Has Anyone Ever Told You

Mimi

She hears the bathroom door shut down the hall and then fastens her hand to her hip she listens to the footsteps approach. Her eyes narrow into two dark squints as he tip toes across her open bedroom doorway, "Tito, donde est� tu abrigo?"

He stops and leans sluggishly against the wall wearing an expression of teenage anti-authority annoyance. At seventeen Tito bridges the gap between son and man of the house, but she always finds a way to bring him right back down to earth in a hurry. He absorbs his mom's voice roaring out from her bedroom with conditioned obedience. His youthful eyes roll out of her line of sight as he slings his backpack over his shoulder. "I'm straight mama. The news said it'll clear up around nine anyway, so I don't need to carry all those extra clothes around with me."

"Mira, I don't care what they said!" Mimi plucks another one of the large colorful rollers from her freshly curled hair in mid stride down the hallway. "They're not your mother, I am. And if I say put on some extra clothes, then you better put on some extra dang clothes! Entiendes!?"

"Man," he protests under his breath, annoyed with her incessant pampering and over protectiveness. "I'm seventeen!"

"Este lloviendo! Are you trying to catch a cold or do you want these hands?"

"Mama, it's not gonna be raining all day, dang. I get the weather on my phone and it says that the temperature's gonna be in the high seventies today."

Mimi clenches her jaw at his six foot two inch frame and can't help but to be reminded of his father. "I don't care! Now go and get a coat to wear, and that's final." She watches him shuffle his feet but doesn't move. "Go!" she yells, tossing the roller, not really trying to hit him with it.

He stares her down wishing that he could summon some kind of powerful enough telepathic persuasion to use right now. Man you make me so sick sometimes.

"What're you still standing there for," she yells in her thick Dominican flavored English. "Go get a coat and take your butt to school, and you'd better not be late for your first period again either, Tito!" He trudges angrily to his room with his backpack clanging against his thigh and the walls all the way there. "You better knock it off unless you really want me to get all up in your business," she yells sticking her head into his bedroom behind him.

"Humph." Tito snatches a thick hoodie from the dresser drawer and shoves it into his bag. It won't close with all of his stuff inside and his irritation spreads across his face. "I know what I'm doing mom. I'm not stupid, dang..." One of her chanclas smacks him in the back of the head before he can say another word. The look in her eyes staring at him through the mirror could melt ice cubes in winter, but he doesn't see her. He gets the hoodie to fit and slams the drawer shut.

"Titus Benjamin Ford," Mimi hollers tugging on the back of his sleeve. "You slam another door or dresser in this house and so help me it'll be the last one you slam for a long time! Do you understand me?" She watches him in disbelief step out of reach and into the hallway nonchalantly. Oh hell nah, she steams. With her eyes bulging and her little fists clenched she spins on her heels after him. "I said tu comprende!"

He hurries down the hall to the front door with a huge smirk on his face. "Yeah ma. Comprendo"

She snatches out another roller and hurls it at his back surely. "That's right you big head boy recognize then," she taunts with her own budding grin. "Whoa, whoa, whoa hold up Mr. sport coat. Where do you think you're going? Aren't you forgetting something," she demands and points right to her left cheek. He comes back and gives her kiss and then takes her quick soft jab to the stomach playfully. "That's what I thought bee-otch."

He slings the backpack over his shoulder and goes to the kitchen. The fridge is fully stocked but he closes the door empty handed. "Can I get some cash, I'm short."

Mimi knows better than to fall for that one and gives him another one of her classic stares. "I don't know, how much do you have on you?"

The sigh can't escape his lips fast enough before she smacks her lips. "About five bucks. What difference does it make, I'm broke," he whines.

She finishes plucking out her rollers and prods her long tendrils affectionately. "Uh uh nigga, I ain't giving you money so you can go and feed all of your scraggly ass friends. They got mammas too, and need to start asking them for some money, or get a job, shoot. Do I look like an ATM machine ? Bank for Tito and Friends? Tu Loco Tito!"

"Why are you always trippin' like that it ain't even like that." His phone rings in one of his deep pants pockets but he fishes it out expertly. "Yo what it do fool." He grins mischievously and sits on the edge of the bar stool with his friend on the line. Mimi folds her arms and huffs but it's to no avail as he dives into his conversation as if transported to another world completely. "Yeah I'm about to bounce. You stopping for something to eat before school or what?"

Mimi walks up and stands in his face listening to his call. "Yeah well you better be ordering off the value menu then because I ain't supporting none of your greedy gut friends." Tito covers the phone annoyed and goes into the kitchen. "You heard me! Ya'll need to start packing lunches or something and start practicing some real financial responsibility."

He tries to cover the phone in his collar to talk but Mimi is getting louder as she walks off down the hall. "Yeah that's her. Don't even worry about that. Look, Jess is scooping me up, so if you wanna ride then-"

Mimi returns with a folded twenty dollar bill and holds it out to him teasingly. "You better have change for tomorrow. I don't know how you went through your paycheck already and it's barely Wednesday."

She hands him the bill and he pockets it quickly. "Thanks." She folds her arms rigidly and waits. "Thank you mama."

"You're welcome chamaco."

He does a quick dance and hollers into his phone. "Woohooo fool, I just got a dub."

Mimi walks off throwing her hands in the air. Dumb ass.

The doorbell rings and Tito springs up from the bar stool. "I gotta go. I'll hit you back in a minute." Mimi heads for the door but he hurries past her to get it. "I got it it's for me." He opens the door and over his shoulder Mimi can see a young girl walking back to a small car parked at the curb. "I'll be home late today," he grins.

She grabs the door knob before he can shut it and narrows her eyes at the girl climbing back into the car. Little hoochie could do herself some justice and come in to say hello for a change. Tito turns back from the sidewalk with a sarcastic chuckle. "Things ain't as cheap as they used to be when you were younger." He knows that irks her to no end and by the clearly visible scowl on her face it's about to draw a colorful response which would not be what he wants to hear in front of his girlfriend. Mimi steps out onto the porch as Tito hurries and climbs in to the front passenger seat. She knows that gravity has already started playing its cheap and dirty tricks on her body, which she can see for herself. But the incessant lugs that her son drops are the biggest causes of increased insecurities. She purses her lips to say something intentionally vindictive but his hand waves on the other side of the window as the car drives away leaving her standing there alone in her slip and blouse. Oh dammit!

Back inside she peers from the side into the bathroom mirror afraid of her deep rooted embarrassment of how her body looks and thinks about her life and the path that she's taken to get here. It's been five years since her divorce and she and Tito have been through so much emotional turmoil together because of it. Her ex, Brian, although he continues to provide the court mandated child support payments each month like clockwork, he has not lived down the monumental mistake that he made that broke her trust in him and ultimately destroyed their marriage. It was a mistake that not only cost them their marriage, and their friendship, but one that drove a wedge between her own family. Specifically in her relationship with her younger sister Estella. She runs a little water to rinse the stain of make-up in the sink and slowly steps into full view in the mirror. It's been a very long time since Mimi has felt her self-confidence above the floor boards and she yearns for the return of just an inkling of those good times in her life.

At thirty-six, Miriam Isabella Rodriguez-Ford still looks every bit of the young twenty something firecracker that she once was, and more. But the stresses of work and raising a teenage son on her own have robbed her of any semblance of a personal life. The subtle wisdom lines and sprouts of grey strands are merely reflections of a life that is still being lived. But deep in her most private thoughts she would definitely welcome an opportunity or two to have some real fun and do things that she would even consider regretting because she can.

However, raising a high school age son alone proves day in and day out to be the most challenging task that she has ever undertaken, yet it never fails to bless her with the most rewarding experiences that she's ever had. And the perpetual smiles that he puts on her face have been far more valuable and important to her than going out and having some me time. That is until recently when his little girlfriend began to really consume his time and it's given Mimi the unexpected time to reflect on where she is now, and where she wants to be in the future. But for now she needs to get on the road and get to work.

Once dressed and ready to impress like nobody's business, a quick bowl of one of the fruity flavored high in sugar cereals that Tito pigs out on was all that she had time for before jumping into her Mercedes CLS and smashes out to her job at one of the major television networks where she works as a senior accountant. The job has been extremely good to her, and after toughing out for the past fourteen years there as of last week she's successfully established quite the level of stability for herself in the office.

The commute along the 405 Santa Monica freeway is surprisingly light this morning and affords her the rare opportunity to smash the pedal and smile as the powerful horses under the hood roar, pressing her firmly into the sumptuous leather seat. A few other commuters keep pace with her as the rest seem to be preoccupied with various phone conversations, makeup applications and plain cup drinking. The drive is taking the usual ridiculous amount of time to reach her destination so she hits the seat warmer and relaxes as some current hip hop bangs through the high end sound system while she changes gears from mother to executive and wonders what this particular Monday has in store. Every Monday seems to be filled with the various tawdry tales of weekend romps as well as the insidious water cooler gossip about who knows what, and or whom. In about twenty-five minutes she'll be pulling into the Fox network lot to make her way into the fray that will have already spun into full swing by the time she makes it to her office.

Jessica pulls her Dodge Challenger Hellcat into the McDonald's drive-thru window to the order and Tito turns down the bumping rap music as a preppy looking assistant manager slides the window open. "How much was that again," Jessica asks fumbling with the money.

The guy scans the car with a veiled hint of resentment and avoids eye contact. "Your order is gonna be ten eighty-seven. Were you going to use the McDonald's app?"

"I don't have the app," Tito announces matter of fairly.

She looks at Tito's greedy butt incredulously. "Ten eighty-seven Tito, dang! Seriously! And I'm not even eating." The guy watches them and tries to hold back his chuckle. "Ten dollars for breakfast at McDonald's..."

He leans back in his seat and stretches out his long legs comfortably. "Don't look at me," he chuckles. "You're my sugar mamma. My money's my money and your money's our money. Don't start acting all brand new in front of people cause you know the real."

Jessica punches him in the shoulder and then digs furiously into her purse for the money. Cheap bastard... "Here you go. I'm sorry about that," she pays with an embarrassed half smile.

The guy accepts her money and points her to the next window. "Pull up to the next window, and have a good day."

"Thank you, you too." Now she's really embarrassed and punches Tito again for good measure.

Being the daughter of a somewhat upper middle class family Jessica is blessed with such material gratuities as a brand new car of her own and several other low signaling monetary goodies. As the paternal offspring of a Nigerian mother and an Ethiopian father, she possesses the unique physical attributes that many of her school mates both secretly and openly despise. But the privileges that her parents afford her with have not clouded her perception of the world, specifically of the ethnic or socio-economic imbalances that exist all around. Jessica knows exactly who and what she is, an attractive and intelligent young black woman.

Tito digs into his pancake breakfast with reckless abandon during their drive to school. Outside the light rain pelts the windshield and subconsciously he thanks his mother for making him take his hoodie because the rain is really starting to come down. With each chew he shakes his head chuckling more.

Jessica watches him with frequent admiring glances as he eats. "Did I tell you that Brandy, Zo� and Shawna were talking about going roller skating tonight?"

"Nope." His smacking lips glisten with syrup but he doesn't care. He licks his lips and chops down on the sausage patty. "You just told me right now. And you know I don't like roller skating."

"Humph. Well, we're going to go when we finish up with practice after school." She waits for his response because she knows what happens when he goes all quiet like he just did.

"But tonight's a study night," he clarifies with a mouthful of scrambled eggs and pancakes. "You know that Jess. I gotta stay focused on my studies."

She moans regretfully as she makes a cautious left turn through an intersection. "I know... But it's just for one night, that's all. It's not going to hurt anything Tito."

He covers the tray on his lap angrily and gnashes his teeth. "Once is all it takes to get sidetracked. Why don't you guys go on Friday instead?" She pouts at his suggestion and stares straight ahead. "That way you don't have to worry about getting up early in the morning."

"It's not like we do this all the time-" she pleads before he cuts her off.

"The SAT's are way more important than going skating right now Jess! Really now. You know they're coming up. And I'm not trying' to screw up my chances of getting into a top university." He loses his appetite and twists his lips into a knot. "You know how I roll!"

Jessica swallows the lump in her throat and squints to keep from crying. "Why are you trying to give me the guilt trip all of a sudden? Do you think I'm going to do something to hurt what we have together? To hurt our relationship."

"No. Hell nah..." He looks at the side of her face nervously and wonders why she would say something like that. "We're good. Right..."

"Do you trust me?"

"Yeah." He swallows hard to think of the right words to say. "I trust you."

"Good, cause that's what I need to hear from you. Not lectures like you're my dad or one of my teachers or something. I get enough of that shit all the time and I just need you to be supportive of me, and reinforce how much our relationship means to you."

Tito reaches over and touches the soft skin of her wrist on the gear shifter. "I'm not lecturing you baby. I was just telling you that we need to keep our stuff on track so that we don't fall behind, that's all I'm saying. And you know I love you, and I'm totally supportive of that ass," he grins, "those hips," he reaches out for a soft boob grope and fails, "and those boobies!"

She bites her bottom lip and glances at him slyly. "Why do you always make it so hard to be mad at you." She grips the wheel with both hands as the scream from the engine launches them down the street and spreads a sly grin on her face. "Shawna asked me yesterday if I wanted to go. I just thought I told you before."

"Okay," he snacks as he digs back into his ten dollar breakfast. "So what did you tell her?"

"I said yeah," she smiles. "I wanna go." She catches a glimpse of Tito frowning and puts the last of his food on the floor in silence. "It's just roller skating, that's all."

"I guess you're gonna do whatever you wanna do anyway then, huh. What was the whole point in telling me in the first place if you were gonna keep being selfish like that?"

"Don't be like that Tito," she pleads. "I'm not being selfish. You're the one who's not being flexible enough. You're too rigid and strict for your own good. You know you're seventeen, not thirty something."

