Cutting Loose (13 page)

Cassandra chuckled. “Okay. I’ll talk to
you later.”

Several hours later Sabrina found
herself crying again. But it wasn’t over the fact that she slammed the door in
Brett’s face or the fact that he hadn’t returned her phone calls. It was from a
sad movie she was watching on TV where a woman found out her ex-fiancé slept
with her sister who was getting married to his best friend.

That kind of betrayal made Sabrina’s
heart ache, taunting at old memories of a friend she knew who had the same
experience. Then a flashback of the night she caught Carl in bed with Jasmine
for the third time. To this day she still had no idea what made her stay with
his cheating ass after all those times. Most women would have left the first time
it happened. But then again, Sabrina wasn’t like most women. She was way too
forgiving. Maybe that was her problem.

It was that and the way she trusted
people too easily. But that was in her nature ever since her mother instilled
into her and Camille when they were younger. Her mother always it was the
Christian way to forgive people and never hold grudges over people because it
wouldn’t make any sense and that if God could sacrifice his only son so we
could be forgiven, it was the only thing to do.

She lived by that concept and so far it
caused the majority of the problems in her life because she would say she
forgave someone but not really in her heart. She still hadn’t forgiven Carl and
knew it was going to take a longtime before she did. At least for now.

She hated complaining and moping around.
She couldn’t do it anymore. So she gathered up enough nerve to hop in her car
and drive over to Brett’s workplace and pay him a visit in person since he
didn’t want to answer any of her phone calls. Maybe he would get pissed at her
and think she was wrong for showing up unannounced or maybe he wouldn’t.
Either, she was going to make her presence known by any means necessary.

She pulled up to the plaza where a bunch
of stores were packed into a plaza and saw a window that read Brett’s company
name and logo on it, the same one she saw on his van. Her nerves almost got to
her and tried to make her stop what she was doing but then she sent those
thoughts into oblivion where she wouldn’t even think about them.

 She walked into the air-conditioned
place where she saw a few desks here and there and people were walking around
wearing the uniform Brett wore when he came to her house.

 A tall blonde woman with her hair in a
bun dressed in a white dress shirt and a navy blue pencil skirt walked up to
her. She smiled and said, “Hi, may I help you?”

“Yes, I need to speak with Brett.”

She frowned and said, “I’m sorry to
inform you that Mr. Deltour is in a meeting at the moment. If you’d like, I can
get someone else to assist you.”

“No, that’s okay. I’ll wait for him.
It’s really important that I speak to him so I’ll just wait until he’s out of
the meeting.”

“Very well, then,” the woman said as she
glided away to her desk.

Sabrina glanced around for somewhere to
sit but the sales floor was so wide she didn’t see any seats until she glanced
over her shoulder and found an uncomfortable-looking chair and sat down.

 She didn’t even care how long she was
going to be sitting there, just as long as she knew at the end of the day she
was going to talk to Brett at one point and do what she came to do. She had
come so far and she was not about to turn around now. That wouldn’t make any
sense and would definitely make her look weak. And Sabrina Evan’s didn’t have
one weak bone inside her body.

Some moments later, Sabrina had lost
track of time after an hour, she saw a group of people emerging from the back
of the room chatting it up. Out of the crowd of white crisp shirts and navy
blue slacks, she saw Brett.

At that moment she stood up and straightened
out her shirt that was a little wrinkled. She almost had to sit back down from
her legs hurting so much from the way she was sitting.

Once she had her balance she stood
firmly and waited for Brett to see her first before she ran over to him and made
herself look silly.

He looked like he wasn’t going to fall
into her plan so she had to take matters into her own hands and walked around
the sales floor as if she was interested in something, looking back and forth
at Brett over her shoulders until he finally caught her eye with a surprised
look on his face.

He stopped he was and once he recognized
Sabrina, walked over to her and said, “Hi. Uh, I didn’t expect to see you here.
At my place of business.”

“Is that a problem?” Sabrina asked
curiously, looking him straight in the face.

“No, not really,” he said coolly. “I
just uh,” he trailed off and looked around to see who was watching him. “Do you
need something?”

“Yes, I do. I need to know why you
haven’t returned any of my phone calls or any of the emails I sent you.”

He cocked his head to the side and said,
“I’ve been swamped with work the last couple of days and I turned my cell phone
off and I haven’t gotten around to checking any of my email messages yet. I’m
sorry if I gave you the impression that I was avoiding you.”

How many times have I heard that before?
Sabrina said to herself. Too damn many.

She didn’t know what it was that made
her say, “Apology accepted,” so quickly. Maybe it was the sincerity in his
voice and the way he kept looking her in the eye that told her he was telling
the truth. Maybe she was beginning to like him.

Brett frowned and asked, “Are you going
to let me off that easily?”

“Yeah,” said Sabrina, a bit puzzled.
“What do you mean?”

“I’m just saying that you could have
made me work a little harder before you accepted my apology, like some women
do.” He paused and added, “Or at least the women that I’ve dealt with in the
past have done.”

Sabrina waited a beat and said, “Okay,
then I’m taking back my forgiveness and I don’t forgive you anymore.”

Brett chuckled and teased, “Does that
make any sense?”

Sabrina burst into laughter and said,
“Hey, it was your idea!”

He smiled and said, “Yeah, I know.” He
looked around some more, then dug his hands into his pockets and said, “In that
case, let me make it up to you.”

Sabrina lowered her voice and asked,
“And just how are you going to do that?”

