Complacency (Work in Progress) by Shy Ward (best reads .TXT) 📕

needed to see her.  After my recent scare after talking to Olivia, it had scared me straight.  Jeff had given me a call about my test results.  Usually the nurse did that, but since we were childhood friends, I knew that he wanted to deliver the news personally.

 

"Hey man, how you feeling", Jeff said on the other line.

 

"How am I feeling?  What do you mean how am I feeling?  What's Up Jeff?"

 

"I just wanted to give you a call and see how you are doing man?"

 

"Jeff, stop playing with me man!  Did my test results come back?  I need to know and you are playing with me right now!  This is serious man, I haven't slept in days!", I shouted over the phone while pacing my living room.

 

"Calm down my friend, your test results were negative."

 

A huge side of relief poured over my body.  I felt my heart sputter and chills fell over my hands and feet from the anxiety that had built up.  My skin was clammy from sweat.

 

"So I'm HIV negative?" I needed to him to reaffirm what he just said.

 

"That's what negative means Terr."

 

"Aww man, thanks, but don't play with me like that, man, I just thought it was going to be the end of my life just a minute ago.  You got me sweatin over here."

 

"Well, I'm glad that you are good and you won't be dying off from the bug, anything else, I can't help you with," Jeff joked.

 

"Ha ha ha, very funny.  So what's up with you, it's a Friday night, let's go out and celebrate these chains that just fell off of me.  I want to go to $pin, and have some drinks on me."

 

"Alright man, hit me up around 8, I should be done with all this work and home by then."

 

"Yeah man, alright, see ya later, and thanks again."

 

Jeff hung up the phone and so did I.  I hadn't realized I had stopped pacing and even sat down to the bar separating my living room and kitchen.  I just sat in silence for a while, taking in the absolutely relieving conversation that I had just ended. 

 

I can't believe how close I came to death, I mean, I know people live long with it with the right care and medicine but I never thought it would be me that would have to depend on the answer to that situation.  Dang, I'm lucky.....no not lucky, I'm blessed.  I know there's a God, with my history, there has to be a God.

 

 

 

******

 

" What's up T?"

 

"Heyyy Jeff!  My man!  Whatchu drinkin, I'm buying!  Hey honey," Terrence called out to the bartender, "Anything he wants through this whole night, put it on my tab."

 

"You got it cutie," the bartender smiled.  It wasn't just an ordinary, friendly customer service smile.  Terrence blushed, she was sexy, who wouldn't.

 

"And um, another for me and her is a tip in advance for your trouble sweetie."  He handed her a fifty dollar bill.  She placed it in her cleavage, blew him a kiss with her red sparkling lips, turned around slowly and walked away.  Her white latex looking dress was tight and accentuated all of her curves.  Terrence was in lust.  She wanted it and he wanted to give it to her.

 

"Hey man, the bartender, really?  Didn't you just clear your head of headache earlier?  Now you want to screw the bartender that you have known of of 20 seconds, and don't even know her name!"  Jeff proclaimed.

 

"Nobody said anything about screwing her.  I was just admiring a beautiful woman.  Come on, we are out having a good time, I gave her a tip.  Hell, she deserves it the way she is working that dress with that body in it."

 

"Yeah and a fifty dollar tip, sounds like you are buying her admiration to me."

 

"Jeff, you sound like a broke hater, and I know you getting paid doctor, Dr. Jeff Norton."

 

They laughed as the bartender brought their drinks to the counter along with a slip of paper with a phone number and the name Selah.  Selah smiled and licked her lips while turning away and helping another customer she wasn't so friendly with.  Jeff placed the number in his pocket.

 

"Terrence you need to throw that away.  Besides, I see something on the other side of the room that you may be more interested in over there in V.I.P."

 

Terrence turned around after taking one more look over of Selah's sexy figure to look toward V.I.P.

 

"I don't know what you are talking about, that bartender is the sexiest thing I see so far......damn.....is that Aliyah?"  

 

He lost his train of thought before seeing her.  There she was, the woman he dealt the Joker card to when she should have had the Ace.  He'd been thinking about her for five years and of all the women, he couldn't get her out of his mind.  He'd found out where she worked, where she lived, called her up and couldn't even get her to agree to meet him for a cup of coffee.

 

There she was, in the V.I.P. looking sexy and sophisticated all at the same time with bottles and wine glasses dancing with some women he didn't know.  There were a few men in the circle.  He felt jealous.  Who were those men?  Who was the one all up in her face that she was turning up with?  Is he the reason she turned him down?  He was losing his mind and felt as though he was about to explode in a fit of rage.

