"Bitch what you need to do is get a life! Shanda, you are not the first woman to be divorced with kids and you won't be the last. I bet Chad somewhere laying some dick down while you all up here working and taking care of grown ass kids letting your last good years pass you up on some Ms. Independent shit. Girl I keep tellin' yo ass you ain't got to fall in love with these men just get you a boo, get the dick, and move around just like they do us. Period!"
I roll my eyes at the phone. I have heard this line from my best friend Renata at least once a month since my divorce was finalized four years ago.
"Fuck I wish my sorry ass baby daddy could scoop Aiden up, shit bitch I would ball the fuck out, straight cut the fuck up in these people streets. Shit I wouldn't know how to act."
"Bitch really, you do that now," I laughed.
"True, true girl a bitch gotta
live
. You know my motto: YO fucking LO!"
My name is Shanda Carson. I am a 35-year old, divorced mother of two teenagers, a daughter and a son. My oldest is 18 year old Brianna. My youngest is 17 year old Carlos. My Irish twins, born ten short months apart. I work as a social worker in private practice with a focus on marriage and family. One would think that my profession would give me great insight in raising these kids and keeping my marriage together, but honestly I catch hell like everyone else. Since my divorce I've devoted my life almost exclusively to work and the rearing of my children. I never saw this as a problem, but now the looming reality of becoming an empty nester in a few short weeks makes me question the wisdom of that decision.
On a normal day, I usually see about seven or eight clients and manage to get out of the office just before 5 pm, but today I'd seen 12 clients and I'm swamped with case notes. Leslie, another social worker in my counseling group, is out on maternity leave which means that my caseload is that much more demanding because I have to handle some of her clients as well. I won't complain because the extra money is nice especially with both kids starting college in a few short weeks. I didn't realize how engrossed I'd been in my work until a smooth baritone startled me out of my revelry.
"Hi, Shanda it's been a minute. How have you been? You're looking lovely as usual."
"No, please and thank you," I blush "I've been good Grayson, how about you?" I ask with a smile.
"I'm good, I could complain, but you get enough of that I suspect," He answered.
"Absolutely, good looking out. I appreciate it," I laugh. "Well since I'm here way past time I'm going to go ahead and pack it up and let you do your work."
"It's only me tonight and you really don't have to rush on my account, it really will only take a few minutes."
I reached out touching his shoulder, my intention only to tell him it was okay and I really needed to get home but the words never made it out my mouth. It was as if time stood still and for a brief moment everything in the office was stripped away till nothing remained but Grayson and I- a man and a woman with a frisson of awareness of the other. I immediately jerked my hand away and put my head down needing to avert my gaze to collect myself, silently hoping that whatever I'd felt that Grayson hadn't felt it too, but I knew he had. We had been playing this game of cat and mouse for a few months now. Hesitantly, I look up and I am confronted by the intensity of Grayson's gaze. I notice the flare of his nostrils and the rise and fall of his chest and I know without a doubt he felt that inexplicable pull as much as I did.
Grayson Jamison is the owner of the janitorial service that cleans our offices. He is quite handsome with deep brown skin and amber eyes. He has a quiet intensity about him that find both attractive and unsettling. I've noticed him noticing me on other occasions when I happened to work late or when he came in to fix minor and some major problems in the office, but I'd always been intentional about keeping my blinders on pretending not to notice. Ignoring him is hard to do. It takes a certain level of dedication to ignore a man standing over 6 feet, 220 pounds of solid milk chocolate sexiness. The man was so damn fine I felt like I was about to break a sweat just looking at him.
It seemed he lingered in the office much longer than necessary, crouching a bit too close to empty the trash., standing close enough for me to get a whiff of his cologne, close enough for me to feel the heat emanating from his body. His nearness made me become very much aware of my self-imposed dry spell over the past 5 months. I clench my thighs tightly while mentally castigating myself for having any thoughts of fraternizing with the help. In my field it's simply bad form. If nothing else, I pride myself on behaving like a professional at all times.