For Lovers Only by Alex Hairston Read Free Book Online

“I’m sorry. I really wanna meet your niece now.”
    â€œWell, what was the problem at first?”
    â€œImmaturity on my part. Plus, I wasn’t really trying to meet anybody new. I was thinking about contacting a couple of my old girlfriends to see what they’ve been doing and see if they were interested in hooking up again.”
    Mrs. Kelly frowned and threw her hand. “Ugh! That’s not the way to go at all. Been there, done that.”
    Joel smiled and said, “I’ve been there, but I didn’t do all of them.”
    Mrs. Kelly thought she had missed something. “What?”
    â€œPut it like this, too much information and not enough time to explain.”
    The sound of somebody approaching stole their attention for the moment. They listened closely as a pair of high-heeled shoes tapped to a certain kind of sophisticated cadence on the school’s industrial tile flooring. That was a sound Joel loved to hear.
    Mrs. Kelly took a quick peek around the corner and said, “Oh look, here comes my niece, Asia, right now. When you meet her you’ll forget all about your old girlfriend.”
    When he made eye contact with Mrs. Kelly’s niece, she reminded Joel of Renee. Her intricate hairweave of long blond spiral curls, big expensive Coach handbag, stilettos, manicured fingernails and toenails, and the annoying way she popped her gum all sent up a huge yellow caution flag. She seemed too artificial. After a quick introduction to Asia, Joel automatically shut down because he knew that he wasn’t interested in her. No chemistry whatsoever. Then he thought, Whoa, hold on a minute. She’s got a cute face, nice ass and some big titties—good. But she doesn’t smile enough and I don’t like this strong hoochie vibe she’s got going on. All I’d do is end up using her for sex. Hmm, that might be nice. But I’d hate to dog this girl and then have to deal with her and Mrs. Kelly.
    Asia didn’t initiate much of a conversation and didn’t strike Joel as being too intelligent. Her physical appearance was fine, but she didn’t stimulate his mind at all. He was looking for a total package. In reality, Asia was okay, but was forced to pay the price for looking too much like Joel’s ex. He wanted the real thing or nothing at all. Thinking about Renee and looking at Asia was like comparing McDonald’s to Burger King, Coke to Pepsi and Beyoncé to Ciara.
    Asia only made matters worse by trying to act more glamorous than she really was. She began to come off as goofy. Every move she made ended with an awkward pose. It was obvious that she had been watching too many reruns of America’s Next Top Model and was emulating what she saw. Joel laughed to himself because the only thing sophisticated about Asia was the way her heels had sounded when she first walked around the corner. Joel could tell that they had very little in common and the last thing he needed or wanted was a carbon copy of Renee. Too much work.
    Meeting Asia left Joel feeling severely discouraged and disappointed. He wasted thirty minutes of his life trying his best to humor Mrs. Kelly and her ghetto-fabulous niece.
    Asia said, “It was nice meeting you, Joel. Here’s my number.” She handed him a colorful business card with her full name, Asia Kelly—Model & Fashion Designer . It had a notation above her number, Available for fashion shows, photo and video shoots . She said, “Check out my page on myspace.com whenever you get a chance. Just type in my screen name, Holla at this model chick and you can find me.”
    It took everything inside of Joel not to burst out laughing. “Aight, Asia. It was nice meeting you too.”
    â€œDon’t forget to holla at this model chick when you get home.”
    Joel felt that strong urge to laugh again because Asia sounded so silly. His eyes got big and he said, “Wow, I don’t even know what to