A Menu For Loving

by Olivia Gaines

  “You are in deep thought this morning, Daddy,” Jennifer said.

  He flipped the page of the paper. It was Wednesday. He had an early tee time today. “Yeah, I am headed out to the links in a few.” His eyes were now on her. “What are your plans today?”

  “Not sure yet. I was thinking of maybe heading to Tony’s and having dinner with him and Sasha tonight,” she said in a low tone.

  “You can cook dinner and have them over here, it is your house,” he told her as he looked over the rims of his glasses.

  “I know, Daddy....”

  “When you get married, they are moving in here right?”

  Ah nuts! She wasn’t prepared to have this conversation now. He knew it, but Johnny was ready for the conversation, therefore they were going to have it.

  “We are planning to discuss it today actually, Daddy. Tony wants to move up the wedding date. He wants to get married right away versus later in the year,” she said.

  Johnny’s face lit up. “Why, are you expecting something to change real soon?”

  It took her a second to understand what he meant, but her father was hoping she was pregnant. What is wrong with this picture?

  “No, Daddy, I am not expecting. Tony is just a bit old-fashioned and he doesn’t feel comfortable with us ... you know ... um ... he wants us to be a family and live under one roof,” she said.

  He stood up to get himself another cup of coffee. “Just don’t rush into another marriage unless you are ready, Jenny.”

  “I’m not young and lonely like I was in LA. Michael was slick and clever and he used me to get what he wanted. Tony and I want the same things,” he said.

  “Even so, I am still going to have him sign a prenup. The bulk of your assets, we will move to a trust for your children so he will not have access to any of your funds,” he told her with a calm determination.

  “That’s fine, Daddy, but Tony isn’t about material possessions. After meeting his family, I am convinced that he simply wants someone to love. His mother was a bit of a cold fish, so I doubt she was the type to pass out loads of kisses and praise. His sister is married to the minister of their church, and she, too, is an odd duck with no kids. Poor Sasha just wants a mom and someone to guide her and show her the way to womanhood,” she confided.

  “Are you ready to be her mother, Jenny? Are you looking forward to it?”

  Jennifer poured herself a cup of coffee. “I am ready for my own family and, yes, I am. I look forward to helping her grow into the woman she wants to be. I look forward to sharing my life with them both.” She saw the sadness in her father’s eyes.

  “I am sorry, Daddy,” she told him.

  “Sorry for what, pumpkin?”

  “That I got in the way of you finding someone to share your life with, that I came in between you finding a new wife. I know I ran off a lot of women ...”

  Johnny was laughing. “Some of those women needed to be run off!” He walked over and touched her cheek. “I am a grown ass man, you never stopped me from doing anything. I never remarried because I didn’t want to. I never brought women into this house because it was disrespectful and technically, not my house.”

  She squeezed him tightly. “This is our home. You paid the bills, the taxes, the remodels ... it’s your house, too.”

  “Legally, my name is not on it and it belongs solely to you. Once you marry and Tony and Sasha are ready to move in, I will move out,” he told her.

  Jennifer was taken aback. “Move out to where? You have lived in this house for nearly 40 years. Stop being ridiculous!”

  “I am handing you over to your husband and you will reside under his roof, under his care. I don’t need to live under the same roof as you begin your life as man and wife,” he told her.

  Then he grinned really wide. “I am moving into the pool house. I had it remodeled last year.”

  Johnny Taylor. Her father. He was a great man and him living in the pool house was okay with her. Tony would have to be okay with it, as well.

  Petit Fours...

  It was a quiet Wednesday morning when Tony arrived to take a good look at the house. It was going to be his new home and some adjustments would need to be made before he and Sasha moved in, but in general, Jennifer was looking forward to sharing with him some decisions she was thinking of making. I have to discuss this with my husband. My husband. Holy Toledo! I am going to be married! Again.

  There were so many things she wanted to discuss with him today, but her main concern was that they get through the morning and remained dressed. When the doorbell rang, she felt like it was prom night and her date had arrived.

  “Good morning, beautiful,” he said as he lifted her in his arms and kissed her with everything he had. He gave her the kind of kiss a sailor gives his woman when he returns from sea after six months of duty. Jennifer held on tight as her fingers tugged at his hair and she returned his affection.

  “Good to see you, too,” she told him as he put her feet back on the floor.

  “Come, let me show you the whole house, share with you some ideas I was thinking about to make this our home and get some feedback from you on your ideas,” she told him.

  His eyebrows went up as they headed towards the kitchen, which she said was in great shape and required no work. There was a small office off the mudroom, which the housekeeper used. “Currently, she comes by three times a week. I’m probably going to reduce that to once a week,” she told Tony, who remained quiet.

