Jaded Hearts

Book Jaded
Hearts

Olivia Linden

Copyright 2013 by Olivia
Linden

Smashwords Edition

This book is a work of
fiction.

No part of the contents relate to any
real person or persons,.

living or dead

TO DEVIN,

The inspiration to everything I
do.

I love you!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you, to all my family and friends who
put up with me and, my neurotics as I went through my first book
writing experience. To Omar and Pat, you both cheered me on and
gave me the spark to finish my story and fast! To Mom and Christine
for putting on your grammar school hats and being patient with each
time I was absolutely finished. Melissa, you surprised me with your
plot input and overall help with everything. Thank you! Yammie,
your feedback, along with Jasmine's, was invaluable and bolstered
my confidence in my own skills. You made this fun for me. My guinea
pigs Lexi and Mr. Casalona. I also want to thank all of my Facebook
buddies who offered kind encouragement and shared my work with
others. Last on this page, but never least in my life, I thank God
for blessing me with the ability to put the creative twists and
turns that swirl around in my mind on paper, and surrounding me
with wonderful support team.

I am truly blessed.

I was never a lover of airplanes. I'd slept
through my entire trip to avoid my anxiety, but woke up just in
time to witness my plane land in what seemed like the middle of the
ocean, also known as JFK airport. I couldn't tell if my nerves were
shot because of the flight or due to the new life that waited
beyond the tarmac. Too many memories flooded my mind. Some that I
wanted to forget.

I wistfully twisted the engagement ring that
suddenly felt like a ten-pound weight on my finger. It was time to
take off the reminder of a disappointing past. Evan, my now ex
fiancé, decided that instead of talking to me about our problems,
that he would drink them away in the company of random females.
Having my back while I was going through a bout of unemployment was
too low on his list of priorities. I wish I could say that I was
utterly heartbroken about our break-up, but the truth was that over
time Evan had grown into more of a roommate. In the beginning, he
was a good friend that turned into more.

Evan helped me through a difficult period in
my life, and despite how things ended I will always be grateful to
him for that. I was eighteen, my grandmother had just passed away,
I was a freshman in college, and I was left to raise my fourteen
year-old younger brother. Evan stepped up, helped me to hold things
together, and even became a father figure to Andrew. It just seemed
like the natural thing to do when we got engaged. We were already
living together, I was almost done with school, and at the time I
couldn't see anyone else in my future.

Over time, I came to learn that I had just
settled into a comfortable situation. Evan was a born leader, and
our relationship worked well as long as I did as he wanted. When I
started to stray from his carefully constructed plan for our
future, things between us began to crumble. So yeah, I'm sad that
things came to an end, but I'll survive. Funny, the night he
decided not to come home I'd planned to tell him about the various
job opportunities that I had lined up. But he hadn't come home, and
so I made my decision. He tried to argue that not coming home did
not equal cheating, and I told him that I wasn't going to wait
around to confirm his opinion. So, a six-year relationship, and
two-year engagement had ended with a fizzle. A Cliché.

Instead of staying in Miami, and suffering
through the drama, I chose to accept an offer that I couldn't
refuse from my favorite aunt. Vivian had it all planned out for me.
A position as a Jr. Agent at Emerge Public Relations, a healthy
clientele list, and a fully furnished loft in Manhattan. The
salary, just this side of six figures, was more than I would have
made in the next two years at my old position as a sports
journalist. While I loved my job, I didn't love the catty,
backstabbing that went on behind the scenes of one of Miami's most
popular sports magazines.

Now Miami was behind me, and New York was at
my feet.

I could already feel the hustle and bustle
of the city as I made my way to the baggage claim.  I could
also feel the dreaded drop in temperature between Miami and New
York. My anxiety was slowly replaced with the excitement of the new
adventures that were ahead of me. I made sure that I had plenty of
time to explore the Big Apple before it was time to get down to
serious business. I told my cousin Jackie to make sure she had my
schedule filled with all New York had to offer, from sightseeing to
the nightlife. I hailed my first cab and gave the driver my
address, and sat back to enjoy my ride to the island of
Manhattan.

To my new life.

My first day as a New Yorker started off
with a slight bang. Before I could even take my bags up to my new
place, my doorman informed me that a car was waiting to take me to
meet Vivian and cousin for lunch. I had already expected them to be
a part of my settling in, but I thought I would have at least had
the chance to see my place, or use my own bathroom before they took
my life over.

I have a doorman. Wow...

So I jumped in the car that was waiting to
take me uptown.

I waited outside under the awning of Amy
Ruth's soul food restaurant, and watched the bustle and flow of
Harlem on a Sunday, taking in the unique mix of residents. There
were families coming home from church, children running after the
Mister Softee ice cream truck, and mothers pushing their carts to
the laundromat. The sexy guys who 'hugged the corner' with their
thugged out swagger ogled me as I walked by.

Dangerous...

