Secret Indiscretions by Trice Hickman

didn’t want to deal with Vivana on an empty stomach. “I have to go.”
    â€œSo you’re gonna leave me hanging?”
    â€œVivana, I haven’t eaten since lunchtime yesterday and I’m so hungry I can’t concentrate, let alone have this kind of conversation with you. I was just about to go out to get something to eat when you called.”
    â€œWhere’re you going?”
    The curiosity in her voice made Johnny nervous. He hoped she wasn’t asking so she could coincidentally show up at China Express when he went to pick up the order he was going to place. “I’m not sure,” he lied. “I haven’t decided.”
    â€œI can bring you lunch if that’ll help you.”
    He moved the phone away from his ear, looked at it, and shook his head. He didn’t know if she’d made that statement just to get a reaction from him or if she was serious. Either way, he’d had enough. “Listen, I already told you I have to go. I’ll call you later.” He hit the end button and ran his hand across his chin.
    Johnny rose from his chair and began to pace the floor of his small office. Not only was his stomach growling, his head was hurting and his neck was stiff. He knew his latter two ailments were a direct result of his tense conversation with Vivana.
    Suddenly, the untamed desire he’d felt for his sexy mistress fizzled like a soda gone flat. Anxiety mixed with apprehension rumbled inside him as he replayed every detail of their conversation. He could tell from the sound of Vivana’s voice and the things she’d said that she was getting too attached for his liking. He’d sensed it last night when she pouted and tried to punish him by withholding sex. At the time he’d brushed it off, thinking she simply wanted some attention, as most women did. But he now knew it had been much more than that. She was starting to develop real feelings for him. For Johnny, that was a scary proposition.
    He’d been a player long enough to tell when a woman was going to become a problem, and between her behavior at the hotel, and now her demanding telephone call, Vivana had just shown him signs that a possible catastrophe was in the making. In the span of their ten-minute conversation, she’d gone from someone he couldn’t get out of his mind to someone he wanted to forget about. All he kept hearing were Bernard’s words. “Man, she’s trouble with a capital T.”
    He was jolted out of his deep thoughts when his cell phone rang again. He hesitated for a moment, and then felt a great sense of relief when he saw that it wasn’t Vivana’s number flashing across the screen, which he’d programmed into his contacts under the name Michael. He was thankful that Bernard’s name appeared instead. “Man, I was just thinking about you,” Johnny said. “How’s it goin’, brother?”
    â€œIt’s all good. Just holdin’ it down here at the office.”
    â€œYou handlin’ things,” Johnny said with a nod.
    Bernard was the senior manager of security at Crane Technical Community College. He’d worked his way up through the ranks and now enjoyed the comforts of a large office, a secretary, an assistant, and a staff of twenty-five that reported to him.
    â€œSo, you said you were thinking about me?” Bernard said.
    â€œYeah . . . I uh, I keep hearing what you told me about Vivana.”
    â€œDid something happen?”
    â€œA lot happened in a short amount of time. I gotta cut that shit loose, and quick.”
    â€œDamn, what did she do?”
    Johnny told Bernard about the conversation he’d just had with Vivana, and about the way she’d acted last night. “I thought she was cool. We were just kickin’ it, and everything was fine. But something changed, almost overnight. It’s crazy and I have a bad feeling about it. I have to find a way to end things with