Foolish

by Anna Black

  Foolish

  Anna Black

  www.urbanbooks.net

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Prologue

  Part One

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Part Two

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Urban Books, LLC

  300 Farmingdale Road, NY-Route 109

  Farmingdale, NY 11735

  Foolish Copyright © 2018 Anna Black

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the Publisher, except brief quotes used in reviews.

  ISBN: 978-1-6228-6673-1

  This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.

  Distributed by Kensington Publishing Corp.

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  Prologue

  “Luck” would have never been a word used when describing November’s life, unless the word “bad” was in front of it. No matter how she tried or what she did, she always caught hell for some reason or another. She didn’t have a clue as to what she had done that was so evil it had caused her a laundry list of incidents. There was situation after situation, and she figured it had something to do with one of her past lives.

  She was easygoing, levelheaded, and she always tried to see the good in all things and situations. She trusted and believed in God, and she didn’t know why He kept putting her through so much. She wasn’t a big churchgoing person, so her momma always commented that that was why she was catching hell. However, she knew in her heart that wasn’t true. She had a few slips here and there, of course, but she repented and always tried to stay on the straight and narrow.

  “God, please tell me why my car has to be totaled,” she said after she hung up with the insurance appraiser. She was just getting herself established after the hellish ride of college and graduate school, and her car being totaled was the last thing she needed.

  She had made it through the evil, lying, scheming roommates, and the back and forth of living with her parents. Then there was the series of boyfriends who were hounds and nutcases. She’d thought after all she had been through, God would cut her some slack, but no, she was facing yet another dilemma.

  She had finally gotten a piece of her own independence, and things were slowly but definitely changing for her. Her new job was going well. Her very old one-bedroom matchbox of an apartment was going to be a thing of the past in about nine weeks, because she was planning to close on her first condo. But then what? Her car was totaled. She was happy that she was alive and able to walk away from the accident unharmed—and she knew to thank God for that—but why there was obstacle after obstacle for her to overcome was beyond her.

  “I can’t make it in this city without a car.” She huffed, dreading that she was going to have to be on the bus. Not that CTA was an awful service; she just didn’t want to have to be on the bus. She worked downtown, so going to work was a breeze on the train, but her social life—not that she had a great one—would be impossible without her own transportation.

  November was stuck. She thought about asking her daddy to sign for a car until after the closing, but after the million favors he had already done in the past, she didn’t want to open her mouth again to ask him for more help.

  That was one of the reasons she was living in a one-bedroom dump. She was trying to finish school and not ask her parents for anything if she could avoid it. When she was living with them, she detested going home, because they were a holier-than-thou couple and it drove her insane. So, when she had the opportunity to move, she moved into her own place. Once she graduated and started working, she knew she wanted to buy a home, so she dealt with her living conditions long enough to save some money to get her new condo. She also had to establish work history, so she waited until after her second year at the company to look for her place.

  Her parents were disappointed that she’d rather live in that awful, horrible apartment instead of living with them. Her daddy asked her 5,000 times to allow him to get her another place and help her with her bills, but she had insisted that she’d do things for herself for a change. Her parents had carried her for too long, and she wanted to finally have her freedom and independence. If her daddy would have been the one to get her a place, he would have wanted to monitor everything she did. Just like he did when she was living at home with them.

  She just could not take it anymore with her parents. Her daddy would screen her calls and interrogate her dates as if she were still sixteen. He even told one of her dates not to bring her home too late. At the time, she was in her last year of undergrad. That was when she had to go, because a sister couldn’t get any action or keep a man while living with those two. If she stayed at a guy’s place to try to get her a piece for a few days, they’d be at the door ready to kick her out, because they still wanted to treat her like a child.

  “God, why now? Why couldn’t my car make it to the day after I close? Why am I in yet another situation, Lord Jesus? Please give me an answer,” she prayed.

  In a couple of days, she had to return the rental. After that, she would be on public transportation because she had no choice or any other options. She wished she at least had a boyfriend who could get her around, but she was single and alone, with no prospects.

  Now she was where she hated to be: in tears. November felt that disaster always had a way of striking in her life. No matter what it was, she could never see herself in anything perfect or nondramatic. When good things happened to her, like being able to walk away from a wreck without a scratch, she knew that God was with her. When she walked out of the hospital after the doctor released her with a clean bill of health, she looked up to the sky and winked at God. She knew He had spared her life to see how much more she could bear.

