Chapter 10
TEN
Brandy Noel
“WHY DO YOU LOOK SO sad, girl? These past couple days have been nothing but fun and luxurious, cheer up,” Marsha said as she joined me by the pool. She extended a mixed drink toward me and I welcomed it quickly.
It wasn’t that I was sad, only lacking excitement, lacking the feeling of Armond’s presence.
He’d left before I woke up and I was missing his warmth.
Though I talked to him through text and a couple phone calls, it was nothing like him being in my face.
I guess I did have a cloud hovering over me all around the place apart from our yoga sessions.
“Nothing, girl,” I replied after taking a long sip of my drink.
“Mmhmm, okay. You were sulky as hell in our last session. Thank goodness it was hot yoga in a dark space,” Marsha said. I guess I was wrong about that. I couldn’t find any reason to have comfort knowing Jeffrey had been watching me while I was here and now my one protector was gone.
“Why are you coming for me?”
“Because you haven’t been the same since everything went down. What’s up with you?”
“I miss him,” I murmured.
The laughter that filled the air was the exact reason I hadn’t said anything to begin with. She’d judge and piss me off. I already had to go back to my world with her attached, I didn’t need her frying me crispy the entire plane ride home.
“Shut up,” I finally said.
“Oh, I’m going to laugh because this is the same hoe who claimed she would never entertain a man again. To the point where I thought you were gonna bump coochies with Stella. Girl, bye,” Marsha stated.
I couldn’t help but laugh at her. There was no way I could get through this conversation sober. I was glad she brought me a drink. Once I contained my giggles, I took a huge gulp. She was making me equally self-conscious and annoyed, but the hilarity was winning me over.
“I know but he really came through for me the other night. Since he left it just feels like Jeffrey’s gon’ pop up just cuz he can,” I explained.
“I get that, girl. I hate that he’s been on his best bullshit when you just wanna chill and live life,” Marsha replied.
“I just want to move freely, ya know?”
“I feel you. So where’s he at?”
“Business. I mean, I totally get it. I wasn’t supposed to get caught up in anyone out here, and look at me, I’m pissed that I can’t see him again.
Then again, look at who we’re talking about?
The man who owns this resort I’m pouting at and is most likely one of the most dangerous men on this island. I should be staying far away, but…”
“But nothing, go with that, cuz he’s cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. I mean, y’all cute or whatever but Jeff got me thinking crazy now.”
She looked at me with big eyes then screwed her face up, followed by taking the last big gulp of her drink.
She hopped up before I could respond then stuck her hand out.
I looked at my cup and noticed there were only a couple of swigs left so I gulped them down then handed her the cup.
She trotted off without another word and left me to my thoughts.
I couldn’t just go with the notion to rid myself of him.
Armond was a really great man. What did I look like not at least going on a couple more dates with him to see how it played out.
Marsha hadn’t witnessed his behavior behind Jeffrey’s phone call.
How he stayed with me until he had no choice but to leave.
I’d give that man a chance, especially when he was ready to come to me.
When Marsha walked back over with a fishbowl, I knew she was on the same type of time as I was and I loved her for it though we didn’t need to be drinking so much when we were heading back home the next day.
“We need to take it easy,” I said as she handed it to me.
“Yeah, yeah. We’ll get to where we’re going in time.” She waved me off.
I woke up the next morning with my head pounding and heart racing. The dream I had left me on edge and second guessing myself. I was drenched in sweat and between my legs was completely soaked. All the thoughts that got washed away with alcohol revisited me in my dreams.
I reached for my cell phone as I caught my breath and damn near screeched when I noticed the time.
Shit. Shit. Shit. I had about ten minutes to get ready to leave for the airport.
I didn’t know how I overslept and didn’t hear my alarm.
That only made me think of Marsha and Stella and I jolted up to see if they were up and ready.
When I entered each of their rooms, they were knocked out as well and I had to push them hard to wake up.
At this rate we would miss our flights. Having to go through TSA was an annoying process and my stupid ass drank myself into a stupor.
I was being reckless, and if I missed this flight, I would never forgive myself.
We scurried around and quickly showered and got dressed and headed to the airport within thirty minutes.
