This Can't be Life (3 page)

Simone and I we were sitting under the cabana at the Sky Bar on Sunset Blvd having drinks at around
9:00
last night. We were expecting Stacey to walk through the door at any minute. He’d just finished his shoot in Marina del Rey and was on his way. Stacey was always in and out, doing his own thing but, when it came to Simone and me, he was always there for us.

When I saw Deon walk in, I gave Simone a heads up that he was heading straight to our table. I was looking forward to their banter and was curious as to the excuse she would give him for not wanting to talk to him this time. Simone was unwavering in her semi-disdain for men. She was scared to let anyone in, so she kept this armor around her that was impenetrable. I hated to see her like this, but I understood where it was coming from.

“Hello, ladies. How you two doin’ tonight?” Deon asked, standing at our table with Darryl Withers by his side. Both were basketball players with the LA Lakers.

“We’re fine, thanks,” I replied, while Simone sat there holding a patronizing smile.

“I’m Darryl Withers,” he announced, with an air of arrogance, making sure he wouldn’t be ignored. We shook his hand as Deon kept his stare on Simone, who had yet to say one word.

“What’s up, Simone? You can’t speak?” Deon asked, with a smile on his face. Simone never came off as rude. It seemed to be more of a shy thing when, in actuality, that was the furthest from the truth. Simone was aloof and didn’t get excited about much, especially a man.

“Hi, Deon. Nice to meet you, Darryl Withers. I’m Simone Johnson.” She put the emphasis on their last names as Darryl had when he introduced himself. I kicked her under the table and tried to hold in my laughter. It was funny how this guy was throwing around his last name like we didn’t already know who he was. He said it like he thought we should get excited or something.

“You still not dating, Simone? Or what is it tonight? Not interested or not in the mood to meet new people?” Deon asked, shining his beautiful smile on our table.

“Actually, Deon, tonight’s your night. You ready to go?” she asked, with a smile on her face and her hand on her Rasta L.A.M.B. clutch.

“Yup. Sure am.” He grabbed her hand and helped her up from the table.

“Are you good, Talise? Stacey should be here in a few.” Simone asked.

“Um, yeah, I’m cool,” I said, shaking my head up and down with my mouth hung slightly open. I was beyond surprised as I watched them walk out the side door of the bar.

As if on cue, Darryl sat directly across from me and immediately began to get on my last damned nerve with his arrogance. He continually talked about himself for at least five minutes, never once taking a break to even take a sip of his drink. He didn’t ask me one question and had the nerve to ask if I was going home with him. As I saw Stacey walking in and heading toward the table, I decided to get a couple of things straight with Mr. Feeling-Himself-Too-Much.

“Why would I go home with you? First of all, you don’t even know my name. Didn’t even bother to ask. Secondly, you don’t know one thing about me, so I see how you get down. I wouldn’t touch your dick with my toe. Now, if you’d excuse me, I’d appreciate it. I’m expecting someone and you’re in his seat.” I smiled sweetly, never once breaking our eye contact. He got up and walked off without another word, right in time for Stacey to slide into his seat. I couldn’t hold my laughter any longer as I recounted the events of the past 20 minutes to Stacey.

A knock on my office door jolted me from my reverie. I looked up to see Jose Ramirez, the VP of the company I work for, standing in my doorway holding his briefcase. Most of the time, he wasn’t a bad guy to work for. He has a bad reputation for being flirty with the women in the office, but he’d never been inappropriate with me. Therefore, we had no problems.

“Good morning, Talise. How’re you feeling today?” Jose asked.

“Fine, thanks. How are you, Jose?” I asked, trying to sound like I really gave a damn, because I didn’t.

“Pretty good, thanks.”

“So today is the big day. Are you excited?” I got up, grabbed my briefcase, and passed him heading out of my office into the hallway.

“Well, it’s not everyday that you close on a $20,000,000 project. We’ve put a lot of long hours into getting this contract, so I guess I
can
say I’m excited! It is well overdue. But, you know, Talise,” he reflected, “I can honestly say that without all the effort and overtime that you put into this project, we wouldn’t have gotten this far. You have really represented our firm well. With your face being the only one that they’ve really seen throughout these past few months, I’m sure they’ve taken a real liking to you. Especially that…what’s his name?” he asked, snapping his fingers, pretending to jog his memory. We walked side by side down the hall toward the conference room where the meeting was to take place.

“Charles Immerson! Yeah, that’s his name. I’m sure that helped a lot.” He finished with a snide smile on his face. I had to stop and take a few breaths before I could even respond. Maybe I’m a little bit emotional because I’m about to come on my period, but I couldn’t let this one go unchecked. What he was implying pissed me off.

“You know, Jose, I’m sure that the decision for Immerson, Bradley, and Williams to hire us as their advertising agency had nothing at all to do with Charles Immerson…how’d you put it?” I mimicked him, snapping my fingers, faking the need to jog my memory as he had. “
Taking a liking to me.
I believe that’s the way you phrased it. I know this business like the back of my hand. That’s why I’ve signed more than a few billion-dollar companies with this agency — because we do good business. So, if you think that the only thing we have to offer our clients are good-looking women, then I’m not sure how you became vice president of this company. But I
can
tell you this. I’m sure that Charles Immerson didn’t build a multi-billion dollar business by making deals with companies just because they have pretty representatives.” I replied in the calmest voice I could muster. The nerve of some people sickens me. You can’t just say whatever the hell you want to say and think it is okay as long as you put it nicely. Shit, nice will still get you told off where I’m from.

