An Unconventional Love: A Novella Read online

  An Unconventional Love

  Copyright 2015 Alexandra Warren

  Cover Art by Visual Luxe

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to real locations, people, or events is coincidental and unintentional.

  Acknowledgements

  Thank you God. And thank you to everybody who’s still rocking with me! To be on a fifth book is like…mind-blowing but I couldn’t have done it without the readers who keep me on my toes. So thank you! And happy reading.

  jasmine.

  “Ain’t this about a bitch…”

  I snatched the parking ticket off of my windshield before I fiddled with the door to my BMW. The battery on my keyless entry remote had died weeks ago and since I had yet to make it to the dealership to get a new one, I was stuck in a tussle with the door’s lock to get inside.

  They probably think I’m trying to steal it.

  Thankfully the lock popped before things got too suspicious.

  I leaned against the inside of my door as I glanced a few parallel parking spots ahead of mine at the porky parking patrolman who was writing yet another ticket. I had seen him on a few occasions, doing the same exact thing day in and day out. But now that he had messed with my car...

  “Don’t you have better things to do like going to the damn gym or something? I mean a membership can’t be more than 20 bucks!” Call me rude, but I wasn’t gonna stop until I got his attention. He was obviously picking on me by writing me a ticket so it was only right to return the favor. “Maybe if you spent less time writing these bullshit ass tickets and more time on a treadmill, that uniform wouldn’t fit so tight!”

  He finally turned my way and his initial scowl in response to my verbal assault turned into a look of lust.

  Jackpot.

  He smacked the parking ticket he had been working on, on the windshield of a SmartCar before he made his way over to me with a slow strut. Even with his sunglasses on and his patrolman hat sitting low, I could still see the smug look on his face.

  “A pretty little lady like you shouldn’t be swearing like a sailor.” A few choice words came to mind but I knew they wouldn’t help me get out of the ticket so I went the damsel in distress route instead.

  “I’m sorry. It’s just… I’ve had a really long day. My car broke down so I had to borrow my mother’s and she’ll kill me if she finds out about this ticket. She already warned me that she has a warrant out for so many parking tickets of her own and one more will probably get the car taken away which means she won’t be able to get to work and I won’t be able to get to school. I’m a first-generation college student, studying to be a lawyer now and…” I could tell my whiney little white lie was working by the way the height of his shoulders seemed to get lower and lower.

  Damn, this shit is too easy.

  “You know what? How about we just rip this little ticket up and act like it never happened? It won’t register in our system for at least another hour so I’ll have time to get rid of it by then.”

  “Seriously? You’d do that? For me?” I batted my fake eyelashes as hard as I could while I watched the buttons of his uniform shirt strain from his heavy breathing as his eyes perused my body.

  “Sure. It’s the least I could do for you, sweetie.”

  Ick.

  Since I was on a mission, I mustered up as much sweetness as I could to reply, “Thank you so much. You have no idea how much this means to me. I mean, I know they say men in uniform always go above and beyond their call of duty but this…” I watched as he gave a slow graze of his five o’clock shadow that really looked more like five-thirty, maybe even six. He was clearly feeling himself like he was a real police officer and not a borderline rent-a-cop.

  “Just doing my job, beautiful,” he said, as he tipped his hat to me like some damn hero.

  Who does he think that flashlight is gonna save?

  I took a quick peek at his left hand to make sure my exit strategy would work and sure enough, I saw a titanium wedding band.

  “I’m sure you make your wife very proud.” His face turned a different shade of red at my acknowledgment.

  “I umm…”

  Instead of waiting around for his explanation, I tossed out, “Have a good day, sir. Thanks again.” I slid into the driver’s seat of the car that damn sure had nothing to do with my mom, shutting the door before I could be subjected to anymore of Porky’s bullshit.

  Of course I wanted nothing to do with him besides getting out of the parking ticket he gave me, but the simple fact that he was endearment dropping like his ass wasn’t married was exactly why my views on relationships were fucked up in the first place.

  I was a Daddy’s girl by nature, but growing up and watching him flirt his way through and in everything like he wasn’t married to my mom forever changed me. When I was younger, it didn’t really mean much to me that he made all the ladies smile. Hell, I honestly thought it was a good thing that every woman was always so happy to see him. But as I grew older, I learned that their smiles were in response to a lot more than just his charm and good hair.

  He was a player.

  And being that I was so enthralled by everything he stood for, I inherited all of his mannerisms; from the way he always talked with a little hint of flirtation, to the way he constantly touched women ever-so-slyly during conversations, just enough to make their skin miss his presence later on. The way he dealt with his women, making them fall under his spell time and time again, was exactly the way I dealt with every man in my life. And for the most part it worked in my favor. Any paper I turned in - during office hours - would alway get high marks. Any job interview I did was a shoe-in. Anytime I wanted sex, it was practically guaranteed.

  In all actuality, the only thing it kept me from was falling in love.

  Like real love.

  Like Jada and Will kind of love.

