Pernicious

|Chapter 1|

Perspective of Naya Bronwyn
January 4, 1988
Los Angeles, California

I kept grooming myself in the mirror, making sure everything was just perfect. I inspect my black dress to see if it has any wrinkles or stains. Nervously, I kept running my fingers through my giant black curls to make sure none of them stuck together too much. After pausing for a moment, I take a deep breath.

It's a new year, Naya. You are gonna find "The One." It's time to get back on your feet and start dating again.

I open my eyes and take one last look. I finish my look by applying some gloss on my lips. Not wanting to be late, I grabbed my keys and headed out the door.

Where was this guy meeting me again?

I opened my crumpled up, hand-written note.

8:00 pm @ Dinah's Corner

I slid in my car and pulled out of my drive way. The place he was meeting me at was near downtown Los Angeles.

I wonder what this guy is like.

My good friends, Kaysia and Toni, set me up with this guy who I haven't even met yet. All they gave me was a name and a number, I had to do the rest. His name was Jake Trainer. That's all I really knew. Kaysia and Toni have been really pushing me to start dating again. To be honest, I really didn't want to. I especially don't want to be married again.

Not after all I've been through.

After driving for about 20 minutes, I arrived at the place that looked like a quaint, little dive bar. I parked my car and swiftly walked to the front. In order to find this guy, I needed to look for a worker. I was welcome with an aroma of fried foods and loud rock music.

I don't think this is my kind of place.

"Umm, excuse me miss? Is there someone by the name of Jake Trainer here?" I yelled over the blaring music.

The waitress doesn't even bother to look up at me. She obnoxiously chews her gum and almost ignores me.

"Just a minute, ma'am, let me check." She says with a prissy voice.

Well she seemed to take her dear time. It felt like she took five minutes just to see if this "Jake" was here. Usually it wouldn't take long for someone to see if a person was there. At this point, I contemplated leaving, but she eventually came back.

"Miss? Mr. Trainer is here and has a table for you already."

"Ok, thank you." I said following her.

It's about damn time.

The lousy waitress takes me to a small table, where a lone tan man was sitting there looking in the distance. As soon as I walked up, his attention focused on me.

"Hi, I'm Naya! Sorry I'm late! The service here is crazy!" I explained holding out a hand. "You must be Jake."

My friends weren't kidding when they said he was an attractive man. He was tan, with long black hair, and deep brown eyes. He was very muscular, sporting a tight black shirt. This was all in good taste, but it reminded me of my last husband.