Chapter Twenty-Nine
Renny
Meeting his kids was the part of the potential second chance romance with Brent I hadn’t given much thought to, and I hadn’t expected it to happen within days of relocating to California.
“Bracee, my friend Renny. Renny, my daughter Bracee.”
By then, Brent and I had disentangled ourselves and gotten out of bed.
Luckily, his morning erection had gone down in his short shorts.
As for me, I looked presentable in my black tank top and sweat shorts.
The chill in the air at our unexpected morning meeting was noticeable, and I felt a slight sense of guilt, with Bracee looking down her pronounced nose at me as Brent started explaining who I was and why he and I were waking up with each other in what she kept calling her room.
So that my smart mouth wouldn’t blurt out something snarky and to avoid feeling even more awkward, I grabbed my laptop bag, excused myself from the guest room, and went downstairs to the kitchen so they could talk alone.
There was no need for me to go at it with a young woman in her early twenties, clearly surprised and coming face-to-face with her father’s new life.
With a glass of water and my tablet in front of me at the kitchen table, I started working on a marketing proposal for Taylor and his cabinet to consider.
As a romance novelist, my mind was always on love in its many forms, so I crafted a campaign rooted in five pillars using the word “love”: The Five Loves of C.U. Bay Area.
The Love of Humanity, which would emphasize embracing diversity, differences, immigrants, identities, and togetherness.
The Love of Learning, which would highlight the academic programs and the joy that comes from learning, valuing science and facts, and contributing to a democratic society.
The Love of Career, which would connect academic programs to tangible and possible internships and career trajectories for undergraduate students’ pre-graduation and post-graduation lives.
The Love of Family, which would focus on students’ future earning potential and how earning a college degree contributed to their and their family members’ social mobility.
The Love of Love, which would highlight the new romance novel genre track I was creating for C.U. Bay Area’s campuses, and would also highlight how attending college creates lifelong friendships, relationships, and possibly more.
In my email and proposal, I pitched changing the name of the C.U.
Bay Area English department. Based on research I’d seen my colleagues at HBCU campuses do, I saw Howard University worked to rebrand its former English department as the Department of Literature, Media, and Writing.
This, I posited, would shift the department from colonial, Western, and frankly, tired, curricula to one that would reflect students’ lives and practices and the current and future campus culture, population, and identities in the surrounding communities.
I hit send on the email to President James, excited that my new job and proposed marketing campaign and name change to the English department would contribute to the enrollment management efforts of the university.
Hearing raised voices continuing upstairs between Brent and Bracee, my mind went to the semester that I tutored Brent for his Black Literature class, and the first time Brent and I had a conflict impacting our status being together.