"Rigid! And I'm not flexible enough."

"No. I always have to do everything you want to do. We never do what I want to do cause it's always about pleasing you and doing what Tito wants-"

"That's bullshit and you know it!" His sudden outburst startles her into silence for a moment. "You always get your way with everything Jess! How can you sit there and say some shit like that when you know that I will do anything and everything for you. I love you girl, and all I've ever done since we've been together is try to please you. Not once do I stop to think about anybody else along the way."

Her brow furrows as she looks away and to the road to avoid the unexpected awkwardness of the moment. "Humph... I think you need to lighten up a little because you're just taking this whole SAT thing way too freakin' serious right now."

Tito does a double take and rubs his face. "I need to take it easy you say..." He shakes his head. " I have an opportunity to get into a great university and not have to pay or have my mom struggle to pay my tuition. So yeah, I'm taking it seriously."

"Yeah. You're the freakin' Student Body President. You can stand to have some fun once in a while and not keep your nose all buried up in the books all the time like you do."

"I do have fun-"

"When?"

"All the time."

"Whatever..."

"I do and you know it. But I just want you to realize how important it is to me that you score well so that you can go to whatever college or university you want and not be locked into a short list of schools that you only qualify for."

"So what about how I score, gosh! That doesn't mean that I'm any smarter or any dumber than I already am. It's a stupid aptitude test designed to keep us down anyway, and you know I'm right."

"If you really believe that then why do you listen to me when I tell you how important it is to do well on it? Are you just blowing smoke up my butt for the hell of it?"

"No..."

"Then why."

"What's the point in it anyway? I mean really."

"The point is, you score well then you get to choose where you want to go. If you don't then you options are up in smoke. That's the point. You'll have to go to a junior college to build up enough units and then hope for a stroke of luck to get into a major college or university."

Jessica slows for another red light and turns to him attentively. "You're way smarter than me," she sulks. "I don't want to keep wasting your time trying to get me to learn stuff anyway when I'm never going to use any of it-"

"You're not dumb Jess. You're very smart. You just need to open up your eyes and take a closer look at yourself. I see the real you and it makes me proud to be with you."

That put a smile back on her face and she guns the muscle car through the intersection with ease. "Don't try to make me feel better, because you and I both know that you're way smarter than I am."

Tito strokes the soft curvature of her neck as she leans her cheek into his arm tenderly. "I wish you'd stop putting yourself down like that baby. You're too intelligent of a person not to have a higher personal opinion about yourself. Believe me when I tell you... you have a lot to offer."

"I know," she sighs. "I know I'm not stupid, but don't you think we can take a break every now and then. We're not machines you know."

He smiles apologetically and leans back into his seat. "I guess I am being a little demanding." He watches her nod and smile. "Sure we can. I just don't want you to get sidetracked baby. It means so much to me that you score well on that test."

"I know... and I will with your help."

"Okay... if you want to take a break then I guess that's cool, as long as you know that we have to keep our priorities in order."

She grins and strokes his thigh. "I do. You know I do."

"Then I'm sorry for being an ass and not being flexible." He reaches over and slips his hand down under her short cheerleader skirt and feels the warmth of her bare skin. "Do you forgive me," he grins devilishly.

She flashes a naughty grin of her own and spreads her legs. "Do you think you deserve my forgiveness?"

"Oh most definitely," he blurts out excitedly. "Meet me in the gym at nutrition and I'll show you."

They start laughing and Jessica pries his searching hand off of her crotch. "Stop it before you make us crash!"

Tito can't stop smiling and smears his fingers under his nose delectably. "So what's up, we gonna hook up at nutrition or what."

"You're so nasty."

"You like it I love it," he chuckles and tries to cup her breast unsuccessfully as she wiggles playfully out of his reach.

"You really want to," she teases. "Cause I'll do it if you really want to."

Surprise and excitement paints his face. "For real!"

"Yeah, why not? You're my boyfriend and my lover, nobody else gets this kitty." She paws at him and lets out a feline growl that gets him going. "So you want to or not."

"Do I want to? Hell yeah I want to!" He tries to reach for her crotch again desperately. "I wanna do it to you right now..."

She swats his hand away comically, again. "Stop it Tito, we'll be late for school if we mess around now. And you know how your mom be sweatin' you about your attendance."

"Shoot, don't even remind me." He flops back and squeezes his legs to kill the vibe. "Yeah let's get to class."

"If we do it then you better be there as soon as the bell rings for class. Better yet, go to the bathroom before the bell so you can get there before everybody starts walking around."

His smile returns. "Oh don't worry I'll be there before the bell rings."

"I'm serious Tito," she chuckles with budding excitement.

"I know."

"I mean it. We can't be doing' it all long like you like to," she coos to his confident nod. "Promise me then."

"Promise what." The confusion blankets his suddenly innocent looking face. "Huh."

"That we're only gonna do it quick." He laughs at her sincerity. But he promises. "You'd better. And I'm not taking all my clothes off either so you can forget that right now buddy. No way."

"What, why not," he pleads.

"Um, you can forget that madness boy. Not gonna happen. You better be lucky I'm even considering doing it in the first place."

Tito strokes her arm and gets her to loosen up to his advances. "Awe come on baby... you know I need to feel all up on you to get it right-"

Jessica speeds through another green lighted intersection as the rain starts to let up. "Pssh! I'm gonna take off my panties and that's it. If you can't appreciate that then, oh well."

He pouts, but still relishes in the extraordinary plans that he has in store for nutrition today. "I can go for that."

"You better," she smacks her lips with a pop. "Cause if you don't, you know I'm gonna tell my girls."

"I don't care," he laughs trying to pry open her legs. "You tell them everything anyway."

She swats his hands away playfully as he continues to slink one of them back down her skirt. "No," she squeals hilariously, and then reaches over to grab at his crotch once they pull up to the red light. Their laughter and playful antics catches the attention of several passengers on the MTA bus next to them looking through the window.

Mimi collapses her umbrella as she enters through the doors from the parking lot and heads down the long corridor to the elevator bay. The journey to the office is almost over she sighs because all this walking is nothing nice on your feet when you're wearing five inch heels in the cold. Some of her co-workers are arriving as well and they all seem to have that chipper sun shiny smile on their faces. She sees one of her good friends up ahead and hurries to catch up with her. "Hey girl, wait up!"

Ursula-Jean Evans spins her long burnt orange and brown Sista locks around over her shoulder to the sound of Mimi's distinctive voice and lets out an excited yelp of her own. "What's up girlfriend? I was wondering where you were."

Mimi adjusts the shoulder strap of her bulky bag with a sigh. "Tito didn't want to take a damn coat with him this morning when he left for school, so I had to make him," she snickers.

"Yeah, it's coming down out there like I don't know what. Some kind of storm or something," Ursula shrugs uninterestedly.

"Yeah... almost messed up my damn perm coming across the parking lot, too," she laughs.

"What's with the kids these days? I mean, hell... we bend over backwards for them, we give them unlimited opened purse accounts to our money, and still they wig out and act like they don't have no kind of good dang sense up in their stupid ass heads."

They pass by a few pockets of other employees from other departments on their way to their building. "Who knows," Mimi answers as she nods to the others politely. "And can you believe that the boy even tried to walk out the door wearing a pair of those silly ass looking baggy shorts, a flimsy t-shirt and some sneakers."

"That boy's gone and lost his natural mind. Didn't he know that it was raining outside?"

"Of course he did. He just doesn't care that if he gets sick again then it'll only get charged to my health insurance coverage. Ungrateful little bastard," she laughs jokingly.

"You know, he's at that age now where you might want to start using his little girlfriend to get him to do some of the things that you want him to do."

"Yeah right, that'll never work."

"Why not."

"Because that girl's more of a bird brain than a box of rocks." Mimi laughs as they turn the corner.

"Mimi you've got to look past that. The girl could be useful if you just allow her to be."

"How."

"Think of it this way. I know it's a scary thought and all, but it's reality."

"Would you hurry up and get to the point while I'm still young then."

"The girls' got something that keeps him drawn to her." Ursula gives her a smoldering look and grins. "And you know what I'm getting at, too."

"Oh, hell no."

"Hear me out first."

"See, you can say that because you don't have any kids to worry about sneaking around and slipping up and making you a grandmother." Mimi rolls her eyes and imagines that becoming a reality before shaking off that terrifying thought.

With a sassy hip jut she clears her throat. "I've got nieces and nephews, thank you very much," she states with three circular snaps. "So shut up and listen to your girl who knows a thing or two while I school you here."

"Next you're gonna pee on my head and tell me it's raining, huh." They both laugh so hard that others nearby stop to look their way. "You're so stupid girl."

"Would you shut up for one minute," Ursula giggles. "Dang."

"Alright, what?" They make it to their office and settle in at their desks. Ursula starts checking her company emails while Mimi sits on the edge of her desk. "But if you're gonna talk about sex," she shakes her head, "I don't even want to hear or even think about that."

Ursula laughs even harder at her best friends' deliberate and conscious denial of reality. "Girl would you just listen to me and shut the hell up for a minute cause I know what I'm talking about on this here, okay."

Mimi can't stop chuckling and fidgeting with the hem on her pencil skirt. "You're crazy you know that."

She gives her a comical look from behind the PC monitor. "You should remember this from your mother telling you when you were his age."

"What," Mimi grunts feigning defensiveness.

"Are you ready for this? I mean, are you really ready for this," she teases as she steps around the desk to Mimi's side.

She shoves her in the arm and rolls her eyes. "Whatever. Go' head then, and hurry up."

"Okay listen to me very carefully cause what I'm going to tell you is already in your mind because you've known it since you were his age-"

"Will you get to it already Master Yoda," Mimi snorts hilariously.

"Alright..." Ursula points subtly towards her private parts and raises her eyebrows. "The power of the kitty can produce miraculous things." Her smile widens brightly. "And you know I ain't even lyin' either."

"You are clearly out of your mind, do you know that. You know you're stupid, right."

"Yeah," she laughs with her and takes a seat on the edge of the desk beside her. "But just think back to when you were Tito's age. How many boys did you have tripping all over themselves just to get some of your attention. You don't have to think that hard cause we all did it to them Mimi. It's in our nature. And once we learn how to harness the power there is no limit to what we can achieve."

Mimi walks across the floor laughing out loud. "What are you channeling John F. Kennedy now. You're burnt out girl."

"That's real talk and you know it."

Mimi plops down in her chair and closes her eyes nostalgically. "That was different."

"Really... how different. Cause if you look at it the cycle will continue on no matter the country or the year. It's human nature girlfriend." Ursula winks. "Inevitable..."

"But Tito's my son, and he's not going to be like any of those boys-"

"Um, newsflash! Your son's dating a cheerleader. What other evidence do you need to see the blinding light at the end of the tunnel coming up fast?"

Mimi covers her ears and pretends to speak in tongue. "So what if she's a cheerleader. That doesn't mean anything-"

"So! Girlfriend if you don't stop that bull crap. That girlfriend of his is probably the finest girl in the whole school. And not to mention that she's got her own damn car, too. Shoot! If I were a boy I'd be all over that. So if I were you I'd start thinking about the advantage that is right there at your fingertips staring you in the face." Ursula nods to the phone on Mimi's desk. "You need to get over this hatred you have for his girlfriend and realize that you can use her to your benefit if you just opened your eyes to the power that this girl has. Just think, you can control it. You can control the both of them and they wouldn't even know the better."

She cringes at the thought of even entertaining this entire concept any further. "I'm not going to get involved in his personal life. Nope, not like that. I can't betray his trust and do that to him. What if it backfires and I end up forming a wedge between me and Tito. I can't in good conscience do that Ursula, I can't."

Ursula walks around her desk and pulls her up by the arm. "Come with me."

"Where. We have work to get started on-"

"Just for a quick tour, it won't take long I promise." They step out into the wide corridor outside their office and start walking right down the center. "Okay girlfriend, listen to these words carefully. The girl's givin' it up to him whether you like it or not, whether you want to face the fact that she actually is or not or if you just don't want to think about it period. The thing that you have to do now is decide whether or not you can tolerate using her to help you in getting him to do what you want him to do... within reason, of course."

A couple of colleagues pass by and Mimi spreads a smile for them as she bumps Ursula intentionally off stride with her hip. "Thanks for being so blunt," she chuckles sarcastically.

"Don't mention it."

"Shut up."

?

Afternoon...

The lunch hour has just commenced and Ursula races down the corridor passing several other intersections on her way back to the office. BAM! She nearly trips and executes an almost perfect in stride half hurdle over an errant box of copier paper that some idiot left in the middle of the corridor. She makes a mental note to come back and curse them out later. Mimi doesn't even bother being startled since Ursula is such a drama queen and does this type of stuff on a regular basis. So out of breath and holding her thighs to suck in air, Ursula tries to stand up straight but she is so out of shape that her lungs are on fire. "Hey girl," she huffs, "Are we going to go to lunch or what."

Mimi doesn't even look up from her monitor. "Yeah, let me finish up with this file here first." Her mouse makes repeated clicks and double clicks until she leans back in her chair and lets out a deep relieving sigh.

"Come on now," Ursula nags urgently, "they're going to start drawing for the cruise in the cafeteria any minute now."

"Okay..." Mimi fumbles under her desk for her shoes with no sign of

the urgency that Ursula is looking for.

"Mimi come on," Ursula stresses with a fitful stomp. "You can do the rest of that bull crap when you get back." Mimi slips into her shoes and takes her sweet time climbing out of the seat. "Will you come the hell on already I don't want to lose to any of those ass clowns down there."

"But I was almost finished-"

She grabs her by the arm and ushers her out of the, annoyed. "Why are you so dang hard headed."

"Me!"

"Yeah you. Will you just come on and let's go, gosh," she laughs.