  Part One

  Chapter One

  “Thank you, sir,” November said, getting out of the passenger side of the Enterprise rental car. It was two weeks after the wreck and her final day of having a set of wheels. Now that the rental car was returned, she had no transportation.

  The clerk had dropped her off at the towing company so she could get her persona
l belongings from her busted-up Honda Accord. Her daddy had given her that car as a gift on the day she graduated college. It was paid in full with only 51,000 miles on it. She loved that car. It had treated her so well, and the thought of having a car note made her angry. She already had enough on her plate. God was surely making it hard for her, she thought as she watched the rental car drive away.

  She opened the gate and walked into the trailer looking for someone to help her, but she didn’t see anyone. “Hello,” she yelled.

  When no one responded, she walked over to the little window to see if she could spot anyone, but instead, her eyes landed on her beat-up car. Her baby was over to the left side of the tow yard, looking so pitiful. She felt like a part of her was gone.

  She walked back out the door to look around outside, and she saw a tall man walking around with a clipboard in his hand. As he got closer, she could see his tanned complexion and muscular arms. She still couldn’t see his face from where she was standing, but she could see his blue uniform and black steel-toed boots. Realizing that she had been watching him for a few minutes, she walked down the trailer steps to get his attention.

  “Hey, hello,” she yelled. He didn’t look her way, so she guessed he didn’t hear her. “Hey,” she yelled again, “are you the only one here?”

  He turned to her. “Give me a moment, ma’am,” he yelled back.

  He started to walk in her direction. His long strides closed the distance between them in a matter of seconds. As he got closer, she could see how good-looking he was. He had nice brown skin and thick eyebrows. His lashes were long, and he had a goatee that looked good on him. When he reached her, she could see he was well over six feet.

  “Hey, I am sorry, ma’am. I didn’t see anyone pull up, so I didn’t know you were here,” he said.

  She followed him up the steps and allowed him to open the door for her. “Oh, it’s okay. I was dropped off by someone.”

  “I see. How can I help you?”

  “Well, I was told by my insurance company that I can get my personal belongings out of my car.”

  “Okay, give me a moment.” He walked around to the other side of the counter to the computer. “This will just take a second. You can have a seat if you’d like,” he offered. She continued to stand at the counter instead of sitting on the vinyl sofa. “Your name?” he asked.

  “Shareese . . . I mean, November. November McKinney.”

  “November McKinney,” he repeated as he typed. “And the year, make, and model of your car?”

  “2014 Honda Accord.”

  “Okay, here it is.” He reached over to a board that hung on the wall behind the counter with dozens of keys hanging on it. He grabbed one. “Come on, follow me.”

  He headed for the door, and she followed him out to her beat-up piece of steel. He opened the door and stepped out of her way. “Here you are, Mrs. McKinney,” he said, giving her the key.

  “It’s Miss, and thank you, Tracy,” she said, reading the name on his uniform shirt.

  “No problem. Do you need help with anything?”

  “No, I’ll be fine. I don’t have much. Everything should fit in my gym bag in the trunk.”

  “Okay, but if you need me, I’ll be inside.” He turned and walked away.

  She emptied the glove box and got her white heart-shaped pillow from the back seat, stuffing it and her CDs and other items into the unused gym bag that had been in her trunk for more than a year. She shook her head. She hadn’t been to the gym in ages. As a result, her size-fourteen booty was just a cheeseburger away from becoming a size sixteen.

  After saying her last good-byes to the Accord, she headed back to the trailer with the bag. When she got inside, Tracy had a form for her to sign.

  He handed her a pen. “Just sign here and initial here for me, and you are good.”

  She did as he instructed and handed the pen back to him. He looked over the document to verify her signature, she guessed, and put it in a file.

  “Umm, how much longer will you be open?” she asked. “I need to call a cab.”

  “A cab?” he said.

  “Yes, a cab,” she repeated.

  “How far are you going?”

  “To Ninety-fifth. I can get the train from there.”

  “Well, I’m closing up now, and I’ll be leaving in about ten minutes. I’d be happy to give you a ride.”

  “Oh, no worries. I’ll be fine.”

  “November, come on. You know how much a cab is gonna cost from here to Ninety-fifth?”

  “Yeah, a lot, I’m sure, but I’ll be cool. And please don’t call me that,” she said with a frown.

  “Call you what? November?” He tilted his head. “That is your name, right?”

  “Yeah, but call me Shareese.”