He grinned and replied, “Come here,” at
the same time as he pulled Sabrina into him and slowly began to kiss her, not
caring if his coworkers made noises in the background. He pulled back and
whispered into her ear, “Let me worry about that.”

“O-Okay,” she stuttered, holding on to
the wall for balance.

He planted a soft kiss on her forehead
and said, “I’ll call you when I get off from work, okay?”

“Um, okay,” was all she managed to come
up with.

She turned on the spot and just as she
did, Brett gave her ass a light tap and heard him let out a giggle.

She didn’t bother to turn around because
she knew if she did, she would’ve never left the place.

By the time she made it back to her car,
her panties were wet and she only had Brett Deltour to thank for that. Sitting
in her car, she was thankful that she didn’t freak out that time, which meant
she was going in the right direction and she was highly anticipating whatever
it was that Brett had in store for her because she also had something in store
for him.

Chapter Twelve:

Plus-One

The past week was brutal on Sabrina. Or
at least she thought so. She hadn’t had any time to spend with Brett and her
girls Larissa and Cassandra were breathing down her next about being introduced
to Brett and hanging out, but Sabrina wasn’t ready for introductions just yet.
She hated the fact the she felt like she was sneaking around like in her high
school days when her mother and Sean forbade her to have a boyfriend or date
until she was seventeen. It was too damn dramatic but of course it didn’t stop
Sabrina from trying to do things on the down low behind their backs.

All in all, she was looking forward to
seeing the stupid look on Carl’s face when she showed up to his wedding, not
single and pitiful as he left her, but taken and glowing with happiness. She
didn’t feel comfortable telling Brett about being her date and decided to hold
off on asking him.

With all that was going on at
Fabulous
magazine involving models being too skinny or not looking healthy, Sabrina was
surprised that Camille was able to keep up with the constant changes that had
been going on. Sometimes Sabrina prayed the bitch would become overwhelmed with
stress and pressure that she caved and resigned as editor-in-chief and gave the
position to Sabrina. Too bad it was only wishful thinking.

To take her mind off of things, she
decided to take a couple of days off from work and spend some quality time with
Brett. Over the past few weeks he had been taking her all over Miami to
different tourist locations that she never would have considered going to on
her own time. As surprising as it was, Sabrina couldn’t help but notice how she
was becoming so drawn to Brett’s aura. She didn’t even realize how much they
had in common until they were chatting about nothing in particular and Brett
mentioned he was into keeping in shape and eating healthy. Sabrina wasn’t a
health freak or anything close to it, but she did like to keep her figure and
try new things.

Another thing Sabrina discovered about
Brett was how he was more of a stay-in-and-cuddle type of guy, where Sabrina
was into the nightlife and working her ass off. They still hadn’t come up with
any compromise and just decided to spend their time doing something they both
liked.

Sabrina loved how Brett acted as if he
was allergic to wearing a T-shirt whenever he came over after a long day of
fixing computers. Brett knew how much of a hold he had on Sabrina when he stood
damn near half-naked in front of her and continued to torture her every time.

 It was mostly Sabrina’s own fault that
they hadn’t had sex yet since she was so into her two-month-wait rule that she
liked to reinforce to make sure she wasn’t seen as a booty call. She hadn’t
always been successful with it because some guys usually broke up with her as
soon as she mentioned such a thing. They never saw the true meaning behind it
because most of them were just looking for a piece of ass on the first date,
which in Sabrina’s eyes, was tacky and disgusting.

Of course Larissa always claimed that
she didn’t believe in making a guy wait two months for sex, let alone wait at
all. Larissa was the kind of girl every guy dreamed of; she was into giving it
up while on a date whether it was in a deserted movie theatre, a parked car or
even at the guy’s house while his kids was in the next room. She just didn’t
give a fuck about any of the usual dating methods but wondered why she could
never keep a steady man in her life for more than a week, if that.

Cassandra on the other hand was more
conservative like Sabrina, but she had a reason; she strongly believed in
celibacy. The idea of sex before marriage to her was like speaking in a foreign
language. She once believed in shacking up before marriage but after she lived
with a guy for three years and expected a ring on her finger, only found
herself contemplating bailing him out of jail when he got locked up for selling
drugs. To this day, it still amazed Sabrina to see how Cassandra could plan
weddings and still believe in celibacy. She was pretty sure she had to get
lonely sometime and even the best vibrator in the world couldn’t solve the
sexual frustrations celibacy caused. But Sabrina respected her idea and never
thought anything of it.

Sabrina couldn’t even deny having sexual
frustrations her damn self. She felt it whenever Brett hugged her, when he
smiled at her and even when he held her hand as they walked around in public.
Sabrina was always shy about public display of affection, but Brett didn’t care
about whether or not somebody saw them together and pointed their fingers or
muttered something under their breath. Instead, it that made him hold her hand
tighter, kiss her more despite Sabrina’s fears and feelings of being watched.

One evening in particular they were
walking down the strip on South Beach minding their own business and a black
guy and his girlfriend brushed up against Brett’s shoulder and looked at him as
if wanted to do him harm. She’d seen that look at way too many frat parties.

Brett simply turned around and said,
“Excuse you.”

The guy turned around shot back, “No,
excuse
you
, white boy.”

Brett glared at the guy and considered
saying something back to him but Sabrina pulled at his hands, signaling him to
leave before things escalated. Brett obliged and continued walking.

That was nothing compared to what
Sabrina had to deal with when she was standing in line with Brett at a
bookstore where these two black girls about her age stood behind her whispering
back and forth to each other and glancing at Sabrina. She was about to say
something to them but they spoke up first.