At Last

AT LAST

A novel by

Bianca L. Eugene

AT LAST is work of fiction.  Places, events, and situations in this novel are purely fictitious.  Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is coincidental

Library of Congress Control Number
:
1214910766

ISBN:
             
9780615515571

Editor:
             
Damon A. Finney

Cover Design: Nate Hickman

AT LAST copyright ©2009 by Bianca L. Eugene

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the author.

Dreams Fulfilled Publishing

Southfield, MI 48076

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First I’d like to thank God for ble
ssing me beyond measure, giving
me this gift and allowing me to share it with the world.  Thank you for carrying me when I thought I couldn’t go any further.

To my husband, Richard thank you for loving me, flaws and all; supporting me even when I didn’t realize it.  I love you with all my heart Sweetpea.

To my mother, you are my biggest cheerleader.  Growing up I always wanted to be just like you; and I still do.  You are the wind beneath my wings.

To my father, thank you for providing and loving us.  Thank you for showing me what a father and real man is.

To my brother, Marvin, I love you.  Thank you for loving me and letting me shine.

To Auntie Ree Ree, Vicki and Darius, thank you for being there for every special moment, occasion and anything in between. I love you all from the bottom of my heart.

To my sisters from a different mother; Leslie C. King, you’ve supported my dreams from the beginning and I love you. I couldn’t ask for a more supportive, giving and loyal friend.

Latasha N. Rudd-Kendrick, thank you for reading any and every chapter I’ve ever sent you.  Thank you for telling me whatever you thought good or otherwise lol I love you.  Diamond Trilogy for Life!!!!

My forever friend, Tiffany A. Boyd thank you for your insight, encouragement, and love.
I love you.
We’re nearly twenty years strong!!!!!

Falynn V. Burton thank you for your love
, kindness
and friendship throughout the years.
I cherish the friendship that we share.
Me
and my girl roll like ‘Batman and Robin’.

A special thanks to my boss, Ms. Taneisha “Big Sister Gorgeous One” Marks for letting me “create” and supporting all my endeavors, love you.

My co-workers, Courtney Jackson, Aronyl Turner and Kanika Walton thanks for reading and giving me feedback.

To my editors; Mr. Damon Finney and Ms. Natasha Robinson,

Damon, my editor and friend, thank you for taking on this task.  I appreciate all you have done.  You saw my vision and embraced it.  Just as I viewed these characters as “real people” you did the same and I am grateful for your supportive words and contribution.

Natasha, thank you for all your time and patience with this project.

Thank you to my graphic artist, Nate Hickman. What you created was greater than anything I could have ever imagined.

Shout Outs to The Funchess, Eugene and Bryant Families. 
My girls, Mia Bankston, Felicia Burton, Tiffany Cole, Brandyce Monroe –Johnson, Robyn Rudd, Courtney Strange, and Chandra Willis also Mr. Jeremy Thomas.
  And a special thanks to Renika Mcqueen-Echols.   I love you one and all.

To every person who shared a kind thought or word, I am truly grateful and appreciative. To an
yone I forgot charge it to my mind and not my heart.

Bianca L. Eugene

This book is dedicated to all the Dreamers.

Never Stop Dreaming!!!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bianca L. Eugene studied journalism at Wayne State University. She grew up in Southfield, MI a suburb of Detroit. Currently she resides in Southfield, with her husband Richard.
At Last
is her first work of fiction.

You can Contact her at [email protected]

Chapter One

“Where the fuck was you at last night?”

“What?”  I was still half sleep.
Same old nonsense.
I knew it was Justin’s crazy ass.

“You heard me.”

“Justin, I’ll call you back.”

“Where da fuck was you at!?”
  He hollered into the phone.

I hung up the phone.  I ain’t got time for his shit. Justin had a habit of coming and going as he pleased.
Later for that.
He comes and goes as he pleases; and he got the damn nerve to be checking for me and the folks I deal with? We weren’t together anymore. I didn’t have to deal with his bullshit. I
laid
back down in the bed and tried to drift off to sleep.

I’d already had a rough night,   and it was too early in the morning for all that nonsense.  The hair show was tonight and I’d been up the entire night before doing hair.

All last night those heifers were going on and on about their damn hair.  “Is it supposed to fall like this?” “How do I sleep on this?”  Shit, they made me rethink my occupation entirely.

The phone began to ring again.

Damn, guess I won’t be getting any type of sleep I guess Justin was determined to make sure I didn’t get another wink of sleep.  Fed up, I took the phone off the hook.  He was just going to keep on calling.

Lying in the bed, staring up at the ceiling I wondered how I could allow my life to end up this way.  It wasn’t that I didn’t have nice things or live comfortably-I even had a beautiful three year old daughter.  I just hadn’t planned on my life turning out this way.   But I guess that was what John Lennon meant when he said, “Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.”

It perfectly described my life in a nut shell.  I was unfulfilled.

I was torn between what I thought I wanted and what I thought I needed.  Durran popping back into the picture made matters even worse.