  “Why? What’s wrong with November?” He smiled.

  “It’s a stupid name and a stupid thing for a mother to do to her kid. To name your child after the month they were born in is crazy.”

  “No, I think it is cool. And November is a cool month. Just think about it. It could have been a month like February.” He chuckled. She didn’t laugh with him, so he stopped. “I think November is a cool name,” he said awkwardly.

  “Well, I don’t. My mom, being as crazy as she is, named my sister April because that is the month when she was born, and then she turned around and named me November. That month being my birthday month made me grow up with a stupid name.” She scrolled through her phone, looking for the nearest cab company.

  “Look, November is an awesome month. That is the month I was born in, and I think that name suits you.”

  “Yeah, whatever,” she said and clicked her tongue.

  She paused the conversation with Tracy and called the cab company. Tracy went into his office and came out with a set of keys in hand. Disappointment rained over her face when they said it would be a wait of forty to fifty minutes. The tow company was going to be closing in ten minutes. She hung up the phone and looked up at the ceiling. Why was God so cruel to her? How was she going to wait at a closed tow company, all alone, for almost an hour?

  Tracy walked around the counter. “I just need to shut down the computer. You call for your cab?”

  “Yeah, but they will be fifty minutes,” she said softly.

  “Listen, November, I’m closing. I can get you to Ninety-fifth or even to your house,” he said, offering her a ride again.

  “Ninety-fifth will be cool,” she said with a half smile. She called and cancelled the cab and waited for him to close up. “Thanks, Tracy,” she said as they went out the back door.

  He helped her into the passenger seat of a very nice Infiniti truck. She was relieved that his vehicle didn’t look like one of the wrecks in the yard.

  “So, what day is your birthday?” he asked.

  Snatched from her thoughts, she turned to him with a small smile. “November twenty-ninth.”

  “No way!”

  “Yes, way,” she confirmed.

  “For real, for real?”

  She looked at him with an eyebrow raised. “Yes, for real.” She wondered why he was so surprised. Why would she lie about her birthday?

  “That is my birthday,” he said.

  “Stop lying,” she said. No way could they have the same birthday. She never met anyone with the same birthday as hers.

  “I’m serious.”

  Unconvinced, she said, “Let me see your ID.”

  He opened the armrest, pulled out his driver’s license, and handed it to her. It was true. Tracy Lamar Stone had been born on her birthday.

  “Wow, Tracy, this is bizarre. I have never met anyone with the same birthday as mine.”

  “Same year too?” he asked.

  “No, I’m a year older, but wow,” she said and handed him his ID back.

  “So, where do you live?” he asked.

  “On Sixty-fourth,” she said and turned to look out the window.

  “Oh, I can take you home if you’d like. I have to go pa
st Sixty-fourth to go home.”

  “No, Ninety-fifth is fine. I don’t wanna put you out,” she said. Although a ride would have been great, the truth was she didn’t want him to see where she lived.

  “No, it’s fine. I have to pass Sixty-fourth, November,” he insisted.

  Finally, she agreed. It wasn’t like she was going to see him again. “Okay, thank you.” She looked at him. He was beautiful, she thought. When he looked at her, she turned forward quickly. She hated he had caught her checking him out. “Where do you live?” she asked.

  “In the West Loop area, on Thirty-fifth near LaSalle.”

  “Really? I’m in the process of buying a condo in that area. I close in about seven weeks, near Park Alexandria.”

  “That’s cool. I know the area. That’s not too far from me. Congrats.”

  “Thanks. That is about the only good thing I’ve got going for myself right now. I need a car, but you know, no car ’til closing.”

  “Yeah, I know. I feel for you. That has to suck.”

  “It does, but what can I do, right?”

  “Yes, you’re right.”

  “So, why do you live so far from your job?”

  “Well, that is my new location. I have another, Stone Cold Towing, on Thirty-first and Michigan.”

  “Oh, so you own the towing company?”

  “Yes. When my pops passed, I inherited the business. I opened the new location about a year ago. I’m working farther out at the new location to get it going. Store number one is doing really well without me being there every day. That one is popular, got a lot of contracts, so I’m trying to build business out this way.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  She gave him directions to her dreadful apartment. They rode in silence until they reached her place.

  “So, Ms. November,” Tracy said when he parked, “again, congrats on your new place, and if you ever need any towing services, just call me.” He handed her a card.

  “Thanks, Tracy. And again, please call me Shareese.”