Single Ladies by Blake Karrington

pen. “You know there are two things I enjoy about working here. One: I finish school next month to be a pharmaceutical technician, and this job helped pay the bills while I was taking those courses. If it weren’t for this job, I’d be broke as hell!” He laughed.
    â€œOh, yeah? And what’s the other reason?” Tammy asked.
    Darious smiled shyly, feeling a little embarrassed about what he was about to say. “To be honest wit’ you, I look forward to you walking through that door every day at four o’clock,” he told her, and then got up and walked off to go retrieve some items from the back.
    For the first time in a long time, Tammy smiled at another man’s compliments, outside of Chris’s. Darious was handsome. He was tall, and had light brown skin and a thin frame. He always kept a positive attitude, and he always dressed nice when he came to work. Secretly, Tammy thought that he was kind of cute. She would never tell him that, though. That was going to stay her little secret . . . at least for now.
    * * *
    The entire drive home, Lisa thought about what she was going to say. She didn’t even know how to begin this type of conversation. Ralphy was going to have a lot of questions, and she knew that. She was also expecting to be called names, and the possibility of getting smacked wasn’t too far off either, even though Ralphy wasn’t the abusive type. Hell, in this kind of situation, anything was liable to happen.
    As Lisa was pulling up to the house her phone began to ring. Her gut instinct told her that it was Dre calling. She hadn’t spoken to him since the vacation, and he had been calling every day, all day, only to be sent to voicemail.
    When she grabbed her phone out of her bag, she looked at the screen and exhaled deeply at the sight of his number flashing. She looked up at the house, and then up and down the street for any sign of Ralphy. She wasn’t going to answer it, but she had to. She had to tell Dre that it was over. “Hello,” she answered, only to get an earful.
    â€œYo, why da fuck did you leave me out there wit’ no way to get home?” Dre snapped into the phone. “And why ain’t you answering my calls?”
    â€œOh, shit!” Lisa said after moving the phone away from her mouth so that he wouldn’t hear her. She totally forgot that she was the one who drove him up to the cabin. She was so messed up about what had happened between her and Ralphy that the only thing she wanted to do was go home. That’s the reason why Dre was calling her so crazy. “I’m so sorry, Dre. I had to leave because—”
    â€œMan, fuck dat! Look, I need to holla at you about something. When can we meet up?”
    â€œThat’s cool, ’cause I need to talk to you about something as well,” Lisa said. “I can’t see you right now because I got some shit I need to take care of. Just give me a couple of days and I’ll call you so we can meet up.” She was about to hang up when she heard Dre’s voice change into a softer tone when he started singing “I Miss You” by Aaron Hall.
    Lisa found herself sinking back into her seat, listening to him blow. Hearing him sing brought back so many good memories. For a hardcore thug, Dre could sing his ass off, especially when he used to sing to her. Those were the good old days, times both Lisa and Dre missed but knew that it was almost impossible for them to get back to. So much had changed since then; and, now, somebody else’s heart was involved. It was a heart that Lisa didn’t want to break, and it belonged to Ralphy.
    Lisa sat there for a few more minutes listening to Dre before she finally hung up the phone and went into the house. When she walked in, she was shocked to see Ms. D sitting on her couch with Naomi, watching TV.
    â€œMommy!” Naomi yelled when she saw Lisa walk through the door.
    â€œNow you know I