Cutting Loose (7 page)

“What are you talking about?” asked
Cassandra looking puzzled.

“As of last night, I might be going off
of the market.”

Cassandra paused before she said, “Hold
on a sec. You mean to tell me you met a guy and didn’t inform me?” She gasped
dramatically. “My feelings are genuinely hurt.”

“Come on, Casey. You and Larissa both
were drunk off y’all behinds and were too damn busy dancing to notice. And
y’all were all up in the man face, especially you. Asking him if he had a twin
and comparing him to the actor Ryan Reynolds, which isn’t a bad comparison at
all, now that I think about it.”

Cassandra laughed and said, “Oh, wait a
minute. I kind of remember you talking to some dude but that’s all. When I get
hammered it’s hard to remember stuff the next day.”

“I see. Anyways, let’s finish up so I
can get home and take a shower and go shopping.”

“Hold up I’m not done with you yet,”
said Cassandra stepping in front of Sabrina. “So what is he like?”

“Can we finish?”

“If you promise to take me shopping with
you and tell me all about your new guy, then yeah.”

“Fine, fine.”

“Yes!” squealed Cassandra as she jumped
up and down in excitement. “This is going to be fun.”

Once they finished their cool down
exercises they went their separate ways to their houses to shower and change.
Once out of the shower Sabrina threw on a shirt and a crisp pair of jeans and
headed out of the house.

She and Cassandra met up some twenty
minutes later at the nearby mall and window shopped for a few minutes before
taking a moment to grab a bite to eat. Sabrina figure that would distract
Cassandra from asking her questions but of course, it didn’t happen like she
wanted it to.

“So, tell me about this guy you met last
night. Was he the guy I asked if he had a twin?”

“I thought you said you didn’t remember
anything from last night?”

“I didn’t until it just came back to me,
well some of it. I just know I had a hell of a good time. Some fool was blowing
up my cell phone all day today. Hold on.” She pulled out her cell phone and
went to talk away from the table.

Even though Cassandra was a good, loyal
friend, Sabrina hesitated to tell her about her encounter with Brett just for
the simple fact that she wasn’t sure how she would react to her dating Brett.
Sabrina was never the type of person to judge a book by its cover because that
was the way her mother and stepfather Sean raised her to live, and for the most
part, it helped. But not everybody in today’s world was ready to see a black
girl dating outside of the norm. She didn’t that much life experience to know
what the backlash would be like. Plenty of her friends always deterred away
from upsetting their families, especially the ones that came from conservative
families. In her high school days there was plenty of interracial dating and
had her mother not forbade her to date, there’s no telling how things would
have changed for her.

At this point in Sabrina’s life, she
didn’t give a damn about what anybody else’s opinion on who she dated, rather
it be a black guy with a criminal background or a white guy with a degree from
Harvard; when it came down to it, Sabrina felt none of that mattered except
what a person had in their heart, not where they came from or what color their
skin was.

She thought back her sophomore year in
college and a sorority sister happened to be dating a black guy studying to be
a doctor. All would have been fine with everybody if she weren’t a blond girl
from a small neighborhood who liked dating out of her race. Everybody called
her a gold digger just because of the way she looked and it got so bad to the
point where she and the guy she was dating decided to switch schools to get
away from the scrutiny and everybody’s criticism.

Truth be told, Sabrina considered
herself a strong women, but she didn’t think she was strong enough to endure
the emotional roller coaster that her mother would send her on if she learned
Sabrina was even interested in dating outside of her race. She would never hear
the end of it.

She brought herself from her thoughts
where Cassandra was saying something. She hadn’t even noticed her friend had come
back.

 “Earth to Sabrina!” she said, waving
her hands in front of Sabrina’s face. “Snap out of it.”

“My bad,” Sabrina said coolly. “I was
thinking about some stuff.”

“Stuff like what?”

“Nothing really.”

“Sure. So are you going to tell me about
this new guy like you promised me?”

“Yeah, yeah. He’s nice. I first met him
at the grocery store when I was buying some stuff and the funniest thing
happened which was rare. I forgot my purse in the car and he loaned me some
money to pay for my groceries and next thing you know I accidentally bumped my
cart into his car and scratched it a little bit. He gave me his business card
and I wasn’t feeling him at first and then I ran into him again last night at
the club.”

“That sounds like fate to me. And trust
me, I know all about fate. Girl, if you needed me to hook you up with somebody
all you had to was say the word.”

“No, thanks, Ms. Love Doctor. But I’m
not so sure if I should consider dating him.”

“Why not? Was there any chemistry
between you and him?”

“Yeah. The chemistry was there and
everything but there’s something that might pose as a problem.”

Cassandra waited a moment. “Don’t even
start with the excuses. I see it every day; we always say we want a good man
but when he comes along and there’s a flaw, we want to make up excuses. It
can’t be that bad.”

“No, not really. You know how certain
individuals like to look at people who date outside their race with disdain and
say it’s bad?”

“I see what this is about. You thinking
about taking that fine ass white guy you met at the club last night for a spin,
aren’t you? No shame.” She giggled and leaned close. “I can’t believe I didn’t
spot him before you. Actually, I did see him getting busy on the dance floor.
Oh my God!” She clapped her hands together all excited and looked like her eyes
were about to pop from their sockets.

Sabrina couldn’t help but smile. She was
surprised to see Cassandra react so nicely about it.

“Just don’t tell Larissa yet, okay?”

“How come?”

“I don’t want to tell her just yet and I
don’t think she will be as forgiving as you are; you’re a self-proclaimed
matchmaker so you see this type of stuff all the time. Larissa on the other
hand has this mindset that we black folks should stay in our own racial group
and only date black people.”

