Plea

Chapter 3

Chapter

Three

Venus

The alarm on my phone chimed, letting me know it was time for me to get ready to meet Trevor for lunch.

What my sisters and mom said three days ago was still resting heavily in my mind and heart.

I had to rewire a part of my brain in preparation for this conversation.

If I wasn’t careful, Trevor could easily gaslight me into changing my mind about something just so he could be right, or at least, not wrong.

Up until recently, that was the only flaw I’d seen in him, and it was something I felt like I could deal with by just avoiding certain conversations with him.

The closer it got to our wedding, the more I realized I didn’t want that kind of relationship with my husband.

I wanted a man that made me feel safe about coming to him to talk about anything.

I wanted a man that made me feel safe coming to him with my emotions and problems, big or small.

Someone who was emotionally available enough to care about me in all situations and regards.

If Trevor didn’t show me he was that man by next month, I would have to call the wedding off.

As quickly as I could, I finalized the list of inventory I’d need to grab from the beauty store.

Now that we had a black owned beauty supply store that was large enough to be considered a warehouse, I bought everything I could from there.

The only thing I still used exclusive vendors for was my stylists’ bundles.

Tucking my notebook into my large tote bag, I headed toward the front of my salon.

The Beauty Bar was truly my pride and joy.

It was three levels. I had a makeup and nail bar, a braid bar, and a regular bar for all other hairstyles.

All of my stylists were salaried employees, and they didn’t have to pay a booth or suite fee.

If they found clients on their own that was cool, but it wasn’t a requirement.

They had set daily hours and would have whatever clients booked their services.

Whenever a stylist wasn’t booked directly, she took walk-ins.

In our first year of business, we brought in seven figures. I believe that was why the one year anniversary party was so important to me. I’d created something that wasn’t done by anyone else in Rose Valley Hills and was proud of it. I hated that I cared so much about my man being proud of it too.

Not allowing Trevor’s lack of excitement to ruin my mood, a smile remained plastered on my face as I headed to the front.

How the bar was set up, the front of the first level was the check in and waiting area.

I’d decorated the bar in green, which was my favorite color, and champagne.

All of the equipment was black, and so was the flooring and walls.

There was a line of people waiting to be checked in, and since there was only one receptionist working, I decided to take a moment to help her.

Hopefully it wouldn’t make me too late, but if it did, Trevor would be fine.

Hell, it wasn’t like he hadn’t been late before.

Setting my bag down, I quickly shrugged my pea coat off and tossed it onto the high desk.

I’d dressed casually in a form fitting shirt, leggings, and a pair of Nike sneakers.

My jewelry elevated the casual look, and so did my full face of makeup.

Craning my neck, I looked to see who the next person in line was.

My mouth watered at the sight of the fine ass man.

He was dressed in an olive green suit that looked like it was made just for him.

The light brown tie matched his loafers, and his white button down shirt and pocket square were both crisp.

For a moment, I forgot how to speak. The longer his eyes stared into mine, the slower my brain processed words.

“She can help you over here, sir,” Audry said, forcing me to nod my agreement as I smiled.

A sexy smile lifted the corners of his lips as he headed in my direction—as if he just knew how fine he was. As if his appearance and aura often made women speechless. Maybe they did.

“Hi,” I spoke. “Welcome to The Beauty Bar. How can I help you?”

“First, I have a question.” I nodded for him to continue, crossing my ankles and squeezing my thighs together from how good his raspy voice sounded. “Do you all take new clients?”

“Yes, we do.”

“Good. Then I’d like to get a gift card.”

“Sure, I can help you with that.” My smile was genuine as I reached under the desk and grabbed a gift card from the shelf. “How much would you like to put on the card?”

“Uh… Let me ask another question.”

The innocence of his smile along with his low tone made me blush. Unable to stop myself I blurted, “You have really beautiful eyes.”

They looked so honest and pure. They were dark brown but syrup brown in the center. That syrup brown was glowing under the lighting.

“Sorry,” I rushed out as his smile wavered.

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he leaned forward, filling my nostrils with his intoxicating scent.

“Everything about you is beautiful,” he replied, making my heart skip a beat. “But seeing as I’m buying this for my woman and you have a big ass rock on your finger…”

“Oh no!” I shrieked, making him laugh. “I’m not flirting.

I just… I’ve never looked into a pair of eyes as beautiful as yours before.

” He licked his lips and released a sexy chuckle before running his hand down his neck.

With lowered eyes, he stared at me until my alarm chiming pulled me out of his spell.

I silenced it then asked, “What was your question?” His head tilted, as if he had no idea what I was talking about. “For the gift card.”

“Oh yeah. She gets quick weaves every three weeks. How much do I need to put on the card for her to be covered for the entire year?”

“It would depend on the kind and length of hair and customizations, but I’d say around five thousand for the installs. Color or extra bundles would be one to two thousand more. If she wants takedowns too, another twelve hundred.”