  Michelle and Barack kind of love.

  Hell, even the kind of love my best friend Ariel had found in her boo Jamison.

  I mean, it wasn’t like I even wanted someone to love. I surely got my fair share of intimacy. But I guess the idea of it and the fact that it felt out of my reach made it that much more...attractive.

  Unfortunately, there was no room for love as I was too busy using that kind of energy towards things a little more important.

  Like getting out of that ticket.

  I watched the flow of traffic out of my side view mirror, waiting for a good chance to jump in. I had a solid half hour before my Contemporary Issues in Laws and Politics class was due to start but judging by the traffic that had yet to stop coming, I would be late as always.

  I veered in once I thought the coast was clear and instantly heard the collision of someone’s headlight against my bumper.

  “What the fuck!”

  I put my car in park and hopped out to inspect the damage. For as bad as things sounded, there was only a small dent but that wasn’t gonna stop me from cursing whoever the driver was out after I snapped a quick pic of their license plate. There was no way in hell I was falling victim to a hit and run.

  The second I heard the door to the 95 Honda Accord creak open, I started going off. “Are you blind?! Were you not paying any attention?! This is a BMW for Christ’s sake!”

  “Calm down, girl. It was an accident. Shit happens. Just chill out for a second.”

  I didn’t have time to look at whoever the man was as I was too busy snapping shots of the damage to submit to my insurance agent by
app. “Chill out?! I’ll chill out when your insurance information… if you have insurance… is in my hand so I can get to where I need to go.”

  “Look. I have places to be just like you so don’t try to put yourself on some high horse just because my car is a different level of luxury than yours. If your ass was paying any attention, you would’ve seen me coming. But no; you were probably too busy checking yourself out in the mirror to think about other people on the road.”

  He had a point.

  I mean, I was only checking my teeth to make sure none of the spinach salad I had for a late lunch was stuck between them. But he didn’t know all of that for a fact so he definitely had no right to just make it up like he knew me or something.

  When I finally looked at him, ready to serve him my spitfire specialty on a platter, all my words seemed to get choked up in my throat. Smooth, honey-roasted skin, a legit five o’clock shadow that contradicted his fresh-out-of-the-barber’s-chair low fade, and muscles that were straining against a damp white tee like he had just came from the gym.

  Lawd.

  If I would’ve known he was this fine all along, I certainly would’ve kept my mouth closed. But now that he had came for me on some personal shit…

  “And just where do you have to be, huh? Going to visit one of your baby mamas? Gonna lay some dick on her so she’ll lower your child support payments?” Clearly the last case I had finished the paperwork for before I left the office was still in my head.

  He raised an eyebrow at me before he said, “I don’t have kids. Not that that’s any of your business. But actually I was headed home before your non-driving ass interrupted me.” I rolled my eyes, pretending to be unfazed by the bulge in his basketball shorts.

  “Anyway! Will you just...hand over your insurance card so I can snap a picture and get going? I have way better things to do than go tit-for-tat with a stranger in the street.”

  He finally cracked a smirk and my lower extremities seemed to lose a little bit of their cohesion. Thankfully he didn’t see my reaction as he was already back at his car, leaning over the front seat to get to the glove compartment. I tried to divert my attention to everything else happening around me, but somehow my eyes still gravitated to his ridiculously firm ass.

  Sheesh.

  Definitely a gym-goer.

  He peeked through the windshield to see if I was still there and the way his gaze skimmed over my body made me tremble.

  Chill, Jaz.

  He’s not on your level.

  Instead of waiting by his car for him to find his information, I went to my car to get mine. I was still in my work clothes, so it wasn’t easy to get across the front seat in my pencil skirt but now that I was already trying, I surely wasn’t going to get back out of the car to walk around.

  As I flipped through the random assortment of papers that were in my glove compartment, I heard a low, “Damn” and knew exactly why. I peeked behind me, way too prepared to get my flirt and tease on since I finally had his attention but his eyes were nowhere near on me. In fact, they were on his phone that he seemed to be scrolling through endlessly.

  Whatever.

  I grabbed one of the paper copies of my insurance card that I kept in my car just for situations like this - okay, maybe I wasn’t the best driver - and climbed back out of the car as best I could.

  “Here you go.”

  He peeked up from his phone just long enough to grab the paper and trade it with his insurance card. I pulled my phone out to take a picture of both sides before I handed it back to him. He gave me a nod and was heading back to his car with his eyes still preoccupied with whatever was on his phone. And against my usual attack of someone that intrigued me, I climbed into mine.

  rich.

  “So you got it fixed but...now it’s not fixed? And you said I was the bad driver...”

  My little sister Rae was too wrapped in her teenage, autonomous ways to comprehend that the accident I had gotten into was far different than the fender bender she had because she was too occupied on her damn cell phone. We had watched so many YouTube videos on no texting and driving that she probably had them memorized but she still chose to learn her lesson the hard way.

