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“What has you in such a good mood today?”
“I’m the same as I always am. Nothing new,” I lied and turned my see-through gaze back to my computer. I never had a poker face, so I was sure Shayla could see right through me.
“Oh, no. When I came in here, you were sitting there looking at your computer and cheesing like you just hit for the Mega Millions. I would have thought young Denzel was about to step out of the screen and give you a lap dance then present you with your lottery check.”
“Ha! You think too much, Shayla.”
“But I’m always right, so spread the joy with me. I need something to smile about too, as hot and miserable as I’ve been.”
“Oh my,” I bubbled with glee when Glory chose to run her foot across the expanse of Shayla’s stomach. Shayla froze still and moaned until Glory situated in her belly.
“Ugh.” She let out a curt breath.
I sat back in my seat. “Glory is warning you to leave me alone. I was smiling when you came in, but it was nothing worth conversation,” I flat out lied. My meeting with Montie Brown merited conversation, verbal elation, and stimulation; well, let’s just say it was hard to fight off temptations where Montie was concerned.
“Nothing worth conversation, huh?” Shayla repeated in a dry tone. “Come again, and remember that this is me you’re talking to.”
“I just opened a pretty lucrative business deal. That’s all.”
She peered at me as if she already knew that an alluring, sexy man was on the other end of the transaction. “What kind of deal?” she asked and clung to every word that had yet to come out of my mouth.
“With the devil, honey,” I said standing and walking around to sit on the edge of my desk, in front of an even more intrigued Shayla. “He’s this sexy as the devil gentleman named Montie Brown who’s outsourcing one of his software projects to us.”
“Well, you’re the best he could have found for coding software,” Shayla offered, but her side eye was strong as she studied me.
“Yeah, my team will do a bang-up job working with him. He will be pleased.” As much as I tried to fight away the thought of it, the inescapable vision of a satisfied look on Montie’s face as he did a bang-up job on me impaled my brain.
“I have no doubt about that,” Shayla said, calling my attention back to her side eye.
“About what?” I asked, having gotten lost in the banter.
“That you’ll do a good job for your client and that he will be pleased. Where is your head at? Wait a minute. You are smitten with him, already. No, what am I saying? Of course, you’re smitten with him already. Come on, Lissa…no.”
“Oh Shayla. I can’t stop thinking about doing things that have nothing to do with my assignment. I only have a track record of lasting a few weeks before I pounce on someone like him, so the struggle is about to get real having to be in the same space with the finger licking good eligible bachelor.”
“Cry me a river,” Shayla said, finally cutting her vicious eyes away from me. “You can handle not jumping that man’s bones if you exercise some self-control.”
Self-control. That’s exactly what I charged myself with doing this year. The ‘year of yes to no.’ It’s so incredibly amazing how fast that went out the window when Montie’s chocolate brown orbs licked me up and down and I didn’t want him to stop. But hey, that was just sexual frustration—something I’d be damned if I let it get in the way of true happiness again.
Whew. Glad I had that talk with myself. Now back to Shayla.
“I’m trying to control myself, Shayla. A man like Montie Brown gets all in your pores, though,” I began.
“Oh, where have I heard that line before?”
“I’ve never said that.”
“Yes, you did. You said it about Seth when we were on the airplane headed home from that conference and you also said, ‘it is going to be hard to go back to Atlanta and not think about him’.”
“I was such a poor and misguided soul back then.” I shook my head. “And you had no sympathy for my pain then, and you still have none now.”
Shayla laughed and nodded her head. “You’re right about that. I don’t have sympathy for you, because you decide whom to let in your life. When Titus was sleeping with Rhonda right under my nose, I decided to ignore it and pretend it would go away. I sacrificed my happiness for a shamble of a marriage, until I woke up and decided to face the music. If you jump in the sack with Montie, knowing that you have major business on the line and that he’s more than likely an Atlanta bed hopper, that’s you. I don’t advise it, but I won’t be mad at you either. I’ll be here for you in the end, good or bad—matron of honor or cell mate.”
“That’s what I love about you.”
“What part?”
“I get endless free therapy sessions. I’m working hard to stay on the right track, and sometimes I need a nudge back to the other side,” I admitted.
