Just Marry Me Already (BWWM Romance Book 1)

by Ayo Campbell

  “Just one,” Justin said.

  “Conservative,” Bootsy said, nodding. “I like that. Now help me clean. Breakfast kids are coming.”

  “I need to find a newspaper,” Justin said, as he strolled out the door.

  “Just like a man,” Bootsy said.

  “So, where’s Collie?” Vanessa asked.

  “Dunno. Clean my kitchen.”

  But just then, the doorbell tinkled as the breakfast club streamed in. Bootsy stormed into the kitchen. Vanessa donned an apron, and started the coffee.

  “Be with you in a minute,” she called.

  Justin showed up after the rush. He was shabby-Justin, and as shabby-Justin, he didn’t look at Vanessa. His head was always in his coffee and crossword.

  The lunch customers came in, and there was still no Collie. Vanessa handled the trade, and she kept the tips in the jar.

  “We need more lettuce,” Bootsy said. “All out. Go now.”

  “I can’t leave you alone here,” Vanessa quipped as she restocked the relish jars.

  “I handled the Viet Cong,” the woman replied. “When they were young, hungry, and mean. I can handle anything that Roxy’s has to offer. Go. And pick up some carrots too. We’ll still be here. Go.”

  “Where the hell is Collie?”

  “Language!”

  When Vanessa returned with her groceries, Collie was back. She was fresh and dressed in lavender spandex pants and a white tank top that was cropped so that it hung from her breasts. Her hair was down, wet and shimmering, and she had a smile on her face that looked like the cat who had just eaten the canary – with Tabasco sauce. And then Vanessa saw that there were strange marks on her wrists.

  “Where the hell have you been?” Vanessa demanded.

  “Language,” Bootsy called.

  “Fuck it!” Vanessa cried. “I get broken into and almost raped, then I had to spend a morning with the police, then I had to cover for your ass all this morning, and all that time I am at odds wondering what the hell has happened to you, and then I find you back here all dressed like you wanna go out slutting—”

  “Hey!” Collie cried. “I wasn’t slutting!”

  “Then what were you doing?”

  “That’s my business!”

  “Your business,” Vanessa said, “is seeing to this business.”

  “Easy,” Justin said. “Ladies, let’s just all take a breath.”

  And then Vanessa remembered; she had forgotten all about Kaitlin.

  “Colleen,” Vanessa said in a new, smaller tone, “tell me you didn’t.”

  “Didn’t what?”

  “Tell me that you didn’t go and see that Kaitlin woman.”

  “So, what if I did?”

  “Customers in the door,” Justin said.

  “I got ‘em,” Collie said.

  She went to the table. Vanessa poured herself a cup of coffee and leaned against the counter by Justin.

  “Vanessa,” Justin said. “Please, I know that you have been through a lot in the past, and you have been through a lot in the last few hours. But, do not – do not piss off Colleen. She is your life line.”

  Vanessa snorted.

  But Collie was so smooth and so cool. She had one table, and she glided. From the soda works to the table, then from the kitchen to the table, she seemed to waltz as if she were striding on clouds.

  “You know,” Justin said, “if you look closely, that is the stride of a satisfied woman.”

  “Okay,” Vanessa said. “She got laid.”

  “And isn’t that a happy thing?” he said, looking to his crossword.

  “What’s a four letter word for a woman,” she asked, “ending in –u-n-t?”

  “Aunt. And I should slap your face.”

  Vanessa hung her head. She knew that she deserved that.

  Chapter 11

  Vanessa was feeling half angry, half embarrassed, and half frustrated. She didn’t understand how she felt about Collie going to see Kaitlin in her stead, and she was puzzled that Kaitlin took her in. And now she had angered the man who she – what? Loved?

  Her feelings for Justin were the most complex in her mixed up brain. She very much enjoyed his company, and it was so good to be able to do silly things like having ice cream, or feeding ducks in the park. But the reprimand that he had just given her had crushed her in a way that she hadn’t expected.

  “I – I’m sorry,” she finally said. “It’s just that – you’re right, that last few days have been an emotional rollercoaster.”

