And that’s how I end up standing in line to pick up a pair of too damn expensive tennis shoes at the mall where I work on my day off! Like…what is wrong with me? The dick and pussy cannot be good enough to have me queueing up to buy some sneakers the twins decided they just have to have. But clearly, it is because here my goofy ass is.

I am so shook when I see how much these damn shoes are about to cost Darren and Nadia — ‘cause it sure as shit could not be me and my anemic ass checking account — but still! My god, what is going on with me? I want to call my mother and tell her that I understand why she used to look at me sideways when I asked for expensive and frivolous things, but that would involve a little more explanation than I’m willing to give at seven in the goddamn morning, an hour before the Pretzel Castle is even open!

“I cannot be this goddamn into them,” I mumble to myself. But I mean, clearly, I am.

“Hey, how you doin’, Ms. Lady,” a man who looks older than my father says while heading toward the back of the line. He’s wearing a pair of dirty scrubs for some unknown reason and has a discolored gold grill in his mouth.

I hold up a hand. “Absolutely not. It’s too damn early.”

A few people chuckle around me, but I don’t pay them any mind; it really is too damn early. It’s so early that I don’t even give a shit when he calls me everything but a child of God while he heads right on back to the end of this long ass fucking line.

“That was funny, ma,” the man behind me says.

“It’s too early for you too, bro,” I say without even turning around.

“What about me?”

The lightning in my veins when I hear Nadia’s voice goes straight to my clit along with most of the blood in my body. My pussy is throbbing by the time I turn around and see her. And my God, if she isn’t a vision.

Her cute little corporate sista style is a tailored pantsuit with an Ankara print button-up, and I’m loving it. I make a note to amend my fantasies so that I’m not just peeling Darren out of his suit, but Nadia as well.

“What are you doing here?”

Her full berry-tinted lips lift into the warmest smile, and she extends a red reusable travel mug to me. Red is my favorite color, but I refuse to think about that too hard.

“I had a meeting cancellation, and I was able to shift my schedule around. I came to relieve you.”