Mimi spins back to the office. "Oh wait, I have to do something real quick."

"No," she protests, "come on..."

Mimi hurries toward the office waving apologetically. "Go on ahead then if you don't want to be late, I'll catch up with you in a minute." She sashays farther down the hall in her high heels and navigates expertly around the mass of hungry lunch goers coming her way.

Ursula turns back shaking her head and follows her back to the office as far as she can until she has to stop. Actually the oncoming crowd has determined that she rethink that idea. "You better hurry up then before they start pulling names," she yells over the swarming faces rushing her way.

Rhonda, the office assistant looks up from the mountain of files with her usual polite smile as Mimi hustles past to her desk. "Did you forget something Ms. Ford," she asks while typing furiously.

Mimi fishes her cell phone from her purse in the bottom drawer. "Got it," she says as she checks her messages. "I forgot my phone."

"I know how that is," Rhonda chuckles. "I feel naked without my phone. And as many phones as I've lost it's amazing that I can still function properly." She smirks, "It's a good thing I have insurance."

"Yeah, well I keep telling you, you've gotta stop putting your phone down in any old place sweetie. You never know what kind of people you're gonna be around out there on any given day." She gets a new text message and laughs out loud. So she types out her response... I'LL BE THERE BY THEN YOU CRAZY CHICK! YOU JUST TRY AND KEEP YOUR THONG FROM CHOKING YOU OUT LOL.

Ursula steps into the crowded elevator and reads the message with a chuckle. Whatever! Don't be cryin' and what not tryin' to say I didn't tell you.

Marlon from records raises his arms in the center of the room and waves the buzzing crowd in closer. Everyone from three different departments has come to the cafeteria to witness the drawing. For two months now they've all waited anxiously for this day to finally arrive just to test their collective luck at winning striking it rich and winning the pool. The prize. An all-expense paid fourteen day luxury Caribbean cruise that is set to hit the Redonda, Barbuda and Antigua islands. Faces are fixed with multitudes of poker expressions all around the room as thoughts of hope swarm around the thickening hatred of anyone winning. Marlon raises a large plastic bingo cage from the floor and sets it on top of the table in plain view. This gets everyone's attention and the noise level climbs a few octaves with excitement.

Ursula makes her way along the perimeter as she searches for an opening to take up her position. She finds one where she can see Marlon clearly and settles in to wait patiently. She cranes to look back at the entrance and doesn't see any sign of Mimi. She better hurry her hot ass down here and stop fartin' around with whatever she's doin'.

At the table, Marlon opens the trap door on the bingo cage and starts inserting little plastic balls inside. He clears his throat and stands once all the balls are in the cage. "Alright everybody, as soon as Lynette and I get things situated here with the raffle set up we're going to need you all to form a line over here to my left where you will then give her your name. She's then going to verify your ticket receipts, and then I'll make certain that everyone is present and accounted for. So the faster we do this the sooner we can all find out who the lucky winner is going to be." The line starts to form and moves with ease as Lynette checks off the receipts with blazing speed.

Ursula keeps scanning the room as the line continues to move ahead. She allows a few more people to pass her up in line as the frown on her face clearly indicates her impatience.

Mimi makes it to the elevator and presses the button on the panel as she continues her conversation with Tito. "Uh huh... and the area around the back door on the garage needs to be sprayed too so make sure they spray all around there too." She gets another frantic text from Ursula and chuckles. "Okay mijo, I love you and have a good day at school. I'll see you tonight when I get home. Oh, what do you want me to pick up for dinner since I didn't cook last night?" The two other ladies in the elevator smile at her and try not to be too obvious in over hearing her conversation. "Okay I'll get it."

Lynette looks up and is surprised to see an old familiar face. "Hey girlfriend, long times no see," she says and gives her a quick hug over the table.

She puts on a fake smile like everyone else swarming around the table. "Yeah I know huh... we've gotta stop going' so long between seeing each other."

"I know, I know. Say, where's your girl, I don't see her. You two are usually always together."

"She's coming." She looks over her shoulder again with a deathly stare this time that no one behind her seems to care about but Lynette.

"Is something the matter Ursula?"

She turns back to the sound of her voice and makes momentary eye contact with Marlon sitting beside her. "Huh."

"You keep looking around like something's going on back there." Lynette sees the looks of contempt on the faces of the people standing behind Ursula in line and she returns their look with a quick one of her own and that shuts them up with quickness.

Ursula twists her lips and tries to put her smile back on but it's hard. "Mimi's supposed to be here with me so she can play her number and I don't want her to lose out. That's why I've been holding her place in line and letting people pass me up."

Lynette scans down the winding line of eager and excited people and doesn't see her friend. "Are you sure she was on her way down here. Maybe something came up, you know how busy your department is."

"Yeah," she sighs, "she's probably still back in the office working." She looks back over her shoulder again and frets irritably. "I told her to bring her butt on so we could play our numbers together."

Lynette pulls out a printed record of all of the pool participants and finds both their names as she whispers. "Look, here it is. Don't worry about it, I've got her name right here next to yours. I'll put both of your numbers in together, how's that."

"You will," she gushes, "Aww that is so nice of you to do that Lynette, thank you."

"Don't mention it girl, you know I got you. You two paid like the rest of us did so don't even trip."

"Thanks a bunch and I know she'll appreciate this."

"You're welcome." Lynette finishes up and hands over the information to Marlon who promptly lets her know that the balls are in the cage. "Good luck to you both."

"Thanks you guys and good luck to you too."

?

Athena

On the fourth ring Sommer snatches the house phone off its charging cradle, winded from her sprint from the bathroom since no one else in the house made an effort to answer it. "Hello."

"Hey Sommer, this is Mimi. Is your mom home?"

"Yeah, she's out back with my dad."

"Can I talk to her please?"

"Yeah, hold on," the young teen yawns and loafs to the patio door. "Mom, telephone!"

Water splashing and giggles sound off outside in the hot tub behind a meticulous floral covered gazebo. "Who is it," Athena hollers annoyed.

Sommer steps out onto the patio deck with the phone hanging limply in her hand. "It's Mimi. Do you want me to tell her you're busy?"

Oh my god this girl is as dumb as a doorknob. Athena thinks as she sees her daughter coming across the backyard and shakes her head. "What do you want to bet that she didn't mute the phone," she asks her husband trying to relight his cigar. "Bring me the phone girl."

"Hey that's your daughter, I was just the donor," he laughs.

"Shut up fool." She adjusts her bikini top to cover her goodies and makes sure her hair is pinned up. Sommer delivers the phone reluctantly because seeing her parents making out in the open like they are sinks her stomach in a real way, so she drops it off and hurries back to the house as fast as she can. Athena dries off the side of her face and holds the phone to her ear while staring deliciously at Glen longing in the hot tub. After eighteen years together they still manage to have the same level of excitement and affection for each other that they had when they first met. And the four children could soon be getting another sibling if they stay in the hot tub any longer Athena laughs to herself at the thought. "Hey sugar how you are doing."

"I'm fine," Mimi murmurs. "I thought I'd call and see what you two were up to since I ain't got a thing to do right now," she laughs.

"Aren't you at work? What's today..."

Glen finally lights his cigar and leans back. "Wednesday babe," he offers and she gives him another smoldering stare in return.

"Yeah, but I've already done all of my work for the day so I'm sitting here bored to death. What're you two love birds up to."

She nestles into Glen's loving embrace and smiles. "Oh nothing. Glen and I are just sitting out here in the hot tub having a couple of beers-"

"And she's trying to get me to practice some of those crazy new positions she found in that dang Karma Sutra book, ahhh-" Athena elbows him playfully in mid-sentence to get him to shut up.

"Sounds like fun," she laughs.

"I can't complain," Athena smiles at her husband lovingly. "Now only if Sommer would take her butt over to one of her friend's house then it could really be on over here, you know what I'm saying." She lets out a hearty laugh with Mimi and feels Glen rubbing her arm affectionately.

"I heard that girlfriend. You've got to get it in wherever you can."

"Can you feel me," she adds and can't stop laughing. "I'm so wired up for sex it's like I'm a teenager all over again. This mess is crazy! But I'm loving every minute of it cause I don't know when it's gonna burn off. But anyway, enough about me and my boring old life. What's up with you?"

Glen blows a plume of smoke away and whispers into her ear. "Tell her I said hi."

She nods. "Um humph. Girl Glen says hi."

"Tell him I said hi."

"She said hi. And will you stop smoking that funky thing already. Five puffs and put it out, you know the limit. Stop acting like you forgot cause I know you didn't." Glen mashes his cigar out in the ash tray under protest.

"Guess what."

"What." Mimi releases a little sigh and pauses for a few moments. "Hello..."

"I'm still here... I've got a little bad news to share with you. It's really bad, it's just the timing-"

Athena sits up abruptly splashing water everywhere. "Is everything okay," she asks worriedly.

"How's Tito, is he okay-"

Mimi's laugh is calming and she assures her that all is fine at home. "Everything is fine. We're both fine Athena, there's nothing wrong with us."

"I see," she says leaning back into Glen's embrace gingerly. He's paying attention to the conversation while at the same time trying to be preoccupied with something else. "So what's up? What is it then?" Mimi lets out a long drawn out sigh. "Girl if you don't spit it out," she laughs.

"I totally forgot to call you when it happened. I swear if I didn't have a brain in my head I'd leave it lying around somewhere."

"Mimi now you know I'm not all that good with the mind reading thing so you're gonna have to give it to me straight okay. So give it to me."

"It's about this Saturday." A long silence passes between them as she waits for Athena to respond.

"Umm, Saturday," she wonders aloud. "Oh, the double date!"

"Yeah... the one that we're all supposed to be going on Saturday night."

She sits rigid and Glen listens in with his Heineken poised to his lips. "Okay... what about it," she asks suspiciously.

"I'm so sorry Athena," she whines apologetically.

"Let me guess. You met someone, and now you can't go with us. Well I guess that would be a problem if you brought a date to another date that I'm trying to set you up with. It would look kind of tacky," she says with a mischievous chuckle.

"Shut up," Mimi laughs. "I wish, but nah. I can't go because I won this pool at the office last week."

"Okay... so how is that affecting you going on the outing with us Saturday night? Do you have to be somewhere else now?"

"Actually... yeah. The prize that I won is a trip, and it leaves tomorrow night, that's why."

Athena's eyes widen with swelling elation. "Where to! Where's the trip to, Vegas, Cabo!"

"No it's to the Caribbean. It's a cruise-"

Athena nearly jumps up out of the steaming water and Glen catches her before she falls. "Get out! Girl are you freakin' kidding me! You won a free Caribbean cruise, oh my god!"

"Sure did," Mimi giggles cockily. "Don't you remember, I told you about it a couple months ago when I bought the raffle tickets."

"Vaguely..."

"Well I won it!"

She taps Glen on the back as he puts his beer on the coaster. "Mimi won a Caribbean cruise," she exclaims. "Isn't that great honey!"

He settles back into his seat chewing on the cigar. "You go girl!"

Athena stares him down cold for that outburst. "Um, really now. I know you didn't just say that."

"What," he asks confused. "She won, that's a good thing."

"Yeah well let's just keep the 'Go Girls' retired okay. Cause that ain't cool-"

Mimi is dying laughing listening to her friend chastise her husband who hasn't done anything wrong.

"Girl, give him a break," she laughs. "He's just excited for me."

"Please... he's lucky I let him think he talked me into getting out here in this hot tub with his behind after I found a pack of them booty cutters in the wash yesterday-"

Glen tries to speak up for himself, but she gives him the hand. "I told you when I bought them I thought that they were the long leg boxer briefs."

"Yeah whatever. I told you I don't like those things. That's why I threw them away."

Mimi waits for the right moment and interjects into their spat. "Hey but guess what though. Out of seventy-two other people I won it," she yells through the phone triumphantly.

Distracted from getting on Glen's case Athena splashes him in the face. "Can you believe that? My girl beat out ninety-eight other desperate corporate blood suckers-"

Mimi is laughing even harder now. "Seventy-two! It was seventy-two!"

"I know. This is my story so I'm gonna tell it the way I want to," Athena laughs.

"Congratulations Mimi," Glen yells and gets splashed again.

"Why'd you have to scream all in my face like that? That's insane; you could've just said it nice and calm like normal people do Glen-

He's just about had enough of her showing off on the phone cause as soon as she hangs up she knows who wears the pants in their house. "Tell her I said congratulations," he says, ignoring her menacing scowl.

Mimi's eyes widen and then she grins. In a soft tone she continues talking to Mimi... "Did you hear that?"

"Yeah, and tell him I said thank you," she laughs.

"She said to stop yelling all up in my ear like you ain't got no damn sense," Athena lies.

"No I didn't! You better tell him what I said," Mimi hollers back hysterically, "and don't be trying to get me caught up in ya'lls mess."

Glen knows that his wife is always putting on fronts every chance she gets, so he lets her have a little more fun at his expense while he slides up close and slinks his arm around her waist. She pretends she's uninterested, but doesn't stop his hands from fondling her. Athena looks back to the patio to see if Sommer is anywhere around, and she isn't. The coast is clear and she leans back and lets him kiss on her chest. She smiles as he creeps the fabric of her bikini top aside to pinch her hardening nipple. "Girl, you won't believe what this dang natural fool is trying to do right now," she grins as he doesn't even stop.

"What," Mimi answers inquisitively.

"He's all up on me licking' and thangs like I turn him on or something'." She sticks her tongue out at him and grips the back of his head firmly against her breast.

"Where's Sommer," Mimi hollers. "Ya'll are nasty!"

Athena cranes to look at the patio again. "I don't know," she laughs, "but she dang well better be doing something' away from the windows. She squeals as Glen suckles on her breast like a baby.

Mimi knows from humorous past experience that her friend is going to be preoccupied real soon. "Hey listen. The cruise is for fourteen days..."

