The Love Album Series: Ride -BWWM- (SLOW UPDATES)

18

-Please Don't Stop the Music by Rihanna-

"It's good to hear from you!" Ana was excited to get a phone call from Denise.

Typically, Denise would have ignored her text, let alone call her.

"I'm surprised that you called," Ana chuckled nervously.

"Well," Denise sat on the edge of their hotel room bed. "I thought I'd check-in. So you didn't think I was dead or something." She opens her Aldos shoe box and puts on her black heels.

"Well, I'm glad you're alive. Are you still with Mark?"

"Yeah, we're in Rhode Island. We're actually about to head out to celebrate my birthday. We're gonna go out to dinner and go to a club afterward."

"It kind of sounds like a date," Ana was surprised to hear.

"It's not like that," Denise stood and grabbed her nude lipstick out of the Mac shopping bag.

"Then what's it like?"

"What do you mean?" Denise goes into the bathroom and applies the lipstick.

"Two people on the road together, twenty-four-seven, and now you're gonna out to eat and to a club afterward?"

"So?"

"What are you wearing?" Ana questioned curiously. "Something tight? Heels, maybe?"

"I know what you're insinuating, but I'll have you know, Mark, and I are just friends."

Denise closed her eyes and sighed inwardly.

She said it - she called Mark her friend.

"Damn it," she tossed the lipstick down in the sink.

"What? What happened?"

"It's nothing. Mark and I are just friends, okay? He's really . . . he's nice, and we're learning a lot about each other, so, yeah. There's nothing romantic going on. I don't really see him like that. I'm kind of trying to stay away from guys for the time being anyway."

"Wow, he's must be some good friend."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because you sound happy. I mean, happier than you were before you left. Are you happy?"

Denise took a minute to think. Was she happy? She knew she was different, but she hadn't considered happiness individually.

It wasn't a concept she was familiar with in her life.

"I'd say I'm going in that direction, slowly but surely. Taking it day by day, you know?"

"Well, that's good to hear. I've been trying to get my own shit together too. I broke up with my boss and quit my job a the motel."

"What happened? Did you guys fight or something?"

Ana gulped, "what happened is, I'm pregnant. He's not gonna leave his wife, and I'm don't want to get an abortion so, it was for the best."

Denise went quiet. She didn't know what to say.

Congratulations?

Having a baby was a great thing. Denise wholeheartedly believed that and had experienced it. However, the circumstances can prevent one from seeing it that way some times.

"Don't worry," Ana told her. "We're gonna be okay. "I have support from my mom, and I'm gonna do what it takes to be the best mother that I can be, you know?"