“I didn’t mean it like that. Talise, please forgive me if that’s the way it sounded. I’m just saying that you’re such a beautiful woman. Any man would have a hard time telling you anything other than what you’d want to hear. So please forgive me. I know you know this business very well — actually better than a lot of us.” He extended his hand to me. “All is forgiven?” he asked, sounding like Antonio Banderas.

“Yes, Jose. All is forgiven. Just watch what you say to me. You know I can be pretty cutthroat when I feel someone is offending me, and that sounded pretty offensive. But, I forgive you for not thinking before you spoke.” I gave him a slight smile, letting it go for the sake of having to see him every damned day, although he knew what the hell he was saying and meant every word of it.

“You can cut my throat all you like. I’m sure it would be enjoyable. Now let’s get to the conference room and get this meeting started,” he said, undressing me with his eyes. Up to this point, I’d never been the subject of his unprofessional advances, and I knew that I would have to get that in check real quick if it continued.

Simone

Surprisingly, I awoke to my Blackberry alerting me of a new text message. Two hours had passed since I’d gotten off the phone with Talise and I felt like a new person. My ears were no longer ringing from Talise’s way too early call and the nightmare was a distant memory. I picked up my Blackberry from my night table and was surprised to see a message from Deon. As my low battery signal beeped, I typed in a reply for him to call me and gave him my home number to do so. No more than one minute later, my cordless was ringing.

“Hey, what’s up?” I asked, smiling into the phone. Deon seemed to be a cool guy, but my expectations were still very low.

“You, Simone. You’re what’s up. What’re you doin’ today?”

“Why? Are you coming to hang out with me or something?” I teased.

“Yup. What’re we doin’?”

“Does it matter?”

“Nope, sure doesn’t. What time you want me to pick you up?”

“I’ll pick you up at
noon
. I’ll call you when I’m in front of your building. And, oh, I hope you don’t mind going shopping with me,” I stated, as an afterthought.

“I guess I’ll take my chances. Don’t be late,” he said, sounding skeptical.

After hanging up the phone, I felt invigorated. It was a beautiful day outside and the view of the
Staples
Center
from my bedroom balcony made me chuckle. I walked into the bathroom and began running water into my spa tub. There wasn’t a better way to start my day than soaking in a hot bubble bath and letting the jets massage my body. As I relaxed in the warm water, my mind began to drift to thoughts of my first boyfriend, which reminded me to keep my guard up and to never trust a man.

Byron Boyd was my first boyfriend and if I were to be completely honest, I’d have to say that he was really the only boyfriend I’ve ever had. When I started high school, I wasn’t into boys and dating. Thankfully, they all knew it and left me alone. It wasn’t until the end of my sophomore year that a boy finally caught my eye. Byron Boyd had just moved here with his family from
Texas
. He was a star football player and fine as hell. But even he had to badger me until I finally agreed to go out with him. That was the beginning of our junior year. Talise had a boyfriend, James, who she’d been with since we started high school. I tagged along with them on so many dates that I know he was happier than I was when I accepted Byron’s invitation to go see a movie. With James being the quarterback of our football team and Byron being the running back, they became fast friends. Nine times out of 10, we all went on dates together.

Talise and I were virgins throughout high school and it wasn’t easy holding onto my panties, and my man, when all the girls were fawning over him like groupies. Byron tried and tried, but I was not giving it up. Once I saw the size of his dick, it scared me to even think of what he could do with that thing. When Talise lost her virginity on prom night, I wish she had spared me every horrendous detail. Her first time was not a great experience at all and that made me even more apprehensive about having sex.

After graduation, Byron got a full athletic scholarship to USC and, of course, I followed. Talise was accepted at Harvard while James got a scholarship to
Grambling
State
. It was hard when Talise left, but we talked daily. In the meantime, I stayed busy, studying business and keeping my eyes on Byron. The girls in college were 10 times worse than the girls in high school. They were on him like a magnet, so I definitely had
my hands full with my studies and keeping the chicks off my man.

During our freshman year in college, I gave my virginity to Byron, who then became very obsessive, possessive, and controlling with me. He had to know every move I made and with whom. At first, I thought it was cute. I thought it was love. Then, I just became afraid of him and did what he wanted me to do just to avoid a fight. In our third year, Byron transferred to
Clark
after red-shirting his second year due to a minor injury. I was heartbroken and was thinking of following him to
Atlanta
when Talise told me that she was moving back home to go to grad school at USC. She’d finished undergrad in three years and the timing couldn’t have been better.

My last year of college flew by and, before I knew it, I was graduating and Byron was drafted into the NFL, to play for the
San Diego
Chargers. I decided to go to the
Paul
Mitchell
School
for Cosmetology in
San Diego
and moved in with Byron against my better judgment.