19 The Drama

The week had flashed by faster than expected, but that could've just been because my job was taking up almost if not all my time. With the new branches getting ready to open and sending me all their reports, along with the outlines I had to draft for the release of the new gaming device and the private draft of the solar power pod, my schedule was completely full but I was genuinely enjoying my new responsibilities. That is to say that when Friday finally came around, the relief of the weekend did not go unfelt. 

My drive home was filled with happy humming and absolutely no negative thoughts from me. The entering of my home was filled with even happier humming and absolutely no negative thoughts from me. The getting-ready-for-bed routine was filled with even more happy humming and no negative thoughts from me. Even though it was only eight at night, I had decided to sleep early because the last thing I wanted was dark under eye circles for when I saw Jack the next day. 

The getting into bed part of my day didn't last long, because the moment my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light. 

The next day was Saturday, which meant I spent most of the morning in bed eating snacks and watching television, and when one pm rolled around, I rolled right along with it, but this time out of bed. 

A face mask was applied, along with some eye patches and a neck mask. Pulling all the tricks I had hidden up my sleeve was an understatement.

Hours passed and I'd spent the day exfoliating, moisturising, and beautifying every single part of my body. For the first time in a long time, I'd be wearing a dress that was shorter than mid-knee, so I wanted to make sure that everything was immaculate. I'd waxed twice, shaved four times, and applied two individual face masks. The first one was an astringent for my pores, and the second one was a moisturiser. My beautifying session officially ended with a long hot shower where a lot of lathering and scrubbing happened. 

I'd always take Saturdays for beauty days, but today was even more extra than the rest because it was a club night and my skin always had the tendency to pull a fast one on me when I wasn't expecting it. 

My phone vibrated with a call from my best friend just as I was finishing the details on my makeup, which had taken longer than expected because as it turned out, I couldn't blend a smokey eye to save my life. For years, the only revolutionary thing that had constituted my makeup was a champagne eyelid with highlighted inner corners, sharp contour, and a bold lip. 

Funny how I could snatch the hell out of my cheek bones but couldn't blend a lighter colour into a darker one. In the end, I went for my usual champagne eyelid with highlighted corners, but the kicker was the extra shimmer and bold, smokey eyeliner. My lip choice was just as bold, with a blood red to nude inverted ombré. I was ready to knock em dead. 

"Hello?" My hands were just twisting the cap onto the liquid lipstick just as the phone came to rest between my cheek and shoulder, and I was ready to hear what Sabrina had in store for me. 

"Guess what?" She sounded out of breath, almost like she'd been running. "Go ahead, guess!" 

"You just made your first ten million dollars?" Was my guess. If Sabrina had broken through to hitting the double digit millions in this economy, she truly was a force to be reckoned with. 

"If I'd made ten million New York dollars, I wouldn't be telling you over the phone. But no, even better. I think I found the perfect bathing suit for you to wear on vacation!" She squealed and began to ramble about the details of the suit she'd found, sounding even more excited the more she spoke. "I was shopping down at Saks and I saw it peeking at me from the corner but I couldn't tell if it was perfect or not so I picked it up and saw the cutest trimming and I immediately thought about you because it's in your size so it is literally perfect!" 

I sighed and shook my head on my way to the closet. Only Sabrina would hype me up that much. "I've already told you, there's no need for a new bathing suit when I already have plenty!" 

"This will be your first bathing suit as Vice President of Marketing for an international brand and I insist that you need it. And also there's the small matter that I already bought it so it's too late now," she chuckled nervously before going off on her tangent again. "Oh by the way, what are you wearing tonight?" 

"I'm looking at the dresses right now but I can't really choose. Should I go for the green one or the blue one?" 

"Be specific, is it the emerald green one with the black chain across the open back or the dark green one with the spikes at the breastplate?" 

"Emerald," then my gaze went towards blue dresses. "But then there's the navy blue one with the mid thigh high slit and the electric blue two piece," it really was a hard choice, and one that I was personally not willing to make for myself. 

"What's your lip looking like?" 

"Red inverted ombré." 

