CHAPTER ONE
You need a man. That was all she’d been hearing for months.That’s why you’re so bitchy lately.You need yourself a man!
She gave up. Her baby brother just knew he had the answer to her problems. She broke up with Tariq nearly six months ago, but her brother was certain the root of all her worries traced back to that latest break up. And that a man replacing a man was the only answer for it. Which was ridiculous to Janita on its face. The last thing she needed was another broke down brother looking for what he could squeeze out of her too. But just to shut up her own brother, and also to satisfy her own curiosity, she agreed to go on this blind date with some guy he knew.
She looked at the time on her phone again. Her date was late. Twelve minutes late to be exact. Which wasn’t enough time for her to get up and leave, but it was enough time to let her know this was a big mistake. Why was she even bothering with this nonsense? She didn’t have time for this. She had a business to run!
But when he walked into that restaurant in jeans so baggy that they nearly dragged the floor, and with a big, thick gaudy gold chain around his thin neck, she almost wanted to get up and run. And his age. He looked younger than her baby brother! This was the man DeVontay thought was what she needed?Him?
He wore a suit coat with his baggy jeans, which was probably what Von told him to wear toimpressher. But shewasn’t impressed at all. She was pissed. But not with her date. She was pissed with her baby brother! On what day of the week did he think she would want herself a hip-hop wannabe like him? But that was how they rolled in Brackenridge, Tennessee: Backwards.
But she didn’t trip. She didn’t make a scene. Her parents taught her to never judge a book by its cover. So she smiled as he approached her booth and tried to be polite. She was still willing to give him a chance.
“You must be Nita,” he said with his hand extended and with a smile that revealed a rack of gold teeth across the front of his mouth. But because his gold was yellow-gold, it didn’t look right at all to her. More like yellow teeth. But she knew that rack was considered the style and she needed to get with the program.
She was also taught that people were always going to be who they were. She couldn’t fault this brother for being who he was. But she could faultherbrother for not knowing who she was and hooking her up with a guy who was so unlike her type that it beggared belief.
“I’m Janita, yes,” she said as she shook his extended hand. “You must be Cork?”
“The one and only.”
“Please have a seat.”
He was grinning as he sat down. She didn’t know why, but by the way he was staring at her she assumed it was because she was older than he had expected her to be, and that might have meant some kind of feather in his cap. Did he see her as sugar mama material? Or a cougar with a bank account that could get him where he wanted to be? She didn’t know. But whatever it was she knew it wasn’t going to bode well for her.
After the waiter took his drink order, and he still had that grin on his face, she couldn’t help herself. “How old are you?” she asked him.
“I’m twenty-one. Me and your little brother DeVontay right around the same age. How old are you?”
“Older than you.”
His grin really increased. “I ain’t mad at that!” But then he leaned toward her, his voice lowered. “But can I be completely honest with you?”
She had just adjusted her straw and was about to take another sip of her drink. But she sat the glass back down. “Please do.”
He grinned again. “I like my ladies thicker.”
She understood what he said, but she didn’t understand the context. “Excuse me?”
“I’m just sayin’. I mean, you pretty. You got a real pretty face. But I like my bitches with more meat on their bones. Know what I’m saying?”
“Your bitches?”
“You know! Like them chicks that be on that show they callMy Six-Hundred-Pound Lifeor whatever it’s called. Now them ladies is what I call fine!”
Janita could not believe she was hearing this. He was skinny as a rod, but he wanted some massive-sized woman that couldn’t fit through a door? “You like six-hundred-pound women? Is that what you’re saying?”
“They can be a little smaller though. Like five or five-fifty. I’m okay with that. They ain’t all got to be six hundred. But they can’t be too small. I don’t like’em too small.”
Janita didn’t know what to say to that. “Uh-hun.”
“But you?” He was looking her up and down, but shaking his head disapprovingly. “Von didn’t tell me you was teeny-weeny.”
Janita knew she was notteeny-weeny. She was a slender girl, alright, but she was not skinny by any measure. She hadrealcurves.
But he wanted him a “fine” woman in the five-hundred-to-six-hundred-pound range. And this was the guy her beloved baby brother thought would be a great match for her! She was going to kick Von’s ass when she saw him again.
But she saw all she needed to see of this blind date. “Anywho,” she said as she began grabbing up her clutch purse, her shades, and her phone. “Since I’m not in your preferred weight class,or anywhere near it,” she added with emphasis, “I’m not going to waste your time.” She began sliding across her booth seat to get up.