"Yeah," Athena moans. "That's one of those good ones, huh," she babbles distractedly.

"I guess. I've never been on one before."

She guides Glen's other hand down under water to do something naughty. "Mmmmm... Me neither."

"Can you take off from work for that long?"

"Shit," she coughs. "I wish. You know I just used up four of my sick days already when we went to Laughlin."

"Come on Athena," she begs.

"Girl, you know the state ain't letting' us get away with thangs like that. Shoot, as much as I can't stand going to work at that dang prison now, I'd be a blip fool to screw up my pay check."

Mimi is not trying to hear any of that and insists that she reconsider. "Can't you find a way to get off? Say you fell down or something. Or that you saw something that has you all shook up-"

"Child please! Now you and I both know that there ain't nothing that I ain't seen already working up in there for the past eighteen years." Athena wiggles in position to allow Glen full access to the rest of her goodies.

"Crap," Mimi stammers in defeat.

Athena can't stop the moans from escaping as Glen intensifies his pleasuring of her. She gasps suddenly, "What about Ursula..." She arches her back firmly against his chest and closes her eyes to gather her bearings. "Did you ask her? Take her with you."

"I was going to, but she went and broke her dang leg yesterday playing basketball at the gym and now she's stuck at home and can't go anywhere."

She sits up on Glen's lap suddenly and pushes his hands away. "Oh my goodness Mimi are you kidding me! Ursula broke her leg. Is she alright."

"Yeah... I guess if you consider shattering your leg a day ago feels better than today. Heck girl I don't know! She was screaming' and hollering' like there was no tomorrow."

Glen continues to plant soft kisses on her back and drags his tongue up her spine. "Is Ursula going to be okay," he mumbles while his tongue makes slithering circles on her back.

"Yeah," Athena snaps to get him to keep doing what he's doing. "Finish what you stated back there. You know how easily you get distracted." Mimi overhears her and cracks up laughing at them. "Oh don't get it twisted, I gets mine!"

"Girl you are a trip for real! Are you serious right now?" She listens to them moaning and kissing clearly through the phone. "You two are off the hook." She listens to a long pause and wonders why she is even still on the phone. "Hey, listen. Now I'm in kind of a pickle because my two best girls can't go and I have to find somebody to take along with me by tonight."

"Why tonight."

"Are you serious? I already told you I leave tomorrow."

"Oh yeah." Athena sounds more coherent now as Glen leans back with a look of relief plastered on his face. "Ouch, that sucks."

"I know, tell me about it. Now I'm scurrying around trying to find somebody to go with me. Come on Athena... this is the Caribbean I'm talking about. Everything is paid for. The airfare, the ship, and everything in between. Shoot, all we gotta do is show up."

She readjusts her bikini top and casts a longing look over at Glen to let him know that he better be ready for more soon. "Girl you know if I could do it I would drop everything and go with you in a heartbeat. And that's no joke."

Mimi lets out a long empathetic sigh. "I know you would."

"I've got an idea," Athena muses as Mimi listens intently. "You could go by yourself."

The laughter explodes through the phone so loud that even Glen hears it. "What! Are you flipping' crazy? No way. Uh, uhh..."

"No listen to me," she laughs. "Lots of people go on trips by themselves. That doesn't mean anything."

"Yeah it does," Mimi screams with laughter, "Those are the desperate; no friend having people of the world, and that ain't me."

"You're not one of them so don't even trip on that nonsense. And listen, regular people go on vacations by themselves all the time-"

Mimi huffs in protest at that idea and lets her know it. "You're not hearing the words that are coming outta my mouth are you." Athena chuckles. "I do not want people looking at me thinking that I'm this lonely woman spending all my money to take a cruise because I ain't got no friends."

"Who gives a rats' booty what they think. Do they know you?"

"No..."

"Then do you boo."

Mimi can't help but to laugh at that one, but she is still not trying to hear it. "Um, did you get the memo," she asks inquisitively.

"No..."

"Exactly! So shut up it," she laughs.

Athena laughs with her and shakes her head. "No, you shut up it!" They laugh so hard that she starts to cry. "Look, if you don't want to go by yourself, and you can't find anyone you know to go with you then you might as well just go on home and pack your bags, and go have yourself a good time. And don't worry yourself about what other people think about you. Frack those losers. They need to stop paying' attention to other people and start paying attention to themselves."

"You're crazy, you know that, right."

"Yeah, and you love me." Athena smacks the heated water in a tiff. "Dang stupid prison politics! CCPOA!"

"Huh."

"Nothing'. Shoot, now you've got me really wanting' to go on that cruise with you." She catches Glen giving her the eye and she splashes him. "Shut up."

"But you know you can't," Mimi reminds her regretfully.

"I know," she sighs. "But you'll be fine though. Trust me."

"Do you think so," she asks sincerely. "I've never been on a cruise before, let alone by myself."

"I do. Oh wait a minute! Why don't you take Tito," Athena asks excitedly.

"He can't miss any time from school," she says reluctantly. "You know with the SAT's coming up next week and all. But I already thought about that when I found out that Ursula broke her leg."

"I'm sorry Suga. I guess you're gonna have to ultimately do this thing solo."

Mimi lets out a deep sigh of regret. "I guess you're right."

"Do me a favor though while you're there."

"What's that?"

"Takes lots and lots of pictures to bring back and share with your girl."

"I can do that," Mimi smiles warmly.

"Well there it is there." Athena peers back to the patio and doesn't see Sommer anywhere, so she grabs Glen's hand and lets him do naughty things to her again. He knows just what he is doing and it makes her gasp with pleasure. She licks her lips slowly and closes her eyes as she leans all the way back into his embrace. "Can I call you back."

"Ugh, no," she snorts hilariously.

"Whatever," Athena chuckles and lets her husband pleasure her right.

"Yeah, whatever. I'm going to a meeting over in distribution, so I'll be back in about an hour."

"Um, hmm..."

"Bye," Mimi chuckles.

"I'll call you," she tells her breathlessly before Glen slips the rest of her bikini off and peels the phone out of her hand. "Bye..." He sets the phone aside and stands as Athena tugs his trunks off. "Now stop wasting time and take care of your starving wife before Sommer comes back out here and messes everything up for us."

?

Miami

Mimi stands on the curbside with her hand shielding the pelting sun from her face while watching the thin, tattooed taxi driver load her luggage into the trunk of his colorful cab. She closes her eyes for a few moments and tries to prolong the relief that the dry breeze is bestowing upon her smooth skin. It's been years since she was down here, and to her memory everything is still exactly the way it was when she left. She opens her eyes behind the dark lenses of her favorite Italian designer and squirms discreetly as the sweltering heat is already dribbling beads of tingling perspiration down the insides of her thighs. All around, the sounds of arriving and departing commercial airline engines whine as the hustle and bustle of Miami-Dade International airport continues on without missing a beat.

Dorian Wesley climbs out of the cab and shoulders his two hefty sea bags effortlessly as he scans the many diverse faces and nationalities entering and leaving the terminal. He cracks a thin smile at a mother leading her young child by a wrist leash through an oncoming crowd of travelers. He pulls out his boarding pass and checks the departure time against his watch and verifies that he is on schedule. Punctuality is an instilled habit that his military training has conditioned him to respect, and as always his deft punctuality and preparation has put him right ahead of schedule. Just the way he likes it. He relaxes his shoulders a bit since his flight doesn't depart for another hour. So he starts toward the Continental terminal amid the ebb and flow of international travelers alike. Another smile develops along the corners of his mouth as he happens to see Mimi fidgeting with a small hand held battery operated fan. This heat's got to be killing her over there. He does a covert double take at her in that strapless summer dress and keeps walking right on by towards his destination. He glances back again and wonders where she is going with that entire luggage. That's just excessive...

The cab driver gives a third and final slam to the stuffed trunk which finally catches its latch and locks. All the while Mimi continues to stand on the curb with her arms folded while waiting for him to offer some semblance of courtesy and open her door for her. He steps from around the trunk and anticipates that the door is in fact what she is waiting on. So he hurries up onto the curb and wipes his hands on the hanging front tail of his shirt before opening the rear passenger side door for Mimi. He greets her warm expression with a polite and endearing smile of his own as she steps across the pavement to the car door. "Please, get in," he offers in what she can instantly tell is a distinctive Cuban tone to his very good accented English.

"Thank you." She swings her legs inside and scoots away from the door as he shuts it with a solid thud. Clump! She freezes instantly as something in the backseat makes her nose cringe. She lifts her sun glasses on top of her head and starts searching the entire backseat of the cab for the culprit of the foul stench to no avail. Although the scents subtle, an encircling strength registers a familiarity in the back of her mind that she can't quite put her finger on. She cocks her head curiously and fixates her attention on one spot behind the driver seat.

The driver hops in behind the wheel and twists the ignition key quickly to fire up the engine. He steals a quick peek at her through the rear view mirror without her even noticing. "Donde vas," he asks over his muscular caped shoulder while he hammers the gas with an iron reinforced foot and maneuvers the cab with one hand on the wheel while the other filtered through a scattered collection of old CD's on the passenger seat.

"I'm taking a cruise to the Caribbean."

He watches Mimi slip her sun glasses back on and almost gets caught staring at her again. "Oh, I know just where you're going then," he announces confidently. "I'll get you there in no time, okay."

"Safe and in one piece, I hope," she grunts under her breath. "Thank you..."

"You're welcome." He waits for the right moment and sneaks yet another quick look back in to the backseat through the rear view mirror as she looks out the window. "You're going on a cruise by yourself," he wonders, amused.

Mimi turns her head intentionally away. She is able to be amused by his inquiry even though her head is starting to hurt holding it in this turned position. I know he dang well didn't just ask me that. Jesus help me get to this cruise ship in one piece and not have to MMA on his behind up in this cab. "Excuse me," she belts.

"I see that you're traveling alone. And you said that you're going on a Caribbean cruise... so when people go on a Caribbean cruise, it's usually with someone else."

"I'm sorry," she apologizes quickly with an unmistakably poignant tone, "but I don't want to discuss my personal business." Mimi watches the back of his head and catches him glance up at her a couple of times through the mirror. She moves over to the other side of the seat where he cannot see, and keeps her eyes on both him and the road. They leave the airport expressway as the sounds of Calypso fused with rap drums through the speakers and assaults Mimi's more reserved taste in music. She dares not challenge him about his choice of music, so she contends to sit back and to keep her lips sealed for the duration of the short trip. The smell though which oddly enough reminds her of ammonia is enough to keep her mind spry and upbeat.

Dorian

The flight board changes and signals that his flight is going to be delayed. The news doesn't faze him at all. In fact, he takes the time to go and grab a quick bite to eat from a nearby eatery while he waits. Plus the fact that his iPhone is jammed packed with his favorite songs; he doesn't really mind the slight inconvenience that much.

In line at a burger restaurant, a young girl, maybe nine or ten years old taps him in the back softly. She succeeds in getting his attention by the pivoting of his shoulders toward to her. "Excuse me mister," she says adorably in her cute southern twang while holding up the bill for him to see. "Do you have change for a five dollar bill?" He looks around for anyone who could possibly be this child's parent since she is obviously standing here in line beside him, alone. There are so many adults milling around to choose from he ponders, but he continues to make his visual sweep of the area. "Do you have any change," the little girl repeats aggressively.

He reaches for his wallet slowly as he keeps his eyes now on two men standing several feet away that drew his attention. "I might. Let me see..." he looks the little girl over and can tell that she has been well taken care of. She shows no signs of abuse or neglect what so ever, he determines quickly. "Yes I do." He retrieves five singles and pauses. "But first let me ask you where your parents are." He keeps a keen eye on the two men who seem to be occupied with their electronic devices. "Are they nearby?"

The girl turns and points to an exceptionally pale white woman in an obtrusively loud colored sun dress standing in front of a wall of mirrors checking out her golden curled tendrils. "My mamma's over there, and her friend's over there playing his video game," she says pointing to a much younger looking man who is probably the winner of her mother's very own personally sponsored Mother I'd Like to F?!#@ contest. "Do you see her?"

Dorian grins sheepishly with relief and hands her the change. "Yes. Well here's your change. Do you know how to count it?"

The little girls' eyes widen excitedly as her pudgy fingers count off the singles slowly. "Yes."

"Okay then, what do you say."

"Thank you," she smiles, and flashes her entire front row of sparkling braces as she carefully folds her money into the bright pink fanny pack around her waist.

"You're welcome." He passes a look over at the girls' mother again and can see how she manages to attract the guys in the yard to her milk shake. But he wonders what her face looks like.

Instead of leaving, the little girl stays by his side and stares at his sea bags curiously. "What kind of bags are those. They're strange looking."

She breaks his concentration with her lingering presence. "Huh."

"Those," she points stiffly down at them. "They're ugly."

"Okay, but they're mine and it's not nice to go around telling people that things are ugly."

"Humph," she grunts dismissively. "We're going' to the Bahamas. Where are you going'."

Is this kid for real right here! He stares directly at the woman that she said is her mother and starts to wonder why she hasn't noticed that her child is gone. "I'm going on a trip," he says and pulls out his cell phone to talk. "Okay... it was nice meeting you but I have to take this call. Excuse me."

She doesn't take the hint to leave and stands there staring at him waiting for a response. "Where are you going' on your trip to." Her curiosity balances on innocent and annoying, and Dorian wonders if she's chosen him to entertain herself with out of all of the other strangers in this terminal.

He pretends to pause from his phone conversation. "Sight-seeing."

"Where's that at."

Oh my God, you can't be serious! Why me Lord... Dorian smirks at her genuine sense of naive innocence but is beginning to get annoyed with this unattended child. "I think you need to go on back over there to let your mother know that you're okay."

