Page 1 of Touch of Smoke
prelude
. . .
Sariya
7 years ago
Donyell’s Wedding
Congratu-fuckin-lations.
Sariya mumbled some other forms of the word as she stood by the bar dancing by herself and nursing her second strawberry daiquiri. It was three hours into the reception, four and a half hours since she’d walked down the aisle at Greater New Hope Ministries and forty-eight hours since the final leg of celebrating these nuptials had begun.
She was so fuckin’ over it.
She took another sip and closed her eyes as she swayed to the beat of Blackstreet’sBefore I Let You Go. Donyell was an old soul, a fact she would definitely blame on her parents, so it was no wonder the playlist she’d provided for her wedding reception would include a mixture of old and new music—mainly old though. Ralph Simmons was a DJ during his late teens and through his twenties, so an entire wall in the back of the basement at the Simmons house was dedicated to crates fullof albums. And there was no discrimination to the type of music, there was R&B, Pop, Jazz, Reggae, some early HipHop and even a small gospel section Ralph had dedicated to his wife, Christine.
But Donyell Simmons was now Donyell Simmons-Raymond. She’d married her college sweetheart, Mike. And Sariya had stood by her side and watched her do it.
She watched her best friend get married.
Her best friend was now somebody’s wife.
And Sariya was what now? The best friend of somebody’s wife?
Um, how ‘bout she was on her way to being a little twisted.
The bartender was more than generous with the rum in that first daiquiri. She was no lightweight when it came to drinking, but that’s why she’d been taking it slow on this second one. Still, she was feeling mellow as hell and wanted this night to be over expeditiously so she could head up to the room she and Donyell had shared last night and fall into a blissful sleep. Liquor always made her sleepy which is why she never drank when she was out alone.
Tonight, she would be alone since her previous roommate was now permanently booed-up with Mike who always looked at Donyell like she was God’s perfect creation made especially for him.
Did she sound salty?
Yeah, probably, which was a good thing these were only her thoughts and she didn’t have anyone else she could confide in.
Truth was, she wasn’t jealous of Donyell. She loved that her friend had found the man of her dreams and was living out the plans she had for her life. Since they were twelve years old walking up the hill to their middle school, Donyell had been talking about this day. Her plan was to graduate high school (of course), go to college (because she wanted to make more money than her mother had working as a customer service rep at theSocial Security Administration), get married and have children. They were one month out from their college graduation and Donyell had the high school diploma, BA in psychology, and a wedding band on her left ring finger.
Sariya had herself another sip of that daiquiri.
She also had a nursing degree, an apartment in Canton and a huge student loan bill coming due at the end of this month.
“Why you over here by yourself?”
She almost jumped out of that tight ass purple maid of honor dress she was wearing. It was a really pretty mermaid style, off the shoulder deep purple dress, but walking and sitting had been a chore.
With her fingers clenching that glass a little tighter so she wouldn’t totally embarrass herself by being startled enough to drop it, she frowned at Ro. He was always a pain in the ass, tonight was no exception.
“I’m minding my business,” she snapped. “You wanna try it?”
He grinned, that slow, annoying, and equally as sexy, grin that she hated. “Do I wanna try minding your business? Why, yes, I don’t mind if I do.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re not funny,” she said. “And you’re not cute either, despite what all those blind and simple women over there are saying.”
With a feigned look of innocence, he pointed to himself, then looked around and back to Sariya. “Somebody said I was cute? Which women?”
Again, she really didn’t like him.
But the real problem was shedidlike him. Too damn much.
