Lust and Lies (The Jamie Reynolds Chronicles #1) (9 page)

“It was a crazy dream. I dreamed that I was heading to this party and I was being chased by the chain-saw massacre guy. I was trying to call you to get directions to the party because you were already there and he kept on showing up with his saw.”

“Wow, baby. That dream was a bit crazy.”

“What is crazy is my mind and how I feel about you. Every minute, moment of each day… you are my morning flower deeply rooted, stirring the nutrients of love always. Blooming with encouragement, and exhaling oxygen…”

My eyes filled with water as I finished reading the text. “That was beautiful, baby.”

“Well, that is enough sweet-talk, my sweet, for the day. Have a gd and I will talk to you later. Don’t work too hard.”

“You also have a gd… I am running late for my meeting.”

***

“And that is what the layout looks like. By the end of the week, we should have the budget complete, right, JR?” Mark turned to me, waiting for me to agree to his promise to our newest client, Morning Birds Entertainment.

“Right, JR?” Mark said again as he cleared his throat.

“I’m sorry, Mark, you were saying?”

“How do you function with two cell phones? If one is not ringing off the hook, the other is beeping from a text,” Tory Webster from Morning Birds Entertainment said.

“Yeah, how do you?” Mark said, trying to be sarcastic.

“You get used to it,” I said, sending my final text and closing my phone. “Anyway, according to these layouts, we will have everything completed, including the budget, before the week is over.”

With the look on Tory’s face, I knew he was pleased with this meeting.

“Okay, Mr. Webster,” Mark said as he attempted to shake his hand.

“Please, call me Tory.” He turned his back on Mark and gave me a hug and small kiss on the cheek.

“Jamie, everything sounds wonderful,” Tory said.

“Please, please call me JR,” I interrupted him as we both started laughing. I gazed quickly at Mark, and he didn’t look too pleased with our joke.

“I look forward to working with you. I’ve heard a lot of good things about your work.”

Before Tory even left the room, Mark grabbed my arm, pulling me back down into my chair. “Jamie, what is going on with you?”

“What?”

“You almost blew the deal, playing with your phone.”

“What are you talking about? I didn’t almost blow the deal. Tory was happy with our work.”

“Our work, he didn’t even acknowledge me.”

“Oh, is that what this is about?”

“No, JR, I’m just saying.”

“What, Mark? What! Morning Birds Entertainment found me.”

“I know this, JR, I’m just saying what is up with you lately?” He grabbed my hand to sit me back down in my chair. “I didn’t mean to sound mean.”

“Don’t worry ’bout it. I have a lot of work to do before the week is over.”

“Don’t you mean we?” Mark said with a confused look on his face.

“I guess? I’ll call you later.”

As I began walking away, I couldn’t help thinking about what just happened. I was a freelance worker, and Mark was cool and all, but we worked for ourselves. Yes, occasionally he found work and hooked me up, and I do the same, but he pissed me off.

Wait, what was I saying? Mark was a great production coordinator. Where were these crazy thoughts coming from? I really had to ask myself these questions.

“Jamie, Jamie,” Mark called my name as I got midway down the block.

“Yeah?” I said to him as I stopped and turned to face him.

“Thanks,” was all he yelled as he turned around and began to walk in the other direction. I just smiled to myself and kept on walking. After about five blocks of walking away from the restaurant, I was mad but didn’t really know what I was mad about. Everything was going good, I was on a new project, I guess you could say I found love. What was wrong?

***

It’d been a long-awaited meeting, I thought as I called Toni but got no answer, so I started to leave a message.

“Hey, babe, it’s me. I was just calling to let you know that I’m on the road. I can’t wait to see you. I can’t believe I’m ditching work for the weekend to drive to Virginia. This is so exciting.”
Beep, beep
… “Okay, gotta go, this is you on the next line.”

“Hey, babe,” Toni said.

“Hey, honey, where are you at? I’m right outside of Pennsylvania.”

“Babe, I am so sorry to do this, but I’m still in Atlanta.”

“What??” I said as I almost got into an accident as I came to an abrupt stop off the road and parked in the emergency lane. “What happened?”