That stressed me out and now I was beginning to panic while we were stuck in traffic.
Some kind of accident happened and left us all trying to pass along the shoulder just to get around it.
It had taken us an extra hour to arrive and when we hit the line for TSA, I swore everything was against us.
The line was long as hell. I looked around the airport and sighed as I accepted our defeat.
Our flight was leaving in an hour and I just knew this line would take forever and getting to our terminal would take even longer.
“Ay, sis, move up. The line is finally going,” Stella said as she lightly nudged me. I opened my eyes and noticed the huge gap between me and the person in front of me.
“My bad,” I grumbled, then closed the gap.
Thankfully it moved at a steadier pace. Marsha and Stella were talking each other’s heads off and I was in my own little world.
A couple of the other girls who attended the retreat were a little ahead of us and they waved.
I wished we were able to join them but I didn’t feel like arguing and fighting with anyone in this airport and surely missing our flight.
Once we arrived at the gate, we were greeted by a tiny woman holding up a sign with my name on it. Stella looked at me crazily and I shrugged as I walked up to her.
“Ummm hi, I’m Brandy Davenport. What’s going on?”
“Ah, Ms. Davenport, you’ve finally arrived. I was told to escort you and…” She pulled out her cellphone and continued, “Stella Daniels and Marsha Tillman to the private airstrip. If you’ll follow me, we can make it before it’s due to take off.”
We all looked at each other, then looked at the woman boarding the final passengers. I began to make my way to her when my cellphone rang.
“Hello,” I answered without looking at who was calling.
“Lil mama, you’re cutting it close, aren’t you?” Armond said.
“Close to what?”
“Woman, follow Seraphina to my jet and come on,” he replied.
“Ah, so you’re behind this. I thought we were getting pranked.” I waved the girls on and they looked at each other before we followed Seraphina through the airport to our destination.
“What about our luggage?”
“Since we weren’t able to stop you guys before you checked it in, we’ll be making sure we get you guys to the baggage claim at DFW. You’ll be landing a little before they are due to arrive. Mr. Davis has it all set up.”
“I’m sure he does,” Marsha chimed in.
“If you aren’t comfortable with the arrangements, I have no problem escorting you back to your terminal, though if I’m not mistaken, they’ve already completed the boarding process,” Seraphina replied.
I liked her. Professionally shutting Marsha up was peak after all the bickering she’d been doing all morning due to her hangover. If Armond took the time to go through all of this then best believe we were about to show up with the biggest smiles on our faces.
Stella snickered as she threw her arm over Marsha’s shoulder. “Look, bestie, at least we can be comfortable and you can sleep the entire way without either of our elbows in your side.”
“She does make a good point, Mar,” I said.
“Whatever, y’all. My head just hurts. I was ready to plop,” Marsha replied.
“We’re almost there,” Seraphina explained. “Just down this escalator and a couple hallways before we reach outside to the private hangars.”
“Oh, thank baby Jesus,” Marsha exhaled.
We all laughed at her comment and followed Seraphina without much said. The second we walked out, I let out a gasp.
Armond stood at the foot of the steps to the jet looking quite delightful, but my eyes were planted on his shiny ass black and chrome jet. It was gorgeous.
“Damn,” Stella said as we approached him. “Brandy, you better bag that.”
Armond let out a low chuckle. I was surprised he could hear her since we were still a few yards out. I’d have to remember his super hearing. No telling what conversations he’d heard and what moves he’d made because of them.
“You could’ve just called me, Armond,” I said once I approached him.
He had a sly smirk on his face with his hands in his pockets.
He licked his lips as his eyes roamed my face.
That squint in his eyes was the cutest thing to me.
Those long lashes of his had me jealous.
I had to get my lashes done once a month just to look like I had some. His were perfect and he was… gorgeous.
Damn, can I actually bag that?
“What fun would that have been? I did take you for one to show up to these things earlier though. We’re behind schedule.”
He wrapped his arms around me then kissed my forehead. I felt like crap because we could’ve been in the air already. We shouldn’t have drank so much knowing we had important shit to do early in the morning the next day.
“Come. Hello, ladies,” he greeted Marsha and Stella.
“Hey, Armond,” they said in unison.