Authors: Cassandra Cole
“Not at all”, Samuel answered “Are you OK? Is something wrong with the baby?”
“The baby is fine”, she answered “Ate you free for lunch tomorrow?”
“I am “, Samuel answered excitedly “we could visit that taco place we you used to like, remember?”
Tracy held her breathe simply because she could not remember the taco place he was referring to.
“Sure, we could do that”, she answered “I will see you then”
She hung up the phone and got out of bed; she walked over to the mirror and stared at her reflection. Her belly had started to show and she placed a hand over her belly slowly massaging it and letting out a knowing smile. She stared at her reflection for a second longer before deciding on walking out of the room. Her mind only wanted scrambled eggs with ketchup for breakfast and nothing else. She walked on and was more than grateful her mother was not around to hover around her. After strolling around the kitchen in her pajamas looking for something to eat, Tracy settled on one of the seats and knew she would find the love of her life soon enough.
After waiting for Ted to arrive at the rendezvous meeting spot for a good fifteen minutes, Tracy decided to order. The different aromas and flavors coming from the other dishes in the restaurant made confused her and she stared at the menu salivating.
“I thought you would have stared without me”, Ted said as he walked over to their reserved table and placed a slight kiss on her cheek.
“I thought that would be rude”
“Well, I wouldn’t want to starve you”, Ted said and started looking at her surroundings in search of a waiter “I am sorry I am late I had a meeting that ran pretty late”
“It’s ok”, Tracy answered and looked in his direction. She liked how he had decided to play with his hair on that day. He wore it different with styling gel which made him look younger.
“I really hate to sound like an arse here but I have a meeting to get to”, he said and looked unsettled “So what did you want to talk to me about?”
“Nothing really, I just thought we could catch up”.
Ted looked at her and leaned on the table for her to hear what he was about to say.
“Look Tracy”, he started “Let’s not play games, I love you and I know you love me. You may have had your few se backs and confused moments in the past but I can look past that”
“What about the baby?”
“Is it too late to terminate it?”
Tracy looked at him shocked and felt her mouth go dry; she leaned back in her seat and gave Ted a cold stare.
“Come on Tracy, I am sure the baby is not mine, why on earth would I take care of another man’s baby?”
“You do not know that for sure”, Tracy said “It could be yours”
“It is not a risk I am willing to take” Ted answered.
Tracy got to her feet slowly and gave Ted another cold stare before swinging her handbag underneath her arm.
“If you love me as you say you do, you would be willing to risk it for me”, she said and walked out of the restaurant. She waited outside the entrance for a cab and thanked her lucky stars when one stopped in front of her immoderately.
“Where to ma’am?”
Tracy was about to give her home address but another thought crept up on her.
“The city mall sir”
“Alright”
The car started driving and Tracy took time to pick through her emotions. She couldn’t really tell how exactly she felt about Ted and wanted to blame it on her pregnancy hormones.
The car skidded through traffic and it was not long before Tracy could see the mall from a distance. She didn’t know what her excuse of showing up to her work place will be but knew it had to be a good one. They had arranged to have lunch the next day but her instincts led her to him. She got out of the cab and started walking towards the tattoo parlor. With every step, her heart thundered in her chest. She finally got to the stall and looked through the window; he had no clients yet and was cleaning his apparatus. His gaze looked up at her and he locked it in hers. He got to his feet from the stool he was perched on and walked over to the door. He swung it open and ushered her in.
Tracy strolled through it and loved how he embraced her with a warm hug.
“I thought we were going to meet for lunch tomorrow?”
“Yes we were”, she answered “But I was just in the neighborhood and thought I would stop by”
“You thought right”
They sat opposite each other with a comfortable silence between them. Neither said a word to the other but neither had to.
All of a sudden without warning, Tracy felt a slight movement from within her stomach. A slight jab from inside her tummy, for a moment she thought she had imagined it and instinctively placed a hand on her tummy.
“Are you feeling ok?”
