Still thicker than water (4 page)

Sasha turned and looked at him.

“
Babe, you’re a doctor. You’re always on call. You can’t just leave for a whole weekend.”

She dismissed his notion before he could get any further with it.

Mike felt as if he was getting the brush off and he didn’t like it.

“
Well, babe, I have vacation days…I can put them in and then I won’t be on call.”

Jayde rolled her eyes and continued playing peek-a-boo with Aubrey as Sasha tried to zip her bag closed.

“
Yeah…well…it’s kinda gonna be a girls’ weekend. We’ll be doing things for just the girls. Can you hold this while I zip?”

She wanted to change the subject, he was so clingy.

Mike struggled to hold the bag closed and pressed on.

“
What kind of things for the girls…and maybe if you didn’t pack… so many clothes… it would close more easily.”

Jayde had heard enough. She grabbed Aubrey’s hands and whispered to her loud enough for everyone to hear.

“
Maybe if Uncle Mikey didn’t pester mommy so much… and didn’t have his head so far up mommy’s ass, then maybe mommy wouldn’t need a girls’ weekend, right? Right Bri-Bri?” Aubrey laughed, as Sasha held in her own laughter.

“
Jayde!” She yelled as Mike just cut his eyes at her.

“
You know what Jayde, you should put all of that energy you use trying to pry into Sasha’s life, and find a man of your own…. and I am not Uncle Mike…I’m daddy. Say daddy,” he urged Aubrey.

Jayde looked at Sasha like he was crazy and Sasha stopped fumbling with her bag and stood alert with her hand on her hip. She hated when he did that.

“
Stop Mike,” Sasha ordered, upset.

“
Stop what?” He feigned like he was shocked, but he knew Sasha was mad, and why.

Sasha walked over and picked up Aubrey.

“
Stop telling her to call you
that.
You’re going to confuse her.”

Mike laughed obnoxiously.

“
Confuse her? How… she doesn’t have a father! You’re acting like she sees two different men, everyday, and she doesn’t know who her father is. He’s in jail.”

He laughed again like he had said the funniest thing in the world.

Sasha was becoming angrier by the minute.

“
That’s right, in jail. Not dead, Mike!” Sasha could feel tears welling in her eyes and didn’t know why. “And even if he were,
he
is her father, and will always be…you can’t replace him, Mike.”

Mike’s face dropped instantly and he just stood there, staring at her as his temper surged and his heart broke. He knew her last statement was not just in reference to Aubrey.

Sasha held his stern gaze, but then blinked away her tears and put Aubrey down. Mike wanted to say something but just nodded and made his way to the door without a single word spoken.

Jayde bit on her bottom lip not sure of what to say for once, but glad that Sasha had stood up for herself, and for her daughter’s father. As Sasha went back to her packing, now searching for her toiletries bag, she started thinking of how Mike had just walked out without even defending himself against her hurtful comment. Another thing that disgusted her about him.

“
So what’s up after this…you wanna go grab dinner?” Sasha asked Jayde, desperate to get out of that house. Even though it was a spacious, two-story home, it suddenly felt cramped. She turned around and looked at Jayde when she didn’t get an answer.

Jayde went into her purse and pulled out her phone with a blank look on her face, as if she were thinking of a response.

“
Helloooo…earth to Jayde.”

“
Oh, um… No, I can’t girl…I’ve got some business to take care of.”

Jayde could tell Sasha was skeptical of her answer so she tried to lighten the mood. She stood up and walked over to Sasha with a big grin.

“
Buttt, when you get back from seeing ‘yo baby daddy’ we can go over to Justin’s, and eat a whole bunch of Soul Food that aint no good for us and talk about your
Jersey
experience.”

Sasha chuckled at Jayde, momentarily forgetting the delayed and obvious excuse that she had come up with.

“First of all, you know you aint gonna eat a whole bunch of nothing, with your perfect body-obsessed ass…and since you want to be so secretive,” Sasha paused and playfully pushed Jayde. “I want Sylvia’s, not Justin’s…on you.”

Jayde grabbed her purse and slid on her Dior shades, after walking over and giving Aubrey a kiss. Aubrey was now playing with her mommy’s lip-gloss in her toiletries bag, lost in her own little world.

“
You got it babe,” Jayde told her, blowing Sasha a kiss and making her way to the door.

Sasha stood for a moment wondering what was up with that about Jayde. It seemed that since they had reconnected, there was something that she kept hidden from Sasha.

Maybe she got a little jump off that she don’t want nobody to know about…yeah, that’s probably it
, Sasha figured, as she looked down at her things.

She pushed the thought out of her head and looked at her daughter, smiling and knowing that packing her up wouldn’t be half as much work. Then she took a deep breath and braced herself for her trip back to Newark, NJ.
Here I come.

Chapter 4 - Allure

“
Oh my god, pollution!” Sasha screamed dramatically. “And look, dirty snow! Northfaces!”

Tatum cracked up laughing at her crazy friend who was running around the front of Newark Airport, in the cold night air, acting like a kid in a candy store.

“
Damn, I missed Jersey!”

“
Bitch, it has not even been that long,” Tatum reminded her, putting Aubrey into the car seat and walking around to the driver’s side of her Honda Civic EX sedan.

Sasha got into the passenger seat and looked around the car.

“
What happened to the truck?” She asked, admiring the new car. It was nice, but Tatum had loved her truck.

“
Ah, I don’t know. I wanted a change…plus the gas on that thing.”

