Chapter 3
Fatima
“Ithink my wife is starting to suspect something,” Kevin said from behind me.
Sighing, I pulled my shirt over my head then looked around for my shoes. Being here this long wasn’t my intention.
“Did you hear what I said, Fatima?” He asked, seeing I didn’t respond to him.
Locating my shoes, I walked over to get them. “So, you want to end this?” I finally turned to face him.
Kevin was an attractive older man that should have been off-limits to me, but instead of staying away from him, I welcomed his advances.
He was forty-two, eighteen years older than me, but didn’t look a day over thirty. Kevin owned one of the gyms in town, so he kept his body in shape. His milk chocolate skin first drew me to him, followed by his pearly white smile, and lastly, his muscular built body.
Kevin ran his hand over his jet black, low cut hair. A tight-lipped frown was on his face. If I knew Kevin, he had been to the barber recently because his goatee looked freshly lined up.
“You know I’m not saying that.” He got off the hotel bed and made his way to me. I got lost staring at his bare, well cut chest. Kevin didn’t have tattoos, but his body was still sculpted like a masterpiece.
Typically, we would meet up at my house, but since the hotel was a good middle ground between both of our locations at the moment, we agreed to meet here.
Kevin walked up to me and circled his arms around my waist. I stared into his chestnut colored eyes. Suddenly, he started smiling at me.
“We just might have to cut back on the number of days we meet up.”
“Okay.” I shrugged.
He raised an eyebrow. “That’s it?”
Nodding my head, I wasn’t sure what he thought I was about to say.
We usually met up four to five times a week.
If he needed to cut back on that, I was fine.
He knew I wasn’t going to give him a hard time, so I don’t know why he even looked surprised.
One thing I wasn’t about to do was stress over a guy, especially one I had no real commitment to.
“Damn, why couldn’t I meet you before my wife?” He asked, causing me to frown.
“Kevin, don’t even do it.” I broke away from him and went to collect my things. He knew that wasn’t even us. We had sex and left it there.
One thing I liked about dealing with Kevin was that we could have sex and then go on about our lives. I didn’t have to worry about feelings being attached or about getting hurt because I knew nothing outside of sex would come from us.
I met Kevin one day when I was in the park taking pictures. He was jogging and ran into me. Good thing I always wore my camera around my neck, or my camera would have been history. After apologizing, he asked me out.
My first reaction was to say no, but he wouldn’t let up. That was a little over six months ago and we’d been seeing each other since.
At first, Kevin didn’t tell me he was married.
After about a month of seeing each other, he admitted that he was married but told me he had seen me a few times in the park and was attracted to me.
When I told him that his being married didn’t bother me because I wasn’t looking for commitment, things progressed from there.
“I have to go though. I guess I’ll just see you when you can get away.” I leaned up to peck his full lips. He took it upon himself to deepen our kiss.
“I’ll see you in a few days.” Nodding my head, I stepped away from him.
“Hold on.” He walked over to his pants on the ground. Going into his pocket, he took out a small stack and came back to me.
“Kevin, you know I don’t need your money, right?”
“Yeah, but I like spoiling you. Go get some new equipment or something.” Smiling, I grabbed the money and stuck it in my back pocket.
Another thing I liked about Kevin was how generous he was.
I never asked him for money, and I wasn’t struggling to pay bills, but he was always adamant about giving me money.
When he first did it, I thought he was trying to treat me like a prostitute, but he assured me that wasn’t the case.
After we went back and forth about it, I finally took the money and didn’t say anything else about it.
Without saying anything else, I exited the hotel room.
____
I sat at my desk in front of my iMac going over the pictures I had taken this week. Usually, I disregard a lot of the photos I took, feeling like they weren’t good enough, but this time I didn’t. I actually had gotten a lot of good shots.
I knew I needed to hurry so I could get dressed to meet Isabella, but I didn’t want to leave the house without going over the photos.
My eyebrows furrowed together when my doorbell sounded. I wasn’t expecting anyone, so I wasn’t sure who it was.
Adjusting my glasses on my face, I stood up and walked out of my office.
“I’m coming,” I mumbled when the person rang the doorbell again.
I opened the door and stared at the girl on the other side. She smiled a friendly smile at me.