“Yes”, she said excitedly “I think he just kicked”
“May I?” Samuel asked and moved closer with his hand placed on her belly.
“Sure”
“I felt her”, Samuel said excitedly and locked his eyes with his “I am sorry, I shouldn’t have”
“It’s ok”, Tracy encouraged “Though I disagree with you on you saying she is a girl”
“But she is”
“No, it’s a boy”, Tracy pointed out and let out a laugh.
Tracy loved how comfortable she was in his presence; she compared it to Ted’s obnoxious attitude and saw why she fell in love with him.
“How about we go hit that taco joint? I need to fill you in on a lot”, Tracy said and got to her feet.
“Let’s go”
Samuel got the door for her and watched as she left the room, she noticed a slight change in color shade when she looked into her eyes again but strangely felt comfortable with it. He took her hand in his and she did not resist, it felt safe.
Tracy then knew she was with the right man, right there and then she knew he was her baby’s father and further more knew her dreams were real. As they walked out of the mall, Tracy knew one more thing, she was happiest with him.
The End
THE LION BILLIONAIRE BOSS by Ella Hart
The alarm blaring in her ear was what woke Riley up. She wished that once in a while it would be the sunlight but it was always her alarm. The song that was playing was some awful top forties mess that her friend, Angela, downloaded to her phone. She hadn’t bothered to change it because it did its job well. When that horrible chorus played over and over again, all she wanted to do was turn it off.
She sighed and sat up, running her fingers through her thick, auburn curls. As a child she’d always been teased for her tightly curled red hair. The kids at school and in her neighborhood called her terrible names like ‘Jew-fro’, not knowing that she was half black. Riley never stopped to explain it either, she didn’t see a reason to. It was none of their business and it wouldn’t make them stop calling her names. She would just have to suck it up and move on.
Riley spent her entire life sucking it up. Her father always told her weak women didn’t make it in the world. He’d drink an entire twelve pack of beer and point a shaky finger in her face, telling her that she wasn’t going to get anywhere if she acted like a girl. If she wanted to survive in a man’s world she’d have to act like a man. The message was a strange mix of empowering and degrading at the same time. Even though it was probably not the best advice, she still took it to heart. She understood what her father was getting at and she took it seriously. If Riley wasn’t strong then people would use her and take advantage of her like they took advantage of her mother.
When she was a child she had a happy life. Riley’s family was picture perfect. At one point they were the type of family that took vacations together and laughed together. They were a good family, but like all good things it eventually came to an end.
Riley’s mother was a kind hearted woman who would give someone the shirt off her back and not even think twice about it. She always smiled and never put people down. She was the kind of woman that Riley thought she wanted to be, until she saw what happened to people who were kind.
Her mother was an ER nurse and that particular profession fit her mother like a glove. She loved helping people and was an intelligent woman who could think on her feet. It was a night like any other when a drug addict came stumbling through the doors. The woman showed the normal signs of someone coming down from a high and all the other nurses rolled their eyes and turned away from the woman, going back to their paperwork. It was late and the last thing most of them wanted to deal with was a junkie.
Riley’s mom would never turn anyone away, no matter what condition they came in. She offered the woman some water but when she asked for morphine or pain meds, Riley’s mom told her no, though she did hook her up to an IV. The junkie didn’t take kindly to being told no and pulled out a knife she’d been hiding and stuck it in her nurse’s neck.
She went down fast, her hand over the wound as blood spilled over her fingers. Riley knew exactly what her mother’s death looked like because she’d seen it on camera. She’d watched her mother bleed out on a small black and white screen days after the funeral. He mother was killed because she dared to be kind. Riley made a promise to herself that she wouldn’t make the same deadly mistake as her mother.
After her mother’s death, Riley’s father fell into a deep depression and did nothing but slowly drink himself to death. It seemed that everyone was waiting for Riley to fall to pieces like her old man. There was a counselor or psychologist on her doorstep every week, it seemed. They would ask her questions like, ‘How are you coping?’ or ‘Do you want to talk?’. She told them she was coping fine and no, she didn’t want to talk.