“Let me just do ten K. That way she can tip well too.” Impressed, I nodded as he went into his pocket to retrieve his wallet. “This salon is massive,” he continued. “Do you offer any other services?”

“Yes, actually. We do braids, nails, and makeup as well.”

His eyes locked on mine briefly before he pulled out a black card. “Okay, so put enough money on the card for her to get her nails done every two weeks as well. She gets a full set with lots of designs, and that’s the only language I know to use.”

With a snicker, I accepted the card. “I can work with that. I can also keep the card unlocked. That way if you needed to adjust the amount you can.”

“Sounds good.”

After setting the card up, I handed both to him and logged out of the register since Jayla was on her way back.

“Thanks for your help,” he said as I grabbed my coat and bag.

“You’re welcome. Have a great day.”

As we both headed out, Jayla said, “Boss lady, did you need me to reschedule your two o’clock interview? If you’re leaving now, you might not be back in time to make it.”

“Oh shoot. I forgot I had an interview with a potential stylist.” Well, I hadn’t completely forgotten.

I’d remembered this morning until Trevor asked me to meet him for lunch.

“Yes, please push the interview back to three if she can make it. If she can’t, check my schedule tomorrow and put her anywhere I have an opening. ”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Thank you! And let me know if you ladies need anything before I get back.”

They both agreed as I headed out. I smiled and graciously thanked the man as he held the door open for me.

“You own this place?” he confirmed.

“I do. I’m Venus.” Extending my hand, I ignored the chill that shot up my spine when his hand connected with mine.

“Carson. Nice to meet you.”

“You as well.”

“You have an amazing establishment here. I did a little research online before coming but what I saw online does this entity no justice,” Carson complimented, still holding my hand in his.

“Thank you. It’s truly my pride and joy. We’re getting ready to celebrate our one year anniversary, and all clients are invited, so if your girl books her first appointment before the party, you two should definitely come through.”

“Congratulations on your success, Venus. I will make sure she books so we can come out and support.”

“I’d like that.”

Our eyes remained locked for a few seconds more, and so did our hands.

Had a horn not honked, I don’t know how long we would have stayed like that.

Pulling my hand away quickly, I thanked him again before quickly crossing the parking lot to get to my G-Wagon.

That was the finest man I’d ever seen in my fucking life, and I needed his girlfriend to come to her appointments alone, otherwise, the girls would have a time checking out her man.

Trevor and I stared at each other. For some reason, I assumed when he asked me to meet him for lunch, that he wanted to talk.

Obviously, that wasn’t the case. The moment I opened my mouth to tell him about how I’d been feeling for the last few days he sighed and shook his head.

At that point, my mouth snapped shut. The last thing I was going to do was talk to him about something that he clearly didn’t care about.

What was so baffling to me was why he cared so little.

“Are you mad at me about something?” I asked. “Did I do something to hurt you?”

“Of course not, bae.”

“Then why are you acting like you’re frustrated just because I told you I wanted to talk about how I’ve been feeling since the weekend?”

“Because I didn’t ask you to meet me for lunch for you to dump your feelings on me in the middle of the day. If you want to have a serious talk, we can talk about it after I’m done with work for the day.”

“Wow.” Scoffing, I lifted my napkin from my lap and set it on the table. We’d only been here long enough to order our food and get our drinks and appetizer, but at this point, I was ready to go. “So you really don’t give a fuck about how I feel?”

His voice softened when he said, “I care about how you feel. I’m just not trying to talk about shit that’s going to ruin my mood this early in the day.”

“And me expressing how you ignoring me and not showing up Friday hurt me is going to ruin your mood?”

“Why aren’t you over that yet?”

“Because I haven’t been able to talk to you about it yet, dummy!

You’re so fucking book smart but when it comes to me you act like your favorite color is five.

” Standing from my seat, I huffed and slung my coat over my shoulders.

“If it’s that much of a damn inconvenience for you to hear me out, I don’t have to talk to your ass at all. ”

“Here you go,” he grumbled, standing and trying to reach for my hand.

“Nah, here I go,” I countered, pointing toward the exit before walking away.

I could only laugh at myself for thinking he actually wanted to talk.

All he ever did was let time pass and think everything would be okay.

Ignoring him calling my name, I headed out of the restaurant as quickly as I could.

For the entire drive to the beauty supply store, Trevor blew my phone up.

I found it funny how he went from not wanting to talk about my feelings to wanting to talk about how my actions affected his.

Eventually, I temporarily cut his notifications off so I could shop in peace without having to put my phone on Do Not Disturb.

It ended up taking me about an hour and a half to get back to the salon, and by the time I did, he’d dropped off my food and a bouquet of roses.

While the gesture didn’t make me reach out to him, I was over the situation by now.

I wouldn’t allow him to keep me angry and ruin my day, but I also wasn’t going to let him think the way he’d treated me earlier was okay.