"Definitely the navy blue dress but be careful because it's shorter than you usually wear. How come you're getting ready now? We don't have to be at the club for another two hours," I could hear her rumbling around with her shopping bags and unzipping what I could only assume was a new purse. 

"I've got some pre-club drinking to do with a certain someone whose name starts with J," my smile was uncontrollable, and it was kind of embarrassing, to say the least. 

Sabrina gasped and she dropped the bag she'd been holding. "No way… you invited Jack!?" 

"Yes," 

"Does that mean it's going really well?" She sounded guarded as she asked this, probably ready to hear more disappointing news from me. Too bad, because that didn't seem to be the case this time! "Have you guys been talking a lot?" 

"We've been texting here and there but we haven't spoken all that much because he's literally always working, and so am I, so our schedules don't match up that much. Overall though, I think it's going great!" 

"This is your second date, right?" I could imagine her tapping her foot while standing on the giant rug in front of her bed. Sabrina was fully invested in my dating life because according to her, 'I was too beautiful to die alone'. 

"Our second date, yes," was my confirmation. The road this was going down was familiar. 

"What do you like about him so far?" 

"He's an intellectual, as opposed to me, so he gets me thinking a lot about things that would normally go over my head. Also he has the cutest dimples and that chuckle thing he does when he's amused? Instant libido boost," now that I thought about it, there was a list of things I liked about Jack, and all of them transcended the physical. "Also we're both heavy into true crime, so that always gives us something to talk about whenever we're together. It's nice finally meeting a fellow crime buff!"

"Do you know his background?" Sabrina was pacing in her room, which I could clearly hear from the rhythmic pat pat pat on her wooden floors. 

"His parents are from west Africa and his maternal grandmother encouraged him to pursue his dream of neurology." 

"Oh wow! So it's safe to say you're into him? Do you think the feeling is mutual?"

"Very much so." 

A moment of silence passed between us, then a thump could be heard, which was either Sabrina jumping for joy, or her body hitting the floor. I was about to ask her if she was alright but she interrupted me with her excitement. 

"I KNEW IT! I knew it from the moment I saw him, I said 'this is the one, Sabrina.' My Cupid senses were tingling for a reason! Oh my god, this is such a groundbreaking moment!" 

Her excitement was contagious, and I found myself jumping for joy. Of course, that joy didn't last long because the clock made me realise that if I didn't get dressed soon, I was going to be very very late. 

"Brina I have to go, he'll be here any minute," my eyes went towards the lower level racks of my closet looking for the perfect pair of shoes. My outfit called for a bold sandal type, but what should the heel style be? 

