Try Me

6.

- To be or not to be

Jason called me at exactly eleven on the same night, I'd rolled my eyes and declined the call as Lea's words played in my mind. I wasn't quite sure if I would return his call in the morning but decided to sleep on the thought before making any unwise choices; if I could be left to look like an idiot for a whole day, then he could at least wait until I was good and ready to talk to him. That was what I got for giving a guy a chance.

I was in the process of finalizing a few purchase orders that I would have to ship out, regardless of brewing drama and predictable disappointment, we still had an online store to run. The dresses that Lea and I had worn to the party had sold out, making me a happy woman; sometimes people didn't want an item until they saw someone else not only wearing it but wearing it well. I was also thinking of all the new stock that we had coming in, we always switched it up for the summer, and most times we tried to be ahead of trends so that Lavish was always relevant.

My phone started to ring, and I wouldn't have answered if it wasn't for the ringtone that was strictly reserved for Lea blearing through my quiet bedroom.

"Hey Le." I said as I added up the sales that we made and made sure to edit the inventory log.

"So, he never showed up?" She sounded as disappointed as I'd felt four hours ago.

I let out a heavy sigh. "Of course he didn't Lea, but he's blowing up my texts right now. As you said I'm not a booty call, so if I feel like it, I'll get back to him during regular business hours." I was being nonchalant about the entire situation because I didn't know him from Jack and I wasn't about to get upset over a man that wasn't even close to being mine.

"That's my girl! Promise that you'll hear him out of it's a good reason though, because I know you." Lea was right but I was a tad apprehensive.

"I'll do what I can because he was a nice guy, but if he gives me a bullshit excuse I'll block and delete him like it's nothing. Money affi mek and I don't have time to be playing mind games." I finished the last of my work and shut down my MacBook. "Now onto something that matters, Darian was super sweet and I'm excited to see where it goes with you two."

"I know girl, but you know they always start nice. I don't want to set myself up for failure by having all of these unrealistic expectations." Lea and I were in similar boats, though her situation showed more promise than mine did.

"I don't think that it'll go that way Le; I can tell that he was being genuine. You can always spot little things if it's a front. Like he wouldn't have been that quick to offer to paint something for our store for free, he probably wouldn't have been so comfortable showing affection towards you and I'm almost certain that he wouldn't have wanted to be around your friends for four hours straight Lea." I didn't want her to second guess herself when Darian seemed to be putting in the effort. "I mean, did you see how happy he was just to be in your presence? He was staring at you and smiling every time that you spoke."

"Oh my gosh, thank you for that; I picked up on those things but I felt like I was imagining it. You know my track record with men; I really needed to hear it from someone else's perspective." Lea sounded more relaxed. After that minor bump, we talked about the store and then I helped her with planning what she would wear on her date. "Alright I'm going to go to sleep before I start over thinking again, thanks for listening to me babe, I love you."

"It's no problem Le, I love you too and make sure to call me after the date!" I was glad that Lea had taken my mind off things, we ended the call and I got ready for bed. The next day would be hectic with all the of orders that I had to send out, so it was time for me to call it a night.