To this day, Riley didn’t feel there was anything to talk about. Her mother was naïve and she’d suffered for it. It was a sad but true fact. She’d accepted it and now she needed everyone else to. All of those so-called specialists assumed that Riley never accepted her mother’s death and that she never came to terms with it, which couldn’t have been further from the truth. Her mother’s death changed everything about Riley.
She grew up to be a successful accountant and liaison at one of New York’s biggest banks. Riley was the exact opposite of her mother. She was shrewd and calculating with a critical eye. It was the best way to get by as an accountant. She often thought about what her mother would think of her if she could see her today. Riley wasn’t sure if she’d be proud or disappointed, but that didn’t really matter.
Riley was making it in this dog-eat-dog world and that was all that she cared about. When she wondered if her mother would be disappointed in her, she reminded herself that her mother was dead. It was a sharp jab in the ribs to remember, but it kept her grounded.
In Riley’s firm she was the person who her boss’ sent the problem people to. When a client was out of control and being an ass, Riley would take them down a few pegs. She managed to project a sense of power because she felt powerful. Ever since her mother died and her father spiraled into a dark existence of alcoholism and drug abuse, Riley had a desperate need to control the world around her and her job was one of the ways she did that.
The other way was her rituals.
She was diagnosed with OCD after the trauma of her mother’s death but she felt it was so mild that she hardly even noticed it. She was thinking about it this very moment as she turned each of her shower knobs a perfect 180 degrees three times before finally shutting them off. She opened and closed the curtain three times before finally stepping out and went to brush her teeth three times in thirty-three second intervals.
Riley would never admit it but she knew exactly when the number three stuck out in her head. The numbers on the clock read 3:33 AM when her mother was stabbed. It was something she tried not to think about too often, even as she turned and checked the lock on her door exactly three times.
*****
Riley was thankful that even on her worst days, most of her ‘routines’ were finished by the time she boarded the subway for work. Being on the subway gave her a very intense kind of anxiety. Every time she squeezed herself onto the train, she couldn’t help but think about all of the people around her and the hot, oppressive air that pressed down on her chest. She thought of all the pockets and all of the hands that slipped into those pockets and bags. Riley thought of the knives and the guns that could be hiding in those very places.
Every train ride to and from work for the past five years was an absolute nightmare for Riley but she managed to keep that fear and panic hidden well below the surface. Even though she was hyper-aware of what was going on in the train at all times, she kept her head up and just rode on like anyone else.
When the train finally came to a stop she was the first one off, staring at her watch and all but running up the concrete stairs. The train stayed at a stop for a little longer than normal and those few, precious minutes meant that she was running late. Her skirt (which was supposed to land just above her knee) was starting to ride up her thighs as the cool fall air blew through her hair. The smell of dried leaves mingled with the normal smell of the street vendors as she brushed past her favorite pizza cart. There was no time to stop for a slice.
Riley tugged at her coral skirt, her caramel colored cheeks flushing pink in embarrassment. When she finally made it inside her office building she stood up straight, pulling the tight curls of her hair until they fell the way she wanted them to. Her grey eyes darted around the room and finally landed on the elevator. She managed to make it through the metal doors by the time they closed, forcing herself into the crowded space. As much as she hated crowds, she found herself stuffed into tight spaces with far too many people quite often. It was the price she paid for living in New York.
She jumped off the elevator onto the fourteenth floor and made a dash for the meeting room she was supposed to be in. The company was getting a new CEO since their current one was pretty much dying of some kind of nasty cancer. She’d missed the finer details of the situation.
When she came to the glass door, she stopped and took a breath, pushing it open slowly and entering the room. There were no seats left so she decided to stand in the back. Angela was already standing behind a few waspy old men. She was scribbling notes furiously, her cocoa colored eyes darting between her paper and the man speaking. The presenter’s voice was low and droning and could have put even the most attentive employee to sleep.