“We’ve been talking on the phone for a little over two months now. This will be our first time seeing each other since the day you left Atlanta. I’m nervous.”

“Babe, I know, I’m a little nervous too, but it’s going to be okay. Babe, we both have dreamed about this day for a long time now.”

“Aw, aw, aw, baby. I can’t do this no more, I’m just kidding, I’m outside of Alabama.”

“What? That is not funny. I’ve already turned around.”

“Babe, did you really turn around?”

“No, I’m just kidding.”

“Now that wasn’t funny. I guess we must be even.”

“Oh no, my friend, we are not even. Payback’s a bitch,” I said, laughing. “Can you believe in less than four hours we will be in each other’s arms for the very first time?”

“Yeah, JR. I can’t wait, but according to these directions, I’ll be there in about five hours. You’ll get there before me.”

“Not a problem, I can finish up my budget that’s due on Monday. That will help me get my mind off this man I think I’m head over heels for.”

“I wonder who that could be.”

“He’s a cool guy, you might like him. Maybe you can meet him in Virginia. He’s driving up and will meet me at the hotel in a few hours.”

“As long as he makes you happy, then I’m happy for you.”

“Toni, you crazy. Let me save my battery. I don’t know what happened to my charger. It stopped working when I was driving. I just bought this new dual cigarette lighter and I had my laptop and my phone charging, and now it doesn’t work.”

“Why did you have your laptop charging in the car with you?”

“Do you really want to know?” I continued speaking without allowing Toni to reply. “Good thing you’re going to be late, I can get some work done.”

“I wonder about you sometimes,” Toni said as he laughed at me.

“Alright, babe, I’ll call you in a bit. Drive safe.”

“Love you, no, love us,” Toni said.

“Ditto,” I said as I hung up the phone.

John Legend was playing on the radio. “This is my boy,” I said as I raised the volume. As I just began getting into the song, my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and noticed it was David. “David, what does he want? I haven’t spoken to that boy since I left Atlanta.”

“Hello, this is JR.”

“What up, nig?” David said, sounding extra excited.

“Whad up, Mr. Walker, how are we?”

“I good, man, I was just calling to see what’s up. I haven’t spoken to you in a minute. You can’t call a brother no more or what?”

“David, you know my schedule is crazy.”

“I know, I know. How is your dad?”

“He’s doing good. The week before I moved back to New York he just walked right out of the hospital. It was crazy.”

“I guess he just missed his daughter.”

“I know, that’s what he said when—”

“He ain’t the only one,” David said softly.

There was an awkward pause on the phone. Did I hear him right? I thought to myself.

“So, how’s the kid?” I quickly jumped up and said, referring to David’s eight-year-old son.

“Oh, you know, he’s good.”

“That is good.”

“So, man, what have you been up to?”

“Man, doing what I do best, work.”

“Hey, man, did I catch you at a bad time? Are you working now?”

“Naw, you good, I’m just taking a break from work and heading to get something to eat.”

What the hell am I doing?
Why am I lying?

“What do you have a taste for?”

“I don’t know, why, would you like to join me?” I said, trying to be funny.

“You know I would if I could.”

“You stupid.”

“Well, man, I was just calling to see how everything was doing. Hey, man, don’t be a stranger, hit a brother up.”

“I’ll do that, enjoy the rest of your day; tell the family I said hello.”

“Alright, JR, talk to you later.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

As I hung up the phone, I noticed a sign: 175 miles to Virginia. “Damn, I still have, like, two and a half hours and I can’t believe David called.”

I still couldn’t understand why I was so shocked that David called. He was a cool dude, not to mention cute. Damn, I could still remember the first day we met at the Havana Club. He was cool and he made me laugh. Any other guy would have never even approached me after I tried to leave Angela at the door of a club for collateral. I even remembered the next night when we went out on our first date. Angela was so mad at us for going out together on our own before we went on our double date.

***

Ring, ring
… “Who is this calling me?” I said to myself after looking at the unrecognizable number on my cell’s caller ID.

“Hello, this is JR.”

“Hello, JR?”

“Yes, this is her,” I said with an attitude.