“Rina, what have I told you before about
worrying about other people’s opinions? Just because she might think it is
wrong to date outside your race doesn’t make her right or wrong; what matters
most is your own opinion and how you feel about the person you are dating. In
the end, you are going to be the one kissing and holding his hands—not Larissa
or anybody else for that matter; who gives a fuck about what they think? I
don’t.”

Sabrina felt like a total idiot for
doubting Cassandra in the beginning. But she loved her and the moral support
she was able to offer at the best of times.

There were many things Sabrina admired
about Cassandra, but her wisdom for a person of her young age stood out the
most. Also was the fact that Cassandra was always there first when things were
going bad and she didn’t have anybody to turn to.

Sabrina said, “That’s so true. But she
wouldn’t understand. I mean, it’s not like she’s my mother. Speaking of which,
I haven’t even told her yet. But there really isn’t anything to tell at this
point. He called me at work and asked me if I was interested in going out with
him this weekend for a date but I haven’t called him back yet.”

“What are you waiting for? If it’s about
the whole skin color issue, you need to just let that shit go. If you’re
nervous about going on a date since it’s been a while, just take the jitters
off. I’m sure once you get to know him, I’m sure he’ll win your heart over.”
She reached into her purse and said, “You should take a look at this and it
should help you out a lot.”

Cassandra handed Sabrina a pamphlet that
read: “Cassandra’s Do’s and Don’ts on Your First Date.”

“This should be fun,” said Sabrina
sarcastically. She opened the pamphlet and scanned the paragraphs. “What is the
success rate with this thing you created?”

“Four out of five clients found the
information very useful.”

“Good to know. But if it’s so useful,
how come you don’t use it for yourself?”

Cassandra waited a beat and said, “I do
use it. But not religiously, you know?”

“Well how come you keep chasing after
these no-good men and keep ending up getting hurt?”

“I wish I knew my damn self.”

“Don’t worry, Casey. You will find
somebody. Trust me, if I can start dating after what I’ve been through, you
will find a man too.”

Cassandra smiled. “I know. But I’m
surprised you’re handling things so well after two years of romance with the
guy you thought you were destined to be with. But I told you Carl was no good
when y’all first got together. But you wanted to listen to that deranged mother
of yours and look where it got you. And just to think, that idiot is getting
married in a couple of months to that…
bitch
. If that was me, I would
have chopped off his penis and killed the bitch he cheated with.”

Sabrina laughed her ass off. “I’m not
the love-struck teenager I was back in high school. Plus, he apologized and
whatnot and he had the nerve to invite me to his wedding.”

“Are you going?”

“I don’t know. Should I?”

“Why not go? Especially with this new
guy you are dating; I’m sure Carl is going to be boiling with envy once he sees
that you’ve moved on.”

“That’s true. I don’t even miss that
fool. Hell, the sex was terrible!”

Cassandra laughed her ass off and said,
“What? I thought you were always saying how good he was?”

Sabrina laughed. “Hell no—it was all
lies!”

“So now the truth comes out,” said
Cassandra coolly. “That’s a damn shame. Well in that case, I don’t see why that
heifer wanted him so bad. If it wasn’t the sex, she must have been desperate.
Or something else could be reason enough. Or she’s gold digging’ on his ass.”

Sabrina paused. She and Cassandra both
exchanged empty looks before she quizzed, “You don’t think he got that bitch
pregnant and decided to leave me so he can marry that bitch so he wouldn’t look
bad?”

Cassandra chuckled and said, “Actually
that’s sounds about right. What a moron!”

It hit her so hard she had to take a
moment to breathe. She refused to think about Carl and his bullshit. She was
completely over him.

“That’s fucked up but oh well. I guess
I’ll call Brett when I get home and tell him I’m interested in a date.”

“That’s good. I love that name, it
sounds like it belongs to a handsome guy. You better get the ball rolling if
you plan on having any children—you’ll be thirty-three in a few months.”

“Please don’t remind me.” She looked at
her watch and said, “Well, it’s getting close to dinner time and I’m hungry as
hell.”

“Me, too. I love this little thing we
did. We should do it more often and next time maybe we should invite Larissa.”

“Maybe,” said Sabrina, rising to her
feet. “I’ll call you and tell you how things went if the date ever happens.”

“What you mean ‘if’? Sabrina, you better
stop playing games and get your man before another bitch does!”

“I’ll be damned!” She grabbed her purse
and said, “While I’m here I might as well buy some new clothes for my date. And
you can help me pick out something—but it has to be classy!”

“Hey, you don’t have to worry, I’m a pro
when it comes to this stuff. I’ll hook you up with the VIP treatment.”

“Okay. I’ll take your word for it.”

They stood up and began the search for
the perfect outfit for Sabrina’s future date with Brett that Sabrina was sure
to be interesting to every extent.

Chapter Seven:

Family Dinner

Sabrina Evans loved Friday’s. It was probably
because she knew at the end of the day her hard-earned paycheck would be in the
bank account just waiting for her to go blow it all on bills and whatever she
had left would go to a new pair of shoes or a new hairdo, basically whichever
one she was in need of the most. So as Friday morning came and went; Sabrina
already knew what time it was and couldn’t wait to get her bills out of the way
and hit the mall.

Once she was done at the office dealing
with Camille’s bullshit all day, she headed home and jumped in the shower and
readied herself to go out and blow the remainder of her paycheck on food for
the house and decided to put the rest in the savings account that had been
collecting and building for a plethora of years she only used for emergencies
or rainy days that came by more often than she expected.