WEST COAST 18+

40.

I suggest reading this chapter fully.

*excuse any errors

W E S T C O A S T

"I think ya mom's going out," Enrique said on his way in to pick up his pretty lady for work.

"Probably work," she mutters, stuffing her purse with gloss and credit cards.

"In a tight dress and high heels?"

She stops abruptly. "What?"

Enrique voiced with a smirk, "She going out to get some."

"Enrique, shut up!" Daniela groaned, shoving past him on her way out. Daniela moved quickly like a mother who heard her teenager about to sneak out of the house. To her surprise, Vivian was standing in the kitchen with a short red off-the-shoulder dress on, high-heeled pumps to elevate her height, and curls flowing down her back. "You got a date?"

Vivian twirls around, her freshly beat face on display. "Umm yes, daughter. Is that okay with you?" Daniela catching the sarcasm.

"Who is this man?" she asks, tapping her foot with her hand on her lower back.

"A friend."

"He got an IG? What's Facebook and phone number?"

"He does have those, but you don't need to know it," Vivian responds, Daniela flabbergasted like her child was back talking her.

"So when he kills you and tosses you in a ditch, then what?"

Vivian stares off into a distance: "What a nice thought to put in my head."

"I don't know this man from a can of paint; what he looks like-nada. I need yo location, his address, social security number-everything." And she meant it. Daniela needed to find her mama if anything went wrong.

Vivian smiles with her answer: "John."

"What does he do for work?"

"He works with me."

"For how long? He got kids? He ever been married? What if it's his crazy wife tryna set you up because she found you in his phone?"

Vivian chuckles at her child's paranoia, "No kids, no wife, and hopefully, no secret girlfriend."

"Or boyfriend," Daniela mumbles. Holding her hand out for her mother to cough up her device, "Give me your phone; I'll figure it out."

"Daniela," Vivian calls out, Daniela wiggling her fingers for her to hurry up. "You don't see me acting this way about the people you've dated or when Enrique has you out all hours of the night. I just have to leave you in my prayers because you don't reply to me."

She smirks, "Touché." Looking down at her mother's shoes, "You gotta like this dude-you puttin' lotion on the heels of your feet for him."

Vivian laughed cause they were glossed up. "I do. He's sweet; he brings me lunch."

"Talk dark and handsome, but the black kind?"

"Yes. He and I were actually friends first when I transferred. I wasn't looking at him in that way because I was dealing with the grief of my marriage ending..." Vivian confesses. Things with that white dude didn't work out, but Vivian saw that they could be good friends.

"I still can't believe you and dad were miserable, and neither one of us noticed."

Twisting the lip gloss cap to rub some on her lips, "Women are really good at faking it, especially for their kids."

"How come you never told me? I was old enough to know."

"I wanted to push through those feelings I had, try to make it work. I wasn't ready for change, but I also couldn't take it anymore. I need me a man who wants to pour into me."