The Zodiac Series: Book 1 - Capricorn

Chapter 44

Capricorn
Chapter 44

Lunar Years Ruled By The Rabbit
* 1927 (Feb. 2, 1927 - Jan. 22, 1928)
* 1939 (Feb. 19, 1939 - Feb. 7, 1940)
* 1951 (Feb. 6, 1951 - Jan. 26, 1952)
* 1963 (Jan. 25, 1963 - Feb. 12, 1964)
* 1975 (Feb. 11, 1975 - Jan. 30, 1976)
* 1987 (Jan. 29, 1987 - Feb. 16, 1988)
* 1999 (Feb. 6, 1999 - Feb. 4, 2000)
* 2011 (Feb. 5, 2011 - Jan. 24, 2012)
* 2023 (Jan. 23, 2023 - Feb. 4, 2024)
* 2035 (Feb. 3, 2035 - Feb. 15, 2036)
* 2047 (Feb. 14, 2047 - Jan. 27, 2048)

*

Adena ran into her office, flopped down on the couch, put her head in her hands, and started to cry. Who was that person? That wasn't Taye. That couldn't have been the man she fell in love with and married a year ago. The Taye she knew would never have been so evil to her. Everything he had said caused her head to spin. How he hooked up with Kim before he met her, him thinking she was trying to trap him with a child when in all honesty, she didn't want him to know at all, and the look of disgust that came over his face when he saw that she was pregnant and learned that it was his. How could a father act like that?

She was right; Taye had to stay far away from her child.

A knock came at the door, and she looked up and saw Lloyd. He sighed when he saw her, rushed over, and sat on the couch next to her. He pulled her in for a hug. "I heard everything. What has gotten into him??" She could only shrug and shake her head as she cried on his chest. Her head was spinning so much that she had a headache. She pulled away, took a couple of Kleenex out of the box on the coffee table, and wiped her face. "Don't listen to him. If he doesn't want to be a part of this baby's life, it's his loss, and you don't need him anyway. You have Craig," Lloyd said and paused, "Oh, he called several times looking for you."

"Oh shit," she said. She completely forgot that they needed to talk, but she knew what he wanted to talk about. She had better things to do and care for than a crybaby and spiteful Karen. "I forgot."

"I think you should go home and rest. It's almost 7:30. Are you even in the headspace to work late?" he asked her. 

"Not really, but I didn't want you to stay and wait for me for nothing."

"It wasn't for nothing, girl, I'm still clocked in, and I got the nap I needed. I'm fine."

"Well, thank you for holding the place together. I'm proud of you. I don't think you've ever been here alone more than 5 minutes," she said with a chuckle as she wiped her hands with sanitizer. "But ok, I won't torture you any longer, but first, I want to say sorry because we got a lot of work ahead; we'll have to start first thing tomorrow."

"What are we doing?" he asked her, and she explained the fake art show she made up for Kehinde Wiley. Saying it out loud made it even worse. However, Lloyd wasn't upset; he actually laughed. "I'm just so confused as to why you felt the need to impress the guy. I know he's one of your favorites, but I've never seen the perfect Adena get herself into something like this. Do you have a crush on him or something?"

"I have a crush on his work, not him. I'm also a perfectionist and a workaholic. But he did ask me out to dinner; he wants to come and help set up this whole thing. He walked out of our show because of the lack of representation of Black people, Black women specifically. He said I should be doing more to get people like us here, and I haven't done it at all. This is my chance to draw a different crowd. I don't want him to walk out on me and think I'm a total idiot and 'not for the culture.'"

"Whoa, Adena, he asked you out to dinner? He likes you, likes you?"

"He was very...sweet. A total 180 from last time, but he was definitely flirting."