Cutting Loose (26 page)

“Ouch!” complained Larissa. “One of
those little bastards just kicked me.”

Sabrina laughed. “Do you have to be so
crass?”

“Yeah. I’m not married now, nor do I
ever plan to. I like being single and having options.”

“See, that’s why I’m not giving up this
good stuff until I get married. I’m not ready for no ‘mistakes’ to happen to
me,” said Cassandra.

“I honestly don’t see how you can go a
day without having sex when your man is perfectly capable, not to mention good
looking. Don’t you ever get horny?” asked Larissa.

“Yes I do,” said Cassandra. “I take care
of that problem with my collection of sex toys. I got this new luxury vibrator
yesterday and it’s awesome. You should try it.”

“Hell nah,” said Larissa. “I prefer the
real thing.”

“I second that,” said Sabrina. “There’s
no feeling in the world like a warm, hard muscled body on top of you plowing
away and taking you to ecstasy. God, I’m getting horny just thinking about it.”

“Oh, shut up, whore,” Cassandra teased
and gave Sabrina a gentle tap on her shoulder. “You just saying that ‘cause you
got lucky and found a white boy that’s bigger than life.”

“Hold up. Say that again,” said Larissa.
“Who’s got a big what?”

“You heard right. Brett is definitely big—
and I’m not talking about average either.”

 Larissa chuckled and said, “Please,
stop before I start feeling nauseas.” She paused and covered her mouth with her
hand. “Ah, shit, too late,” she said as he raced to a nearby stall and began
throwing up.

“My bad,” Sabrina said in between
giggles.

“What a mess,” Cassandra said
momentarily while reaching into her purse to retrieve her cell phone. She
flipped it open and said, “Chad, I’m almost done and I’ll be out in a minute.”
She turned to Sabrina and said, “I’ll catch you and Larissa in a few. My man is
getting lonely.”

“Okay.”

After a Cassandra disappeared from the
bathroom Larissa finished up and washed her mouth out in the sink. She pulled
out a stick of gum and began chewing it. She rolled her eyes at her reflection
in the mirror and said, “I hate being pregnant.”

“Don’t worry it gets better…or so I
heard.”

Larissa grabbed her purse off of the
counter. “Shit, I hope so.”

Sabrina smiled and said, “It will.”

They returned to their table and
finished their dinner. Larissa left early to get some rest and Cassandra and
Chad decided to call it a night as well and head home. So Sabrina and Brett had
the rest of the night to do whatever. Sabrina was open to anything so Brett
thought it was a good idea to for a walk on the Strip in South Beach. The night
was just about perfect. They stopped and got ice cream and sat down. Their
peace was interrupted when a group of guys came out of the ice cream shop and
made a weird look towards Sabrina as she fed Brett a taste of her ice cream.
Then the drama started.

Out of the corner of her eye, Sabrina
could see this one guy giving her a dirty look. He wasn’t dumb enough to say
anything, but another guy in his clique was.

“That’s nasty,” the guy said aloud, but
not directly to Sabrina and Brett.

“Excuse me,” Said Sabrina. “Were you
talking to me?”

 The guy who made the comment who was
wearing an oversized Jordan T-shirt and saggy pants stopped talking to his
friends and walked over to Sabrina. “Yeah, I was.”

Sabrina put her ice cream down and stood
up. “Do you have a problem with me or something?”

“Yeah, I do.”

Brett stood up and stood next to
Sabrina. “Look, we don’t want any trouble. C’mon, Sabrina let’s just go.”

 “Hold up. We are going to settle this
right here,” said Sabrina. “’Cause I don’t appreciate that little comment you
made earlier. What was so nasty that made you and your little homeboys stop and
stare like y’all never seen two people kiss before?”

The guy in the Jordan T-shirt looked at
Brett and back at Sabrina and said, “Seeing you with that white boy is nasty.
Why you with his punk ass?”