  The downstairs also held her father’s office. “Daddy is moving out to the pool house, so this will become your new office.” Tony stopped her.

  “He’s not staying?”

  She touched his arm. “He’s moving into the pool house. You will be my husband and the head of this house. My father will maintain his independence and have his own space. This house will be our space.”

  She pulled him by the hands up the stairs. There were four bedrooms upstairs; hers was the most modern with a private bath. “This will be Sasha’s room. The mattress in relatively new and the furniture is sturdy. If she wants, or likes the furniture in any of the other rooms, we can swap out sets. I don’t like mismatched though,” he said as a matter of fact.

  Next she pulled him to the far end of the hall. “This is the master suite.” She showed him to the two large walk-in closets, the oversized master bath with Jacuzzi tub and separate shower. He loved the his-and-her water closets. “But this furniture has to go. I hate the mirrored head board.”

  Tony finally started to smile. “I actually like it. I can see my lovemaking face when I am taking you on a trip to Smileyville,” he said as he gnawed on his bottom lip, while pumping his hips.

  “Whatever!” she laughed.

  His eyes were on the California king size bed. “That is a big ass bed!”

  “Yeah, my parents had planned for four children, but my father’s career took off and my mother took ill, so ...” she said with some melancholy in her voice.

  “Which side of the bed do you prefer?” he asked her as he fiddled with her hair.

  “I prefer the side closest to the bathroom,” she said as her breath caught. He was standing so close.

  “And I like the side closest to the door,” he said as he lowered his head and nibbled on her neck.

  Jennifer pulled away. “If you don’t stop, we will never get through all the things we need to get cleared up today.”

  His hands slid down her waist to rest on her butt. “I know, but it has been a week. I want you so bad I can barely concentrate on what you’re saying.”

  “Let’s head downstairs. I think the bed is making it hard for you to focus,” she told him as she pulled away.

  “No, looking at the bed is making me hard for you,” he waggled his brows.

  It took a bit of finesse, but she managed to get him down the stairs to the kitchen, where she made him some tea. There were lots of details to discuss, especially with school starting in a little over a month. Sasha would be startin
g high school in the fall, and paperwork had to be done to get her enrolled in a new school district. But Tony was distracted.

  “Jen, I, um, got a job offer as a project manager for a graphic design firm. I would be making a lot more and guaranteed good hours, in at nine, home by six. Considering the cost of upkeep on this house, as well as, I am sure, a hefty mortgage, I am going to take it,” he told her.

  “Tony, take the job if you want the job. There is no mortgage on this house. My dad had solar panels installed years ago, so utilities are low. The guy who maintains the yard also takes care of the pool.” She frowned a bit. “I think my dad gave him a scholarship or his firm sponsored him through school or something....” She was still frowning. “My father does not pay full price for anything!”

  This made Tony feel a lot better. “What about you? What have you decided about your restaurant and what is next for you?”

  “I want to sell it,” she said.

  “You sure?”

  Her eyes were wide. “Yes, I am sure. I have been a certified chef since I was 20 years old. I have been stuck in a kitchen for 13 years. I am over it. Waaayyy over it. I have a few ideas I wanted to run by you.”

  “I’m listening,” he said. By the end of her lists of ideas, Tony was so turned on he was afraid to stand for fear of snapping off his children maker. Her list started with combining their honeymoon with a family vacation for the three of them to Orlando. This included bringing along Emily, Sasha’s best friend, to share a hotel room and someone for the teen to hang with at Universal Studios.

  Her list also included two new business ventures. The first was a line of natural seasoning combinations of sea salt and herbs. “I was thinking, in the summer time, on weekends, we could rent an RV and maybe hit some southern food festivals like the Chittlin’ Strut or the Alabama Shrimp Festival and get a booth. I can also sell the seasonings to local small restaurants.” She asked him to design a logo.

  The second idea he thought was even more brilliant than the first. “You know, I thought about Ebony and her inability to cook. I mixed that idea with Sasha and her desire to want to eat healthy. I am going to combine the two.” She told him about her website idea to have Sasha maybe do two online cooking demonstrations per month via video of simple but classy dishes with few ingredients.

  “We will have recipes, tutorials and merchandise, which is where we will make the money. I want to call it the Savvy Teen,” she told him.

  Tony’s mind was reeling. “You are going to do all of this?”

  “Yes. I am ready to be a wife and mom. I am ready to have some babies. I can run these two simple businesses from the house, be home when Sasha gets out of school, all the while burping Anthony, Jr.,” she said with a coy wink.

  He was more than ready to start making his son. His body told her so when he stood up. “Jennifer, kiss me and tell me you love me.”

  “I love you Tony P,” she told him as she kissed him.

