ISABELLA

      It was the afternoon after Omari's birthday and I was just waking up. He had worn my ass out last night and I was sore as hell. Omari was gone, as I'd expected seeing as he had business in Nevada to attend to, and so I wasn't really worried about him. Right now all I was thinking about was the spa tub in Omari's bathroom because I was in need of a long soak. With that thought in mind, I headed into the bathroom and quickly prepared a bath.

      I eased myself onto the cool porcelain on the side of the tub and poured a healthy amount of Molton Brown's seamoss stress relieving hydrosoak bath saltsinto the water. I watched as the clear water turned a blue-ish green color before pouring a bit of the complementing bath gel into the water. While the tub filled, I made my way back into the bedroom and grabbed the cordless phone before undressing and slowing easing myself into the hot water. A comfortable sigh forced itself out of my lips as I laid my head back on my bath pillow and closed my eyes as my body fully relaxed. I was so relaxed that I almost drifted off to sleep but the shrill ringing of the phone quickly pulled me out of a light sleep and I answered it without glancing at the caller-id.

      "Wake up sleepy head," a male's voice replied in a sing-song manner.

      A smile graced my lips as I spoke, "Hey baby. What are you doing?"

      "Taking a break from work and listening to Jarell and Dreux bitch me out for 'cheating' on you last night," he replied as I could see the annoyance on his face even in our distance.

      I giggled a bit and said, "I would say sorry but I'm really not."

      He snorted and said, "I wouldn't accept that apology if gave it. What have you been up to?"

      I shrugged even though I know he couldn't see it and said, "Nothing much. I actually just got up not too long ago and am having a nice long soak in the tub. Lord knows I need it seeing as you wore me out last night."

      He laughed in a self satisfied manner before getting serious, "I didn't hurt you did I?"

      My mind drifted back to the night before and immediately my nipples got hard and my clit began to throb. I pushed those thoughts from my mind because I was just too sore to do anything about it. "It was nothing I didn't enjoy."

      We talked for a moment, him telling me what he had been up to and when he should be home before he was interrupted. Business was calling him so we quickly ended the call with 'I love you's' and headed on our separate ways.

      I'd just stepped out of the tub and had wrapped my large terry cloth robe around my body when the phone started ringing again. This time I glanced at the caller-id before answering and smiled a bit before speaking.

      "Hey Regine," I replied as I headed into the bedroom and promptly grabbed my Blue Agava & Cacao body creme and began to smooth a coat over my soft skin.

      "I'm sorry for calling at such a short notice but Anthony, Laurie, and I were getting together to study for the Microeconomics exam in about an hour and I wanted to know if you wanted to join us," she offered.

      Right now, all I wanted to do was lounge around and just relax but unfortunately Regine's offer was looking really good. While I wasn't failing microeconomics, I wasn't doing as well in it as I hoped and being able to study within a group where everyone had different techniques on how to memorize or make a definition more relatable was an offer I couldn't refuse. I was determined to finish this semester strong and a C just wasn't acceptable.

      "Sure. We're meeting in the library?" I asked.

      "No...we decided to do it at Anthony's apartment," she replied before giving me the address.

LAURIE

      We had been going over the four chapters that were going to be on the test for the better part of two hours and we understood what we read but didn't at the same time. This was going to be a fucked up situation.

      "Okay Isabella, explain the law of supply as well as why the supply curve slope upward? How is the market supply curve derived from the supply curves of individual producers?" I asked her.

      Isabella quickly referenced something before attempting to answer the question. "Um, as prices rise because of increased demand for a commodity, producers find it more profitable to increase the quantity offered for sale and so the supply curve will slope upward from left to right. Economically it's necessary for firms to demand a higher price as they increase production because they run against capacity constraints and cost rises, extra shifts and pay are added."

      "Damn girl," Regine replied before saying, "Can I borrow your notes?"

      Isabella laughed before saying, "Sure but I'm not doing too much better than any of you."

      It took us close to three hours to thoroughly go over the first two and a half chapters and we decided to leave the last chapter and a half for another time.

TERRI

      I took a deep calming breath before smoothing my hands over the denim jacket I'd worn as a dress and walked into the club Omari owned in Nevada. The heels of my Cole Haan boots clicked lightly on the freshly waxed floor and I smiled at a few people as I walked towards the back offices. While Omari and I were together, I had taken a few trips with him to Vegas and so the workers here just assumed that I was supposed to be there. I was quite sure that Omari wouldn't appreciate my just stopping by unannounced but he'd get over it especially once he'd realized what I'd brought with me.

