Stranger | Lauren London

New Life.

Current time...

Candace and Rakim have been married for 5 years, and things have been going alright for a while. Her father bought her a hair salon/barbershop business, which have been going for 3 years. Her business have been going quite well. Her life seems to be going well now. Only problem is Rakim have been partying, and drinking more lately. He's an all star football player, and is listed as the greatest of all time. He is very wealthy, and turned out to be everything that Candace's father made him out to be. He's always at his games, and could be considered as the top fan of Rakim Mayers. Candace isn't as happy as she thought she would be, but she chooses to tolerate it. They have a 2 year old girl, Anaya. They may look like a nice happy, wealthy family together on the outside, but what happens behind those closed doors?

After Candace dropped Anaya off at her sister's house, she heads to her salon. Her usual workers are there, doing the usual.

"Ayee it's the big boss!" Mya calls out.

Mya is Candace's friend. They've known each other since college, and she vowed to support Candace's business. She's even the manager of the salon.

"Heyyy Mya."

She they gave each other a hug.

"So how's the salon holding up?" Candace asked.

"Girl you wouldn't believe who popped up here."

"Girl who?"

"Beyoncé."

"Whaaat, really?"

"Yesss, we gave her the best hairstyle we could possibly give her."

"Wow that is huge." Candace smiles.

A guy walks in the place. There was a chair available for him to get a makeover. The man insist him to sit.

"What would you like man?" He asked.

"Just kinda cut my beard a bit." The guy answered.

"Bet, got you covered."

He began trimming and cutting his beard.

"So tell me why this crackhead came into this salon." One of the stylists started.

"Oop."

"And what happened?" Candace laughs.

"Girl you already know."

The whole salon started laughing.

Once he was finished with the man's beard, he stood up, paying him $12.

"Good looking, man. come again."

Candace looked his way. That man looked so familiar to her. In fact, she sworn she was in love with him before.

"What is it girl?" Mya asked.

"That looks like Adrian." Candace tells her.

"Isn't that the boy you told me about?"

"Yes."

"Hey excuse me sir!" Mya calls out.

The man turned around. It is indeed Adrian.

"Can you come over here for a second?"

He walks over to them. Candace gets to smiling.

"Hey Adrian, remember me? It's Candace."

He took a good look at her, and gets to smiling.

"Candace?? Oh my, it's been so long!" He says.

He was dressed in his black sweater, dark denim jeans, and black shoes.

She hugs him, receiving the same feeling she had when she last hugged him. It brought her back memories.

"Oh my goodness Adrian, you're even more handsome, look at you!" She calls out.

"Thank you." He smiles. "And you look beautiful as always."

She blushes.

"Well why don't y'all jot each other's numbers down." Mya suggested.

Candace and Adrian took their phones and exchange informations.

"It's nice seeing you again." Candace smiles.

"It's nice seeing you too."

He walks out the salon. Candace looks back at Mya, smiling.

"Girl, that's that glow I haven't seen in such a long time." Mya tells her.

"Really?"

"Yesss, I haven't seen you that happy since college."

"Oh girl." Candace laughs.

Mya went back to doing her client's hair.

Adrian was happy to see Candace again. It's been 17 years since they've seen each other. He's now a political science professor at UCLA. He's dating a girl, in which they have a son together. The girl, Jennifer, isn't too happy to be with him, but she tolerates him because of their son. His life seems to be going his way, besides being with someone he doesn't feel a connection for. He enjoys being a science professor, because his students show so much interest in having him as a teacher. Especially with him having some of his artwork hanging around the room. He's not only a teacher, he's also a professional artist, making thousands of dollars for his artwork. There's one particular painting that's significant to him. A painting of the field him and Candace shared their romance at. He looks at that painting everyday that he's in his classroom, before and after each class.

He pops open the trunk of his white Toyota Land Cruiser, Placing some boxes in the trunk. He gets in, and drove off. He lives out in the Palisades.

He walks in his house, seeing Jennifer, and baby Molokai on the sofa, watching TV.

"Hey hun, I'm home." He says.

"Hey, how'd it go?" She asked.

"Well I got part of my facial hair cut."

"Why? I loved your beard how it was."

"I dunno, thought I'd try something different." He shrugs.

"Hm."

She turns back around, facing the big screen TV.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked.

"Nothing." She gave him a dry answer.

"Okay then."

He continues unloading the box. They were some of the paintings he did a while back.

"Adrian, I'm gonna have a friend over." She tells him.

"Is it that Kevin guy?"

"Yes, is that a problem."

"No." He sighs.

"Okay."