  Slowly, he pulled away from her embrace, and took a small box from his back pocket. He took to one knee. “Jennifer Marie Taylor, I cannot imagine a more perfect wife. Will you do me the honor of consenting to be my wife and share the rest of our lives together?” He opened the box to reveal a stunning half-carat pink diamond that sparkled like the sun on a crystal chandelier.

  Her eyes were full of tears as she said yes. “Tony, anytime ... any place ... any moment of the day or night, I will be yours.”

  “Good, get over here and kiss me with yo’ fine ass,” he said as he slipped the ring on her finger.

  Neither could have imagined a random meeting in a bar could have led to this. Tony P was the right man for Jennifer and he knew his prayers had been answered. Jennifer had created the perfect menu for loving him and his daughter.

  Epilogue...Coffee & Liquor

  The wedding was small and took place in July in Tony’s family church, but was officiated by the Rev. Willie Hammonds, Jennifer’s pastor, who had also baptized her as a child. Johnny walked her down the aisle as Ebony, Cleo and Sasha served as her maids of honor and Gloria the matron of honor. Katie Mae wore a dress to the church that was inappropriately cut too low and sent the women in the church into a tizzy and the menfolk in one as well.

  Tony’s groomsmen were his brother Tino, Waldo and Domini, who had taken to calling him Unk. Raheem served as the best man. A best man who was upset that the wedding was in the middle of the afternoon and there was no live band, or dancing because the reception was in the basement of the church.

  It was fine with Jennifer, who much like her husband, didn’t believe in a great deal of waste, which also meant the two decided to forgo a bridal shower since between their two homes, they had more than they needed. Tony’s home became a rental property and the perfect place for Katie Mae to raise Raja and Domini. The small amount of excess from the rent they paid took care of the mortgage and the rest was placed into a college fund for Sasha.

  That money was needed because the four years sped by. Sasha was accepted to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. As Tony was packing up one child to head off to college, Jennifer was packing up their son to start pre-K. Anthony, Jr. looked a great deal like his father, but his sister, Dianna, was a small replica of her mother. A darling little girl who had her father wrapped around her finger and turned her grandfather into a baby talking babbling idiot.

  Tony, who was happy to be out of the house and working alongside people, absolutely flourished in his new job. He was promoted to Senior Project Manager in less than two years and made Junior Vice President in less than four. The special dinners at his home with he and his wife were coveted invitations that his employees worked hard to earn. The summer pool parties at their home were like a social event of the season. Especially when people found out that his father-in-law was Johnny Taylor, one of the most noted attorneys in Atlanta.

  Johnny began working part time with Gloria on several projects and was out of the house at least four days a week and Wednesdays were still his golf day. His hunting days became less frequent as the arthritis made it hard for him to stay out in the cold for long periods of time. Tony bought an RV that he would take out to gaming sites so that he and his father-in-law could get in at least a few hunting days together. It was the same RV they used on the weekends in the summer to hit the road for food festivals, where Jennifer sold out of her sea salt spices. The most noted one was the lavender and lemongrass, which she also had made into a creamy lotion and body scrub that women loved. This one she called grasses of lavender.

  And as for Jennifer, she could not be happier. Once a week, she would have Jacqueline over to help out with the babies, even though she didn’t need it. Upon hearing her mother-in-law singing one evening to Anthony, Jr., she inquired about her vocal abilities. Once she told Jennifer she had wanted to be a singer, Jennifer made a few phones calls.

  As an early Christmas present, she got a sitter for the kids and drove her mother-in-law over to a bare bones looking building. Inside was a music studio that handled many of the Atlanta-based artists for Arista records. Jacqueline recognized the famous artist and his babyface as he asked her to get in the booth to get a level check on her voice. Jennifer had contacted the first client she started out with who owned the hip hop record label, that Tony had did some work for as well, and got her mother-in-law a gig singing backup on a couple of jazz singers’ Christmas albums.

  All in all, she was happier than she had ever been. Especially when she learned to let go and understand that there is no perfect recipe for a happy life. If anything, the best we can hope is to create well-rounded courses for a menu for loving.

  - Fin –

  I hope you enjoyed this Slivers of Love Book. I know, I know, if it did not have the heat you were expecting, don’t worry, I have some more goodies coming up for you.

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Olivia Gaines is the author of numerous best selling novellas and books including Two Nights in Vegas, A Few More Nights, and have had several number one best sellers with The Blakemore Files including Being Mrs. Blakemore and Shopping with Mrs. Blakemore.

  She lives in Augusta, GA with her husband, son and snotty cat, Katness Evermean.

  Connect with Olivia on her FaceBook page at http://on.fb.me/1eorEAr or her website at http://oliviagaines.com.

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