 

 

A Good Time

 Aliyah

I was ecstatic to hear Leanne's voice when she called me at my office earlier today and asked me out for lunch.  It had been a while since I had chatted with her.  She was my very first friend that I made once I got myself somewhat together after moving to New York.  I was still living in the hole that I had shared with Terrance when I first moved up here and bumped into her carrying her groceries and a car seat with a baby and another little one closely behind her.  She dropped her bags.

"Excuse you," she bellowed angrily.

 

I wasn't about to let a hood rat get all out of pocket with me over an accident that I was just about to apologize for, but it just so happened that I looked at her and changed my opinion of her in that moment.  She was very well dressed with nice designer clothing, but not hood looking, except her big earrings that is.  Her makeup was flawless and so was her hair.  Her children looked very well kept.  I didn't just notice her dress, what really caught me was her eyes and the look in them.  She looked as if she was distressed, very sad, but angry at the same time.  She looked like the hell I saw looking back in the mirror at me just eight months prior.  At that moment, I decided that I wouldn't be a snout and rudely address her just as I felt she did me.

"Oh my goodness, I am so sorry.  Please, if you don't mind, I will help you with your bags."

 

She looked up at me from the ground where she was collecting her groceries and softened her eyes a little. 

"I would really appreciate that," she whispered.

 

I carried all the groceries behind her up to her third floor apartment while she carried her baby and the over sized car seat.  I thought of how much work that must be, a job rather carrying her children up and down stairs with groceries added, trying to take as much as possible so you don't have to make so many trips.

"I'm Aliyah, I live on the second floor,"  introducing myself as I sat her bags onto her kitchen counter.

"Thank you for the help, and sorry for snapping at you, I know you didn't mean it, I've just had a rough day......I'm just tired."

"So what is your name?" I asked.

"Ha ha, yeah, right, I'm Leanne and this is Pia and Prince." Pointing to her daughter and baby boy in the seat.

"They are adorable!"

 

From that point on, we became like sisters, supporting each other, helping each other move into new homes, celebrating holidays, birthdays and her children were like my children.  There is nothing that I wouldn't do for her or them.

At lunch, Leanne and I caught up, talking about work, my non existent love life, and her very complicated love life, the phone call I'd recieved earlier from Terrance, and the idea that her son's father would soon be leaving prison. 

"Girl, I'm tired of talking about these men, how about we go out tonight and have a little fun," Leanne quizzed.

"I'm all for it, I have the next three days off, and I'm due for it," was my response.

 

**************************************************************************

 Club $pin was spinning tonight!  Leanne was dressed in a black fitted dress with fish net leggings, black and gold high heeled thigh high boots with gold jewelry and long locks of hair surrounding her perfectly made up face with flesh colored lips against her caramel brown skin. 

Since it had been a long while since I had dressed for a night out, I primped through my closet with all the fresh price tags on them and pulled out a red dress.  It fell just above the knee.  It was opened in the back, exposing a lustful area of flesh and a front split beneath my breast that was designed as a peakaboo for a little tease.  I put on my black red bottoms with my vampire red lipstick and brown eyeliner, swooped my long, overly thick massive curls in a top ponytail just so they would fall to the side of my face but expose my neckline with no necklace to make it look very kissable.  My bottom looked like that of an african princess in this dress and heels.  I knew I was destined for V.I.P. with no funds on me tonight.

 

"God, you are beautiful", Aliyah heard a deep voice behind her.

"Well hello Jonathan, long time no see."  It was Jonathan Ashe, the account executive for Ames Enterprises, a top headliner for a real estate agency that owned condominiums and sold extrvagant homes to A listers.  He was handsome, with a medeteranian look, sharp jawline, pearly white teeth, strong chest and back, tall and exact from head to toe with a short cut, edged up perfectly and deep dark brown eyes.  He was a pretty boy, and no matter how sexy and attractive Aliyah thought he was, she was turned off by pretty boys, but she couldn't help wanting to be in his presence and going home with him from time to time.  She just thought they weren't relationship material.

 

"Aliyah, I never have been able to figure out why you wouldn't give me a chance, and now here we are again.  So how about I buy you and your friend some drinks a bite to eat and all I ask is the priviledge to enjoy your company and share your V.I.P. with me tonight so we can maybe catch up or just have a good time."

 

Aliyah, smiling lustfully into Jonathan's eyes saw a bit of distraction just over his shoulder.  One angry and jealous looking Terrance stepping from the bar, walking slowly toward VIP and stopping dead in