“Can I help you?” I asked, staring at her.
“Hey, I’m Autumn, and I just moved in next door.” She paused and pointed. “I’m having some friends over, and they’re cleaning the street or something, so you can’t park on the street right now. I was wondering if you minded if a few of them parked in your driveway?”
I stared at the brown hair girl. She looked around my age. The smile she was giving was warm and friendly, yet there was something about the girl that seemed familiar. I just couldn’t pinpoint what it was.
“Yeah, go ahead. I’m about to leave anyway.”
“Okay, thanks! They’ll probably be over for a little while, so if you want to stop by, I don’t mind.”
I smirked at her. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Seeing there was nothing else to talk about, she walked away. I shut the door.
Since she was pulled away from my work, I decided to finally get ready to meet Isabella.
____
“You know, if there was an award for being late, you would take it home,” Isabella said when I took a seat next to her on the bar stool.
I grinned at her then waved the bartender over.
“You know how I get when I’m going over my photos.” When the bartender came, I gave her my drink order and then looked at Isabella.
“You look cute. Who you trying to impress?”
Isabella giggled and waved me off. “No one. I just came from a shoot before I met you.”
“Oh yeah, how did it go?”
Isabella shrugged. “It went.”
Isabella was an aspiring model and often my muse. I had taken millions of pictures of her to build both of our portfolios.
“Why do you sound like that?”
Her chinky eyes narrowed. “I’m just tired of doing these low budget shoots. I just want something that’ll take off.”
That I could understand. It was hard being an underdog in a competitive industry.
“You can’t give up though, Bella. I know your time is coming.” She rolled her eyes, grabbed the glass in front of her and threw the drink back.
“Not soon enough.” I took my drink from the bartender and sipped on it.
Isabella and I have been friends since birth, literally. We were born a few days apart. Our mothers were best friends and raised us as such. She was more like my sister than anything, so I hated to see her feeling so discouraged because that wasn’t her at all.
Isabella was always bubbly and carefree. She was forever smiling and could make the grumpiest person smile by her personality alone. While I was a little more laid back, Isabella was in your face wanting to be noticed.
Isabella was Puerto Rican and black. Her olive skin was always blemish-free, and her sandy brown hair was currently parted down the middle and running down her back.
Unlike my slim frame, Isabella was thick and curvy.
She had the perfect body for a model. Unfortunately, a lot of other women did too, which made it hard for her to break off in the industry.
She was a beautiful girl and could give a lot of women a run for their money, too.
“What’s wrong?”
I looked around the bar, suddenly feeling like someone was watching me. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to me, so I shrugged the feeling off.
“Nothing.”
“Another round, please!” Isabella waved the bartender over.
Seeing the mood that she was in, I finished my drink so I could get ready for the next round.
____
“Why the hell did I let you talk me into drinking this much?” I whined, getting off the bar stool and stumbling some before snickering.
Since I was off tomorrow, I didn’t mind drinking as much as I did tonight. I wasn’t drunk, but I was definitely tipsy.
“Because you’re a wonderful best friend.” Isabella threw her arms around me, smiling. She was as tipsy as I was.
“Shit, bathroom break.”
“I’ll take care of the tab.” I nodded and pulled away from her.
Rushing to the bathroom, I quickly knocked on the door before entering it. Quickly pulling down my pants, I hurried and released my full bladder, instantly feeling relief.
Once I was finished, I pulled my pants up and washed my hands.
Looking in the mirror, I did a quick once over before exiting the bathroom.
I had two puff balls in the front of my hair while the back was out in its natural state.
I had been off the creamy crack for three years now, and I loved it. I would never go back.
My phone went off in my pocket and I grabbed it, seeing it was Kevin. It had been about three days since I last saw him. He was seeing if he could stop by tonight. I was shocked because he had just told me he needed to take a step back from me, but here he was texting me.
The liquor in me had taken over and had me horny, so I wasn’t going to turn him down. As I was looking down at my phone, I ran into someone. The hardness of their chest caused me to drop my phone and stumble backward.
A hand reached out and grabbed me.
“You should really pay more attention to where you’re walking.” That voice.
My heart suddenly sped up as I looked down at the hand that was now holding my wrist. A shock shot through my body as my eyes slowly traveled upwards.