Riley snuck around to her friend and settled beside her, looking around the room. The attendance seemed to be the usual higher ups and managers of various departments. She nudged Angela and the taller woman hissed at Riley, not wanting to get in trouble for talking. These guys took their meetings seriously.
“What did I miss?” Riley pressed, clearly not concerned with getting in trouble.
A few of the older men looked back at them and rolled their eyes, setting their shoulders in a way that said everything. Many of these men prescribed to the idea that women shouldn’t even be in meetings like this one. There was no place for them here. Those looks stopped bothering Riley ages ago. In this industry, women needed to have a thick skin.
“They’re going to announce the new CEO.” Angela mumbled under her breath. “They’re just going over the quarterly tax reports for this year.”
Riley already knew all about those tax reports. She’d written them up only a few weeks prior. Riley was about to push her for more information when the man at the front cleared his throat and looked directly at them, clearly not pleased with them.
“And now that we’ve gone over all of this quarters data, I’d like to introduce the man that will soon be signing all of your pay checks!” He paused for laughter but none came and he just grunted, throwing his arm out as the glass paned door across the room opened. “Charles Henry!”
In stepped a man who couldn’t have been older than thirty-five, with blonde hair shaved close on the sides of his head and long enough on top to slick back. He moved across the room with big, confident steps that spoke to his upbringing. The moment he entered the room, everyone knew that this was a powerful man. His hazel eyes swam with specks of gold and as they swept across the room they landed on Riley and the man smiled the slow deliberate smile of a predator. It was a look she’d seen on the discovery channel and animal planet, but never on a man. It made her shudder, though she was surprised that it wasn’t out of fear. When that shiver ran up her spine it was pure desire that fueled it.
He finally pulled his gold speckled gaze from her to address the rest of the room.
“I am honored to take my father’s place at the head of this company. Things are going to be very different around here and I hope you are all up to the task of change.”
Angela grunted and crossed her arms. “Well, that doesn’t sound promising…”
*****
Charles took control of his father’s company swiftly, and like he promised, changes were also put into place with a swiftness and efficiency that Riley had never seen before. For starters, she was given her own office. She was never offered this luxury before and if these were the kind of changes that where going to be made, she could get used to.
Work productivity seemed to go up and many of their systems that were previously manual switched over to a digital format. As the company started to change for the better Riley found herself pleasantly surprised with her new boss. When he first stepped into that meeting room, she’d assumed he’d be a spoiled brat who was used to getting his way. If that was the case she knew that he would be passed off to her. Riley wasn’t the type of woman to take nonsense from anyone, whether they be a full grown man or a child.
A few weeks passed since Charles took over the firm and Riley’s hopes for him were still high; until Angela stormed into her office, the door smacking the opposite wall so hard that Riley was sure the glass would shatter.
“Jesus, Angela, be careful with my door, will you? I just got this office.”
“Well, it won’t be your office for long.”
“What do you mean?” Riley asked, her brows knitting together.
“Charles wants you to be his personal assistant.” She snorted, crossing her arms.
Riley raised a brow, seeming a bit concerned. “He knows that I’m a CPA, right?”
“Of course he does, but he’s in his office throwing a fit! You need to go take care of it.”
Riley sighed and pushed away from her desk, breezing by Angela on her way out. She didn’t care for the way Angela was talking to her but there were bigger fish to fry right now. She made her way down the hall, tugging her pencil skirt down over her rich colored thighs. She didn’t want to get in trouble for her skirt being too short and with it always riding up because of her ample bottom, it was entirely possible.
She came to Charles’ door and stood just outside it, knocking firmly. A gruff voice called from the other side for her to enter. She pushed the door open and closed it behind her, walking over to her boss’ desk and putting her hands on her hips, clicking her tongue a little. She never sucked up to a boss before and she wasn’t about to start now.