The girl screams to her mamma with a playful wave and the woman waves back. "See, she doesn't care." Dorian is flabbergasted. "So where's sight-seeing at?"

"Well... it isn't a place. What I meant was where I'm traveling to I'll be doing a lot of sight-seeing there."

"Oh," she nods appreciatively. "Are you going to the Bahamas, too."

"No," he chuckles at her persistence. "I'm going a little farther to another island."

The girl's blue eyes shine brilliantly like two candelabras. "They have more islands," she gushes in astonishment.

"Sure."

"Well which one are you goin' to?"

"Antigua. Have you heard of that one before?"

She tries to enunciate but it's just too hard for her and Dorian tries to keep from laughing at her attempts to pronounce it. "Anti-what."

"Antigua," he chuckles. "It's pronounced A-n-t-i-g-u-a." She pronounces it correctly and he gives her thumbs up. "Right."

"Is it like the Bahamas there? Because my mamma said the Bahamas is the most beautifulest island there is."

"Well, if your mom said that, then I guess Antigua is the second most," he chuckles some more, "beautifulest island there is."

She twirls around playfully. "What about Hawaii. She said Hawaii is number two."

He stares directly at her mother and gives a subtle nod to her child over here bothering him. "Guess that's her opinion."

"Do you like the Hawaii better than the Bahamas?"

He realizes that the pretend phone call just isn't going to work on this kid, so he shoves it back into his pocket. "I like Hawaii, but I've never been to the Bahamas, so I can't really tell you."

She keeps spinning as other people have to veer around her. "But if you had to guess, what would you say."

He looks at the kid for a second and suppresses the urge pick up his bags and walk away from her. Shoot, with my luck she'd probably follow me, too. "I'd probably have to say that it's nice there, too." A seat opens up across the room so he grabs his bags. "Gotta go," he says, and leaves politely. Whew! No sooner than he makes it to the seat the annoying little girl's voice resumes right behind him. Oh hell nah! He turns slowly and sees her standing there right behind him.

"Hey mister," she calls out in her thickening southern drawl.

"Hey, why don't you go on back over there with your mother and let me relax here. Okay, can you do that?"

She acts like she either didn't understand a word he said, or just ignored it completely. "Who are you going' to Antigua with?" That raises his eyebrows unexpectedly. "Are you married?"

You have got to be kidding me. He looks around for anyone aiming cameras at him from concealed locations. "Little girl, listen. This is not cool. So I'm going to need you to turn right around and march all the way back over there to your mother and leave me alone. Do you understand me?"

Again she disregards what he just said. "Are you taking your girlfriend?"

His level of tolerance has sunken to an irretrievable low and he resigns to flopping back in his seat defeated by this persistent little girl. "I'm sorry," he says with his hands in the air in mock defeat. "You're too much."

"So are you taking your girlfriend? You don't look like you have one of those boyfriends." Dorian lets out a laugh that is so hearty that it distracts the few people reading on their tablets sitting around him. The girl twirls around and points disgustedly at her mother's boy toy. "I'm going' with my mamma and her boyfriend," she slurs without repentance, "because if she didn't take me she knows that I'd tell my daddy that she been spending' all his money up while he be away on business."

He can't stop chuckling and has to cover his face to keep from laughing any louder and disturbing any more people. "I'm going by myself, and I'm staying by myself," he clarifies quickly. "Sorry..."

She puts her hands on her little hips and tilts her head sizing him up. "Are you one of those alternative lifestyle men my mammas always saying' are a perfectly senseless waste of bona-fide-"

He is nearly crying with laughter now and has to stop it quickly, but this little girl won't leave him alone. "Do you repeat everything that your mother says?"

"I don't know," she shrugs absently. "But are you though? Because if you are, I've never seen one before."

"I'm not. So you're going to have to go on waiting to see your first one," he smiles.

"I didn't think so," he responds confidently.

"Let me guess, your mother told you how to spot one."

"Yep, she sure did," she smiles proudly.

"You're quite a little character, aren't you? What's your name anyway?"

"Naomi. What's yours?"

Dorian looks up and sees her mother watching them curiously. "Well Naomi, I think your mother's trying to get your attention over there. So, I'm going to let you go and see what she wants."

She turns back to him in an instant. "She doesn't want nothing'."

"How do you know? I think she does."

Naomi peeks back at her again. "No she doesn't, or she would've started hollerin' for me to come over there already."

"Are you sure? Because she's staring right over here at you."

"She's just wondering' who you are. Do you want to meet her?"

The child's forwardness grips him unexpectedly, but from the story that she's given him about her mother he doesn't need to think twice about her offer. "I'd love to... but I'm going to have to pass. Sorry."

"Why," she asks inquisitively. "Isn't she pretty?"

"Of course she is." Dorian bundles up his purchase and starts to move towards the door, away from her. "But she's here with her boyfriend, and it wouldn't be right if I went over there to introduce myself like that with him here like this."

"So, she won't care. He's a scum bag anyway."

Dorian laughs again at her candid nature. "Oh wow, what do you know; I've got to use the restroom. So I'll tell you what, when I get back I'll meet her. How's that."

"Okay," she gushes. "She's gonna like you."

"Really." Your mother probably went black and has been sneaking back ever since on the under.

"Yep." Her face turns into a set of enormous smiling teeth with eyes on top. "She loves her some black people," she says matter of fact and makes Dorian nearly cry out with laughter.

He takes another glance at her mother and notices her nice rack that is obviously the splendid beneficiary of what several thousand dollars' worth of the best cosmetic surgery this side north of the border can buy. With the exception of her ghostly pale complexion, she does have a hot body underneath that form fitting dress. "She does, does she," he grins with a lapse momentary mental decency.

"Yep," she nods with an unexpected rhythmic sway that catches him off guard. "She says that blacks are way better than white men are." She twists her mouth into a perplexed knot while her eyes flutter with equal confusion. "Whatever that means."

Dorian notices something else about this child that he hadn't before. She is wearing eye liner. What the... He snaps out of the temporary drive to approach the child's mother and is now really set on getting as far away from this kid as fast as humanly possible. He doesn't even care anymore why the little runt gravitated to him. All he wants now is to be out of here with a quickness. He lets out a bored sigh and looks away suddenly. Naomi digs into her fanny pack and pulls out a couple of Cheetos

and starts smacking on them deliciously. She watches him as though she's studying his movements and continues munching on several more Cheetos while he sits there in silence.

He rubs his head in disbelief as Naomi just stands there in silence, watching his every move. This family is F'd up! He lets out a light chuckle but keeps his hand over his head to hide his face. "Okay... I'm going to use the restroom, so..." He stands and she finally gets the hint to leave him alone for the time being

She starts to back away and waves. "I'll be back when you come back, okay."

He slings one of his bags over his shoulder and hefts the other one off the ground with a nod to the little girl to make sure she scurries off. Now that she's heading away he figures he might as well go on and use the restroom anyway. Once inside the restroom it proves to be a welcome comfort as he walks under the florescent lighting all the way down the long row of sinks to the last one on the end. Out of habit, he glances back to the door and then sets his bags down before checking the time as he decides to wait in here for a while just to be safe from the little gremlin and her poaching mother.

Ursula-Jean

It's been two days since Mimi left on her cruise, and Ursula still lays here restricted to her bed hampered by the resounding pain that radiates in her leg. The boredom combined with the incessant itching inside of the cast is driving her crazy because she can't get to it. "Did you find it," she calls out impatiently to Athena while leaning over the side of the bed.

"No, not yet," she hollers back from somewhere in the house. "Where do you keep the dang thing at anyway?"

Ursula rolls onto her back and screams. "Oh Lord... where are you?"

"I'm in the bathroom!"

"You need to be in the kitchen," she yells. "Look in the drawer to the left of the fridge!" A few moments pass and the sound of a drawer slamming makes Ursula sit up curiously. "Did you find it?"

"I got it!"

Ursula flops back down against her propped pillows with relief because if Athena had not found the corkscrew then she would've broken this bottle open to get a much needed drink.

Athena returns to the bedroom. "I looked in there twice and didn't even see it," she giggles girlishly as she circles the bed and hops back onto it.

"If it was a snake it would've bitten you."

"And I would've turned his ass into a pair of pumps with a quickness. Now gimmie that bottle and stop bitchin.'"

Ursula hands the bottle over and watches her uncork it. "Did you tell Mimi about your brother."

"Nope."

"Why not."

"Because, what if they didn't click."

"Then they just won't click. You should've told her that the guy you're trying to hook her up with is your brother."

"I will," she concedes as she pours their glasses half full.

"Are you still going to try and set them up on another date when she comes back from the cruise?"

"Yep. I'm going to have to wait on him to come back though because he went off to do something, too."

"Does he know that she's a good friend of yours."

"I would suspect that he does."

"You would suspect. What does that mean in Athena speak? Either you told him about her, or you didn't."

"I told him about her."

"But."

"I just didn't give him a lot of details because I don't really know what kind of taste he has in women."

"That wrong's Athena."

"No it isn't."

"Yes, it is."

"How? I just told him that I have a good friend who he might like to meet since he's coming back to the states for the first time in ten years."

"Does he have a problem picking up women? I mean he's your brother and all, but is he lacking' in the game department or what."

"I don't know," Athena shrugs confusedly. "I don't think so."

"Do you have a picture of him?"

"Nah. You know what, that's crazy. I don't even have a picture of my brother. I've got pictures of my dang kids but not my brother who I grew up with. Wow..."

"Well, what did you tell him to get him to say yes to going on a blind date with someone you refused to give him any details about except that she is a friend of yours."

Athena props herself up on a pillow and rubs her feet. "I gave her physical features, cause you know what it takes in most cases to get a man's attention when it comes to women," she grins.

"So you basically auctioned your friend off to your brother for a good time." Ursula finishes off her glass and holds it out for a refill. "And it didn't dawn on you to think, oh wow, my girlfriend Ursula is single also and would love to have her world rocked. "Cause that's how I roll."

Athena holds her stare for several long seconds until they both break into uncontrollable laughter. "You are nasty, nasty, nasty!"

"And," she laughs.

"Whatever. Anyway I tried to hook them up cause I thought they'd hit it off. If it would've turned out that way, cool... but hold'em up, hold up!" Athena sits up abruptly and manages to keep her wine from spilling in the process. "Do I sense a little hater agent rearing its ugly head," she laughs.

"If your brother is Mr. Right, then hell yeah I'm gonna be hating'," she shouts. "Shoot, you know how hard it is for a Sista to find a good man. And I'm not even talking' about finding the RIGHT MAN! Just a good one for starters."

Athena takes another sip and crosses her legs Indian style. "G-irl, you know you can get any man you want. You don't need no help in that department, especially from me, so you can shut that down with a quickness cause I know the real," she chuckles. "And plus I don't need you blowing' my brothers' nose all wide open with your freaky behind."

She rolls her eyes and has to laugh at the on point assessment of her. "Whatever," she snorts, "tell me some more about this brother of yours. What's he like."

Athena shakes her head at her persistence. "Dorian's my younger brother. He's kind of the outgoing one, I guess."

"I met the other one, didn't I."

"Chase, yeah. He's the one with the family in Colorado Springs."

"How come you never talk about your younger brother?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. He's been in the military for the last ten years over in Europe, so I guess since I haven't seen him in so long it was just out of sight out of mind. It just slipped."

"Like what happens to the inmates when they go in for a long time. Their family just kind of moves on with their lives and they get left behind until they come home."

"In a way. But I love my brother."

"I know you do, I was just noticing that there is a similarity." Athena isn't trying to admit that her suggestion has any remote semblance to her. "So where's he been exactly."

"He was in Italy for a few years the past eighteen months he's been in Afghanistan. He didn't really talk much about what he was doing over there because of his security clearance and stuff though."

Ursula is interested now and sips slowly on her glass. "Wow, that's really interesting. Exciting actually. What did he do over there?"

"Hell if I know," she shrugs.

"I bet he's got a whole lot of crazy stories to tell from all his years in the military. All the places he's been and things he's seen..."

"I'm sure he does," Athena agrees with a proud smile. She reaches for the TV remote and scrolls through the menu for something to watch. "Dang, isn't there something on right now that we can watch instead of all of these stupid infomercials."

"There's always a movie on, but don't be tryin' to change the subject," Ursula chastises.

"Who said anything about changing' the subject! I'm not changing' the subject, I'm changing' the channel off of this boring ass mess that you've got on right now."

"Finish telling me about your brother... you've got me all interested and thangs."

"Dorian," she chuckles.

"That's a nice name. It has a nice sound to it when you say it."

"Stop it will you. That's why I didn't try to hook you up with him, cause I know what you're all about. I told you I don't need him getting' sprung and spending' all his money on your hot behind."

Ursula nudges her playfully. "So you want to cock block," she laughs.

She wears a look of innocence that Ursula is not buying one bit. "Am I." Ursula rolls her eyes and pouts. "You are desert thirsty girl, have another drink. No, in fact, have two more," Athena clowns reaching for the bottle. "Cause your butt is off the hook."

She holds her glass out for another refill. "Don't blame me for being a go getter. If I see something' I like, I go out and get it. Ain't nothing' wrong with being assertive? And that damn sure has never been a reason to throw stones."

"I'm not throwing stones. I'm sending up smoke signals," she grins.

"Gee whiz, can I at least see a picture of him since I'm obviously banned from ever coming in contact with him. Oh, wait. You don't have any pictures. Wow, how convenient."

Athena crawls off the bed and grabs her purse. "You know what, I think I do have a picture..." she pulls her i Pad out and opens her email. Ursula crowds her face into the screen as Athena scrolls through her email log. "Damn, I thought I had one of him. It's on my laptop at home."

She flops back onto her propped pillows and sighs. "How convenient."

