Long Time, No See

II: I "Close Encounters"

Denise

14 years later....

God all this waiting around is so tedious.

I comb my fingers through my long, black tresses detangling any knots in the hair. Picking up a long strand I examine the weave I've had in my hair for quite some time and decide that it may be time for me to take it out- go "au naturale" so to speak.

I glance at my watch again and kiss my teeth.

12:43 pm. She's late.

Just as I reach over for my phone to call her again, I hear incessant knocking against the front door downstairs.

"Just open it bitch, you have a key don'tcha?!" I screech from upstairs still looking at myself in the hand mirror I've just unboxed.

My black overalls are covered in dust from all the heavy moving and cleaning I've been trying to get done. This new apartment cost a very pretty penny so it's going to damn well look like it.

With that being said, it's not a one woman job.

I should have been getting some help right about now but someone was taking forever to get to the apartment.

I hear the front door slam shut before a sultry, mature voice sweeps through the air, up the stairs to me.

"I HAVE A BABY AND YOU COULDN'T EVEN OPEN THE DOOR FOR ME!"

I drop the mirror unto my unmade bed and dash towards the staircase, jumping down the last three steps before running to the front door.

My best friend stands hanging up her long, blue cardigan to reveal her matching black overalls that we bought together years ago. The overalls hug her tighter around the hips, because of her naturally occuring voluptuous pear shape that she acquired after the birth of her son. The son whom I've just ran all the way downstairs to get a hold of.

He sits, cozy in his black and red, portable baby carrier, wearing black dungarees to match with his momma as well as a baby blue t-shirt underneath. His large caramel coloured eyes peer up at me and the hand that he'd previously been slobbering and munching on shoots out of the carrier towards me. I reach down and unclip him from the carrier and nuzzle his nose before snuggling him into the crook of my arm.

"Hello sweet boy! Who is my sweet milk chocolate boy? You are! You are my delicious baby!" I coo all the while tickling and caressing the seriously soft tufts of his curly hair. God knows he got this hair from his father's side of the family because my best friend, who is currently standing and glaring at me holding her baby, has the kinkiest hair I've ever had the misfortune of trying to help her style.

Ava, clears her throat before raising her eyebrows at my open display of affection towards her child and chilly attitude towards her presence. She stands slightly over me, and has beautiful dark almost sable skin with pouty small lips and and deep chocolate eyes that I absolutely adore- that is, when they are not glaring holes into my head.

"Denise, I know you didn't just run down this staircase without even giving me a hello! Or did you just call me here to see my baby." She finishes, crossing her arms against her chest and giving me the rudest stink eye.

I grin sheepishly and cradle the baby's warmth against my left arm whilst reaching for Ava to give her a welcoming side hug.

We speak our greetings and Ava lets me play with Christopher whilst she asks me what I'm going to do next, concerning the end of my undergraduate degree in psychology. Naturally I want to move on to go do business psychology for my postgraduate and pursue my dream job working in business as a marketing executive. A dream I've had since we took that school trip to a huge corporation in the city, I still remember the appearance of the woman who chose me out of the group to shake hands with in greeting before explaining the importance of her job. The whole experience was life changing for me at that age and I went home knowing what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.