  “I’ll take it back in tomorrow, Rae. You’ll just have to wait a couple more days before you can drive again.” I watched as she threw her arms down in a pout, a reaction I had gotten use to since she had moved in with me two years ago. Back then she was at least a little more impressionable. Now, she had practically turned into a spoiled brat.

  “This is bull, Rich. I don’t understand why you won’t just let me drive one of your cars. Maybe I’d be more careful if I wasn’t driving around that dust bucket you insisted I have.”

  The dust bucket was a rite of passage, passed down from our father to me, and now from me to Rae. And besides, she really should’ve been satisfied with the fact that she had access to a car of her own unlike many of her friends who were only pushing their parent’s whips on the weekend.

  “That dust bucket got me to middle school, through high school, and through college. You gotta earn your stripes first little one.” She rolled her eyes as if she had heard that story a thousand times.

  “Rich, you know I can drive. And besides, it's not like you don’t have the money to get it fixed in the event that I were to mess up one of your precious little babies.”

  “I don’t care if I was a billionaire. There is no way in hell I’m letting you drive one of my cars. You’re way too careless to be behind the wheel of any vehicle, let alone one of luxury. So like I said, you’ll just have to wait a couple more days before you can drive again. Get one of your little homegirls to chauffeur you around or something.”

  “Or maybe I’ll just call Justin since you seem to like him so much.”

  Her face turned into a mischievous grin knowing good and damn well she had better been pulling my leg. She knew how much I hated her hanging around that clown so she tried to use him as a tool to annoy me anytime she could.

  “Yeah, go ahead and call Justin so he can give you an illegitimate baby and a lifetime of regret.”

  “Rich!”

  Okay, maybe I had gone too far. He wasn’t that bad of a kid. A three sport athlete, on the honor roll, had completed community service hours. But nobody was good enough for my little sister. Well, no teenage boy was good enough for my little sister. I knew all too well how those sneaky mothafuckas operated.

  “Anyway. You should probably start getting dressed. You know we have that event to go to tonight.”

  Working for a Fortune 500 company that sponsored various local organizations warranted that we always have representation at the events thrown by those respective groups whether it be a gala, a community service project, or a fundraiser. Tonight’s activity of choice was a talent show put on by the Students in the Arts program. Our company had given them thousands of dollars to buy new production equipment so naturally, they wanted to honor us at the show for our donation. As a newer executive, I got volunteered to accept the recognition on our company’s behalf.

  Of course there were other ways I could’ve been spending my Friday night but attending events like these were simply a part of being in the corporate world. I worked my ass off to expedite the promotion process and even though the position of CEO still felt like a stretch, it was surely what I was aiming for within the next five to seven years.

  “Ugh, do I have to? Orchestra music puts me to sleep.”

  “It won’t be just orchestra music, Rae. There will be singers, dancers, rappers, actors, and a bunch of other cool shit.” She still didn’t seem too enthused about joining me so I added, “You can come with me or you can let me pick somebody out at random and maybe gain a sister-in-law.”

  For whatever reason, Rae hated the idea of me being involved with anyone as if she was my overprotective mother instead of my little sister. But just like I thought no one was good enough for her, she also thought no one was good enough for me.

  “No…
just no. There’s no way I’m dealing with some skeeze surely chasing after your bank account.”

  “Oh, so you think your big bro can only pull the ladies because of his money?”

  “It certainly doesn’t hurt. And considering I need that bank account to fund my college tuition, I’ll go.

  jasmine.

  “I swear you are so lucky I like you.”

  “No, you’re lucky I like you, otherwise you wouldn’t have any friends.”

  I flipped my best friend Ariel the bird as we headed through the doors of some charity talent show event she had dragged me to. I was so happy when she decided to move back to California after a stint in NYC because truth be told, she was the only friend I had.

  Did I have associates?

  Sure.

  But actual real ass, ride or die, will cut somebody for me friends?

  There was only Ariel.

  As we made ourselves comfortable in the back of the auditorium, I naturally began people watching to see who was in attendance. There were mostly parents, family members, and children, but I knew for a fact the crowd would also be specked with talent scouts looking for new acts to transform into ‘It’ kids.

  Hopefully they were of the male sort.

  “Welcome to our 5th annual Students in the Arts talent show! We are so grateful for the support of each and every one of you in attendance. The students have worked extremely hard on their performances so sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!”

  The crowd erupted into cheers and I rolled my eyes already dreading sitting through the two hour event. There were a slew of different things I could’ve been doing on this particular Friday night, including meeting up with Paco who I knew would fix my car for free if I let him cop a few feels. But more importantly, I could’ve been spending the night ‘learning the law’ as my fellow classmates referred to it.

  I watched the stage intently as a group of dancers began the show with a hip-hop routine to Beyonce’s 7/11. They couldn’t have been any older than twelve, but the precision and intensity they danced with, as if it was the most important thing to them in the world, was remarkably captivating. I wasn’t sure if I felt as passionate about anything in my life as a twenty-four-year-old as they seemed to feel about the performance they were putting on.