The Kwanzaa Brunch, a Holiday Novella

by DL White

  We ate and chatted while we waited for actual dinner to arrive.

  “So, you’ve been at Precision for a minute. A lot of people job hop these days. I have. You must really like it.”

  “I do,” Sienna said, before a forkful of food disappeared into her mouth. She chewed, then swallowed. “I guess I like the field. It’s cutting edge, you know? The engineers work hard to not only keep up with the competition, but to best them. To offer capabilities that nobody else is doing.”

  “We definitely have more potential for growth than Double-X. I wish I could tag team Anthony’s area with him. He’s a force.”

  “He is. He’s good at his job. He is a pain the ass, but… by now, I can’t imagine not working with him.”

  I’d scraped the last of the egg dish from my plate but was still hungry. I glanced up at the clock to see how long I had to last before our delivery would have arrive.

  “You two seem close. Is that the long friendship talking? Or the years of working together?”

  “Both, I guess. We’ve learned how to manage our friendship and our work relationship. You’ll develop a relationship with your analyst too. They’re designed to be your right hand, your go-to. I know Anthony’s — well, your accounts now—better than he knows them because I’m in the files every day.”

  “Tell you the truth…”

  I regretted even starting that sentence and knew to my core that I shouldn’t finish it. My attraction to Sienna was about to get me in trouble. Again. But it wasn’t like I could suck the words back in.

  Ah, well. I was a big boy. I could probably handle one more heartbreak.

  “Tell you the truth,” I started again, “I’d love it if I could keep you on my accounts. I don’t want to have to invent reasons to come to your office.”

  “And… you’d want to come see me?”

  “Yeah. Like, every day.”

  After a few beats, she asked, “For like… work reasons?”

  “Or whatever,” I answered. “Inside those doors at Precision, your demeanor says go away. You have this antisocial thing going, like that mean mug you had on when I met you in the elevator.”

  “In my defense, I was grumpy because Anthony made me come downstairs.”

  “And that hoodie you wear that says fuck off…”

  She cackled. “Faith gave me that hoodie! It does not say fuck off, Booker!”

  “You don’t seem like you’d want someone to come see you.” I chuckled and so did she. “You’re a tough nut, Sienna. You… require work. I suppose I like a challenge. A puzzle. I don’t know, maybe that’s my problem.”

  “Your problem?” She asked. At the same time, the doorbell chimed. And, right on time, because I was a little too warm, a little too comfortable, and getting a little too close to opening up to Sienna.

  I got up and followed her to the door, grabbed the bag from the delivery guy and slipped him a nice bill. He smiled in surprise. “Happy holidays to you.”

  I fist bumped the young man and watched him bounce down the hall with some pep in his step. When I walked back inside, Sienna closed the door, then glanced up at me.

  “You know you can tip on the app, right?”

  “Yeah. But my boy Ryan works weekends for a food delivery service. He doesn’t always get his tips, so I like to give cash. That guy is running his own business. Down with capitalism.”

  Sienna laughed, following me back down the hall. “Alright, as we get ready to eat a meal made possible by a capitalist society and delivered by the employee of a wealthy corporation.”

  She paused in the kitchen and grabbed a couple of clean plates, silverware and napkins.

  “Your life is about to change, Booker. Cue is an experience.”

  * * *

  “When you said experience, I was expecting good. That…”

  I wiped my mouth, then my brow, then tossed the napkin onto my decimated plate. I would have licked the sauce off of the porcelain, but I wanted Sienna to still be impressed with me.

  “It’s amazing, isn’t it?”

  “Otherworldly. I halfway wanna call them back, cuss ‘em out for being so good and order more food, just to be greedy.”

  “Well, they’re not going anywhere. And now you know about Cue. Next time we’ll try Smokestack and you can compare and contrast.”

  “Next time? You’re gonna let me enjoy your presence one more time?”

  “Booker…” She giggled, slapping my arm. “Stop that. If I didn’t want you here, you wouldn’t be here.”

