“I’m doing great, boss. I see you are working hard and looking good,” Trallis flirted as she reached out and grabbed the man’s bicep and gave it a gentle squeeze. He chuckled and moved his arm out of her reach while focusing his eyes on me.
“How are you?” he asked me as he licked his lips like I was one of the half-priced tacos at La Bella’s. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I smiled.
“I’m great.” I gave him a dry answer, then turned back to thirsty ass Trallis who had drool running down the side of her lip.
“Can we finish the rest of the tour please? I think the facility is beautiful and I would love to join today,” I told her. Seeing the fine man, knowing he was married, and watching her lust after him ignited a fire in my belly. I was ready to get started and take my power back. I was ready to be the bitch I once was. If I could make Larry love me once, then I could do it again. I hadbeen with him for fourteen years, and no one knew him better than me. I just had to get rid of the weight first, and everything else would fall in place. I was sure of it.
“I’m glad that you love my facility, and I look forward to working with you as a personal trainer and also as the owner. My name is Cozart Walker. He lifted his hand in my direction like he expected me to shake it. My eyes dropped immediately to the band on his finger. It glistened like a halo.I had given fourteen years of my life to one husband; I wasn’t stupid enough to lust after somebody else’s.
I nodded my head in his direction, not bothering to shake his hand. I openly left him hanging, but I didn’t give a damn. Instead of thirst-trapping in the gym with no shirt on encouraging the birds to lust after him, he should have more respect for his wife. I understood now why Muslim men in some countries made their wives wear Burkas. If you’re for one person, why do you need to flaunt what you have in front of everybody? Cozart’s ego was big enough that I was sure me ignoring his hand didn’t matter. He was fine and a gym owner, he had shaken the hand of every bitch in here. I was one less hand he had to worry about.
“See you soon,” Cozart pulled his hand back, smirked, and walked away.
Even if he is an attention whore, he is still the owner. What if he doesn’t let you join because you didn’t shake his hand?I thought to myself.
“Maybe you should have told me he was the owner before I started eye fucking him across the room. I didn’t even shake his hand. He’s not going to allow me to join, is he?” I asked Trallis as we resumed the tour. She still had a goofy ass smile on her face like she hadn’t come back down to earth yet.
“He doesn’t make any major decisions his sister Brichelle is the head bitch in charge; he’s just the face of the brand. Luckily for you, he’s a jerk, so he doesn’t take it personally when someone is rude to him. I think the bastard even likes it. Trust me those hands stay occupied. Let’s finish your tour and get you signed up. You are going to do amazing here. I can already tell,” Trallis smirked as she threw her arm around my shoulder and smiled at me.
Chapter Two
Trallis McDaniel
People always assumed they knew me and that was their first mistake. They assumed I didn’t have problems or I was the problem. They looked at the lashes, the hair, the body, and the long red nails and decided I had never struggled a day in my life. They saw confidence and called it arrogance. I didn’t correct them. The less people knew, the safer I was.
I waited until the gym doors closed behind the last member at midnight and locked them up so the cleaners could start working. I pulled my phone from my bra because it was the only place I trusted it to be. I would never leave it in my purse or my locker. A thief knows where thieves look. If someone were to steal from either of those places, everything they took could easily be replaced. What was in my phone was more valuable than the five-thousand-dollar Louis Vuitton purse, the two-thousand-dollar wallet, the six-hundred-dollar pink iPad, the three Dior Lip glosses, and the Charlotte Tilbury pressed powder foundation.
I unlocked the screen, and my thumb moved across it quickly. There were two unread messages. One from Amazon, and one from Chase Fraud Prevention. I smiled and went through each message. Today was productive for me. The funny thing about stealing was how easy people made it. It wasno wonder that the most common type of identity theft was financial identity theft. People handed over their information to strangers every day without realizing it was scary. They left receipts in the ATMs with account numbers and bank balances. Left their cards sitting on the counter at McDonald's after they got their coffee because they were in a rush and trying to talk on the phone. They used the same passwords for everything and only changed them when the system prompted them to.
Motherfuckers gift-wrapped their identities and handed them to strangers. I just happened to be smart enough to unwrap the package. I read the Chase notification, then deleted it. I then went over to Amazon and read the shipping notification. The packages would be delivered to the Amazon hub box tomorrow. By the time Sandra Nash woke up and realized she had ordered six hundred dollars’ worth of electronics, everything would already be sold.
Life was beautiful.
“What man has you smiling at your phone like that?” Shelly startled me, causing me to slightly lose my grip on the phone. I fumbled and dropped down in a squat, managing to clasp it between my hands before it could hit the hardwood floor. Shelly stood in front of me, holding a bottle of disinfectant spray.
“Girl, don’t sneak up on me like that. You scared the hell out of me.” I tossed my hair over my shoulder, locked my phone, and placed it back in my bra.
“It wasn’t like I tiptoed over here; I was walking normally. You were just so into whatever that man was telling you that you weren't paying attention to your surroundings. Do better,” Shelly snapped. She put on her perfect little sweet girl act in front of the customers, but I could see straight through her. I knew that she was a menace.
“I’m always aware of my surroundings, mind your business,” I quipped.
“Whatever you say,” she saluted me.
I pointed at her with my long fingernail a few inches away from her face. We stared at each other, eye to eye, like the shit was about to get ugly.
A few seconds later, we both started laughing.
“That’s workplace harassment,” she shrugged. “You were asking for it,” I smirked as I walked over to my side of the desk and began to straighten up the paperwork.
“Did the new girl sign up?” Shelly asked from over my shoulder as she began to type loudly on her keyboard. The woman from earlier looked like she carried sadness in her purse the same way most women carried lip gloss. She looked like she needed a hug, to be fucked, and needed her ass kicked. She looked like life had beaten her ass, and she didn’t even bother to swing back.
“Yeah, NY’Airy. She signed up and paid for six months. She has the highest-tier plan that comes with a personal trainer. She asked me to pair her with a woman trainer, but I can’t wait until she sees that I paired her with Co. She was rude to him today, and he’s going to run her ass raggedy tomorrow morning.”
Shelly smiled, “Co will be good for her, I like her.”
“Of course you do,” I chuckled, thinking about how NY’Airy was staring at Co like she wanted to suck his dick until she realized he was married. Suddenly, she went cold and started treating him like he was a fat bald nigga that worked at Church’s Chicken. Most women saw a wedding ring and treated it like a challenge. NY’Airy looked at it like a stop sign.
“Why are you acting like that’s a bad thing?”
