Chapter 1

 

I SILENTLY STROLLED INTO THE LIVING ROOM and crept around the couch to not wake him up. I grabbed the blanket at the foot of the couch to drape over his trembling body. I couldn’t help but notice how peaceful he looked when he slept. Made me wonder what he dreamt about.

My roommate Meg suddenly bolted from her room, which shook me from my thoughts. She greeted me with the most ugly facial expression ever.

“So what’s going on!? Does he live here now or what?” She snarled. Her words were followed by an unforgivable whiff of hot morning breath.

To make matters worse, she didn’t have her teeth in when she confronted me. By teeth, I meant the retainer she wore that was made with a few false teeth on them that temporarily fixed her holey smile. Days after we moved into that place, she told me about a traumatic childhood story that resulted in her loosing some teeth that never grew back.

I cut my eyes at her then walked into the kitchen as she followed behind.

“Well, good morning to you too Meg. I’m going to need you to chill out though. It’s too early for this,” I calmly replied while standing at the kitchen sink filling a pot up with water.

“Dude, I’m just saying, I’m seeing too much of him. He doesn’t do anything to help around here. He might as well start paying rent right?” she replied.

Before I could respond to her face, she had already walked over to the couch and started screaming, “Good morning Dre!” followed by tapping his feet.

I watched as she startled him out of his sleep. His eyes wide open and clueless to what was going on.

“Are you fucking crazy!? Stop that! I don’t ever say anything about the way you leave our apartment looking! Your hair sheds more than an untrained dog AND you leave your fucking fake teeth or denchers or whatever the fucks just lying out on our guest bathroom counter. That shit scares some of my guests and is just plain nasty!” I shouted.

I felt bad for screaming at her about her false teeth but it was the truth. My guests used to think that I lived with an elderly person when in reality my roommate is in her early twenties.

I loved having Meg as a roommate. She was a sweet artistic hippy that loved being around people. We never had any problems and I thought she loved my boyfriend especially because he always greets her and gives her free weed to smoke. Maybe she was still hurt that one of his friends she thought she kicked it off with, recently rejected her and has been ignoring her for some weeks now.

My boyfriend would sometimes crash at the apartment if I’m too tired to drive him home after our Monday, Wednesday, Friday night class. Those days I was happy that his car was out of commission because it meant that we spent a lot more time with each other. I guess its true that it started to become obsessive but I hated being away from him.

******************

Dre and I met about five months ago during a small party Meg and I threw to celebrate her promotion at work. We invited over a few friends and had plans of cooking and playing drinking games. I was still getting dressed when I heard one of my friends bang on my door.

“Hey girl! When are you coming out here? I brought a friend that I want to introduce you to!” she yelled.

I flung my bedroom door open to be greeted by my friend grinning cheek to cheek with an empty glass in her right hand. I leaned in to hug her and was hit by a strong scent of whiskey. I jumped back to look at her again.

“Girl, what the fuck! Y’all have already started taking shots without me? I’ll be out in a sec though,” I said while pulling my top over my head.

I ignored the part about her bringing someone to introduce me to because I just didn’t care. I was focused on school most of the week and only used the weekends to party a little as a stress reliever. Meg and I were kind of one in the same—maybe that’s why we worked well as roommates at the time. We loved to party and be around people but when it came down to school for me or work for her, we knew what was priority.

During that party though, my friend didn’t give me a choice to ignore the introduction she had planned for me. I was in the kitchen attempting to make myself a mixed drink to catch up to everyone else’s level and then I heard my friend singing my name behind me.

“Roooosemaaaaaryyyy,” she sang. The way my name rolled off her drunken tongue let me know she was up to something.

I turned around to look at her intoxicated ass and saw a tall guy standing beside her.

To my surprise, he was cute! He had a welcoming wide smile, which was inches below his milk chocolate eyes that sparkled with glee. He stood a few inches above six feet and had the build of an athlete. I was fixated on how smooth his tawny skin looked and must have felt.

My friend disappeared after uttering a few words, but I was too mesmerized to care.

I snapped out of it quickly as to not give the wrong impression. He extended his hand and said, “You’ve got a really nice place! I’m Andre, or Dre, I mean…you can say either name.”

I smiled as he stuttered, met my hand with his and replied, “Thank you! My roomie is really into abstract art and plants. She definitely lets it be known.”

I quickly scanned the room and realized that we had too many plants scattered in various places. I also noticed a few new art pieces she must’ve hung while I was out earlier.

“Oh, sorry, I’m Rosemary. Thanks for coming out tonight!”

Standing there eyeing me down he said, “You’re beautiful Rosemary.”

There it was. The typical statement many men say when first meeting a woman. The more I hear it, the more I realize that ‘beautiful’ is just a lousy way to describe someone. Was he trying to woo me? Or seduce me? Could I still just be his friend after this conversation? It’s alright, it still sounded nice.

“Thank you Andre!” I said before quickly changing the subject.

The rest of the night went better than expected. I got to know a little more about Andre Johnson and he got to know me a little too. I think it was our similarities that kept the conversations going.

Andre is the youngest child of three and was raised by a single mother that married a few times during his childhood. Seeing different stepfathers come in and out of his life drew him closer to his mom. He’s definitely a mama’s boy. He also has a son that he had right after graduating high school. At that time we met, he was just juggling getting joint custody, trying to keep playing football in college, and working on starting his own business. The biggest thing about him though… is something that i wish he would have told me from the very beginning…

Anyways, we discovered that we went to the same high school, but he graduated two years before me. It was crazy to also find out that we were now attending the same college. We exchanged numbers before the night ended and both agreed that we weren’t looking for anything more than developing a friendship.

We would spend the weekdays texting up a storm either sending jokes back and forth or asking about school and arranging meetings for small study sessions. He even started coming around a lot more whenever Meg and I threw parties over the weekend.

We were three months into getting to know each other when Meg and I invited him and his friend to join us on a six-hour road trip down to Los Angeles for the weekend. We bonded a lot during that quick trip and grew even closer. When we got back, he took me out on a private Valentine’s Date and the rest is history. We’ve been an official couple ever since.

 

Chapter 2

 

“You know we are late right?” I hissed.

“Yea, however people don’t say things like ‘better late than never’ for no reason,” he wailed his finger in the air, “at least we’re still going to show up Rosemary,” he confidently responded.

“Would you just shut up with that? You love to talk but always say unnecessary things. Now c’mon!” I said while walking away.

Ever since we registered for the same classes….

 

Thanks for reading a little bit from my book titled, “If Only”. Release date for the full eBook will be Dec. 14th, 2016 on Amazon!! Comment below with your thoughts and opinions!!

Description:

If you know Rosemary, she loves laughing until she cries and exploring life with her close ones. She always finds a way to take on more than she can handle, yet always had her close ones around for help. But when a sorrowful summer leaves her close ones to go their separate ways, love finds her and sends her onto a path she didn’t ever fathom. Unwilling to give up her goals and dreams, her strength and determination are put to the test of a lifetime.