His return further complicated my existence.  I was in love with him.  But he was the worst type of guy to fall for.  The type that would wine and dine you, whisper sweet nothings in your ear; but be doing the same thing with
the
next pretty face.  He could make any woman feel like “wifey”.

I used to love doing hair.  It was my passion.  But recently, it had turned into something to pay the bills.  Often I wondered what would have happened if I’d waited to have Taylor and finished college. I wanted to be a columnist for Essence Magazine.  That was my dream.

I wanted to be married by the time I was twenty-six, with two kids by the time I was thirty-four.  I wanted a successful marriage.  I wanted to be settled into my career and raising my children.

But that was neither here nor there.   I never regretted having Taylor a day in my life and I loved her more than anything in this world.  I’d lay down my life for my daughter i
n a heartbeat.  She
was
the
reason I worked so hard.

But, now I was in bed alone dodging her father’s phone calls.  Glancing over at the alarm clock; it read 10 AM.  Damn. Dreading getting out of the bed, I got up and went to take a shower.

Once out of the shower I looked at my body in the mirror.  My body had bounced back after childbirth.  My 34 DD’s were in place and firm and supple.  My hips were curvy and my stomach was flat.  My backside was round and perfect.

I went back into my room dried off, put on lotion, and sprayed on a little Escada. I slipped on my favorite pair of DKNY blue jeans, matching jacket and a tan tank top underneath.

I brushed my long jet black hair and put it in a ponytail.  White gold hoops decorated my ears. I threw on a pair of tan cowboy boots grabbed my Louis Vuitton bag and hit the door.  I pulled my cream Eldorado out of the garage and headed to the shop to grab some things and curl my hair for tonight.

It was a beautiful spring Detroit morning around 65 degrees. The sun shined b
rightly as I threw on my Dolce&
Gabbana shades.

As I rode down
Seven
Mile all the brothas were at the car wash getting their rides just right for the first warm night.  I opened the sunroof so my ponytail could blow in the wind.

When I pulled up to the shop, it was off the hook.  The parking lot was on jam even worse than usual Saturday mornings.  I grabbed my stuff and headed to the door. 
The shop was north of the city in Southfield, a suburb of Detroit. Although it was in the burbs, somehow the hood always crept through.

Walking through the door, I saw women seated in pink chairs with their hair either underneath shower caps, blown out or some hadn’t even been touched.  Constant chatter was the best way to describe it.

“Morning Miss Keisha.” Juan greeted with a smile.

I looked over to Juan’s direction.
“Morning baby.
”
What’s up?”

Juan was another stylist in the shop.  He was mad cool and sweet as he could be; in more ways than one.

“Those bitches were crazy as hell last night, girl!”  He exclaimed as he continued to curl his customer’s hair.

I just shook my head, “Tell me about it.  Had my head hurting so bad I sent my baby over to my sister’s for the night.”

He laughed.  “You ready for tonight?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”
I said as I began to take my hair out of the ponytail and comb it down.  Tuning out the chatter in the background I thought about Justin.  I loved him.  I truly did. I just couldn’t deal with his erratic ass behavior, and it was wearing on me.

I was halfway finished curling my hair when the door burst open.
“Where da fuck was you last night, Keisha!?”

I turned around and Justin was standing before me looking a complete mess.  His pants were wrinkled to be damned.  He was wearing an A-shirt and a navy blue zip up sweater that was just hanging off of him.

Justin was hairy; very hairy.  He always had been, but   from the looks of it he hadn’t shaved in at least a week.  His beard, mustache and goatee were all overgrown, and his thick, jet black curly hair was in need of a cut. His
eyes were bloodshot as if he hadn’t slept in days. His olive colored skin looked washed out.

It seemed like all the chatter in the shop had stopped to focus in on me and my business.

“Justin, I was up here until two in the morning doing hair.” I replied angrily trying to keep my voice down.

“Stop fuckin’ lying to me! You
was
with that nigga.  I swear to God Keish, if you
was
I’ma fuck you up!”  He yelled nearing me.

“I told you last week that the hair show was tonight. Don’t start with me.  This is my job.  You need to go home! “Turning around I tried to ignore him the best I could. It seemed like a lifetime of silence before he finally responded.

“I’m sorry, Keish.  I ain’t
mean
it.” He then got down on his knees and started holding on and hugging my waist. I looked around the shop embarrassed slowly trying to pry his arms from around me. Some people looked in disgust; others looked on ready to laugh at me.

“I’m sorry boo.  I just miss you and Taylor so much.  I can’t live without y’all.  Just come back boo.  Just come back.  I love you.”

As if it couldn’t get worse, he began to cry.  If everybody wasn’t looking before, they damn sure were now.  A 6-foot-3-inch man on his knees begging and clinging to a 5-foot-3-inch woman was something to see, I guess.

“Come on sweetie pie, get up.  It’s alright.  Come on.  Let’s go outside.” I reasoned with him. I walked out of the shop with half my hair up in a clip and the other half curled.  He followed me outside and we both climbed into the front cab of his black Ford F-150.
Justin leaned his head back against the headrest. I turned to face him.