  “Is that so?” She bobbed her head in a nod. “Because I bought you dinner?”

  “I don’t date men for dinner. I can buy me dinner. Breakfast, lunch, brunch, linner—”

  “What the fuck is linner? Sound like some shit college girls made up.”

  “Some shit Faith and I made up in college, smartass. It’s the meal between lunch and dinner. It made us feel better about having a bowl of noodles in the middle of the afternoon. Especially after that two o’clock government class freshman year.”

  “You know, that’s one thing I missed out on?” I clicked my tongue. “College friends.”

  “Old friends are old friends. You mentioned Ryan… where’d you meet him?”

  “Work,” I answered. “All my close friends, I met through various jobs. Dishwasher, line cook, construction. It was just me and Meemaw for a long time. I didn’t win any scholarships for college, and social security only goes so far. She definitely couldn’t pay for it, though she wanted to. I worked to help keep the lights on. And when…”

  I stopped talking. Because… why? Why was I telling my business to this woman? We worked together. I didn’t know her and she didn’t know me. I didn’t want her interest in me to be based on a sob story.

  “When…” Sienna prodded, reaching to grab her half empty glass of water and sinking back into the soft cushions on the overstuffed couch. “I’m nosy, so I’m here to listen, if you want to talk, but you don’t have to.”

  She scooted closer, eyes wide. My mouth just… fell open.

  “When she started not being able to breathe, not being able to regulate her heartbeat, things got serious. Doc diagnosed her with heart failure. I needed to be able to pay for care that Medicaid didn’t cover. So I went out and hustled. I did some odd jobs, but my main job was at Double-X, working in customer care for a while.”

  Sienna nodded. “You showed potential, so they moved you up, huh? They make great salesmen.”

  “Because we know the customer and how the software works. Anyway, yeah. I moved up quick, first to tech support, and then sales. And uh… I met this woman. Boss’ daughter. She… was a lot.”

  “Is a lot a code for bitch who destroyed your life?”

  “I actively participated in destroying my life like a clown. I wanted to take care of my grandmother, make her comfortable. Tara’s father owns Double-X Systems. He made her work there, I guess so he could keep an eye on her.”

  An eyebrow hiked up at the mention of Tara’s name. I’d said it that night on the phone, when I had to beg off of dinner with Sienna. A dinner I should have taken her up on, instead of arguing with Tara.

  “Yeah,” I said, confirming the unasked question. “Her. Tara’s father wouldn’t support her if she didn’t work for him. She could get a job or whatever, but if she needed money from Daddy, she had to work at Double-X. They had some kind of deal where if she got married, he would give her a lump sum of money. So, she floated this plan to make her dad think she had fallen in love, that we were engaged. Then she gets the lump sum, and we split it. I have money to take care of my grandma, and she has enough money to never bother her father again in life. So, I went for it. And we almost pulled it off.”

  “Booker…” She smacked her forehead. “No….”

  “Trust me, that’s what all of my friends said. Meemaw, too. She was real disappointed.”

  “So how did it end up? Were you foiled by some kids and a dog in a mystery van?”

  “
Dupree figured out the scam after we got married.”

  “Well, how long did you fake date her?”

  I laughed. “A couple of months. And it wasn’t fake dating, per se. We dated, we had fun, we had sex. But we weren’t in love and that shit wasn’t gonna last forever.”

  “But… he paid for a wedding and everything?”

  “Hell, no. We went to the courthouse and got married. Tara and her dad went back and forth about the money for almost a year. She changed her name to mine, moved me into her apartment, trying to convince him we were actually married.

  “One day, Dupree walked into my office and shut the door. He sat in that chair and said he was going to level with me. That we both knew she scammed me. He asked me what it would take to get me to walk away. I told him about my grandmother, what I needed the money for. Meemaw was real sick by this point, and I was working like crazy to pay hospital bills. She needed an oxygen tank and regular delivery and so many medications…”

  Slowly, I wagged my head. It had been a long time since I laid the whole story out. Once I started talking, no matter how fantastic and outrageous it sounded, I couldn’t stop.

