Valentine's Day Is Killing Me

Valentine's Day Is Killing Me by Mary Janice Davidson, Susanna Carr, Leslie Esdaile Read Free Book Online Page A

Book: Valentine's Day Is Killing Me by Mary Janice Davidson, Susanna Carr, Leslie Esdaile Read Free Book Online
Authors: Mary Janice Davidson, Susanna Carr, Leslie Esdaile
Tags: Fiction, General, Romance, Contemporary
just waiting for them to come along and blow my mind.”
    “Right, that’s what I’m talking about. Over at the supermarket, just because I’m in the checkout line ringing customers, they think I must be waiting on them to go to the Wizard to get a brain, okaaaay,” Tina said, laughing. “I’m always like, man, if you don’t get outta this sistah’s face with that tired yang—”
    “Oh, girl,” Jacqui said quickly, “just because I’m at the library with a security guard’s uniform on, they try to crack, thinking they have me all figured out, but when I drop on them that I’m currently in an engineering master’s program, and just finished my law degree, they get all funny-acting and back up.”
    “That’s because they can’t deal with intelligent women who aren’t needy,” Jocelyn said decisively, her gaze narrowing as it shot around the quaint little vegetarian café and tea salon. “So, what are they going to do with an engineering lawyer who’s blowing up the dean’s list at Drexel University, huh, J? Or, one of the baddest designers I’ve ever known, rocking her thing over at The University of the Arts.” She slapped Tina a high five. “You can’t even take a brother to your fly-ass apartment that looks like something out of a Manhattan showroom. And I know they can’t deal with Freddie—what, a Fox School of Business MBA who could probably run circles around Sir Donald, if she had some money? Once you get out of Temple U, sis, you’re gonna shake up the business scene, for real. Pullease.”
    They all laughed.
    “That’s the point, chica,” Freddie said. “Today, I can barely pay for my grilled vegetable salad. But tomorrow, when I graduate, I’ma show them what they should have been doing on The Apprentice —but I’ll be playing for keeps. Shoot, they thought Omarosa was bad, but they haven’t met me yet.”
    Companionable laughter erupted and kept their spirits buoyed. No, this didn’t make any sense for them to all be good-looking, educated, young, but so very single. Jocelyn refused to allow herself to go down that slippery slope of depression. Nope. Not for a dreaded Hallmark holiday that was only a consumer-ruse-turned-nightmare created by the greeting card and floral industry, any ole way. As the conversation built to a male-bashing crescendo, Jocelyn honestly appraised her friends, quietly battling despair.
    Jacqui was tall, regal, with a dark walnut complexion and slender, athletic build that commanded attention and respect as much as her no-nonsense personality did. Girlfriend was destined to be a judge, or maybe a top manufacturer’s technical legal counsel, and she deserved a serious brother who could pull his own weight. That sister didn’t have time for games, and shouldn’t have had to be subjected to them.
    Then there was Tina. The sister was artistically fly, unique, and her petite five-foot-four frame was that of a lithe dancer, but her effervescence gave her a pixie-like quality. Bottom line was, Tina was fun, culturally deep, and would one day be a force to be reckoned with, no doubt. Jocelyn could see her girlfriend on the cover of Essence magazine, or in there as the designer to the celebrity circuit, just like she could imagine Fredericka one day on the cover of Black Enterprise as one of the nation’s top African-American women in business. Freddie had the Midas touch when it came to entrepreneurial exploits, and from the time she’d known her, Freddie always had a moneymaking hustle going on the side of whatever else she was doing—plus, her girlfriend had the supermodel corporate looks to go with it. The fact that Freddie was still single gave Jocelyn serious pause.
    But it wasn’t just the concept of being single, or serial dating, that made Jocelyn and her girls feel so sad. She knew it was the long, dry spell for years that was probably giving them all a nervous tic. Just because they were very clear on their dating parameters, and had each

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