CHAPTER 1 – NEXT EX

Fiction

“Where is he?” Sia puffed as she checked the freshly applied makeup on her almond shaped eyes.  Her date was late. And if there was one thing she couldn’t stand it was someone wasting her time. “Damn, doesn’t he know how much time I take to be this hot? He could at least be on time. Strike one,” she said aloud.  Dating seemed like all Sia did these days. To be honest it seems like all she had ever done.  That was until she meet Rus a couple years ago.   But now that was a not-so-distant painful memory.

After calling off her wedding last year to Rus everything had been a whirlwind.  Most of the time she dated to avoid the pain of what happened.  What a fool she was; she thought.   For girls like Sia fairy tales really didn’t happen her mom had said. “Besides when was the last time you saw a foster child with a dysfunctional family and a kid end up happy?”  Her mom continued with a laugh. Sia agreed.  She knew that those ending weren’t meant for her and she would never make that mistake again.  As she sat on the couch in her townhouse clicking her four inch stiletto on her area rug she thought back six months ago to the call that changed everything.

At the office Sia wasn’t allowed to have her phone on her so she keep it in the drawer of her desk. Normally the only people that really called her were Rus and Javier. Rus was her finance and she just never got enough of him.  From the first day they meet he became her safe place.  There was no one else in the world that she loved more than Rus other than God and her son Stephen.  Javier however was another story. He was her son Steven’s dad. For him just keeping a job was a daily challenge. So they only talked as needed. Which was more than she liked most days.

However, today she heard the repeated buzz from her top drawer. Between patients she glanced at her phone quickly and recognized the 314 area code as St. Louis, Mo, her home state, but the number didn’t register.  Sia had moved to Indianapolis a year ago after breaking up with Rus. They had been dating for two years before she moved and he still wasn’t ready to settle down.   And though she loved him she had to do what was best for her son. A son needs his father she had come to realize. So she moved to Indianapolis where Javier and his very large family lived. To Sia family didn’t mean much anymore. Her family hated her and didn’t care if she lived or died. But she wanted so much more for Stephen. So she took a leap of faith and moved.  To her surprise shortly afterwards Rus declared that he couldn’t live without her and popped the question. They decided that In the meantime he would stay in St. Louis for a year and then relocate to Indy with Sia and Stephan. Everything was finally coming together or though she thought.

When Sia went to lunch she checked her phone.  Five voicemail messages. Strange, she thought. Maybe Rus was calling from a different number. Sia hit the voicemail icon on her Galaxy 5 and listened.  “Sia, this is Tara. Rus’s baby’s mother. I need you to call me back ASAP!. You won’t believe this!”.  “Damn”, Sia said exhaustively. A call from Tara was never good. She looked down at her ring. A two carat princess cut diamond stared back. Lord knows she had earned it dealing with Tara. Normally Sia didn’t like to talk bad about other mothers but Tara was as crazy as they got. It baffled her how Rus ended up with someone like her. She never worked and lived off of child support and the state. And the going rate for having four children by Rus was affording Tara a pretty nice life. There was really no reason to put it off. Without listening to the other four messages she decided to call back.  Sia knew that she would need to see what was up with Tara before she really started acting nuts. Tara was a terror to say the least. She hit the call button and held her breath.

Sia was jolted back to reality with a hard knock at her door. “About time”,  she said loudly and yanked the door open.

The Peculiar Adventures of Dating: The Black American Girl and White American Guy

Scandal has changed me! Like many “Gladiators” Olivia Pope has opened my eyes to the possibility of dating comfortably out side of my race. Seeing those steamy scenes with ‘the prez” are enough to make any sista sing! Whew….and hey it’s not just me. There are hundreds of articles about African American women being more opened to interracial dating. And like millions of Americans I have a bounty of online dating site profiles. EHarmony, POF, Match.com and whatever lastest craze that guarantee to cure my singleness disease with a life time of bliss. So while perusing my online dating inbox on POF I’ve recently noticed that I have been receiving a lot of messages from White Guys. Interesting I think. I mean I’ve dabbled with the thought of dating outside my race several times but have held back on the whole public thing for the same reasons many AAW’s are less likely to jump that fence. Will I feel uncomfortable? Will people say something? Will he love my big butt? Can I see myself kissing those thin lips? Hmmmm. So I decided to take up an invitation from a recent suitor to find out.

Enter Wayne, 36 year old heating and cooling entreprenur. Self described “fun guy with an awesome kid” 5’11 nice hair and adorable smile. Wayne and I spoke a few times on the phone and seemed to have an instant connection. He not only watched Scandal but DVR’d it! During our conversations he confessed that he dated a “sista” in college but married someone else and was looking for that old feeling again. The feeling he described as “passionate and honest”. He admitted to loving the curvy AAW’s and as a comfortable size 8 I was pleased to hear that. So Wayne and I decided to take this phone flirting to the next level and have an actual date. To keep things light and fun we decided to meet at Dave & Buster’s. Besides I had bragged on my POF page about my “mean basketball skills at D&B”. I have to admit that I was nervous. I mean not everyone has the sex appeal and confidence of the iconic Olivia Pope. So on a Saturday night I rolled into the parking lot for the “pre-meet”. This is what online daters do to see if they like each other enough to be stuck together for the next few hours. While singing “Break Away” by Kelly Clarkson as I rolled in I decided not to stress and just have a good time.

I called to tell him I was there. Of course he got there first and a few seconds later walking towards me was the cutest guy dripping in everything that The Buckle sold. With a fashion consciousness, deep dimples, great smile and nice bod Wayne was a breath of blue eyed fresh air. All night we played and laughed. He walked close to me, held my hand, rubbed my back as if we had dated for years. Honestly, I couldn’t remember this kind of tenderness before. We both loved country music and The Big Bang Theory. Who could hate Sheldon? We laughed at the same things and Goggled silly questions in the middle of the night. Friends first then more. Wayne and I dated for about 3 months before we decided to call it quits. Living two hours away from each other was a struggle. Kids, life and work….enough said. Funny thing is I wasn’t sad. I realized something that night. Though I lost every basketball game we played that night what I won was so much more. I became more open to life and love, to the beauty of differences. Wayne made me realize what Olivia Pope has been trying to tell us, that race is not a barrier it’s an excuse. Hey, I don’t know who my future husband will be but I’m totally open to the rainbow of possibilities that life can bring.
#whiteguysarehottoo