The Secretary

Chapter twelve

When I get up the next morning I shower and put my hair in two braids. I head to my closet and grab some mom jeans, a yellow crop top and my black jean jacket. I pair my black and yellow twelves with the outfit then reach for my back purse. Misty, who seems to have grown over night, is watching me contently from my bed. "I left chicken in your bowl and I gave you fresh water." I kiss her head and grab my phone. I make sure to lock the door on my way out. It's around 11:30 and I don't have to meet Blossom until 1. I head to the frozen yogurt shop and get a vanilla yogurt with strawberries and sprinkles on top.

I walk across the street to the Chanel store because I wanted a new mint backpack. Before I even make it to the door I spot Jontavion inside. He steps to the side and I see Katrina is with him. 'Why would be still be with her?' I think to myself. I shake my head and walk inside. I walk to the back of the store quickly so neither one of them would see me. I was going through the bags when I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. "What are you doing here?" He whispered in my ear. "I'm aloud to shop here. I didn't even know you were here." I turn to Jontavion and he averts my gaze. "Where's your girl?" I ask and cross my arms over my chest.

"Cuba please." He rubs the back of his neck. "Oh so now you nervous?!" I whisper shout at him. He finally looks at me and my breath catches in my throat. His beautiful hazel eye is swollen shut and his lip is busted. I reach out to him and he immediately reacts to my touch. He leans into my hand and sighs. "Jontavion!" I hear Katrina call him. "Go." He sighs and walks off. I turn and grab the bag I was looking at so I can leave. 'I hope he's okay.' For once I finally agree with the voice in my head.

As I drive to Starbucks I keep seeing Jontavions face in my head. Who would do that to him? I hope he's not involved in something dangerous. "I'll ask him later when I meet him." I say aloud as I park my car. I walk into Starbucks and notice Blossom sitting in the far right corner. Her red hair is shining and her cheeks are so full of life. "Hey Blossom." I say as I sit down. "Hi Cuba." She smiles at me and grabs my hand. "I'm so glad we finally had time. Who thought it would have taken us a month to finally get to hang out." I say to her. She laughs and nods her head in agreement. "Man life really does keep you on your toes. I'm going to order something, do you want anything?" I ask her to buy me a muffin and a pink drink. As I wait for her to come back, my mind wonders to how she knew Jontavion. I didn't want to seem intrusive but I had to know.

When she comes back with our stuff and I decide to just flat out ask her. "Blossom, how do you know Jontavion?" She looks at me for a while then answers. "We has a business deal but things got hectic. I couldn't do it anymore." I wonder what she means when she says hectic. I let it go and decided to make her my friend as well. I sat with her until 2:30 just talking about life and work. She has a kitten who's 7 weeks. I'm going to go see it soon, I kiss Blossoms cheek before walking to my car. I text Jontavion so he can send me the address for his meeting. He responds and I head that way as soon as I see where it's located. I'm about 10 minutes from the building it's being held in. When I pull into the parking lot I wait for Jontavion to pull up. While I wait my mind wonders about why it took him a week to text me....It must have to do with his face. When he finally pulls up I get out of the car and walk over to him. He grabs me and holds me to him for a few seconds.

When he lets me go I notice he is visibly more relaxed. His eye is a little bit better then earlier. I follow him inside and join him in his circle. "What happened?" I whisper to him. "I got jumped. The morning after I went home to tell Katrina we were done. I was walking towards the grocery store when some men pulled me into the alley and jumped me. I'm convinced it was Katrinas brothers." He hangs his head low and my heart yearns for him. I reach over and make him look at me. "I got you." He kisses me the minute i finish my sentence. I smile into the kiss and he laughs. "This is new." I nod and kiss him again. I pull away when I hear people coming into the room. He places his hand on my thigh and I rest my head against his shoulder.

The meeting begins and when it's Jontavions turn he doesn't let go of my hand. "I'm a addict and I want to get clean for the young woman who came with me today. She believes in me even when I don't and I couldn't be more grateful." He smiles down at me and I blush. The group whistles and whoops for a while before settling. I smile at Jontavion as he watches others in the group talk. My eyes fall on a young girl. From her story I learned that she is a 17 year old girl who's is there trying to recover because she wants a better life for her kids. Her name is Berlin, and she kinda looks like me. She has this beautiful brown skin and bright blue eyes. That's our only difference, the eyes because mine are green with specks of hazel. I found myself staring at her a lot throughout the meeting.

"Hey you okay?" Jontavion asks me as we walk out of the meeting. "That girl, Berlin, she just reminded me of me. I'll be right back." I run back into the building and look around for Berlin. When I see her by the water fountain I quickly make my way over to her. "Hi I'm Cuba." I say to her the moment I'm close enough that she can hear me. She looks at me with those piercing blue eyes and smiles. "Hi I'm Berlin." She take a sip from the fountain and I see a shudder run through her body. "Can we meet up to have lunch sometime this week?" I ask her when she's done. "There's another meeting on Monday. We can go after that." She says. I give her my number and walk back outside. I see Jontavion leaning against his car waiting for me. "Well?" He says with a calm look. "I'm taking her to lunch on Monday." I say with a smile.

He follows me to my car and grabs my wrist. "You don't even know her." He says with a smile. "That's okay. I want to get to know her." He puts both of his hands on the car trapping me between the car and him. He leans in and rests his forehead on mine. He kisses me and I wrap my hands around his neck. The kiss is passionate and sweet. He pulls away too soon and I sigh. "You know your the one person besides my mom who wants me to be clean for me." I put my hand on his cheek and look him in the eye. "I want you be healthy enough to continue doing what you love. You deserve to at least be healthy." He smiles at me. "Come to my moms house with me." I agree and he walks over to his car so I can follow him. The whole ride there I can't help but to smile to myself. I think I'm falling in love all over again.