“He don’t know what to do with all that
ass!” shouted one of his friends in the background.

 Sabrina ignored his friend and said,
“Does it matter why I’m with him? I bet if I was a guy with a white girl I bet
you wouldn’t have said anything to me then.”

“You’re probably right about that.”

“Yeah, whatever,” said Sabrina. “I don’t
have time for immature ass haters like you. Get a life.”

“Yeah it is whatever, bitch. When Whitey
start beating your ass you’re going to regret that shit. I guarantee it.”

“Why don’t you go buy yourself a belt
and some clothes that actually fit,” said Brett hotly.

 “Speak up, white boy. I didn’t catch
that little comment.”

He thought he was tough with his friends
backing him up. Sabrina and Brett were obviously outnumbered two to four and
they looked like some roughnecks that may have done time behind bars before.
Sabrina knew Brett wouldn’t be able to take them on by his self, unless he had
some kind of superhuman strength that she didn’t know about. That would have
been nice.

So instead of taunting them like they
would have loved, Sabrina grabbed Brett and said, “Let’s go, Brett. They’re not
worth it.”

As they walked away they could still
hear the idiots talking crap behind their backs. None of them were dumb enough
to try anything.

Once they were in Brett’s car and on the
road, Sabrina felt like she wanted to burst into tears for stooping so low and
getting worked up over nothing. She never thought about how far she was willing
to go for Brett until now as she thought about it. She knew if she wasn’t in
such a complicated relationship that never would have happened. But all in all,
it wasn’t so bad. At least she wasn’t all alone. Finally, someone had her back.

Chapter Twenty-Two:

Possibilities

I think that was funniest movie I’ve
ever seen in a long time,” exclaimed Sabrina as she and Brett walked out of the
movie theatre holding hands. They had just spent an hour and a half making out
in the back of the movie theatre of a movie they had to watch twice because
they were fooling around so much they couldn’t keep their eyes on the screen.

Brett smiled as they walked along the
walkway. “I would love to see you in a bikini. But it has to be a two-piece,
you know, to show off those killer abs of yours,” he said while rubbing a hand
over her belly.

 Sabrina chuckled and said, “Definitely.
But if I do that you know you have put on something sexy for me, like a Speedo?”

“How about never in a million years will
you see me in Speedos. Are you trying to make me throw up my lunch?”

Sabrina laughed. “Come on. I bet you
would look hot. And I’m sure your cute butt can squeeze perfectly into those
short, underwear-looking shorts.”

“Yeah, right.” He paused and said,
“Speaking of lunch, I’m getting kind of hungry. You want to head back to my place
and I can whip you up something.”

“Are you asking me out on a date?”

Brett beamed. “That’s what people do
when they date.”

Sabrina giggled like a little girl and
said, “Yeah, I know.” She stopped in front of him to look him in the eyes. She
said, “Brett, I’ve never met anyone like you. You treat me so good. It’s like
you’re almost too good to be true.”

He pulled her close to him and said,
“Baby, you stole the words right out of my mouth. I feel exactly the same about
you.”

He leaned in for a kiss…

Their lips touched and sent a wave a
tiny explosion inside Sabrina’s body that made her feel all warm and fuzzy
inside. It was like that feeling you get when you’re looking for something so
bad and you’re just ready to give up hope. And just then you finally find it.

When she pulled away from his kiss she
caught herself giggling again and said, “You’re like a dream come true…well,
not exactly.”

 Brett cocked his head to the side.
“What do you mean?”

“I mean, when I was younger my dream was
to marry Prince. But I guess dreams change.”

“They sure do. But I think most of my
dreams are kind of still the same.”

“Really? Which ones?”

“Uh, let’s, see…when I was growing up I
always wanted to do something different from my family. While everybody else is
off being doctors and lawyers and teachers, I’m a computer guy. It’s not every day
a kid says to his mom and dad, ‘I want to be a computer geek when I grow up.’
It’s different. But I like it. Probably not as much as my parents though.”

