Love In Competition

chapter | two

| Leigh in mm.

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To Pimp A Butterfly

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Leigh was in her element as the cameras snapped hundreds of pictures of her from all different angles.

The fact that a crowd of paparazzi were all vying for attention had her on cloud nine right now making this truly a night to remember.

She had just finished walking the runway for a well established company who had just launched their first plus size line and already her manager had been getting calls from magazines to other designers.

Everybody who was anybody wanted a piece of her.

"Bask in the glam of it all now, pretty soon you're barely going to have time to breathe." Ashley joked tapping Leigh lightly on her shoulder.

"You kmow im a workaholic everything you said was music to my ears." Half jokingly Leigh spoke pulling her buzzing phone from her pocket.

FaceTime from Pookie🌚 11:59pm

FaceTime from Pookie🌚 2:05am

Pookie🌚
You did amazing❤ wish I could have been there.

"Amir sending his congrats?" Ashley questioned a silly grin playing on her face.

"Yeah." Was her only response as she rested her eye's.

Stressed was an understatement at this point she was practically in a permanent state of stress it all was the result of her relationship of course.

These day's it seemed like she was competing for everything even those things that seemed to be a given.

Leigh was growing tired of competing for love and if something didn't give in fast she wasn't sure what she'd do.

Picking up her phone from the sleek black table she wasted no time hitting Shayla's contact name.

"Why do we keep ending up like this?" Leigh questioned tossing her head back."I mean I love you, but this it's just not workimg anymore."

"What?" Taken aback by Leigh's declaration Shayla found herself having a hard time to breathe.

"You know what I mean, you only want us to be official in private. I feel like some typical cliche girl sayimg oh he's gonna change, he loves me he just needs time the only difference between us anf tgat is the fact that you dont have a dick and you're not running around trying to be some dope boy."

"Shay I'm damn near thirty, I dont want to be some cliche ass love story. I want something that I can feel good about, I already have to fake it for the public eye's why I gotta fake it with you too?" Being the Sagittarius that she was Leigh had no intentions of backing down anytime soon.

She was well aware that she was backing Shayla into a corner but her overwhelming feelings mixed with liquor was never a good combo.

"I'm not asking you to fake anything Le I just need sometime, what happened to baby steps?"

"It's been five years of baby steps Shay!" Slamming her fist into the counter as if she could be seen Leigh exhaled. "6 month's...six month's until my birthday, give me the best gift and make this real."

Shayla sat in her office going over her notes for an upcoming criminal case. Unfortunately she was on the prosecuting side of a misunderstanding gone wrong and as much as she didn't want to she would be the reason a child went to jail.

"Mrs. Harper your mother is one line three." Nodding at her assistant Shayla slowly picked up the phone mentally preparing herself for some mess.

"Hello mother."

"Shayla you need to fire that girl she's so disrespectful." Her mother's voice boomed through the speaker clearly upset about something.

"Did you only call me talk about Mallory or did you have something important to discuss?" Shayla questioned eager to get on with her workday.

"Well you know me and your father take out annual timeshare trips with the Lawson's." Shayla nodded her head knowing all too well about her parent's routine trips.

"Well this year we've decided to bring our children, you know Tony's back in the states. Master's degree in business you know he works for one of those tech companies." Marie bragged as if Tony was her own.

"I know all about Tony, what does he have to do with me?" Shayla quizzed overlooking the city view.

"He called off his engagement to that hollywood hillbilly. Maybe you two can connect I've already have things in order and I won't take no for an answer. It's about time you gave me a grandchild and I think Tony would be the perfect father." On the other end of the line Marie sat in her husband's office admiring the bouquet of red and white roses.

Her eye's scanned over the flowers landing on a white card adorned with lace.

"Let me call you back dear." She mumbled rushing her daughter off the phone.

You are as beautiful as these roses.

-P

Usually his name alone would bring a smile to her face however it was different this time. His threats of telling her husband of the affair had her on the edge of her seat at all times.

To think her picture perfect marriage could be ruined by someone many digits lower than what she was used to made her sick.

Oddly enough her attempts at throwing money his way to keep him to shut his mouth only failed.

Tossing the lace card in the garbage Marie exited the office ordering the staff to throw away the roses.

For the time being her picture perfect marriage was just that and she had plans of keeping it that way despite the desperate measures she would have to take.

| What does Marie have up her sleeves?