How did I sleep? I didn’t know… did people really ask that question anymore?

“I slept good. I was really tired, I had a busy day yesterday, so I slept in a little.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, but I hope you have a GD today. What do you have planned for today?”

“Work, of course, lol. Do what I do best. I have two meetings and lunch with my new client. I hope to be done around seven. Then I have to go down to the studio and show my face, hoping to be home around nine thirty.”

“Wow, you have a very busy day.”

“It’s like this every day.”

“When do you have time for yourself?”

Time for myself, I didn’t even know what that was anymore. I woke up early, worked all day and went to bed to start my routine all over again.

“I find time.”

“N E way, what time is your first meeting? I go to lunch at two and I’ll probably call you to see how your day is going, if you don’t mind.”

Man, this dude was trying so hard to be nice to me. Jonathan must have told him about my bad luck with men or how I could be a bitch at times when it came to meeting guys.

“My meeting is at one. You can try to call on your lunch break, and I hope to be out by then.”

“Okay, you have a GD.”

“You do the same, bye.”

***

“Hello.”

“Hey, Toni, sorry about today. My day just got so busy, I didn’t have time to talk to you. Besides, I’m trying to get readjusted to taking the train everywhere and my phone doesn’t work when I’m on the train.”

I felt so bad lying to Toni, my lunch meeting was over at two forty-five and he tried to call me at one o’clock and I didn’t pick up the phone. Toni was cool and everything, but I still hadn’t figured out his motive, so until I did, my guard would be up, way up.

“Don’t worry about it. I was just trying to see how your day was going so far. How was your day today, anyway?”

“It was very productive. I just got back in the house and I’m about to get dressed and go back out.”

“Oh, really?” he said with a very disappointed sound to his voice.

“Yeah, after I left my friend’s studio, I told him I would attend his talent’s album release party. I heard some of the tracks; he’s really good. Some new artist name John Legend.”

“That’s cool. Should I let you go so you can get ready?”

“No, I’m good, we can talk. I’m about to throw something on and head out of the house in twenty minutes. We can talk while I get dressed.” Damn, I hated sounding so desperate, I should have told him I would call him tomorrow, I thought to myself as I looked in the closet. I paused for a second…

“I don’t even want to go. I don’t feel like mixing and mingling tonight, I just kind of wanted to stay home.”

“So why don’t you?”

“Why don’t I what?”

“Stay home.”

“I can’t, I already promised my friend. Besides, I’m hoping to get there around eleven and be out and home before one. Hold on.”

“The train,” I yelled back at my mother. “I’ll be fine. I won’t be out too late.”

“Sorry about that. My mother is tripping because she doesn’t like the idea of me taking the train so late at night.”

“Oh, you’re not driving?” Toni asked, sounding concern.

“No, I don’t know my way around the city too well, and besides, there’s never anywhere to park.”

“That is kind of late for you to be taking the train.”

“Please don’t say that. I am old enough to take the train by myself, dad,” I said, laughing at the fact he was so concerned. “I’m just kidding. I’ll be fine.”

“You better be.”

“I’m about to leave the house now. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Hey, JR?” he said right before I started to close my flip phone.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“Hey, if you don’t mind, I’ll be up late, and if you can at least call when you get home, I’ll be able to get a good night’s sleep.”

My heart just melted; that was so sweet of him. “I really don’t want to keep you up or wake you up.”

“I probably won’t be getting any sleep, knowing you’re in the streets walking home by yourself at one a.m. in the morning.”

“Okay, if it’s not too late, I’ll call you. It should be around 12:30 or so, okay?”

“Okay, Jamie, have a good time and I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay, bye.”

As I hung up the phone, all I could do was think about Toni and couldn’t get over the fact that he was being so nice to me and he didn’t even know me. I wondered as I walked to the train if he did this to every woman he met. He was just being nice to me because he knew I would be traveling back and forth from New York to Atlanta; he just got one thing on his mind.

My mind continued to think as I got on the train and made my way down to the party. It was in a small cute little lounge.

The place was pretty packed, so why did I not want to be here? Damn Toni, I thought to myself. I was here at this party and couldn’t even enjoy myself because I couldn’t get him out of my mind.

“Excuse me,” I yelled out to the bartender, “can I have a bottle of Voss?”

“What?” the bartender shouted.

“A bottle of Voss,” I shouted over the loud music.

I guess they didn’t have any because he turned around and handed me a plastic bottle of regular water.

“No Voss, sweetheart. Damn,” I said as I began to go into my purse to pay.

A guy behind me tapped my shoulder and said I was good.

At that very moment I noticed my phone’s red light was flashing, letting me know I had a missed call or a new message.

“Thank you, sweetie,” I said to the guy behind me and gestured with my phone that I had to run to take a call. I was curious to see who was calling me. I hoped it wasn’t Terry; I didn’t feel like talking to him tonight.

To my surprise, it was a text from Toni. “Hey, hope you’re having a GT.”

He’d sent this text about twenty minutes ago, so I figured I should text back.

“I’m not really feeling the party. I’m getting ready to leave soon.”

Before I could even look into the mirror to check my makeup and hair, my phone was going off, notifying me that I had a text message.

Damn, that was quick. What, was he holding his phone, praying that I text him back? That image in my head made me laugh.

“I guess you were right, you really will be home before 12:30.”

I looked down at my watch and realized it was only 11:30. I walked around the club, making sure everyone saw my face before I dipped out the back door. I was only at the lounge for about forty-five minutes; that had to be some kind of record. As I exited the club, I noticed the line was all the way down the block. I hoped I wasn’t leaving too soon, but I was already outside and didn’t feel like going back in to find out.

I picked up my phone and I don’t know what came over me… but I called Toni.

“Hey, you ’sleep?”

“No, I’m still up.”

“How was the party?”

“It was cool, but I really didn’t want to go out in the first place.” Besides, I couldn’t get you out of my mind, I thought to myself.

“I hope it wasn’t because of me.” He paused for a second. “And your mom, of course.”

“No, it wasn’t because of you two.”
Don’t flatter yourself
, I thought and started to laugh because he was right.

“What is so funny?” he asked.

“Nothing, I’m just walking down to the subway and I guess my four inches don’t like this walk.”

“You crazy, four-inch heels.”

“I always wear heels. You just managed to catch me on a bad day.” I was referring to the first time he’d seen me.

“But I liked what I saw.”

“I bet, old sweatpants and some flip-flops.”

“After a while you learn to see the inner beauty of a person not the outer.”

I was speechless; I didn’t even know what to say. As a matter of fact, there was about thirty seconds of silence on the phone before I said, “I’m about to go underground on the train and my cell phone won’t work. Thanks for talking and I’ll call you to—”