Page 1 of Business Casual

Chapter 1

I squeezed my eyes shut. My inner peace was disrupted, and rage bubbled up inside me. I knew my day wasn’t going to go as planned when my twist out didn’t come out the way I’d hoped. I knew it wasn’t going to be the best day, but I didn’t expect it to go to Hell. I swallowed a scream and opened my eyes again.

The side of my car had a scratch that looked like a key dug its way from the headlight to the taillight. My eyes shut, unable to stand the sight of it. I counted to ten before looking again.

It was still there.

My sexy red two-door Ferrari had an angry, jagged stripe.

I stood in the parking lot outside of the club, my eyes bouncing around the small crowd that had gathered.

“Who did this?” I shrieked for the second time.

I was sure most of the drunk people looking back at me thought I was drunk too. But I wasn’t. I was mad. No, I waslividthat someone intentionally destroyed the custom cherry-red paint that made my car stand out.

“What’s that?” a woman’s voice cut through the murmur of the crowd. “Under the windshield wiper.”

I moved to the front of my car and picked up the nightclub flyer. I was about to toss it when I noticed there was writing on the back.

“Leave my man alone,” I read aloud, my face crumpled in confusion. “What?”

And then it hit me.

Katrina.

Katrina Little, my ex-boyfriend Avery’s girlfriend, left half an hour before I decided to leave. Inside the club, her childishness showed in the way she kept pointing and glaring at me all night. Granted, the way Avery Hughes shamelessly flirted with me in front of her didn’t help. But it wasn’t like I flirted back. If anything, I made it clear I wasn’t interested. But that didn’t matter. She’d confronted me in the bathroom, and I told her that I didn’t want him and that if he was cheating, it wasn’t with me. Even though she glared at me for the rest of the night, she didn’t say anything else so I thought the situation was resolved.

Obviously not,I thought as I stared at the note again.

I knew in my gut that Katrina was the one who destroyed my paint job and over a man I didn’t want and hadn’t wanted in a long time.

Rage blinded me as I grabbed my cell phone out of my bag. I tried to stop my hands from shaking as I dialed my ex-boyfriend’s phone number. I shook my head as it rang.

“Imani Jones,” Avery Hughes answered in his flirtatious way. “I was just thinking about how good your ass looked tonight in that black dress.”

“Avery, cut the shit,” I snapped. “Are you still out or are you home already?”

“Oh, you want to see me? I’ll make all the time in the world for you, baby girl.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and balled my free hand into a fist. “Are you with Katrina?”

“Come on,” Avery replied, dragging the words out. “Now you know that’s a whole different situation than what we have.”

“Are you with Katrina now? Yes or no?” I asked through clenched teeth. I opened my car door, throwing my bag into the front seat before climbing in. “I’m not kidding, Avery.”

He paused as if he were weighing the level of seriousness in my voice. “No…”

“Did you know she keyed my car?”

“She did what?”

“She keyed my car,” I repeated, revving my engine. “I came out of the club and there was a note along with the damage to my paint job.”

“Hold up. Are you serious?” he questioned. All amusement had drained from his tone.

“I’m dead serious.” I pulled out of the parking spot aggressively and sped away. “The note said for me to stay away from her man.”

“Fuck,” he swore under his breath. “Imani—”

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