Sabrina laughed. “Wow. I bet you were a
handful growing up, weren’t you?”

He smiled and said, “Yeah, I guess you
can say that.”

“Well, I you’d like we can talk more
about our childhood memories over dinner. I’m starving.”

“Cool. Sounds like a plan to me.”

 The smell of a fantastic dinner filled
Sabrina’s nostrils as she sat in the living room of Brett’s place and waited
patiently for him to impress her with his culinary skills. She loved the idea
of having a man cook dinner for her, but she loved the idea that Brett did it
so well even better.

She got up and walked into the kitchen
as she was stirring something in a big pot that smelled like herbs and
something savory. She snuck up behind him and asked, “Need some help with
that?”

“Sure,” Brett said, stepping aside.

“This smells good. What is it?”

“Shrimp and linguini, with a dash of
paprika.”

“Sounds good. So, what can I do to
help?”

“I was just about to add the sour cream
and bacon. You can finish that up while the pasta gets ready.”

“Okay,” Sabrina said, grabbing the
ingredients Brett had on the counter and began mixing them in the pan. Though
she rarely ever cooked on her own, she liked the idea of doing something right
for a change, at least as far as keeping an eye out for the smell of something
burning up. “Now what?”

“Well, now I’ll just add the pasta and
toss it up in the pan a bit and that’ll be it.”

Sabrina stepped aside and watched as
Brett mixed all the ingredients into the pan with such finesse. He made cooking
at home look so easy...and sexy. She never thought that seeing a man cook in
his home would be a turn on for her. Now she was thinking otherwise as proof
stood right before her eyes.

After Sabrina helped Brett set the
table, they were surprisingly quiet the first few minutes. Either the food was
really good or Sabrina was just fighting the urge to tell him how badly she
wanted to jump his bones. Thankfully she resisted and pushed the dirty thought
aside.

She looked up from her plate of
delicious food and said, “It’s obvious you watch a lot of cooking shows in your
spare time. How did you get so good at it?”

“Watching TV or cooking?” He smiled and
took a sip of wine.

Sabrina smiled. “No need to be cocky.”
She smiled and took a sip if her wine. “So?”

Brett laughed softly and said, “Well,
technically I learned to cook from my dad, but my mom was the one who first
taught me anything. I went to culinary school but I dropped out a semester
before I was supposed to graduate.”

Sabrina frowned. “What? Why did you drop
out? You were almost done.”

“Yeah, I know but back then I was on a
tight budget and I was working two jobs to pay for school and it was
exhausting. Then my grandmother passed away and I just didn’t have the passion
for it anymore.”

“Aww, I’m sorry about your grandmother.
Were you close to her?”

“Yeah, I was her favorite grandson,
although she loved all of my five brothers and sisters equally, she always told
me I was her favorite.”

Sabrina reached her hand over the table
and placed her hand over his. “I bet she was a sweet lady.”

“Yep, she sure was. I still miss her
even though she’s been gone all these years. I think she would be proud of what
I’ve become.”

“Me too,” said Sabrina compassionately.
“So, how come you never went back to school?”

“Honestly, I don’t even know. I‘ve
always wanted to but I never really had the motivation to do it. My parents
encouraged me and tried to give me the money I needed to finish but I kept
putting it off. Now I’m almost thirty and think it’s definitely too late to go
back. Plus I’ve got my business and I’m happy I guess.”

“That’s not true, Brett. It’s never too
late for anything.”

A smile crept across Brett’s face. He
said, “That’s true.” He paused and added, “It wouldn’t be such a bad idea. I
mean, I’ve only been working on computers because I needed something to fill in
the void, kind of like a front. But now, I think it’s time that the veil came
off.”

Sabrina put down her fork and studied
Brett’s face. She could tell he was happy and showed by the way he looked at
her.

She said to him, “So, does this mean
you’re going back to culinary school?”