Those were the kind of guys that you knew
would work you out in the bedroom and then work you over with
b/s.

This was so different from Miami where it
seemed that every ethnicity had their own hood and there was less
mixing.  I spotted the two people I was waiting on strolling
leisurely up the block, turning the heads of the men and women they
passed.

How could they help it?

We were all taller than average with Vivian
slightly towering us with her five foot ten-inch frame. She was
delicately proportioned with small breasts, slight hips and a tight
behind that she said she had to work to keep. She had the same soft
spiral locks that we all sported. She usually wore hers in a loose
up-do. Her mother, my maternal grandmother whom I'd never met, was
what was considered Chinese Jamaican, being part black and part
Chinese. She was against the idea of my aunt and mother coming to
America in the first place, and never made the trip herself.
 I kept telling myself that I needed to go to Jamaica to meet
the rest of my mix and match family.  

Jackie was the spitting image of her mother,
just a couple inches shorter with her smooth cafe-au-lait
complexion and her spirals, wild and auburn as she chose to keep
them. There was no mistaking our kinship even though I had a touch
more bronze to my complexion, apparently the only thing I ever
received from my father.  Both women were equally surprised
when they finally recognized me after my dramatic weight-loss.

"Jade! Oh my goodness! You look amazing...
I'm so happy you're here!" My aunt Vivian engulfed me into one of
her infamous hugs. It had been too long since I'd had one.

"My turn! My turn!" That was Jackie. She was
always a ball of energy compared to me. She pulled me away from
Vivian so that she could hug me, playfully fondling my new frame.
That was just like her. Even though I felt like I had always been
chubby she always wanted some more body.

"Look at you! You have to come by the
boutique today. I can already envision you in a few outfits. This
is freakin' awesome!"

I loved my cousin. She was the eternal
child, carefree, outgoing and spunky. Everything I was not.
 I'd always admired her spirit since we were kids. We hadn't
lived together since we were very young, but I remembered how I
would always cry when it was time for me to return to Florida after
a visit.

We sat down to a brunch of chicken and
waffles, salmon croquettes, and smothered pork chops with a side of
sweet potatoes and collard greens. Yummy! This was definitely on my
list of places to eat, and from the throngs of the French and
Japanese tourists, I wasn't the only one who had that idea.

"So Jade, what is going on with you and
Evan? I don't see you wearing the ring he gave you?" Vivian, as she
preferred me to address her, sounded relieved. I knew she never
really cared for Evan.

"Yeah well, he seems to think that I'm
coming back to Miami. Evan doesn't think I have what it takes to
make it without him, and that I'm making the biggest mistake of my
life. He didn't even take me seriously until he came home and saw
my boxes packed and ready to go."

I mentally rolled my eyes at the memory of
that day. He stood by the door with a stuck on stupid look on his
face, and then began the song and dance of a man who was a day
late, and a dollar short.

"I still have the ring because he wouldn't
take it back. I honestly don't see us working out unless he moves
here, and even then not so much."

That was the first time I had verbalized
that sentiment. Evidently, I was OK with the reality that Evan and
I were not going to work out. Jackie just shook her head.

"Wow, I'm surprised his tight ass didn't
take the ring back the minute you said you were leaving. I guess
he's not the Tin Man after all." She also hadn't been a fan.

"I'm not really thinking about all that. I'm
kind of over it. The last few months were impossible. He would come
home late, and go straight to bed. No conversation, no
nothing."

"No nucky?" That was Vivian. She believed
that a healthy sex life was integral to any successful
relationship.

"Nucky, Mom? Oh gawd," Jackie groaned. I
couldn't help but laugh at the two of them. I loved how time apart
never changed the dynamics of our family.

"No. No nothing," I repeated, refusing to
use the ridiculous word Vivian used to refer to sex. "Besides,
there are so many fine men walking around this city. Even the thugs
look sophisticated." My thoughts wandered to the group of guys I
passed on the corner, and the seeming abundance of men everywhere.
 

"Oh honey! New York is a different animal
than where you're coming from. There are men everywhere, but you
have to be careful. If he looks too good to be true to your eye,
then he's probably gay," Vivian declared.

"Mom! You are totally ridiculous today,"
Jackie chided while trying not to choke on the last sip of her
drink.

"It's true," Vivian affirmed. "You know it's
true. You remember that one guy you dated. The man was prettier
than her, Jade. Turned out he went both ways, or whatever you guys
call it nowadays."

"That was one time, Jade. Don't let this
crazy woman impersonating as my mother fill your head up with
nonsense."

I loved to watch them go back and forth.

"I'm being serious. And, trust me I highly
believe in to each their own, but not when it comes to my girls.
Handsome men here come a dime a dozen. Trust me. You just have to
pick a good one." Vivian raised her glass and I clinked it with
mine in an impromptu toast.

"Well, then I look forward to the picking!"
Yes, I do!