  “He cut me a deal. He would let her think she’d get something if she annulled our marriage. We were still within an allowable time frame and considering the entire thing was a scam, we would have no problem getting a judge to sign the order. If I signed those papers, he would pay me a lump sum. And I would just… walk away.”

  I shrugged. “I guess if I was in love with her, I would have been offended. But it had been a long year of being married to her and not getting the benefit that I had married her for. She obviously felt the same; she had the papers drawn up. I signed. Dupree walked in with a check just as she was signing and handed it to me. When she realized I was getting paid? She blew up.”

  “Wow.” Sienna’s jaw had dropped lower and lower, the more of my story I told. I wouldn’t have believed it either, if I hadn’t lived it. “How toxic. What a fucked up relationship with your father.”

  “Dupree wants her to be someone else’s problem, but he also wants control of her. She wants to be independent, but she also wants Daddy’s money. They play these games with each other, and I somehow got mixed up in it. The entire family is a bowl of nuts. I’m happy to not be related to those folks anymore.”

  “It’s weird knowing inside information like that. Like… that’s who is running that company? How are they doing so well?”

  I shook my head. “How Double-X does the numbers it does is a mystery. It’s good software, but they’re set to topple. A feather could knock them over.”

  “Well, we’re about to topple them, aren’t we?” Sienna winked at me.

  I laughed. “We?”

  “Yes, we. As in Precision. Right?”

  “Right. We.”

  “Lemme ask you something though, Booker…”

  She paused, waiting for my eyes to flick back up to hers. “Do you think there’s another kind of we happening here?”

  My eyes locked onto hers. She was asking exactly what I wanted her to ask. I knew how she wanted me to answer. “What do you think?”

  “Maybe I’m hoping so? But I’m asking, to be clear, because you might have workplace drama PTSD.”

  I laughed at that. “I definitely hope there’s another kind of we happening here. Otherwise… my penis is at the wrong party.”

  She laughed, out loud, in my face. “Oh, God, no…” Her lips still bent into a sultry smile as she leaned into me. “He’s at the right party.”

  “Sienna,” I whispered, just before the distance between us closed. Just before I hit the point of no return — so long as I didn’t get an objection from the other side. She froze. “You heard that whole story, and… you still want to make this move? You know what you’re doing?”

  “Yeah. I heard that whole story and I know exactly what I’m doing.”

  “The last thing I want is more workplace drama. I’ve had enough of that. I sense that you’re a grown woman who can handle her business. And I don’t think you’re trying to scam me. I can’t… not be interested in you, Sienna. But Anthony told me—”

  “Anthony looks out for me, like an overbearing big brother should. I understand his concern, because we work for the same company. But yeah… I’m grown. And so are you. And it’s just you and me right now. He told me that I need to pay attention to men that are paying attention to me.”

  She moved again, so she was even closer, tucking a hand between my thighs and gripping my length through my jeans.

  “Are you paying attention to me, Booker?”

  A slow smile crept across my lips. “Parts of me are paying very close attention to you, Sienna.”

  9

  Sienna

  * * *

  If I’d had the time, or for that matter, any spare brain waves to think about it, I’d have found it ironic that the man that Anthony insisted wouldn’t be into hanging out, hoping we’d have sex ended up hanging out my place and was currently blowing. my. back. out.

  When I’d reached for him earlier, I found what I had hoped to find — a man who was aroused and interested. I didn’t know what Booker hoped to find, but he didn’t seem to have a problem with full breasts and womanly curves. He took my mouth like he had been thinking about that kiss for a long time, holding back until he couldn’t resist a moment longer.