  “Go splash some cold water on your face,” he said. “You look flushed, and that’s something given your complexion.”

  She nodded and went to the women’s room. The water did do some good. But after she dried, she looked at herself, long and hard. She knew what she had to do. She had to apologize to Collie, and then she had to call Kaitlin.

  Then, from the diner, there was a small commotion. She heard something crash and she dashed to see. What she saw was confusing. The few patrons in the diner were craning their necks out the windows. Collie was at the door, leaning out and looking down the street. Justin’s stool was lying on its side, and there was a tall, blonde woman standing in the middle of the room, chuckling softly. She wore a long trench coat. She doffed the coat, and beneath she wore a finely tailored silk skirt-suit. She set herself down at an empty table, so femininely. But the moment that Vanessa saw the camera around the woman’s neck, Vanessa knew. She darted into the kitchen, and started a load of dishes.

  “What the–heck was that all about?” Collie asked as she brought in an order. “Justin just went crazy. He was staring out the window one minute, and the next he was flying out the door. He didn’t even pay.”

  “Maybe he saw someone he knew,” Vanessa suggested.

  “Like some long lost lover?” Collie quipped.

  “You got too much sex on your mind, girl.”

  “So?”

  She left with a cup of gumbo.

  The dishes were done in short order, so Vanessa stayed in the kitchen helping Bootsy. She did not want to encounter that woman. Through the serving window she watched the dining room. Talia sat so regal, like she owned the place. Vanessa fumed. She didn’t like that she was uncomfortable in her own place. She knew that, somehow, the woman had tracked Justin down to Roxy’s and was stalking him. She wondered how long she would stake out the place, and if she had told any other paparazzi. Vanessa felt that if she went out there, her temper might get the better of her.

  She was almost certain that Justin had seen the woman coming, and so bolted – almost certain. Something in her nagged that maybe he had been more offended by her off-color remark than she had thought. She shook that thought away.

  Then she saw Collie chatting with Talia. Collie had a puzzled look on her face. Talia handed the girl her card, and Collie shrugged and slipped the thing in her pocket. She wrote in her notepad, and then came into the kitchen.

  “Customer wants to know if the shrimp is fresh,” she said.

  “Of course shrimp is fresh,” Bootsy said. “Every day. Fresh delivery.”

  “Then she’ll have the New Orleans style with rice.”

  “What were you two talking about?” Vanessa asked.

  “It was weird,” Collie answered. “She asked about Justin. Wanted to know if he was a regular.”

  “What did you tell her?”

  “I was non-committal. But then she gives me her card, and, get this, she offers me a hundred dollars if I’d give her a heads up the next time he came in. A hundred dollars!”

  “Cancel the shrimp,” Vanessa said. “That bitch ain’t staying.”

  She burst out of the kitchen before Bootsy could yell at her. She stormed straight to Talia.

  “Heyyy,” Talia said, beaming and smiling. “I remember you from the club. You work here? No wonder Mr. Goodman–”

  “I own the place,” Vanessa said trying to keep cool. “And you are not welcome here. Leave, right now.”

 
; “This is a public facility. You can’t kick me out.”

  Vanessa pointed to the sign that read We reserve the right to refuse service to ANYONE.

  “But your food is so good,” Talia said, unfazed.

  “Out.”

  “And if I refuse?”

  “I’ll call the cops.”

  “Okay,” she said, shrugging and taking up her purse. “But, I’ll be back. You are a very pretty woman. It’s no wonder Mr. Goodman–”

  “I said out!” Vanessa cried.

  “Ciao, baby.”

  But as she stood to leave, Talia took up her camera and focused on Vanessa. Vanessa didn’t think. She grabbed the woman by the collar and gave her the bum’s rush out the door. Along the way, she yanked the camera from around her neck, and smashed it on the sidewalk. Talia screamed, and started cursing. Vanessa slammed the door.

  She strode past the astonished patrons and into the kitchen. Bootsy was staring at her. Collie was looking at her watch.