“Damn, girl. Why you sound so mean? You New York girls are all alike,” David said, trying to sound funny.

Oh my god, this was the dude David that I met last night. Damn, he did say he was going to call me today. Who would have thought he would really call.

“Excuse me, don’t start with your country ass.”

“Oh, so now I’m country.”

“No, boo, you were also country last night.”

“You say it like it’s a bad thing,” David said, sounding concerned.

“It couldn’t be so bad, I gave you my number, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what’s up, nig?”

“Nig?” I said back to him, pretending not to understand him. “I’m sorry, I don’t speak country.”

“Funny, man, or should I say son.” He imitated a New York accent.

“Please don’t do that again,” I said, making fun of his pretend New York accent. “You crazy. Where you, at work?”

“Hey, man. Trying to make a little pocket change. So what do you do again?”

“I work freelance on production projects and I work the night shift at Channel 2 news.”

“Oh, excuse me but that doesn’t sound so busy.”

There was a slight pause on the phone. I didn’t really understand what he meant.

“I asked you why you were still single last night, and you said you are a very busy lady,” he said, trying to explain his previous comment.

“Oh, I am a very busy person. I work a lot. My job is my life right now.”

“That’s cool.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” I said, interrupting him. “I meet guys and they always say that’s cool, they like a girl that works and all that other good stuff. But I’m different, I really do work a lot. My life right now is my success and my career. It’s hard being black and a pretty decent-looking female in my line of work.”

“JR—” David tried to say something, but I just kept on talking.

“My work always leads me to the club or entertainment events, so this is how I know so many people, and my line of work keeps me out and about, staying relevant, you know,” I tried to explain myself as if he asked me to do so.

“JR,” David said, “JR.”

“Oh, my bad, I am so sorry.”

“No, you’re good. I guess you heard this before, but I do understand. It’s cool, I respect that about you. At least you ain’t one of these girls out here just looking for a dude to take care of them. Good guys like us always finish last.”

“So you’re trying to say you’re one of the good guys,” I said in a seductive voice.

“I guess you could say that, but you can be the judge of that.”

“Okay, I guess I will.”

“So what are you doing today? I know your schedule is all crazy and stuff, but do you have a moment today for little ole me?”

“Very cute. I’m actually off for a few days and don’t go back to Channel 2 until Friday night and I don’t start a new project until next month. So this is like a short month for me.”

“Cool, so what’s good? You want to catch a movie or something?”

“A movie would be cool,” I said.

“Well, it’s four o’clock now; I get off work in an hour. What do you want to watch?”

“I’m not too picky; anything is cool. What side of town are you on? I live in Stone Mountain.”

“I stay over in Gwinnett.”

“Gwinnett,” I repeated back to him. “That is so far from me.”

“Girl, please, I’m like fifteen minutes from you. I used to live off of Mainstreet, back in the day.”

“Oh, I have a house over off Mainstreet.”

“Is that where you live now?”

“No, I live in my other house.” Damn, I hated the way that sentence came out.

“Damn, nig, how many houses you have?”

“I have two, nig,” I said, trying to sound sarcastic.

“Two houses and how old are you again?”

Damn, I hated where this conversation was going. “I’m only twenty-three, but I’m not rich or anything, I just work very hard and try to make some wise investments. Besides the house I’m in now is my mother’s investment property. I recently moved and rented my townhome off Mainstreet last month since my mom’s rental is larger.”

“It’s cool. It’s hard to find a female that got her shit together.”

“Thank you.” That didn’t go that bad, I thought to myself. Most guys would say some stupid-ass comment like, I want to be like you when I grow up, or can you buy me a house, or my personal favorite, baller, can I have some money for my down payment?

“JR,” David said, snapping me back into reality.

“Sorry.”

“You okay?” David laughed.

“I’m good.”

“So I’m on the Internet now at work. What movie do you want to see?”

“I don’t know, what movies are playing? I’m game to watch anything except scary movies.”

“I guess
Saw
is out of the question, then,” David said, laughing.

“Yes, it is. Unless you’re planning on moving into my house, so I can sleep at night for about a month or so.”