 He smile grew wider. “I think it does.
And who knows, maybe I can take over my dad’s family business in a few years.”

“Sounds intriguing. What kind of
business it?”

“My dad owns a chain of seafood
restaurants he named after his Canadian dad, Gabriel. You might have heard of
it, it’s called Gabriel’s Seafood.”

“Now that you mention, I have heard of
it. Isn’t there one in South Beach?”

“Yep.”

“Wow. I love that place. I wish I
would’ve known this a long time ago…wait a minute, so you’re Canadian?”

“Well, half. My dad’s side is and my
mom’s side is mostly from Italy. That’s where my dad met her when he was on
vacation with his fiancée at the time and let’s just says that one thing lead
to another and my dad dumped his fiancée for my mom. They’ve been together ever
since then.”

“Wow, that’s so sweet. But not the whole
broken engagement thing, which must’ve sucked for her.”

Brett laughed. “I’m sure it did.”

After Sabrina forked the remaining
scraps on her plate she said, “Well, I have to say, that was great. And I liked
the little history lesson too.”

Brett leaned back in his chair. “I’m
glad you enjoyed it. So, um, what’s your family history?”

Sabrina whipped her mouth with a napkin
and said, “You could go on Google and type in my mother’s name or even my name
for that matter, and everything will pop up.”

“I know. But I want to hear it from
you.”

“Okay. Let’s see, my mother is of
Jamaican decent, was born and raised in Kingston until her family moved here
when she was nine years old. Her father was a wannabe Reggae artist; he reminds
me of that Sean Paul rapper, except her father didn’t have braids, but he did
have dreads. Um, I think that’s it. They were on the rich side but not really.
My mom’s dad got into gabling and he lost a lot of money and somehow they
didn’t go completely broke. They’re still making it today with what they can.”

“Oh, so I guess that explains your
drive.”

 “Yeah, to a certain degree. I’m glad I
was born here in the States instead of in Jamaica, because I don’t think I
would sound too cute with a thick accent.”

Brett laughed. “Yeah, me neither.”

“I’m glad you find that amusing.”

 He smiled. “So, what about your father?”

She waited a beat. “I often think of him
but not really. Did he look like a young Denzel Washington or maybe he could look
like Brad pit.” Sabrina laughed to herself. “Of course, my mother always
telling me that there’s no way she would ever date a white guy. So that rules
that out. I never saw any pictures of him so I don’t even know what he looks
like. It’s kind of sad. But I’m a grown woman and I haven’t seen him since I
was born so, I can’t miss something I never had.”

Brett stood up and collected their
plates. He bent down and said, “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure there is a
reason you never met your father. He’s out there somewhere.” He kissed her on
the cheek. “Who knows, maybe one day he will find you.”

Sabrina stood up as well. “Yeah, well,
some things just aren’t meant to happen.” She kissed him and said, “I’ll do the
dishes. It’s the least I can do.”

Brett smiled and said, “Thanks.” He
looked at the digital clock on the stove and said, “It’s getting late. Would
you like to spend the night?”

Sabrina beamed. “I would love to.”

“Great. I’m about to head into the
shower. “Care to join me?”

“Of course. I’ll be in there before you
know it.”

He smiled and tapped her on her bottom
before he disappeared into the hallway.

After she washed the dishes she damn
near ran to join Brett in the shower. They washed each other’s backs, made love
and collapsed into Brett’s king size bed.

“In the mood for a late night flick?”

“If you have anything good, sure.”

Brett jumped out of bed and searched
through his infinite collection of DVDs until he found the one he was looking
for and said, “I hope you like scary movies.” He moved over to the armoire
where the flat-screen TV and DVD player was and inserted the DVD into the
machine before getting back into bed.

“I hope you didn’t put a horror movie in
there.”

He chuckled. “Don’t worry, you can hold
me if you get scared.”