  “The average police response time in this neighborhood is twelve minutes,” she said. “I’d get on a bus. Fast.”

  Vanessa grabbed her purse. She wished again for a back door.

  “There she is,” Talia was yelling at anyone who’d listen. “That’s the woman who assaulted me!”

  Vanessa walked quickly down the block, dialing for an Uber car along the way. She met it around the block, even as a police patrol car was tearing down the street, its lights flashing. She ended up at the park.

  She bought herself a chili dog, sat on a bench, and shook her head, wondering what she was doing. She ate her hot dog, but it didn’t sit well. Her stomach was in knots. She thought yet again about grabbing some cash and—and then she knew what she had to do. She walked to the police station.

  “I think that you’re looking for me,” she said to the cop at the desk.

  After they booked her for assault and battery, she was mug shot, fingerprinted, and then allowed to use her phone to call Arty. She got his cell, and he agreed to help bail her out. She was put in a holding cell. The mood in there was morose. There was a television hanging from the ceiling playing Sponge Bob Square Pants. Strange irony, she thought. She sat on a vacant bunk, holding her head in her hands.

  “You don’t look like a hooker,” a woman said, sitting next to her.

  “I’m not,” she answered. “I’m an idiot.”

  “Ain’t we all,” the woman said, laughing.

  But Vanessa truly believed that she was a champion idiot. She had offended one of the women in her life who she truly trusted, and she had rejected the man she thought that she loved, out of some warped pre-teen dream.

  Justin was right. They liked each other. They enjoyed each other, and they were magical in bed together. So what if marrying him would be out of convenience? Time and chance decide who you meet in your life, but your heart decides who, among those chance meetings, you want.

  She thought back to how she had felt when Justin said that he should have slapped her for that ugly comment. She remembered instantly regretting her words, and in that moment, she wanted that man to never have heard that.

  Sitting alone in that dreary cell, surrounded by women who had, just like her, made a very big mistake, and were wishing that that thing would never have been, Vanessa reflected on the mess she had made.

  She had always handled things in her life herself. She had always kept her own counsel. She had always made her own way, made things right when they went wrong, and had done it all her way. But the challenges that she had faced there in Boston, she had overcome because of forces out of her control.

  She had had no hand in the small fortune that her mother had left.

  Other people were trying to gather all the pieces so that she might get that small fortune.

  It was Collie – it was her best friend, who had urged her to deal with Kaitlin, and it was Justin who steered her course in that dealing, and she had so very much enjoyed that course.

  It was even her mother’s money, stashed in that safe, that had lifted such a weight from her heart, and it was Justin’s savvy that had physically saved her that night that the weight came crashing at her.

  In terms of handling things herself, she was batting zero. The one act that she had taken on her own had landed her in jail. She forced herself to admit that, despite her fierce sense of independence, she had to rely on other people; even that eel of a lawyer.

  “Vanessa Gaye!” an officer called.

  She was surprised at how quickly she was standing before a judge. Because of her clean record, she was allowed out on a signature bond.

  “It’s who you know,” Arty said on the cab ride to Roxy’s. “As it happened, I was in the building, and I managed to get you on the docket. I pulled a few strings.”

  “I thank you,” she said, softly.

  “So, have you given any thought to that loan?”

  “It turns out that a loan won’t be necessary any longer. But I thank you for the kind offer. And, I’d like to show my appreciation by buying you dinner at the diner.”

  “I hear the food is excellent.”

  But Roxy’s was mobbed, people were waiting. Collie was hustling her buns off, and Josie was frantically bussing tables.

  “There you are!” Collie called. “Get an apron!”

  She gave Arty Justin’s stool and went to work. She didn’t see him leave without ordering anything, but she was glad that he was gone. She understood that he had only two things on his mind: her money and her body.

  Between darting from the order window to the tables, Vanessa learned from Collie that when the cops arrived, a crowd had gathered. Talia was telling a wild tale, and people were chuckling. All that while, Collie had the door open, and Bootsy had a fan blowing lush Cajun aromas out of the kitchen. Then, when everything had cleared, the crowd started streaming in.