"Do I smell a little 'tude." Athena pokes at her good leg and stares her down. "Cause you know that mess doesn't even work on me. You must've forgotten where I work, huh." Ursula bulges her eyes out at her sillily and takes another sip. "Let us not forget that incident with those tickets that you got for the Lakers game last month that you conveniently forgot to tell your girl about," she says patting her chest. Ursula's lips quiver but no sound comes out. "Exactly. I had to sit at home and watch the dang game on TV with Glen and his retarded butt friends. And what did I see blasted all over my big screen TV... yeah, you guessed it. Your hot tail and two male hoes that you picked up from who the heck knows where. Now that was downright funky, and you know it was."

Ursula remembers it and has to laugh. She is tickled pink by Athena still having hard feelings over it. "But I had a great time though. Woo-hoo!"

"You bitch," she laughs. "I bet you did-" The house phone rings on the night stand and Athena doesn't budge to get it. Ursula looks at her and then at the ringing phone, and Athena chuckles.

"You know I can't reach that. Would you answer that please, it might be important," she pleads.

Athena leans over and answers the phone. "Hello." Its Glen calling and she frowns. "Oh hey honey," she yawns. "It's Glen."

"I bet he knows about Dorian."

"Would you shut up it," she laughs. "Of course he does, he's my husband." Athena blocks the small throw pillow that Ursula sends flying her way. "Oh okay. Tell him I'll be right here."

"Tell who what," Ursula asks nosily. "Who are you talking about."

Athena hangs up the phone and waits by it patiently. "Glen said that Dorian just called me at the house, so he called to check and see if I was here so that he could give him the number to call me because he wanted to talk to me."

"So your brother's going to call you here."

"Yeah. He's going to call any minute."

Ursula reaches for the phone from her. "Give me the phone."

"No."

"Give me the phone," she pouts.

"I don't give a damn if he was calling to talk to Santa Claus. It my phone, so give it to me."

Athena hands it over but refuses to let go. "You better not say anything."

"Say anything like what... and gimmie the phone," she tugs.

"You know what. Don't be flirting' with him. Just give me the phone back." The phone rings and they sit up a little straighter. "I'm serious Ursula. I know you know that karate crap, but I'll leave your black ass here in this bed to starve in pain," she laughs.

"Shh!" She pokes her tongue out as Athena glares at her, "I'm going to answer it." Ursula settles back against the propped pillows with the phone resting on her ear. "Hello," she purrs sexily.

The distinctive man's voice coming through the phone doesn't register as familiar to her, so she holds the phone up to read the caller ID. "Hello," Dorian speaks. "Glen told me that I could reach Athena at this number," he inquires politely.

"Um, yeah she's here," Ursula answers while waving to Athena frantically. "Who did Glen give my freakin' number to," she mouths silently. "May I ask who's calling."

"Tell her it's her brother, Dorian, please."

Ursula cannot wipe the incredibly stupid smile off of her face as his words resonate in her head. "I sure will. Hold on a second."

"Sure," he holds.

She presses the mute button on the phone and rolls her tongue across her lips. "He sounds delicious," she laughs as Athena snatches the phone away from her.

"You're so stupid, you know that," she laughs with her. "Now shut up while I take him off of mute." She clicks him back on the line and calms down. "Dorian, is that you."

The tone in his voice brightens up tremendously as he hears his sister's voice. "What's up sis!"

"Nothing'. Where are you," she asks giddily. "I thought you were coming out here."

"I thought I'd take a little vacation first before I sink my feet into the civilian world you guys live in."

"I see," she smiles. "Are you at a party or something. What's that music in the background."

"Oh, that's just the band playing at the bar."

Athena puts the phone on speaker and sets it on the bed for them both to hear the full conversation. "What bar," she asks half wanting to go to a bar herself. "Where are you."

The sound in the background is calm and devoid of any of the raucous city noise from majorly populated areas. Dorian laughs lightly at something and excuses himself politely. "I'm in Antigua."

"Antigua," she hollers excitedly. "You mean the freakin' island, Antigua! Are you serious!"

"Yeah," he laughs, "why, have you been here before." She lets him know that she plans on traveling there and to as many of the Caribbean islands that she can in the near future.

Athena hits the mute button on the phone. "G-irl... are you hearing' this!

Ursula nods excitedly. "Yeah, I heard. That's one of the islands that Mimi's cruise is going to take her to." She has an epiphany and stares suspiciously at Athena for a few long seconds. "Oh snap! Did you tell him-"

"No," she gushes. "And slow your roll Speedy Gonzales.

"Hello..." Dorian calls through the phone on the bed. "Athena, can you hear me."

"What are you doing in Antigua," she asks coming back onto the phone.

"I thought the line cut off for a minute."

"Nah, I'm still here."

"I told you, I felt like taking a vacation."

"Why there though."

"I've never been here before, and I thought it'd be cool."

"By yourself though."

Dorian chuckles. "What is it with people and this place."

"What do you mean."

"Nothing. Hey, I called to get your dress size, so give it to me and stop that sound leak coming out of your mouth," he laughs.

Athena laughs and then pauses to think about what he just asked her. "You're going to buy me something there."

"Yeah. I found this little shop that makes theses authentic African kinte dresses. Do you want one."

She pushes her lips out and can almost kiss her nose with the expression she's making. "Yeah, sure I want one."

He chuckles at her obvious lack of excitement. "Are you going to wear it."

"Like, am I going to wear it when I go shopping or to hang out with my girlfriends. Is that what you mean."

"Oh my goodness," he laughs hard. "You are still every bit the comedian, aren't you."

Ursula is trying her best to keep quiet and not burst into laughter herself. She tries to emulate the up and down African head bobbing dance to sheer hilarity as Athena tries hard not to laugh herself. "Ha ha, very funny. And yeah, I'll wear it. I'll wear whatever gift you bring me, if they're clothes,' she chuckles.

"Great, cause the lady who's making it is very traditional, and she stressed to me that if she makes the dress then you absolutely have to wear it out of respect for her."

"I'll wear it Dorian." She rolls her eyes and sticks her finger in her mouth pretending gag.

"Fantastic," he cheers. He's such an enthusiastic person, and his demeanor is infectious as Ursula listens intently. "I'm going to have her stitch something in Kwashiorkor on it to make it that much more original. As a matter of fact, I'm going to have her stitch it on yours and mom's."

"What language is Kwashiorkor," Ursula whispers to Athena who gives her a look that is absolutely clueless.

"Oh that sounds nice. But what language is Kwasi-land," she asks and gives Dorian another reason to laugh.

"It's Kwashiorkor, and it's the predominant native tongue in the country of Ghana."

She throws her hands up in the air with a 'what the you-know-what' expression on her face. "I see. Why don't you have it done in English. I don't speak or read Ghana language."

Ursula smacks her on the leg. "Their language is pronounced Kwashiorkor, not Ghana. You are such a trip girl, do you know that."

Athena rolls her eyes at her and snatches up the phone from the bed to talk without the speaker feature.

"Can you just let me do something nice and original for you for a change," Dorian tells her. "And besides, everyone will be able to see it and really appreciate it. I'm telling you, you're going to love it and everyone who sees it is going to love it. It's that awesome of a dress. And besides, the lady making the dresses for me is actually from Ghana, so that's why it's being done this way. It's one of a kind."

Ursula points to her once again empty glass and Athena refills it while holding the phone to her ear which is still on speaker. "That sounds beautiful. Tell him to send you a picture so we can see what he looks like-"

"Ugh, you tramp," that's my little brother and I'm not even tryin' look at him that way."

Dorian can hear the two women bickering through the phone but he doesn't let it bother him. "Yeah I'll take some pictures," he chuckles.

Ursula nudges her to start pressing him for the juicier information and Athena finally gives. "So, since you are a little cutie pie and all," she says and makes him laugh through the phone. "Have you met anybody there yet."

"I've met a few really nice people. All tourists though, but they've been real cool though."

"Anyone interesting..."

"You mean like would I still be interested in seeing in the morning type of interesting," he laughs.

"Well, yeah," she answers bossily.

"Then yeah," he admits, "a couple," he acknowledges truthfully. "Everywhere I turn there's beautiful women walking all around down here. A brotha can't even miss if he was blind, that's how thick it is with the women to men ratio here."

"Did you go there by yourself, or did you take somebody."

"I came by myself. Don't worry I'm a big boy, I can take care of myself."

Ursula licks her lips seductively. "I bet he does," she whispers.

"Who was that," he asks curiously.

Athena pushes Ursula away. "That's my friend Ursula."

"The one that answered the phone."

"Yeah."

"Hey listen, I don't want to run up too high of a phone bill here, so give me your dress size."

"Oh yeah, I forgot. It's a four."

"What did you do, lose some weight," he laughs.

"Shut up! Alright I can fit a six."

"Okay," he chuckles. "It's going to be a six."

"You have to go now."

"Yeah."

"When are you coming back."

"My return ticket isn't until the nineteenth."

"That's almost two weeks from now."

"Damn! He's got money like that to hang out in Antigua for two weeks," Ursula shouts impressed.

"Girl if you don't hush up!"

Dorian laughs at them both. "I'll call you again in a couple of days to say hi."

"Alright. Well enjoy, and don't do anything I wouldn't do."

Ursula waves frantically for Athena's attention and reaches for the phone. "Tell him I said bye," she begs as Athena crawls off of the bed out of her reach with the phone nuzzled to her ear. "Hater..."

She stands at the foot of the bed and looks at Ursula sitting helplessly on the bed. "Wait Dorian, before you go my friend Ursula wants to say something to you." She hands her the phone, "here."

Ursula takes the phone into her hands and cups it to her ear softly and smiles. "Bye Dorian," she says in her most seductive voice while Athena shakes her head.

"Bye. Wait, wait what's your name again," he asks anxiously.

"Who me," she giggles bashfully, knowing that her alluring voice has worked for her once again. "Oh my name is Ursula-Jean."

"Well take care Ursula-Jean."

"I will," she blushes. "And you do the same alright."

"I will." The line disconnects and she pretends to still be talking to him. She wails excitedly and cries out in pain. "Okay I'd like that."

Athena sits back on the side of the bed next to her and tries to listen in on the conversation hawkishly. "You'd like what! What're you talking to him about."

"He said he'd like to meet me sometime when he comes back home."

Athena smiles and reaches for the phone. "Let me say something before he goes."

"Hold on Dorian, Athena wants to say something real quick." She passes her the phone and looks away coyly as she says his name repeatedly.

Athena sets the phone in her lap casually and smiles. "I guess the line cut off," she wonders. "Humph."

Ursula can't keep the silly looking grin from her face and leans back on her pillows. "I know one thing, Mimi better not even think about-"

Athena cuts her off with a quickness. "Oh heck no! You better not even think about whatever it is that's brewing' up in the nasty haven of a mind of yours," she laughs.

"All I was going to say is Mimi better not break the date off again because if she does I want first dibs on your brother."

"You're like a shark. Straight to the point, no messing' around, huh," Athena chuckles.

Day Three...

Mimi sits on the ship's upper sky deck bar enjoying a drink by the pool while steadily ignoring the annoying advances of an insistent young black man who obviously doesn't seem to know how to take the hint that she isn't interested. Her gaze focuses peacefully on the far reaching ocean as she remembers what Ursula told her about Tito's girlfriend, and that elicits another sip of her stiff drink. She sits up straight on the bar stool and stretches her back comfortably while still ignoring the hard headed guys' increasing attempts to get her attention.

After patrolling the pool side area unsuccessfully for the better part of an hour with his hommies for a possible hook up, the one with the most courage decides to roll the dice and makes a B-line straight for Mimi at the end of the bar. He steps up to her in sagging Bermuda shorts and showing off a poorly underdeveloped upper body that is struggling to hold up the oversized muscle shirt that he has ridiculously draped over himself. With a moist toothpick in the corner of his mouth and a recently trimmed goatee, he eases into the stool beside her. "Can I holla at you for a minute," he slurs with his hard, thug verbiage that sets off all of the bling latched to his wrists, neck and ears.

Mimi almost chokes on her drink when she realizes that this poor boy's attention is now being focused exclusively on her. "Me," she murmurs hilariously while covering her bare thighs with the long flowing sarong hanging down from her hip. Why me, and why now...

"Yeah," he smacks obnoxiously on his toothpick and slides up a little closer to her. He glances at his tattooed covered arms for her to notice and smiles as though she should be impressed. "You don't mind do you. Cause I didn't see nobody else dipping' over here to scoop you up."

The laughter that comes from within her is barely concealed by the attempt at a fake cough that she covers her mouth from. "Um, no," she answers as best as she can to keep a straight face. So far his ridiculous courage is amusing her surprisingly. "It's a free world the last I checked." She tries not to make too much eye contact with him even though he is desperately pressing the issue for her to do so.

"That it is, that it is," he smiles triumphantly with a sly glance back to his hommies watching from a few tables several feet away. He plucks the toothpick out for a second and winks at her. "You know, I was posted up over there chilling' with my boys when I happened to look your way and caught a glimpse of you parlaying' over here all unattended and what not. So I said to myself, Fantasy-P, dip on over here and save this shorty from her loneliness."

Oh my God, Lord Jesus, I'm gonna die from laughter on this cruise and my friends and family won't even know what happened. "Fantasy-P, huh," she giggles while sipping from her straw. "What's the P stand for."

"That's confidential, top secret deadly classified information there. If I tell you then I'd have to do something' to ya," he grins mischievously. "But you're in luck, cause I have the power to grant limited security clearances."

"I'm fine, trust me," Mimi smiles. "But thanks for offering though, that was very considerate of you."

"No doubt, no doubt." He ogles her cleavage and bare arms but she doesn't feel threatened by him. She wonders if he would scream like a girl if she had to clock him one right in his snot box like her father taught her to do when she was a little girl coming home crying after the school boys had been teasing her. "You seem like the shy type," she says breaking her daydream.