 “How comforting,” Sabrina said as she
moved closer to Brett’s side of the bed.

Brett let her rest her head on his
chest. “You’ll be fine. Just remember that it’s only a movie.” He added a
slight giggle.

Sabrina laughed and got comfortable as
the movie started and felt better than she normally would have been if she were
watching a scary movie alone, which she never did if such a rare occasion ever
took place. At first she figured she would be the first one to fall asleep
during the movie but Brett proved her wrong when his light snore told her
otherwise.

She was about to fall asleep until she
heard Brett talking in his sleep and said, “I love you, Sabrina.”

She looked at him, to make sure he
wasn’t awake and that she wasn’t losing her damn mind.

 Oh…my…God…could he be the one?

Chapter Twenty-Three:

Damaged

After everything that happened over the
past few days, a mini-vacation is exactly what Sabrina needed to clear her
head. She didn’t want to mention to Brett the fact that she heard him say her
name and how he loved her in his sleep and seeing that he didn’t remember it,
she pretended it never happened. Technically, since he didn’t say it while
awake, it didn’t really mean anything. Or did it?

Either way, she needed to get away from
Miami for a little while and have some fun. Since spring was in full throttle,
everybody was looking to
Fabulous
for the next issue on everything
designer and what was hot this season. Last season it was all about trench
coats and knee-high boots, this season was all about colors and things that “popped”
so to speak. It wouldn’t have been so hard for Sabrina to work with Camille if
she wasn’t such a bitch as usual.

“Why do you have to make everything so
difficult?” Sabrina said to Camille after she brought up the idea of doing a
photo shoot on location on the beach, but Camille being the idiot she was,
didn’t see the potential and kept saying no.

Camille rose from her leather chair and
said, “Because you don’t know what the hell you’re doing. And because I call
all the shots, not you.”

“Oh, really?” said Sabrina. “Well, you
better not get so used to thinking you’re going to be calling the shots
forever.”

“And what is that supposed to mean? Are
you threatening me?”

Sabrina stepped closer to Camille until
they were face to face.

She said, “I don’t make threats,
Camille. But I do make promises.”

Camille waited a beat. “You think you’re
going to take my job and run shit? Newsflash, bitch—it isn’t going to happen.
How many times do I have to tell you that?”

Sabrina rolled her eyes. “You know what,
Camille? You are full of shit! You have no idea how to run this magazine. Ever
since my mother left you have been running this magazine to shit and if it
wasn’t for me, this magazine would be nothing. I have made
Fabulous
what
it is and I’ll be damned if I let you keep on with this shit.”

 By then her voice was raised and she
could feel the veins on her neck pumping.

Before Camille got the chance to say
anything, Sean walked into the room and asked, “What’s going on here?”

“Ask her,” said Sabrina, nodding her
head towards Camille.

Camille looked from Sabrina to Sean.
“Nothing.”

“It doesn’t sound like nothing,” said
Sean. He looked between Sabrina and Camille. “What has been going with you two
lately? You all can’t be in the same room for five minutes without arguing and
you don’t come by the house to speak to your mother or me. Something is going
on.”

“Everything is fine, Sean,” Said
Sabrina. “We were just having a discussion about the photo shoot this week in
the Bahamas for the spring feature. Right, Camille?”

Camille blew up and raged, “Hell no we
weren’t! I already told you we are not doing that. It’s ridiculous.”

“No, it is not and you know it. Just
admit it, Camille.”

 “Admit what?”

“That you are intimidated by me and my
ideas. You know my concept is far better than your dreadful ideas.”

“Oh, please. That’s total bullshit. You
are so full of yourself.”

Sean raised his hands above him and
said, “I don’t know what the big rivalry is between you two is about, but you
all are family and you need to work together.” He turned to walk away and said,
“Since neither of you can decide on whose idea to use in the next issue, I’ll
decide. Whoever can come up with the best layout by the end of the month will
have theirs in the magazine. That should settle that.”