LITMIR.BIZ

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that Blake said for me to take good care of you. If you know anything about me, it’s that I know how to take care of a woman.”

      Paige pursed her lips, tilted her head, and with furrowed eyebrows, shot Norman a glare.

      “Oh, my bad.” He forced a grin. “Some old habits are hard to break.”

      Paige smiled. “Not to worry, my friend. Keep coming back to New Day, and between Pastor’s preaching, the Holy Ghost’s conviction, and a miracle from God Himself, you’ll be delivered and all those old habits will be forgotten…like what’s-her-name in Vegas.” Paige winked.

      “You know something? You really are cool, boss,” Norman complimented. “And I think I will come visit New Day again. It’s been a couple of months. Lord only knows how much sinning I’ve done in those months that call for repenting.”

      “You know we always love to see you there. And don’t feel bad; I’m there pretty much every Sunday, and I still find myself having to repent on occasion.”

      “Like your pastor preached that one time: We have to die daily to ourselves.”

      “So you do be listening?” Paige joked. “Yes, my brother, we are all a work in progress.”

      “Speaking of work, tomorrow’s Saturday. Early morning, long day.”

      “You’re right,” Paige agreed, unlocking her car door. “Thanks again for being my date tonight.”

      Norman gave her a hug. “The pleasure was all mine.” He went to give her a friendly kiss on the cheek, but she turned quickly, preparing to make one final comment. With her mouth open, Norman’s lips landed on hers. Realizing that it wasn’t her cheek his lips were pressed against, Norman quickly pulled away. Okay, not quickly, but eventually he pulled away.

      “I’m sorry,” they both said simultaneously. “No, I’m sorry.” Again, simultaneously. “I was trying to—” Simultaneously. “Good night.” Simultaneously.

      Paige watched as Norman scurried off to his car. She pressed her index and middle finger against her lips, still in disbelief that the lips of a man other than her husband had just been there. She put her entire hand over her mouth, trying to cover the smile that for some reason she couldn’t stop from forming. She chuckled like a school girl, and then laughed even harder as she said to herself, “Well, Norman, looks like you ended up getting a little bit of chocolate on you anyway.”

      Chapter Six

      “You won’t be sorry that you hired me, Sister Tamarra. I promise you,” Unique said as she tied the apron around her waist. For the past two weeks, she had helped Tamarra set up a catering affair or two, but today would be her first time actually serving. Having this job meant the world to Unique. After a conversation she’d had with Lorain, the Singles’ Ministry leader, she’d considered doing something with herself besides sitting on welfare. Lorain had made a valid point to Unique. She’d informed her that sitting on welfare wasn’t paying into social security, and that if anything, God forbid, was to happen to Unique, where would money come from to take care of her children? Unique’s three boys meant the world to her.

      Tamarra had been contemplating hiring some extra hands for her catering business for a while now. In spite of all the turmoil her personal life seemed to be caught up in, her business was booming. Word of mouth had nearly doubled Tamarra’s clientele in the last six months or so. Just two weeks ago she’d invested in a new catering van and two new employees, one of them being Unique, her New Day sister in Christ.

      Unique’s position doing setup and serving only called for a few hours a week, but that was all the time she could spare as a single mother of three young sons. Tamarra knew that eight dollars an hour for a less than part-time position wasn’t big money, but she knew Unique would appreciate the opportunity.

      “I know I won’t be sorry I hired you, Unique.” Tamarra smiled, grateful to see such determination and excitement in the twenty-three-year-old mother.

      Tamarra didn’t know a whole lot about Unique. She’d only really started getting to know her since Unique had taken over the position of co-leader of the New Day Singles’ Ministry. For the past month or so, with Lorain being on a sabbatical, Unique had been serving as the interim leader. She’d been handling both her duties well as she now stood in a party house with Tamarra about to serve food to more than seventy-five women of all ages.

      The women were members of a national book club with various chapters throughout the country. Every other year one of the chapters hosted an annual book club meeting with a featured author. This year the Columbus chapter was hosting and the guest author was someone named Tysha. Tamarra had never heard of the author, but Unique seemed to know exactly who the young lady was.

      “Not only do I have a job, a real paying job, no under the table flim-flam stuff, but I am about to serve food to an Essence magazine bestselling author.” Unique clapped her hands together. “God is good.” She noticed that Tamarra wasn’t as excited. “You do know who Tysha is, right?”

      “With the way you’re acting, I guess I should, but sad to say, I don’t. Does she write Christian fiction?”

      “Oh, no, far from it. She writes that street lit stuff—hood books—and I love ’em.”

      “Then that explains it. I try to stick to Christian fiction and some clean chick lit.”

      “I feel you,” Unique said, putting on some plastic gloves.

      Tamarra smiled. The girl had listened when she’d explained to her how important it was to wear gloves when handling food.

      “Street lit probably would be a bit much for someone your age.” Unique looked Tamarra up and down. “No offense. I can just tell that you’re not the typical street lit following.”

      “’Scuse me,” Tamarra said playfully, hands on hips. “I’ll have you know that I own and have read every Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim book ever written. Now, you wanna talk some real gangsta lit…boom!” Tamarra sucked her teeth, snapped her neck, and rolled her eyes. Both women burst out laughing. Forty-something or not, Tamarra could be hip when need be.

      “Okay, all right, Sister Tamarra. I see you, boo,” Unique said. “I had you pegged wrong. My bad. You do know a little somethin’-somethin’ ’bout that gangsta stuff.”

      “Know a little somethin’-somethin’ about it? Girl, back in high school you might as well have called me gangstress.” Tamarra gave a snap around the world.

      “Okay, Sister Tamarra, now you’re exaggerating just a little too much.” Unique chuckled.

      “Hmm…” Tamarra slouched her shoulders and stared off as if reminiscing. “I wish I was, Sister Unique.” She shook her head at some of the things she had done back in her hoodlum stage of high school, back when she was rebelling against her parents, and God, for all the bad things they’d allowed to happen to her.

      She had been suspended and assigned to Saturday school more times than she could count. As a freshman in high school, she missed more classes than she attended, always cutting to hang out with some upperclassmen boy. She got a reputation by doing so, but not a good one. Still, by the time she was a junior, deep inside, a part of all the girls wanted to be just like her. She was their alter ego, that chick who wasn’t afraid to do whatever she wanted whenever she wanted to do it.

      Tamarra’s mother missed so much work having to take off and go up to the school that she lost more than one job throughout Tamarra’s high school years. Just once, Tamarra wanted her father to come all the way from Maryland and show up at one of the meetings. She just wanted him to show that he cared. She wanted him to love her more than he loved protecting her brother, the brother that had raped her as a child and stolen her innocence. She wanted the charade to be over. He never came. So, Tamarra would always top off her last incident with something worse, hoping eventually her father would come. Still, he never came.

      Thankful for Tamarra,

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