She suddenly wishes she'd worn more clothes up here to the pool instead of this bikini and floral sarong that shows off all of her womanly assets. Not that she's mad about it though. "Do I," she smiles humorously.

"I ain't no expert or nothing', but I can tell when a woman wants a man to step to them."

"And you're trying to tell me that this is one of those times," she asks incredulously, and he doesn't catch her sarcasm.

"Yeah, exactly."

"Where are you from."

"Houston, Texas," he answers proudly.

"I thought that accent sounded familiar."

"Oh, so you've been down through there before," he assumes, impressed.

She looks away at the families all around the deck and pool area and wonders why these twerps decided to come on a cruise. She turns back to him abruptly and thinks for a hot second that he could very well be here with his family, and that really puts a smile on her face. "You can say that."

"Righteous, righteous," he nods ridiculously.

Mimi sips some more of her drink and decides that she has had enough of his presence. She gives him a condescending look but he doesn't pick up on it. Dang, that usually works.

"Am I making' you laugh."

"Um, humph." At you fool.

Fantasy-P spread his bony arms wide and raises them to the sky. "Look at what we have here," he proclaims. "BAM!"

She shuns to the other edge of her stool and keeps him in her sight after that unexpected outburst. "Are you okay."

"Oh yeah," he grins. "All the signals are right where they need to be."

Mimi gives him a serious look this time and then breaks it off quickly to get in his head and make him start second guessing himself. "And what might those signals be."

He pauses for a moment and then boldly inches even closer to her. He slinks his long skinny fingers along the soft skin of her arm without any encountered resistance. "Sitting' here alone like you was," he nods to the rhythmic beat in his head, "I could tell you wanted me to dip to you and initiate the first move. I know you did. You don't have to say it."

"Is that right. So you're telling me that in addition to doing whatever it is that you do, you also happen to be a mind reader," she laughs. She laughs a little too hard because he can't tear his eyes away from her jiggling breasts. "Humph."

"Fo-sho." He guides his finger up her arm to her shoulder and stops there. "Just a little temptation is all that's needed. The chase is what you really like, huh." He is building his confidence by her calming nature while his hommies are sitting at the tables watching in awe.

She swivels around and leans her back against the bar. "The chase. Oh you really know your stuff, don't you."

"You know," he nods confidently as though he's got his own theme song playing in his head.

"So now you want me to believe that not only did you see me from across the deck, but that you have this psychic power that told you that I wanted you to come over here and talk to me. Am I getting this right," she asks staring straight into his eyes.

"Yep." His grin spreads into a full on smile and he turns to let his hommies know that he's getting some action. Action that none of them could ever get without having to pay for it and run the risk of getting caught, or worse. "I told you it works." That brings a sudden laugh from deep in her chest and he reaches down to touch her knee. "Now you're probably wanting' me to keep touching' you like this, huh."

She rests both elbows up on the bar now and gives him her full attention. "Is that what you think I'm thinking." Her tone and expression are so out of his ball park that she decides to have a little fun with him.

"Yeah." The idea that he is actually getting somewhere is blinding him to the very real signals of her no-fly-zone that she has been sending, but he is just too dumb or too young to know the difference. "You're liking' how I'm handling' the situation here." That darting little tongue of his slithers from side to side between his lips in what he thinks is his sexy face. "Keeping' everything copacetic," you know.

Mimi finishes off her drink and waves to the bartender for another. She watches him glance at the bartender over her shoulder and wonders if he is going to be decent enough to not allow her to pay for her next drink. But for the time being with no more drink to occupy herself with she looks him straight in the eye and calls his bluff. "I have an idea."

He can't stop grinning from ear to ear. "Is it what I'm thinking' about, cause if it is then I'd down without a doubt on that, fo-sho." The boldness climbs another level as he grips her thigh and holds it while she cocks her head at him in instant disbelief. Nigga if you want your hand, your wrist and your stupid looking face to stay the same way they are right then you better get yo' nasty, sweaty hands up off of me before I twist them and your manhood around like you got beat with an ugly stick. By now the sudden narrowing of her eyes would give a normal man the sign that she is well on the road to pissed off, but not Fantasy-P. He is completely oblivious to the immediate impression that he has clearly overstepped his bounds. With his hand still gripping her thigh he leans in close. Close enough for him to smell the nearly $200 perfume that she is wearing. "Since you're feeling' me, we might as well dip on up outta here and take it back to your room so we can handle this jump off."

The chuckle comes first. "I'm sorry, did you just say jump off."

"Um, hmm," he swaggers.

"So that's the new way the youngsters are saying it these days. A jump off."

He sways side to side and keeps licking his lips, and that is getting on her nerves. "There's a few different ways," he nods. "I like you. You're way more mature than these other hoes-"

"Excuse me! Did you just insinuate that all of the women here on this ship are hoes." Her chest is heaving now with building frustration and she tries to keep herself as calm as possible, otherwise she is going to go upside this boy's head. "Uh, uh, I know you didn't just say that..."

"Yeah," he continues, still oblivious to her mood. "You know, shorty's, dimes."

Mimi folds her arms in a silent huff since he is not picking up her vibe yet. "And how old are you."

He throws up a gang sign to his hommies and they each return the same gang hand sign enthusiastically. "Nineteen, and every bit the man that you need up in you right about now. Can you feel me," he says tapping his chest. "Fantasy-P on mines."

She counts off a few fingers and then looks directly into his searching eyes. "I've got a son almost your age."

That revelation just froze him in his tracks and slowed his roll completely. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up! How old is he."

"I'll put it to you this way. I'm old enough to be your mother."

His hands spring up to his mouth to cover the erupting barrage of profanity that is escaping.

"So wait, wait, hold up... Are you here with, like your husband, too," he asks looking around nervously.

Now she is really having fun at his expense. "I'm not married."

Fantasy-P tries to creep back up on her, but she eases away shyly. "Don't be scared of it. I know I'm younger and hella sexy, but you can trust that I know how to treat the kitty right."

Mimi laughs in his face at his brazen assumption that she would even be remotely interested in continuing this conversation with him. She sets her new drink that the bartender delivers on her other side and then does the unthinkable. Not in a million years would she have ever thought about doing what she is about to do now. She reaches straight for his zipper and takes hold of it. The bulge behind the zipper begins to throb uncontrollably against her touch. "Why don't you shut the heck up with all the talking' that you're doin' and show me what you're working' with and I'll let you know if you'll be able to treat it right. From where I'm sitting, it feels like you won't be able to make me feel anything bigger than my finger, and trust me, that's saying a lot." Her flipping the script on him is definitely not what he had planned for, and he steps back out of her reach. "What's the matter Fantasy-P," she teases reaching out for his zipper brazenly. "If you've got it like that then what's the problem. Are you scared to show me what you're working' with."

"Nah," he stammers, swiping at her grabbing hands. Damn yo', thirsty ass bat! "I just ain't never knocked one like you before. All hungry and starving' for the swipe."

"Humph, is that what you think."

"Yeah," he says still swatting her hands away.

"I know a man with all of the confidence, or could it be, the blind stupidity that you're full of can't possibly be the reason you're afraid to drop your pants right here, right now. And show me what you're trying to offer." She lets him get even more view of her chest and smiles for him while he gets his eye full. This is proving to be too much for him to handle as evidenced by the sudden perspiration on his forehead and neck. She can see the beads forming and it lets her know that it's time to go in for the kill to crush his aspirations of ever thinking that he could have had something with her.

The bartender, a young Jamaican woman, takes up position behind her at the bar and watches the boy flee to the table with his friends and then lead them all away from the area quickly.

"I've got to give it to you on that one. You turned the heat up on him something fierce and he couldn't handle the heat in the kitchen," she chuckles with a friendly vibe that Mimi finds comforting.

She turns back around on her stool and sips her drink. "He's a boy just out here trying to have some fun, that's all. It's shame though to know that that's how he's been taught to approach women though."

"Oh my God yeah! But you're not the first woman that they've tried that with on this cruise. I'll tell you one thing, if they keep it up, one of them is going to wind up catching a case and that's no joke on that one. So they'd better watch out if they know what's good for them."

Mimi looks around and watches the couples and families enjoying themselves and instantly feels the ping of loneliness in her heart. "Well for their sake, hopefully that doesn't happen."

"That's the optimistic way to think about it. By the way, I'm Alexis."

They greet and shake hands over the bar. "Nice to meet you Alexis, I'm Miriam. But you can call me Mimi."

"Mimi, that's cute. My husband's auntie's name is Mimi, too." She tends to another patron at the bar and returns. "So, are you enjoying the cruise so far. Aside from all of that other nonsense," Alexis grins with a not so subtle nod to the boys watching from a distance.

"I am," she smiles genuinely. "I think I'm going to go ashore and spend some of the money that's burning a hole in my pocket," she laughs, because that is not uncommon at all for her.

Alexis leans onto her forearms on the bar. "Take my advice if you do." Mimi leans up onto her forearms as well and gives her full attention. "Never go for the first price that they ask for."

"No..."

"Never. Let me tell you, you can always talk them down, especially if it's something that they know you want badly."

Mimi leans back stretching her arms out from the bar and relaxes. "Thanks." Alexis motions for a refill of her drink and she nods.

"So are you here with someone, or are you just doing your own thing."

She sips the delicious drink and savors its taste going down her throat. "I came alone."

"Oh really."

"Yep. Just me, myself and I, a camera and some money. Figured I didn't need anymore than that."

"There's nothing wrong with that Sista," she high fives her jubilantly. "I do it all the time."

"Do you really." Mimi munches on a few of the nuts in the bowl and notices that Alexis is really an attractive young woman underneath the dull and unflattering uniform that she's wearing.

"Oh sure. You can really get in touch with yourself when you travel alone sometimes."

` "I was originally supposed to bring one of my best friends with me until she had a bad accident and broke her leg before we had to leave to catch our flight to Miami."

"Oh wow... so sorry to hear that. Is she okay. I mean, her leg is broken, but... is she coming along with her recovery."

"Yeah she's okay. A little sad she couldn't come, but she's fine." She pops a few more nuts in her mouth and munches on them. "I even asked my other best friend if she could get off work to come along, but that wasn't happening with her job."

"Gotta pay the bills..."

"And you ain't lying'," they laugh. "Then I even thought about bringing my son, but I couldn't do that and risk having him miss taking his SAT's."

"So you left him at home and came all the way out here by yourself anyway," Alexis smiles admiringly.

Mimi pulls her hair up into a pony tail and enjoys the cool breeze blowing her way. "I've been wondering if that was even the right decision to make ever since I got on the plane."

"Leaving him at home."

She nods. "He's in high school. And you know what that means."

"Oh yeah," Alexis grins. "I have a two younger brothers."

Mimi nods affectionately and imagines her family being a huge one. "Yeah, and he's got a girlfriend who I know he's... you know," she says under heavy duress.

"Ahhh," she understands. "My youngest son Marquise is the same way."

"Sounds like you've got a pretty big family."

"We do. There's fourteen of us." Mimi's face brightens with amazement. "Yep." Alexis shares the familiar smile that she often wears when she gets that same reaction from people after telling them that. "Our mother can't even leave him alone for more than two days before he manages to talk his latest girlfriend into crawling through the window in the middle of the night and sleeping over. I think they need to devise some kind of contraption that prevents these little hot young girls from losing their minds and chasing after boys like the dang world's coming to an end." Mimi drifts away in her thoughts while Alexis rambles on about her personal life and it is a comforting backdrop for her to continue relaxing. "I didn't mean stress you out over that, I'm sorry."

"No, no, everything's fine. It's going to happen whether I like it or not. He's a boy, and boys are going to do what boys do. I just have to accept that he's no longer my little Tito-lito anymore," she smiles fondly.

Alexis can see and hear the worry developing in her and she brings her a club soda on the house. "Tell me Mimi, what's the best part about the cruise that you've noticed so far."

"The best part," she repeats lively. "Hmm..."

"Yeah. What stands out the most."

"I would have to say coming out here all the way from Los Angeles and seeing the sun rise out of the ocean. That's the biggest thing for me so far."

"I guess you're right about that, huh. I never really look at it that way since I'm always out here."

"It's different, trust me."

"You know what though... it's really kind of hard to tell out here on the water since it does that every day. I never know if we're going east or west, north or south. So I couldn't tell you one way or another," she laughs. "But it is definitely beautiful though without a doubt. Especially the sunsets."

"When you've lived on land on the west coast for as long as I have things sort of condition you to expect them to be a certain way."

"I know what you mean." Alexis plops a cherry into her mouth and chews. "So you're from California, huh. I've heard that it's pretty nice there. Crowded, but nice all the same."

"It is. It also has its unmentionable parts just like everywhere else."

"Well everything that I've seen and heard about it was always nice."

"From the outside, I guess you could say that. But don't let me ruin it for you," Mimi chuckles.

Alexis grabs her hand on the bar excitedly. "No, please! I prefer for you to keep it real."

Mimi shuns back I disbelief. "You've never been there before." Alexis shakes her head innocently and chews on another cherry. "You should try and take a trip there. You'd like it."

"My husband's been there though.

Mimi wears a look of surprise and takes another sip of her drink. "Why haven't you ever gone with him."

"Timing issues. Every time he goes I'm always out here on the water."

"Oh yeah... I can see how that would pose a problem for your schedules."

"When we get time we'll go together though." Another patron settles up at the bar and Alexis tends to him as Mimi sits there thinking about Tito and his little firecracker girlfriend. She finds herself imagining ways to sabotage the girl's car so that she wouldn't be able to pick Tito up for a while. That thought filters away once Alexis returns with that same warming smile. "Okay so what was I saying."

"You and your husband taking a trip to California." That jogs Alexis' memory and she gets animated. "They've got a lot of things and places to see, and you won't be let down by them either. As a matter of fact, you could go all the way down to the coast to San Diego. It's really beautiful down there."

