Lost In Paradise (Urban Fiction)

Prologue

After countless dates with no hope I, Giovanna Williams, give up on dating. I don't know if it's me, I don't know if it's men, but the one thing I do know is that I quit. I guess I'll just have to be a lonely cat lady that grows old by herself. The date I had last night was a fiasco. It started off so great, I was on my fifth date with a man named Christian who I met online. He was perfect, or so he seemed. Our date started off the same as or other ones did, by him picking me up from my lavish two-story loft, where I lived. He opened the car door for me, bought me roses, the whole nine yards. He was such a gentlemen which is so rare now days. He drove me to an up-scale Italian restaurant, which he knew I'd love considering the fact that my mom is half-Italian, ordered my food for me, which meant he payed attention when I talked, and ordered wine and all. "So how was work today beautiful?" he asked with a charming smile. "It was okay, sort of busy but okay. How was your day?" I asked. "I had a bad day but it got better when I saw you walk out the house in that dress." he replied winking  his beautiful baby blue eyes. Lord, this man was so fine. He resembled Michael Ealy but a tad bit darker. I giggled shyly. "Thank you," I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks. I'm not gonna hold you up, I was geeked. After all this time searching for the perfect man, I think I finally found him. The waiters finally brought out our food. We continued casual conversation as the date continued. "I really think we that we should start taking more steps to having a committed relationsh-" he was interrupted by a faint but slowly approaching loud voice. He looked toward the voice, "Dante! I know damn well! What the hell are you doing with this bitch?!" it was a woman. She was enraged. She started marching towards us but a nearby male waiter grabbed her, trying to calm her down. "Dante?! Really! This is where you've been every other night?! Huh? Let me go," she screamed trying to move out the waiter's grasp. "Christian do you know this woman?" I asked looking at him. "Uh, unfortunately-"

"I'm his wife!" she yelled and pointed at her left ring finger which was adorned by a big diamond ring. I looked at him in disbelief. I grabbed my purse and jacket, "Please Giovanna, I can explain." he pleaded as I got up. "Nigga please your name ain't even Christian." I walked outside looking for my car. "Damn, I forgot I didn't drive. Fuck." I mumbled. I scrolled through my contact list, searching for my bestfriend's name. She answered on the third ring. "Hello?" she said. "Amani can you come get me please?" she smacked her lips. "Where are you?" I could hear the attitude in her voice. "I'm at Valentino's." I could hear her moving. "I'm on my way." she said before she hung up. 15 minutes later, her black Chrysler 300 pulled up. I got in. "What are you doing here without yo car girl?" she asked. "Well hello, to you too, and I was on a date more like a fucking joke." she laughed. "Girl what happened?" I rolled my eyes. "Remember the Christian dude I told you about?" she nodded her head. "That's who I was here with. So we on a date right everything is all good, conversation is great, food is great. Then all of a sudden this loud ass voice comes from nowhere screaming talking about 'Dante this where you been?' and all that mess, girl tell me why this nigga was married and that was his damn wife." She pressed hard on the brake "Bitch whaat?" she said surprised. "Yes girl, and quit hitting your brakes so hard you gon mess 'em up." she rolled her eyes. Amani had been my bestfriend before we were even born. Her mother & my mother were best friends also, and they had gotten pregnant at the same time. I think we were meant to be besties. Amani was beautiful with chocolate brown skin, light brown eyes, and full lips. She had naturally long hair, and her short slender build made her hair look even longer. I loved this girl so much. We had been through everything together. She was more than my bestfriend, she was my sister. "Well we here girl." she said pulling up in my drive-way. "Thank you boo." I said as I gave her a hug before exiting her car. I walked into my loft, taking my heels off at the door. My black teacup yorkie Baby, greeted me at the door. "Hey mommy's baby." I cooed while patting her head. I strolled into the bathroom and unleashed my mid-length sandy brown hair out of its high bun. I wiped off the little bit of make-up I had on, and stripped out of my clothes. I ran myself a bath and threw a Lush bath bomb in just to be extra. After washing up, I sat in the water until it got cold. "I don't think I'm ever gonna find a man..." I thought to myself. I got out the water, wrapped myself in a towel, and looked at myself in the mirror. I stared at my light golden complexion, and my blue eyes. I went into my bedroom, looking for a t-shirt and some panties to sleep in. I threw on a family reunion t-shirt and a pair of Pink Victoria Secret underwear. I wrapped my hair in a satin bonnet, jumped in my king size bed, and drifted off to sleep.

