Chapter 2
Natalie
I’m a control freak. Well, that’s what my friends and fiancé say, but that was a bit extreme.
So what, I closed the store almost two hours ago and was still here submitting the last bit of expense reports for the month instead of letting someone else handle it.
Okay, maybe I submerge myself in work, but it’s all for a good cause.
Should I learn how to delegate? Eh, I guess, but I didn’t trust anybody else to get the work done correctly.
The one time I allowed my fiancé to assist with bookkeeping and administrative tasks, he forgot about ordering supplies for our back stock, causing all of our online orders to be late.
After that fiasco, I have kept my hands, and only my hands, on all paperwork and orders.
With that said, should I be home underneath my fiancé with my knees touching my forehead? Yes. Fuck yes! I was thirty-two, ovulating, and wetter than the Pacific Ocean. I was ready to get put through the mattress at least twice tonight.
“Natalie, focus!” I said to myself, shaking my head.
My fiancé and I had started up L&N’s candle and body butter shop together last year after taking a few classes together.
We wanted to try something different for one of our date nights and fell in love with the crafts.
I, with body butter making, and Lawrence with candle crafting.
Granted, I wanted our shop to be a body butter and book store, but I compromised with candles.
Lawrence molded some really nice candles, so it only made sense to go that route.
At the end of the day, as long as we were doing this together, it was fine with me.
Checking my watch, I noticed it was merely past seven in the evening. Lawrence had left a few hours ago to work out and get dinner started. I was the last one in the office since our shop closed at five. I could have left, but I wanted to have everything in order so that we remained ahead.
In my opinion, that was the main reason we stood out from our competitors.
I had content marketing videos, promotional deals, and posts scheduled up to two months in advance.
Never slacking on research, I had fresh scents in different stages of their prototypes while having sponsors lined up to test them out.
We were making a great profit, but to me, that wasn’t an excuse to slack off.
After submitting the reports, I double-checked that all our customers had received their email confirmations for their shipments.
I smiled when I realized everything was in order, causing me to exhale a breath of relief.
See, staying a few hours after work would make a vast difference to tomorrow’s productivity.
Nothing wrong with going above and beyond to get your work done.
If that meant missing out on some fun activities, so be it.
I would take the title of ‘control freak’ if that meant my fiancé, and I had a successful business.
Finally satisfied with my work, I started packing up my belongings.
I tucked my phone between my ear and shoulder, calling Lawrence.
He was used to me staying a little after closing, but I had never stayed this late.
I had become obsessed with keeping our business relevant.
Thankfully, he didn’t mind it too much. I needed to learn to be mindful of the time, especially with Lawrence waiting for me to eat dinner together, since we never ate alone.
I heard the line ring once, but then it became silent.
“What?”
Looking at my phone, I cursed under my breath when I realized it had died.
I always forgot to charge it, especially when I was in the zone at work.
Huffing out a breath of annoyance, I rummaged through my purse for my backup charger.
After a few minutes, I gave up. There wasn’t really a point since I was already heading home.
I placed the random items back into my purse and threw the strap over my shoulder.
Before heading out of the office, I couldn’t help but notice the picture of Lawrence I had on my desk.
A smile crept over my face as I picked up the frame and reminisced.
We were on our third date, and Lawrence had signed us up for cooking classes.
Granted, I already knew how to cook, but it was still fun.
I ran my thumb over his face and bit down on my bottom lip.
Lawrence was 5’11 with soft mocha skin. He had a low fade haircut and a matching beard he kept neat.
His light brown eyes and deep voice always had me hot and ready.
He was on the heftier side with a broad chest and thick thighs that I liked to playfully sink my teeth into.
I don’t know what it was, but I loved a man with some good thigh meat.
I set the picture back down and headed toward the door.
Simply staring at my man’s picture had me ready to get bent over.
With the stress of planning our wedding and running our business, we hadn’t been intimate in a while.
Not by a few days or a few weeks, but it had been at least three months. Tonight, I planned on changing that.
I finished locking up the store and headed toward my car. Wanting to make the night special, I drove to the store and picked up a bottle of wine, strawberries, and whipped cream. I licked my lips in anticipation of the night I was planning to have with my baby.
After about twenty minutes, I was pulling into our designated parking space at our apartment.
We were currently saving up to buy our first home together and thought it’d be a great idea to purchase our home once we were married.
Hopping out of the car, I opened the back door and pulled out the groceries.
“You’re finally home,” Ms. Mills, our next-door neighbor, called down to me from the walkway.
I inwardly groaned before looking up and plastering a smile on my face and waving.
Ms. Mills was a retired bus driver and had to be in her early sixties, but she smoked cigarettes heavily, causing her to look more like she was over eighty.
Her once smooth ivory skin was now wrinkled and shriveled.
Her thinning blonde hair was styled into a low bun, and she wore a black nightgown.
Her cat, Micky, was at her feet, hissing at me while her chihuahua, Mikey, continued to bark from her front window.
“How are you doing today, Ms. Mills?” I asked, locking my car door. I didn’t really care, but wasn’t going to be rude.
“A lot better than what you’re about to be.”
I stopped at the top of the stairs and squinted my eyes. “What is that supposed to mean?”
She ashed her cigarette and smirked. “You need to learn how to get home before your man does and take care of your household.”
I opened my mouth to question her when I noticed music was blasting from my apartment.
Cursing under my breath, I snatched my keys out of my pocket and charged towards my door.
I hated it when Lawrence played the music too loudly.
Not because I didn’t like to vibe out, but because of bitch ass Ms. Mills.
She complained to our apartment management every chance she got.
Her mean, bitter ass didn’t like to see anybody having fun, and she didn’t hesitate to call the cops.
Unlocking the door, I set the bags down on the floor and quickly shut it behind me.
Jazmine Sullivan’s "On It " was blaring from our room, causing me to furrow my eyebrows. Lawrence and I liked some similar songs, but he knew nothing about Jazmine Sullivan. I opened my mouth to call Lawrence’s name for him to turn it down, but something had me stopping in my tracks. Another voice bellowed along to the song, but it definitely wasn’t my fiancé’s.
“I know good damn well!” I snarled.
Stomping towards the room, I noticed clothes scattered across the floor leading up to our bedroom.
Anger boiled through me as my heart slammed against my chest. I prayed things were a misunderstanding, and I was losing my mind, but the bra lazily in front of our bedroom door let me know that this was my reality.
Slowly pushing the door open, my eyes landed on an ivory-complexioned woman who was climbing on top of my fiancé. She spread her legs apart and hovered over his face.
“Yeah, spit on my shit!”
I watched in fury as my fiancé craned his head up and spat onto her pussy before sucking on her pearl.
This muthafucka hadn’t touched me in months, and yet, he had this random broad having the time of her life.
He was face deep in her coochie and moaning with delight.
Meanwhile, my cat was going through a damn famine and starved for physical touch that wasn’t my own.
I reached into my back pocket and pulled out the small pocketknife I kept on me.
Walking closer, I stood at the foot of the bed.
The woman dropped her head back with her eyes closed while Lawrence’s entire face sat comfortably between her legs.
Allowing the rage to fill me, I released the knife and sliced the bottom of Lawrence’s foot.
He must’ve bitten down because the woman yelled out in pain.
“What the fuck!” she yelled, slapping him on top of the head before standing up. Turning around, her eyes widened when they locked with mine.
“Sandra!” I gasped. I couldn’t believe what the hell I was looking at. No way was one of our employees standing butt ass naked in our house.