"Fine, tell me future brother-in-law hi when you see him. Okay bye!" 

~~~~~

The club music was loud and the beat was thumping in my chest when we walked in. Jack's hand was on my waist, guiding me through the crowd toward the VIP lounge , because even though I was five foot six inches, the rest of the crowd seemed to be taller than me. Not going clubbing for a long time could do that, apparently. 

Once we'd reached the VIP lounge on the second floor, I saw Sabrina talking to a fellow DJ on one of the booth-like seats in the seating area. As soon as she saw me, she waved her hand, and I grabbed Jack's in turn to lead him to her. 

"I was literally just about to call you," she said as I leaned down for a side kiss to the cheek, as was our custom whenever we met up. "Hi Jack!" She greeted him with a huge smile, which he returned in kind. 

"It's nice to see you again, Sabrina," he held out his hand for a shake, but she bypassed it and gave him a hug. He looked surprised but hugged her back once he recovered. 

"We've known each other for too long to be on a handshake basis. I'm so glad you're here! May I introduce my friend…" 

I zoned out of the conversation when my phone vibrated in my hand and upon looking at it, the screen displayed a text from Andrew. It said that he had arrived with his client and had brought a friend with him. 

My brow furrowed when I saw the word friend, but my mind didn't dwell too much on it. "Andrew said he just got here," I announced for everyone to hear. It didn't take long before the current DJ began to announce that they had new talent to present. A look at the clock told me it was eleven twenty-six pm, so that seemed right. 

"Come on, sit," Jack patted the seat next to him, and I sat down, making sure to pull my dress down a bit so as not to show too much. Sabrina had been right when she told me to be careful because it was a bit short, but the confidence this dress gave me was unmatched because it made my legs look flawless. 

I leaned into my date and my smile was uncontainable when he accommodated himself to make me feel more comfortable. This man was the sweetest human being I'd ever been on a date with. 

After a few minutes of all of us just getting to know Sabrina's DJ friend and Jack and I whispering silly things to each other, my phone vibrated again and I saw the text from Andrew that asked where we were. After letting him know that we were in the VIP lounge, I entertained a question from my best friend. 

"Do you know anything about the artist this Andrew person is managing?" The fact that she referred to him as 'this Andrew person' was enough to let me know that this night was going to be difficult. No wonder she'd asked me to be here. 

"Not really, only that this is his debut performance," my hand came to rest on top of Jack's and we smiled at each other. He looked away from me and nodded at something seemingly in front of us, so I turned my head to look. It was Andrew, but when I took a look at his friend and saw a deadly glare looking right back at me, my heart sank and all my limbs froze. 

"Okay but what the actual fuck is happening here?" My best friend stood up and pointed an accusing finger at my boss, who hadn't moved his gaze from me even once. "What is he doing here?" 

"Relax, I won't bother anyone," Jason sated, briefly glancing at her before looking back at me. "I��m here for moral support." 

"What? I'm confused," Andrew looked at me with furrowed eyebrows and I reached over to grab Sabrina's hand. She instantly relaxed and sat back down, but the scowl that was on her face didn't seem to be budging any time soon.

"Sit down! There's a lot to discuss, right Sabrina?" I made it a point to pronounce her name loudly so she'd get the message. Walking into this club, my biggest worry was preventing her from killing Andrew. Now, my biggest worry was getting Jack away from my ex. 

"Right," she snapped, snapping her fingers at the bartender to get her attention. Seeing how Sabrina was a regular at this club, the bartender already knew her order, so it wasn't long before a waitress set a bourbon on the rocks in front of her. "So Andrew, how long have you been… a manager, is it? How long have you been doing that?" 

I wasn't listening to the conversation because my hand felt hot, and the reason why my hand felt hot was because two grey eyes were staring at my fingers, which were interlaced with my date's. 

"I think he might've been my patient or something because he seems to hate me," Jack whispered in my ear, which honestly made me snort a little bit. As if anyone could hate him. "I don't know if I should introduce myself or not." 

"Preferably not. Wanna dance?" The talent for the night had yet to be up on stage, so I knew we probably had a good two dances to go before Andrew's client began to perform. Upon his confirming nod, I stood up and pulled him with me. "We're going to go dance for a while. We'll be back in a bit." 

Walking out of that lounge was the most relieving thing I'd done in my entire life, and the way Jack squeezed my hand as we descended the ramp let me know that he knew it too. 

_____________[Sneak Peek] 

Jason's POV

"I had no idea you felt that way," I was staring at my wife, who was staring at her cards on the other side of the table. Saying those words made me feel like a terrible person, because she always reiterated that I never listened to her.

"Of course you didn't," she put down a ten of clubs. "I told you multiple times," a jack. "Every single time, you shut me down," a queen. "It was almost like you didn't want to be aware, and I let you. Why? Because I loved you" a king. "Well now it's time to pay me back," an ace. 

My heart beat faster in my chest as the cards in my hand stared back at me. It felt like I could see my own reflection in them. Amaria was finally looking at me and there was a challenge in her eyes. She looked stunning and my breath left me body. Every second that passed by, I felt myself fall more and more in love with her. 

Could I match her challenge?

Her smirk was making me sweat. My hand was balling into a fist under the table. My eyes went to the wedding set on her left hand, which was lazily tracing small patterns on the kitchen table, just like it would after I would have my way with her. This time, it was her turn. She was having her way with me. 

Amaria licked her lips and my body temperature soared. My mind couldn't think clearly from all the blood rushing to another part of my body. We were supposed to be fighting, but her approach to the situation took me by complete surprise. 

"Well? How are you going to pay me back, honey?"