"San Diego... I've heard of that place. Where is that at."

"It's down south from Los Angeles. As a matter of fact, it's the border city before you get to Mexico."

Alexis is amazed that this place is so close to another country. She has long thought the America had been sitting on its very own piece of land surrounded by water since she was a little girl. But by never going there, and only having a high school equivalent education she has quite a number of misconceptions about the world. "Wow."

"Yeah, you didn't know that."

"Nope."

"Shoot, we're neighbors Mexico. You'll be amazed when you get there and start seeing the names of most of the cities. They're all practically in Spanish."

Alexis studies her face a little more closely. "You know, you sound like you have a slight accent yourself," she venture out on a hunch. "East coat maybe."

She does a little samba dance on the stool. "I'm Dominican."

"So you probably fit right in there then."

"In a way, I guess I do. I'm still an immigrant though."

"So this cruise could be a little like a homecoming for you then."

"My family packed as up when we were all little kids and took us to the states, so I really don't have a lot of memories of what things were like back on the island."

Alexis points to a series of banners representing all of the Caribbean islands and describes the colorful history of each one and why they are on display here on the upper deck area. "Let me tell you something Mimi, you're country is an extremely beautiful place rich with culture and unending pride."

Mimi enjoys the passion and emphasis that she is describing her home with and asks if she's ever been there. "Oh, most definitely. We make stops there too on some of our other tour packages. It's not the richest place in terms of per capital," she mentions respectfully, "but all of the people there are without a doubt the proudest you could ever meet, and it shows from the oldest men and women all the way down to the youngest child out playing in the streets. It truly is a great place."

That makes Mimi feel good to hear and brings back many fond memories that she hadn't remembered in a long, long time. For years it was just her and her small family of six living in South Florida when her father first brought them all the way over to the states. And after growing up there she graduated high school and decided to go to college away from home so that she could see more of the world. That decision was the most difficult for her mother and sisters, but she withstood the emotional pain brought on by the separation and made the trek all the way to the University of Texas where she would eventually graduate with a degree in accounting. What happened after that went by in a hurry as she found her way along the progressive migration trail to sunny Southern California, where she would eventually meet and marry the man of her dreams, have a child, and find a plush job. A highly competitive and sought after job in of all places... Hollywood. The town where stars are born and dreams are made. An announcement comes over the intercom that the ship will be pulling into port soon and Mimi eases off of the stool and wishes Alexis well. Time to go see some sights and spend some money...

Antigua!

The pleasant smell of fresh salty air is deceived by the calm crystal clear waters surrounding the island. Beneath the swaying palm and date trees that throw and pitch their comfortable shadows effortlessly, the island of Antigua is something truly spectacular in every sense. Mimi leaves the ship about as excited as a five year old on Christmas morning and walks along the portside dock soaking in every and anything with bubbling wonderment. She takes a few steps toward the bottom of the gangway and shoulders her custom print 40 BlackSunRisingStudios tote she brought while scanning the colorful port. She pushes her sun glasses back up on her sun screen coated nose and heads through the small customs office, and then out onto the street. Parked outside along the curb are dozens of taxi cabs and their sweating drivers waiting anxiously for one of the inevitable tourist's fare. With a fresh set of batteries in her camera, and enough travelers' checks to cover any purchase that she may desire to make, Mimi heads determinedly for the row of colorful vehicles up ahead of the row of congested cabs and tourists.

Dorian walks back towards his rental Jeep Wrangler while still snapping pictures of random people walking along the street with his expensive digital camera. The mixture of natives and tourists makes for an authentic cornucopia of photographic artistry that he relishes with each captured shot. He makes it to the jeep and finds this woman standing there on the curb looking as lovely as the sunset. She looks up at him, and without speaking a word they both make eye contact and float instantly in a helpless net of fascination. Their longing gaze keeps them awestruck and unable to move, which is clearly noticeable to the groups of wide smiles that are passing them by. He lets the camera hang around his neck and tries to speak but the right combination of words just can't seem to form in his mind. He says something clever he thinks, but what comes out is a string of babbling that spreads a smile on Mimi's face.

She tries to pull her uncontrolled flirtatious attention away from this man that by all accounts fits every single requirement on her mental check list for her perfect man, but what she winds up doing instead is broadcasting her thoughts unconsciously through her eyes. Mimi is literally devouring him over the hood of the jeep without a care in the world. Individually they've already imagined how they would approach the other, but both are too nervous to speak. Yet their combined attraction is abundantly clear for them to see. She swallows hard and covers her neck demurely. "Hi," she strains to say and ends up letting out a low growl that sends them both into uncontrollable giggles. "I mean hi."

"Hello," he chuckles still with a handsome set of pearly whites. "By the way you're dressed, I'm going to assume you're not from around here, are you."

She continues to appraise his looks from behind the protection of her dark lenses. "That's very astute of you," she posits, trying to appear studious. She points casually back to the massive cruise ship behind her and tries not to let her mouth drop open at this guys' stunning looks. Damn! Forgive me God for my thoughts right now, but I scored a knock-out with this one... "I'm here on a cruise with that boat over there."

"I see..." You have got to kidding me! Jesus you are the MAN! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Mimi starts to panic privately as she tries to move again but her feet won't respond and she stands in the same spot. She steadies her breathing and the panic subsides to send surging adrenaline flowing through her veins. She watches him come around the front of the jeep and loses her breath at the full sight of him up close. Her mind races to come up with something, anything to start up a conversation with so she would not say something stupid. It doesn't even have to be an intelligent one either, she chuckles desperately to herself.

Dorian can't believe his eyes and turns his attention away from her nervously. Her smooth hazelnut colored skin glistens under the early afternoon sun as her bare shoulders are blanketed luxuriously by her full cascading highlighted tresses. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! I know I've prayed for a lot of things in my life Lord, and my soul mate is the one thing that I will continue to pray to you for. I don't know if this is another sign, but I'm asking you Lord God to please bless me with the courage to speak what I really and truly feel, and if this woman is in fact the one that you have sent for me then I will be so incredibly grateful. He pulls his camera off and places it in his bag on the backseat of the jeep.

Girl get a hold of your dang self and stop standing here staring at him like that with your tongue hanging all out. "So... is this your jeep."

"Yep. It's not the best, but it's durable and reliable. It gets me where I need to go without complaints."

Mimi glances at the other cabs, some of them jeeps too and looks back at this jeep. "What do I need to do to get you to drive me around to see some sites."

He can't believe his ears. But one thing is for sure, right now he is not about to screw this up. No way! "What do you want to do," he repeats unconsciously.

She bites her bottom lip softly and runs her fingers along the open window frame of the passenger seat. "Um, humph."

"I guess you can start by getting in, how's that."

Mimi reaches for the door without thinking and before she can grab the handle he hurries over to open it for her and their hands both grab the handle. "That's alright, I've got it," she assures him.

"Let me get that for you," he offers, but she hops into the seat effortlessly. So he shuts the door and catches a glimpse of her thigh poking out of her dress and nearly blows a fuse as he shuts her door and walks around to get in. "So, where would the Lady like to go first," he asks with a quick turn of the ignition.

"Wherever you want to take me," she smiles flirtatiously. What am I doing! Control yourself!

Eyebrows raised, he steals a couple quick glances at her stunning profile as they roll down the road between the crowds of tourists from the cruise ship. "I mean, do you have any sites in particular that you want to see first."

"Wherever you take me is perfectly fine with me."

Dorian checks the side mirror on her door and notices the gorgeous mole sitting just at the mid-way point of her open cleavage. The rumble of the engine combined with the not so smooth surface of the road makes her breasts jiggle and bounce in a way that secretly makes them both want to react on. "I know just the place to start."

Mimi smiles and looks around the inside of the jeep casually. "Why doesn't your cab have any signs on it like the others."

He gives her look of sudden and complete confusion. Cab... "What do you mean," he asks.

She turns to him and stares at him full on now. "This is your cab isn't it."

He breaks into uncontrollable laughter and pulls over to the side of the road. "No, I'm sorry. You think that I'm a cab driver."

Oh no girl, what in the world did I just get myself into. "You're not," she shuns back towards the door more embarrassed than worried. She covers her face. "Oh Jesus, I am so sorry for this inconvenience-"

"No," he consoles her calmly and it works to ease her embarrassment somewhat slowly. But it is working. "I'm here on vacation just like you."

"Why didn't you say anything before I went and made a fool of myself like this by jumping in your jeep," she chuckles still hiding her face.

"Me!"

"Yeah you!"

"I don't know. I thought you just wanted to go for a ride with me and see some sites."

"With a complete stranger," she chuckles sarcastically.

"Who else do you know on this island?"

Mimi looks at her feet demurely. "That's not the point though."

"I can take you back to the dock so that you can get in a real cab if you want. All I have to do is turn this thing around and we're on our way back."

"But I thought this was a cab," she says confusedly.

Dorian can't stop laughing now. "I didn't tell you it was."

"And you didn't tell me that it wasn't."

He senses that they're going to go around and around in verbal circles. "You're right. I'm sorry."

His sudden submission takes her by surprise because she was really getting revved up to continue this light hearted debate. "At the very least you could've said something before I assumed that you were a cab driver."

He keeps his hands on the steering wheel and looks straight ahead. "Would you still have gotten in if I told you that this wasn't a cab?"

Mimi stares at him now and he turns slowly to meet her stare. "Yes."

"I'll tell you what then. Since we've had this little misunderstanding, why don't I take you back to the boat because I don't want to waste anymore of your time, or leave you with any hard feelings-"

"Nope."

"I can take you back-"

"That won't be necessary."

"It won't be a problem, really."

She reaches down and fastens her seat belt across her lap securely. "I think I'll take my chances here with you."

Yes! "Well in that case, I think a formal introduction is in order here. "He extends his hand to her graciously. "I'm Dorian."

The name sounds vaguely familiar to her but she can't put his face to any of the names that she knows. "Mimi," she blushes against the very masculine feel of his hand around hers.

"Mimi," he grins.

"It's short for Miriam. And don't laugh at my name either," she points at him playfully.

He shifts the jeep into drive and heads off down the road. "Well Mimi, it's an honor and a privilege to make your acquaintance." She floats on cloud nine right now as they speed down the road into town to see the sites together. As the flowing wind blows through her hair sending it billowing over the head rest, Dorian wastes no time at all in getting to know her better. To his amazement, his agenda is now symmetrically meshed with hers. He peers over at her again and catches her stealing the same passionate glances at him. The laughter between them erupts as does the last remaining barrier of lingering hesitance. "Mimi, has anyone ever told you that you have the most intoxicating and alluring smile. It is simply breath taking."

Mimi blushes once again and has to turn away. Boy am I glad I came on this cruise alone, you just don't know, oomph! "Thank you."

"You are very welcome. I have to tell you though cause you have this look that literally stopped me cold back there at the port. It's like I couldn't talk or something," he chuckles.

"Really? What kind of a look is that? Sounds like magic or something to me by the way you describe it."

Dorian fishes around in his mind for the right words to describe it with. It doesn't help either that she's turned in her seat and is now staring directly at him. Studying him indiscriminately as if he were her prey that she will soon be pouncing on to devour whole. "The kind of look that made me forget about every other woman that I've known before today."

Her heart skips a beat by the sound of his words as they filter in through her ears unobstructed and finds their way to the part of her that is, and has been yearning for someone like him to come along for far too long. Finally, after all these years... She grins to herself.

"What, did I say something funny," he wonders nervously.

Mimi still can't formulate her own words to speak as her throat continues to swell, while all she can do is nod and smile as the tears are not far behind. Could this really be happening to me...?

He smiles and thinks to himself how truly great God is. I can't believe this. Man, she is so fine! Don't mess this up dude. Whatever you do just don't mess this one up, please.

Mimi glances over at him again and stares at his well-toned muscular arms. She can see the developed pectorals poking out from underneath his cotton shirt and it sends chills up her spine.

Dorian peers out through his peripheral vision at her and is captivated once more by her indescribably beauty. The more he stares the more he wants to reach out and touch her. He looks back for a second, and once the coast is clear he peeks back at her profile again with a bulging grin. Yes God, you are the Man! "So you're here on the cruise alone," he inquires safely.

"Yes. Not by choice though."

"I don't follow."

"Being single gives me the latitude to do things like this." That should spell it out for you Dorian. Now the ball's in your court. What're you gonna do with it now.

The look on Mimi's face sends a crystal clear message to him, and he receives it loud and clear. "Single, huh."

"Yep. And yourself. Is there a Mrs. Dorian waiting somewhere for your return from this beautiful island."

"Nope. And you," he asks. "You are too dang gorgeous to be single even though you said that you are. That's just too hard to believe."

She can see that it is excruciating for him, but the longer she makes him wait the more confidence she builds. "There's no one."

He gives her a look of mild suspicion. "You took long enough to answer that question. You're still holding on to your little black book, huh."

Mimi can't hold that laughter back. "Me! Nah. I do not have time for any of that kind of business. Well let me clear that up and say that I haven't met anyone that I've wanted to spend that time with. How's that."

"How can I tell if you're telling the truth?" He is testing her to see if she bites, and the glare in her eyes is answer enough for him and he smiles.

"I am." She softens her eyes on him and touches his forearm. "Trust in our word is all we have."

Dorian smiles. "All I have is my word, and it means everything."

"And so is mine."

"Well then I accept your word. And I will never question you about anything else."

"Don't go that far," she grins flirtatiously.

"No," he questions with mock suspicion.

"No. You can ask me things."

"Are you sure we can play this game."

"Do you think you can handle it," she challenges, "cause it's no game."

Dorian leans back comfortably in his seat and spreads a huge smile on his face as they continue rumbling through the city streets. "Bring it on."

- END-