  “Psychology,” Bootsy said. “People all charged up watching cops with a pretty white woman. Give ‘em good things to smell, the soul takes over.”

  “It’s called the lizard-brain,” Collie said.

  The place hadn’t cleared until after ten. The four collapsed at a table, and sat to their own suppers. Collie was staring out at nothing, that small smile still on her face. Vanessa sheepishly looked at her.

  “I’m sorry, Collie,” she said. “I shouldn’t have gotten up in your business. That was, well, it was just wrong. You’re my friend, and that was just stupid.”

  “Funny,” Collie said, “how sitting in a jail cell focuses the mind.”

  “Yeah. And I tell you, it’s just that the past two days have been kind of crazy, and…and I really was concerned about you. I sorry I copped an attitude.”

  “That’s nice,” Collie said, nodding. “I mean about being concerned about me and all. Attitudes can be fickle. No harm done. But, Bootsy filled me in on your little adventure with that loan shark. Did Justin really blast those animals?”

  “He did. He’s my hero…”

  And so Vanessa told Collie all the details, and soon they were talking and giggling like teenagers.

  “So, what about you?” Vanessa asked. “Did you really go see Kaitlin?”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  “So, um,” Vanessa said, glancing at Josie. “Did she – I mean, did you…meet with her?”

  “She tied me up,” Collie said, her grin broadening.

  Josie coughed on his soda.

  “Say what?” Vanessa cried.

  “It’s a gas. You should try it sometime. There’s nothing like being brought to a long, slow orgasm, and not being able to do a thing about it.”

  Collie shivered as she spoke. Vanessa stared.

  “There is a child at the table,” Bootsy snapped.

  “So? He’s got the internet.”

  Josie blushed. Collie grinned. Vanessa chuckled, and Bootsy glowered.

  “And,” Collie added, clutching her breasts and shaking them, “Kaitlin loves these. I should show you the rope marks.”

&nbs
p; Josie turned bright red.

  “I’m going back next Monday,” Collie added. “This could be the start of something big.”

  “Holy…” Vanessa said with a sigh. “I guess – good for you.”

  “Oh, and she said to tell you that she wants to talk with you. That you should stop by the club Saturday night. She says that it’s important.”

  “Did she say—”

  “She just said for you to stop by.”

  “Oh. Okay. Thanks.”

  Just then, the bell over the door tinkled. Vanessa looked up, and then she flew to Justin, wrapping her arms around him and holding him tight.

  “The door was open,” he said. “Can I get a cup of coffee?”

  “You can have more,” Vanessa said. Then she pulled away, took his face in her hands, looked him straight in the eyes, and simply said, “Yes.”

  The look on his face melted her heart, and right there and then, in front of everybody, she kissed him long, slow and deep.

  “There is a child–”

  “Oh, shut up, Bootsy,” Collie said.

  Josie giggled.

  “It’s okay,” Vanessa said, turning to them. “We’re getting married.”

  “Chet teit,” Bootsy said, softly.

  “Holy shit,” Collie said.

  “Cool,” Josie said. “We should celebrate. Bootsy’s got a bottle of rum in the pantry.”

  “How you know that?” Bootsy demanded.

  “Hey guys?” Collie said.

  “You’re always sending me in there for stuff.”

  “Guys?” Collie put in.

  “That is for cooking, not drinking.”

  “Yeah, but this is a celebration.”

  “Guys,” Collie cried. “This is great! This just the absolutely, most perfect thing that can be.”

  “Thank you, Colleen,” Justin said. “It’s very kind of you to say.”

  “What? Oh, yeah, congratulations and all that. But listen, this could be the most excellent thing! Josie, go grab the rum. Sit down guys, I got an idea…”

  That next morning, Collie had gone totally Goth. She had pale make-up with deep, dark eyeliner and ruby red lips. She wore a very tight, low cut tee shirt with a skull and cross-bones emblazoned in glitter, black leather hot-pants, black fishnet stockings, and combat boots. Her wrists were bangled with leather studded cuffs and she wore a wide leather collar with the word Slave embossed.