  In minutes, my ugly-cute Christmas sweater was on the floor, followed by his t-shirt and, now and then, another article of clothing from one or both of us. We kissed until our lips were red, raw and chapped. He nibbled on my earlobes and dropped kisses around my neckline, making his way to the rise of my breasts before taking each nipple into his mouth and flicking the tip with his tongue.

  By the time we christened the living room floor, I was white hot, slick between my thighs and writhing, begging him to fuck me. We stopped to take a water break and ended up fucking up against the kitchen counter before we made it to my bedroom.

  “Is there a bed under there?” Booker had joked while standing by, sheathed erection at attention, watching me toss a hundred pillows from the king sized bed to the chair next to it.

  I snickered, tossing a playful glare back at him. “I like to be comfortable. And it looks cute.”

  “Yeah, until you gotta put a hundred pillows back on the bed.”

  “Well, that can be your job.”

  He’d made short work of picking up where we left off in the kitchen, bringing me to near orgasm in a few strokes. I grunted, my throat raw from a long night of pleasured grunting. Booker hovered above me with my legs slung over his strong shoulders, his hips crashing against mine, sometimes grinding his pubic bone against my clit before returning to deep, plunging thrusts.

  “Tell me when you’re coming,” Booker panted, his gaze finding mine. There was fire in his eyes. I sensed by the trembling in his limbs and the way his nose flared that he was on the edge.

  I brought my legs down and reached for him, bringing his face down to mine until we were pressed together, chest to chest. I hooked my heels behind his thighs and rolled my hips up and into his while kissing him, sucking on his tongue.

  He broke the kiss, moaning, “Fuck, Sienna….”

  His strokes quickened to match my rhythm. I gushed at the sound of my name being moaned in the throes of passion. The first curls of orgasm wound through me, starting in the small of my back. My body began its pre-climax arch.

  He dipped his head long enough to press his lips to mine in a fevered kiss before tucking a hand behind my neck and anchoring his body with a fist. His long, hard thrusts returned, pounding his body into mine.

  “Booker! Yeah! Right… right there!”

  I chanted his name and some other sounds that were incoherent, even to me. I felt flush, red-hot and my pussy pulsed, squeezing and contracting around him, which sent Booker over the edge immediately after.

  His head cocked back, and he sucked in a long, loud breath while his body quaked. When he was spent
, he collapsed on top of me, then managed to scoot over so he was only halfway lying across my body. The room was cool, but sweat beaded up on his skin like he’d run a mile in the desert.

  “That… was…” Booker was still out of breath. I hadn’t quite caught up on my air intake either.

  “Best sex of my life,” I declared.

  “Something like that. Yeah.”

  “That’s what you were going to say, right?” I rolled my head in his direction. “Not that this was a mistake, or anything? That we shouldn’t date… or even occasionally fuck, because we work together?”

  “Mmmmm.” He pretended to think, then shook his head. “Nah. I was going to say that tonight was the most fun I have had in a longer time than I want to admit. And that I want to do all of that, all over again. A lot. And that we should definitely, more than occasionally, fuck.”

  He stretched far enough to brush his lips across mine. “And that you should warm me up some more of that quiche in a minute.”

  “Booker…. seriously. If you need an out, you can take it.”

  This was where and when every instinct told me to run. To guard my heart, because I only had one. This was where I threw up the wall and dared someone to climb over it. This place, this point, these feelings that coursed through me… they weren’t unfamiliar. They weren’t even unwelcome. But they made me nervous.

  I don’t like feelings.

  Booker flipped over onto his back, grabbing two of the pillows I’d left on the bed to prop behind his head. He opened his arms, and I sat up, molding myself up against his body. The muscles in his arms rippled as he closed them around me.

  “I don’t want an out, Sienna. I had a taste of what it was like to belong to someone. To take care of someone. To be taken care of. I want that, but for real. I said earlier that you require work. I’ve got my hard hat. My work boots. I’ve never been scared of work.”

  He dipped his head, bringing his lips to mine. I met him halfway, opening my mouth to deepen the kiss. When he pulled back, he grinned down at me.