Better Than Okay by Jacinta Howard Page B

made her beg him
to stay so they could finish what they’d started. But she knew she wasn’t even
close to being ready for that. He grabbed her hand and pulled her away from the
door, then quickly dropped another kiss on her cheek.
    “I’ll see you later,” he promised, opening the
door.
    He walked out and she shut the door behind him
and locked it. She headed back to her bedroom and lay down, her body still
throbbing. She didn’t even feel like herself anymore. Her phone buzzed on her
bed and she picked it up and read the text.
    “…We’ll
tiptoe to the sun and do things I know you like/I think I’m in love again/baby,
you are the prototype...”
    Her breath caught in her chest and she had to
make herself exhale slowly.
    “Outkast,
Prototype.”
      She
released a breath and pulled the comforter over her, totally, utterly and
willingly consumed.
    Chapter 7

 
    “Hey Destined, come check out this layout.”
    Chuck, the offbeat graphic designer at UMusic , poked his head around her tiny cubicle
wall, his eyes wide with excitement. He insisted on calling her “Destined” and
she’d stopped correcting him.
      Even after twenty years in the business,
he still got excited about his finished product. She hoped she could say the
same thing one day. At the rate she was going though, she would be happy if she
were still excited about her job in twenty days.
    She nodded and finished writing the last
sentence of her story on the self-absorbed R&B group from Hades and pushed
her chair back, standing to follow Chuck back to the graphic department. The
art team had the coolest office by far. There were no cubicles, just a
free-flowing space. The walls were covered with various prints from artists
like Jean Michel-Basquiat and Dalí along with some of UMusic’s best covers.
    “I really had fun with this puppy,” he told her
proudly as she leaned over his desk, staring at the large computer screen.
      She
grinned. He’d been working on her Jazz Festival feature for the past couple of
days and it looked even better than she’d hoped.
    “You took some fantastic shots,” he told her
again, pointing to one particularly unique shot she was able to get of the
audience at one of the shows.
    “Thanks,” she smiled. “This looks really,
really dope, Chuck.”
    She resisted the urge to hug him. She couldn’t
have asked for anything more from her first big feature.
    “Hey, Destiny,” Gabe said, poking his head
around the door. “Roc D is performing tonight at Viper Lounge, did you want to
go?”
    She hesitated. She was supposed to be having
dinner at Dorian and Brian’s. They hadn’t seen each other since he popped up at
her house Tuesday night because he’d been so busy with work. She was actually
kind of glad. She needed the space. And the time. And she knew he sensed that.
    “It’s cool if not,” he shrugged when she
hesitated. “We would only cover it in snapshots anyway if you did go.”
    “Yeah, I do kind of have plans already,” she
said. “But if they change I’ll let you know?”
    “Okay, cool, I’ll just put you on the list just
in case.”
    Gabe walked all the way into the room, studying
the layout of her story over Chuck’s shoulder.
    “Oh, this came out really nice,” he said,
nodding his head in approval. “Nice job, both of you.”
    “Thanks,” she said grinning from ear to ear.
She patted Chuck on the shoulder and followed Gabe out. It was time to go home
and her stomach was already grumbling loudly. She made her way back to her
cubicle to grab her keys then headed out of the door.
      She
planned to go home first to change, which she honestly felt a little guilty
about. She was changing her clothes to go see Brian. She still hadn’t talked to
Dorian about her and Brian’s situation and she didn’t plan on it. She felt bad
keeping something this major from him, but she wanted to stay quiet until they
figured out exactly what was going on.
    She was embarrassingly aroused just