OMARI

      I was double checking the figures I'd been sent with the figures Daniel had on file in his office when I heard the door open. I assumed it was Daniel so I didn't bother turning around and began speaking.

      "Now there's a discrepancy in the figures for the monthly intake for June," I spoke out expecting him to respond only it wasn't him that spoke.

      "I don't know anything about that but I can speak on some discrepancies of judgment," a familiar female voice responded.

      "Terrelle," I replied with a frown before turning to face her.

      "Don't sound so excited," she replied with a roll of her eyes.

      "What are you doing here?" I asked her.

      "What? You don't want to see me? I mean I know we weren't dating," she replied as she walked over to me and perched her ass on the desk I was sitting behind and slowly crossed her legs so that I'd be able to see she wasn't wearing any underwear, "but I thought that we'd at least be friends."

      "My friends usually call before just popping up at my place of business," I replied simply and minimized the program I'd been using and closed the file I'd been double checking.

      "Well I'm sure you haven't fucked any of your previous friends so I get extra privileges," she retorted confidently.

      "Why are you here?" I asked tired of her bullshit.

      "I miss you baby," she replied simply as she reached out and trailed her fingers along my face,

      "Don't do this to yourself Terri," I told her simply as I backed out of her reach.

      "What? So you don't miss me? Not even a tiny little bit?" she asked as she untied the denim sash around her waist and began to undo the buttons of her dress.

      "No, I don't," I told her simply and watched her face drop before her features twisted in anger.

      "What's so special about her O?" she asked me as she quickly buttoned her dress. "What does she have that I don't?"

      "My love and a ring on her finger," I replied simply.

      She stared at me for a moment before rising off the desk and storming off the premises.

ISABELLA

      It was late in the afternoon, around six o'clock, and I found myself lounging on the couch watching the Charm School marathon VH1 was running. I'd been so behind because of my heavy work load so I was sitting back and watching Leilene work it on the runway. I didn't know what the hell Crystal was thinking when she had that girl model. In a competition where that was her specialty Crystal should have stepped up for the team.

      A commercial came on and I was making my way to the kitchen so that I could pop some popcorn when the house phone started to ring. I didn't even glance at the caller-id before answering it with a polite hello.

      "Hi sweetie! How have you been?" my mother's voice came over the line.

      I let out a disappointed sigh before speaking, "Hello mother."

      She was quiet before saying, "Oh, so you're still mad at your father and me about the whole marriage thing."

      "What? You thought that I would suddenly get up one day and decide that this was the best way to have gotten married? There's nothing that you and daddy can say that will make this better," I answered simply.

      "Don't be a little brat Bella!" my mother snapped.

      "Brat? How am I the brat when it was you and daddy who decided that completing a merger the normal way was above you? How am I the one on the wrong when you basically gave me away to a guy you didn't even know? He could be a rapist, he could be an abuser or a drug addict and you just gave me to him! Yet, you call me as if you were expecting an award for parent of the year," I replied before snorting indignantly. "You're the one that needs to get a firm grip on reality, not me."

      "Do you know who you're talking to?" my mother asked.

      "I know very well who I'm talking to," I replied as the microwave beeped in a signal to let me know that my popcorn was done. "Was there a particular reason why you called? I mean other than to totally ruin my day."

      "I was just wondering how you were doing. I haven't heard from you in a while and my calls have been going straight to voicemail on your cell phone," she replied in an accusatory manner.

      "Yeah well I wasn't feeling the urge to be fake so I decided to best course of action was to avoid you," I answered simply.

      "You act so annoyed and yet you've been having a ball spending our money," my mother started.

      "Oh don't go there," I replied with the roll of my eyes.

      "What can't take what you dish out?" she asked.

      "Actually I can take it just fine, but wasn't the whole point of my compliance for money?" I asked her rhetorically. "I think that being as the next several years of my life have been planned out for the perfect business deal entitles me to every penny I've spent and am planning to spend."

      "I see that this conversation isn't going to well so how about I'll call you later?" she asked me.

      "That's fine with me," I replied simply before hanging up the phone without waiting for her reply.