Page 6 of Another Constant

Days later

I glared at my half-brother who was once again trying to tell me how I should run my kennel. A man with no funds or any sort of business shouldn’t have felt so comfortable, but that was my fault. I didn’t check him in the door like I would have anybody else. I gave him grace, and I didn’t do that with many.

“I’m just saying, Harlem. You could make a couple racks off this one. Stud him out and ge?—”

“I don’t stud my dogs, Hari. You know that and can you put him down? I thought your father sent you here to work?” I rolled my eyes to the ceiling. My father had called asking if I had any extra work for my older brother to do around the shop. That was lowkey code for he needed him out of his face. I guess he couldn’t look in the mirror for too long.

“Yeah. I’m on break though.” He put the puppy back in the pen.

I rolled my eyes again before I glared at him. “Hari, will you go break down the boxes please? I need to take an important phone call.”

“What? I can’t be in here while you talk on the phone?” he asked, immediately irritated.

“Nah, you can’t. You came here to work, right? You’re not getting paid to stand in here when work has to be done.” I could only hold my irritation at bay for so long before I exploded. I had been this way since I was a kid, let my mama tell it.

He sucked his teeth and stormed out of my office, sure to slam the door behind himself. He was a straight bitch and he knew it.

I was seconds from picking up my phone when it started ringing. Of course it was Caya. I told her I was about to call her and she called me instead. I guess I was taking too long for her impatient ass.

“You said five minutes. It’s been seven.”

I cackled. “I was trying to get Hari out of my office. Now what’s up? What was so urgent that yo?—”

“How did it go?” she asked, sounding like she was in a busy club. She was probably just at her shop.

“How did what go?” I asked, standing and moving to pick up the puppy Hari had just put down. I had to admit he was a cute little thing. Had he been a girl I would have kept him, but I couldn’t. Then again I could have him neutered and make him a pet only. Shit would be a first. The pup was a full suited, blue merle with the cutest eyes. At first glance they were glacier blue, but in the sun they were green crystal. It was magnificent.

“You walked into that damn garage and showed your natural born ass two days ago.”

I laughed. “Well, actually… The owner is gonna fix my car Monday night.” I couldn’t help the smile that spread onto my lips at the thought of Kinga. I didn’t know much about him, but the man was fine. He looked so mean, but when he smiled he had teeth white enough to light up the entire room. The man had to be sculpted, standing at about six-three with the most menacing stare. His locks were triceps length, black from the scalp and a deep auburn from his ear on down. Tight eyes centered his handsome, strong facial structure as well as a few freckles. They by no means made him look any softer because the man looked mean… shit too mean. He was the color of fresh honey with tattoos all over from what I could see. The only place they were missing were his neck and face.

“Hello, earth to Harlem. Where are you?”

“My bad. What did you say?” I asked, coming out of my thoughts and back into the present.

“I said how did you swing that? The owner fixing your shit.”

I shrugged like she could see me. “I don’t know, probably with my charm.”

Caya laughed. “Bitch, you’re gorgeous, but you have as much charm as my left toe. You kinda mean, baby girl.”

“I’m really not. I just don’t like bullshit. And apparently I am because by the time I made it home he was asking me where I wanted my money to be sent.”

“So wait, he reimbursed you? Damn, how did he get the money back?” she asked just as curious as I was.

“Who knows. That was the same thing I asked, but when he called me we didn’t talk about it. We ended up talking about dogs.”

“Waiiittt. Bitch you’re holding out on me. Not only did he offer to fix your car, and reimburse you, but you also had a casual phone conversation? How does he look?”

I ended up giving her the best description of Kinga I could without sounding like I was too into the man. That was the last thing I needed.

“He sounds fine and fuckable. You gonna fuck him?”

“Um no, I’m not. He is the mechanic who is gonna fix my car. That is it, Cay.”

“Girl, bye. You’re on a break with Zax and depriving yourself of pleasure. Not only that but you’re about five days from joining the nunnery. Please get some or, if you don’t do that, give somebody a chance.”

“Um no. How about that? And the fact that you keep saying break is triggering. That man has a baby on the way by his secretary. You sound like him saying ‘break’.” I rolled my eyes to the ceiling just thinking about the bullshit I was scraping off my shoe. One minute I was in a loving, committed relationship, or so I thought, and the next he asked for a break. Like a dummy I gave him one and went about my life, not messing with anyone or anything, just learning to be alone for once. Three months into the break Zax came back saying he loved me. We were together for three months before he had the balls to tell me about the baby he had on the way. It was his belief that since it was a break baby, it didn’t count as cheating. Too bad it did to me and nothing he could say would make me think otherwise. Honestly, the situation was messy, and only kept getting worse because instead of addressing it and telling him this break was indefinite, I was still having sex with him and doing couples shit up until last month when I found out I was pregnant. I aborted it and the only person to know about it was Caya because I refused to tie myself to him. That was my first and last time doing anything like that. I didn’t believe in abortion, yet I’d used it to rectify one of my reckless ass decisions.

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