Now here I am, giving up on dating. I mean I'm still young, 27 to be exact. So why the rush on trying to find the one? All my siblings are married with kids, and I'm the oldest. I'm damn near 30 with nothing close to a man.  It wasn't like men don't try to holla, because trust me they do, but I want a man. Not a boy, not a nigga, a man. I'm so picky, and the men I do like are often intimated by my strong personality, or my job. I worked as a CEO for an architecture company in Atlanta. I honestly don't even like my job. It's so stressful, and demanding. I went to college for business, and working for the architecture job was supposed to be temporary. But when I told  my dad about the job, excitement wasn't even the word. My dad, who was an architect himself, was so proud to see his girl following in his steps. With me being such a good leader, my business background, and my little bit of knowledge of architecture from my father, I was a perfect for the position of CEO. Then when I told him I was offered the CEO position, I knew there was no backing out or quitting the job. So I accepted the job, making me the first female to hold that position, and I must admit being a woman, let alone being a black woman, I was honored and I felt accomplished. Lord did I know how hard that job would be. But it paid me so good, I don't think I'll ever quit. Most men can't handle the idea of their wife or girlfriend making way more money than them. But I don't want a man like that anyways, money doesn't matter to me but a man who has his own matters. I refuse to raise a man or sponsor one. I turned on the tv and there was nothing good on, so I turned it off and decided to go to the grocery store. I walked into my garage which was filled with many off my most prized possessions, my cars. I loved them so much. I had five cars, I decided to take my 2016 Lexus IS 350 out for a drive.

After pulling up to my local Target, I walked in and immediately went to the frozen diary isle looking for my favorite ice cream, Chocolate Devotion. After finding it, I grabbed some Takis from the chips isle and payed for my groceries. I checked the time, it was only 3:07 pm. I wanted to go to the movies and watch that new movie with Morris Chestnut in it. I call my other bestfriend Lonnie to see what he was doing. "Hey bitch!" he said answering the phone. "Hey boo, what are you doing?" I stopped at  the red light. "Nothing girl, just got done putting my face on." Lonnie was gay and flamboyant as hell, with a short pink hair cut. He was so pretty to be a man, and could dress better than most females. "Oh okay, well I wanna go see that new Morris Chestnut movie." He squealed, "Ooh bitch me too." "Okay Lon we going at 5." I said. "Okay honey see you then honey." he replied before hanging up. The light turned green, I sped off driving back to my house. I walked in the house. Baby jumped on me as soon as I came in. "Baby you hungry?" she wagged her tongue. I poured some food in her dog bowl and got her some water. I went into my room to find an outfit. I picked out a grey cami from Topshop, and a pair of short jean shorts with a pair of light grey suede Pumas. I threw on a watch and a pair of diamond stud earrings. I went into my bathroom and plugged up my flat-irons. I straightened my hair and put it in a half up-half down style. I walked into my living room and watched tv until 4:30. "I better get going, Atlanta traffic is horrible." I thought to myself.

I walked in to the movie theater and spotted Lonnie. He was dressed in a light pink t-shirt and ripped skinny jeans with white Louboutin sneakers that were covered in silver spikes. "Is that my boo Gigi?" he exclaimed, smothering me in a hug. "Hey honey I missed you! Where have you been?" I asked. He smiled, "Girl, Chris been keeping me in the house. He never want me to go no where." Lonnie has recently got a new man, which was new because Lonnie was never really the settle down type. "Lucky you," I said enviously. "Mani told me what happened girl, it's gon be okay. You gon find you a good man. You're a good girl with a good head on your shoulders. I promise you Mr. Right will come along sooner or later." This is why I loved Lonnie, he was so encouraging. "Aw thanks Lon, I appreciate it." He shook it off. "Girl no problem, but c'mon I already got our tickets."

Two hours later, the movie was over. "That movie was so good!" Lonnie said as we walked out of the movie theater. " I know right," the sun was setting. It was about to get dark. "Well, Chris blowing me up. I had fun with you today girl." He said giving me a hug. "I had fun with you too. Call me when you get home." I said as we went our separate ways. As I walked across the crosswalk a speeding car almost hit me. "What the fuck?!" I yelled at the still car. "I'm sorry,-" a brownskin man said leaning his head out the window. "Watch where the fuck you're going?!" I screamed as I stormed off to my car.

Giovanna in the MM