Sasha cut her off.

“
Say no more.” And they both laughed.

“
It’s nice though, this a ‘08?”

“
Nah, ’07…hey Aubrey!” Tatum cooed, turning around in her seat and looking at her goddaughter.

“
Hi Auntie,” she answered, smiling wide. She was only three months from being two years old, but spoke so clearly. Sasha spent a lot of time with her and Tatum believed that was why she was so developed.

Aubrey sat, looking cute with her two curly pom-pom ponytails and big brown eyes. Chanel and Tangee were knocked out in the backseat next to her. “You hungry?”

Sasha buckled her seatbelt and answered hastily.

“
Heck yeah!”

“
I was talking to your daughter,” Tatum laughed at Sasha’s spoiled ass. “But what you want, mama?”

“
Mmmm, I want a, no two, dirty dogs. Yummmm,” Sasha proclaimed, rubbing her stomach as Tatum scrunched up her face. Tatum had seen enough of the street vendor hot dogs for a lifetime, but Sasha had been feigning for them.

“
Oh come on, don’t judge me,” Sasha pouted. “I haven’t had them in so long.”

Tatum smiled at her, so glad that she was here, even if it was just for the weekend. This was her best friend, and she hated to admit it, but she had been lonely.

“
Okay, okay, no judgment,” Tatum said, turning up the radio and exiting the airport, heading for Broad Street. It was just like old times.

Jayde’s stiletto heels clicked across the marble floor, as she strategically lit candles around her luxurious condo located in the Buckhead section of Atlanta. Her home was located inside of the elegant Sovereign Tower, which curved high along the Georgia skyline, and sat its residents on top of the city as if royalty.

Jayde owned two of them, and had recently revamped them, knocking down the walls and turning her two, into one, mega condo.

She wore a long, black, sheer slip-nightie, which hugged her artificial, yet perfect, ass and breasts. Her hair was pulled back into a long ponytail, displaying her striking green eyes. She moved around her dimly lit living space as the sounds of Trey Songz newest CD blared from her theater speaker system. As she lit the last candle, there was a knock on the door.

“
Come in,” she demanded. She glided over to her bar and poured a glass of Nuvo, keeping her back turned to the door, and her guest. “You want a drink?”

“
Not that pink shit,” he barked, trying to sound hard. However Jayde’s hypnotizing, bare ass that showed through her see-thru gown, made it hard for him to maintain his composure. He looked around at the spacious place and wondered how much it ran her. And he wondered why it was so damn dark; the only light seemed to be coming from the candles.

She could see him still standing through the glass of the bar, but she remained with her back turned to him.

“
Well the pink shit is what we have, so that will have to do. Have a seat.”

She poured another cup and strutted over to him as he nervously took a seat on her snow-white suede sofa. Jayde was like a predator of the jungle, and he was her prey, for the night.

“
You got that for me?” She asked, handing him the drink and taking a seat on the couch next to him. Her presence was so strong and demanding, yet her body and face were so soft.

“
Uh, yeah,” he mumbled, trying not to focus on her perfect nipples on display through her gown. He reached into his inside jacket pocket, and took out a folded manila envelope. As he went to hand it to her, his elbow knocked the drink over on to the table.

“
Aw, shit!” He muttered, embarrassed. Jayde giggled.

“
Relax… it’s all there?”

She was referring to the money he had handed off.

He nodded as he got up to retrieve something to clean the mess.

“
You got some paper towels, or someth-” But Jayde cut him off by standing up and placing a hand on his chest, forcing him back down to the couch.

“Sssshhh, don’t worry about that, sweetie.”

She stood in front of him as he sat back down, looking up at her. Her pussy was directly in front of his face and he could see even in the dark, through the sheer gown, that it was completely bald and waxed.

She thumbed through the envelope and assessed the bills inside.
Ten G’s, ten stacks of ten, all there.

“
Good boy.”

He sat there wondering what else she could want. The money was on point, everything was all good. Instantly the thoughts of his girlfriend and newborn baby entered his mind. He started to get up again, adjusting his jacket.

“
Well, thank you. I definitely don’t play around with money; you don’t have to worry about that.”

Jayde looked at him as he spoke and subtly licked her lips. His deep voice was sexy and his smooth brown complexion and shy, yet thugged-out, demeanor, had her wanting to take advantage of him. He could see the fire in her eyes.

“
So if that’s it, I think I better head out-”

Jayde pressed her lips against his forcefully and shoved her tongue down his throat, pushing her body up against his. He moaned and slowly wrapped his arms around her but then immediately pulled back and lightly pushed her away.

“
I can’t,” he whispered, out of breath. “I got a girl, I got a baby.”

Jayde didn’t crack a smile or show a bit of emotion.

“Congratulations,” she spoke evenly. “Do you like your job?”

“
Huh?”

She stepped closer to him.

“
I said…do you like your job? You like being able to support that
girl
and that
baby
?”

He stared into her venomous eyes and had an idea where this was going. Word around town was that she was crazy, but he had no clue. He nodded.

“
Yeah…yeah, of course.”

Jayde stroked his smooth cheek with her hand; he didn’t seem a day over twenty.

“
Good…I treat you good, right?”

He definitely knew what time it was.

“
Absolutely.”

She nodded coolly and placed her hands on his shoulders, pushing him slowly down onto the couch. She slid the spaghetti straps off of her arms and slowly wiggled out of her gown. Her goddess-like nakedness had his full attention.