Trouble In Paradise

Trouble In Paradise

Stephanie
Nicole Norris

Chapter 1

Victoria plopped down on the couch with a sigh,

“Whew, I was so excited about moving to a new city I forgot how tiresome packing could be.  It’s all good though because we are starting over,” she said out loud.

With two degrees in psychology and a chocolate drop of a man, I guess that will have to do. 

Joshua Eubanks,
she thought. 

He came into her life in the blink of an eye.  She didn’t ev
en see him coming.  Literally Victoria was in her freshman year of college she was placing a sign on the billboard when Joshua walked up.

“Hey, how are you
?"

She looked at him.

“Good, how are you?”  

Joshua looked over at the sign which read:
Need a tutor? For better performance, tutoring classes will be held in the old café today at 3pm math only.  If a personal tutor is needed please call 901-600-8414, ask for Victoria.
 

“So you teach classes?” he asked looking at her skeptica
lly.

He knew she wasn’t old enough to be a teacher; she looked like a young student.

“No, I’m a tutor,” she said looking at him like it was o
bvious from the sign that was posted.

“Ok.”

Joshua hoped Victoria wasn’t stuck up she was beautiful and he wanted to get to know her better.

“How did you get into tutoring?”

“Well I’m very good at electoral classes a bit of an over achiever.  I have to have twenty hours of volunteer work each week in order to get an internship in my field when I graduate, so I tutor three days out of the week.”

“Oh, sounds like a plan h
ow long have you been here, you don’t look a day over eighteen and you’re able to tutor and thinking about your internship now?” 

“Yeah, you’d be surprised how fast time flies, before you know it I’ll be graduating and ready to move on to the next phase of my life.  Is that a problem?” 

Joshua stared at her—he had not known someone so young and ambitious. 

She snapped her fingers, “HELLO, earth to mystery guy?” she laughed. 

“Sorry,” he said smiling hard. 

“You didn’t answer my question. Is that a problem?” 

He licked his lips.  She noticed.  This guy was in his own world. 
Dag do I look that good?
She thought. 

“No, not at all,” he said coming out of his trance, “I think it’s very responsible of you.” 

“Thanks. What can I say, I try.”

Joshua loved her lips; they were full, sexy and looked soft. They curved into a beautiful white smile that kept him going back into la la land. 

“My n
ame is Joshua Eubanks,” he extended his hand. “I’m a sophomore here; I’m on my way to Professor Fransway's class.” 

She reached for his hand an
d when they touched she felt a warm electric current run through her fingertips all the way down to her center, “Oh yeah, that’s where I’m going,” she said tripping over her words still dazed by the wave of electricity between them.

“That’
s a sophomore class how are you…?”

Victoria cut him off,

“Do we have to keep going through this? I’m smarter than the average bear.”

T
hey both smiled. 

“I’m a freshman and I take some sophomore classes, besides electoral classes can really be taken by anyone who is smart enough to be in that class.  It’s not high school you know.” 

He smiled again and at that moment a soft gust of wind blew in and whipped Victoria’s hair to the left side of her face.  Joshua noticed she had a tattoo of a small butterfly behind her right ear, he thought it was sexy. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name,” he said. 

“I’m Victoria Mathis.” 

“Are you married?
” 

“
If that’s your way of asking if I have a boyfriend, then no.” 

He smiled again.

“Can I walk with you to our next class?” 

Victoria looked him from head to toe.  He was sexy; she wondered how many skeletons he had in his closet. 

“Yeah let’s go.” 

Victoria didn’t know she would fall in love with him, but she did and now they were officially moving in together.  Joshua swept Victoria off her feet and the rest was history.  Sure, he had his share of flaws, but who doesn’t, she accepted him for who he was and they were happy and on the verge of moving to Chicago. 

Her internship was about to start with Banks Association for Relationship and Family Therapy.  Joshua was a real estate agent with the ability to move around as he saw fit, so he was relocating with her. After all, she was the love of his life.  Her phone rang snapping her out of her thoughts. 

“Hello?” 

“Hey baby, what’s my girl up to?” 

“Packing up the last of my things, I was just thinking about you.”

“Oh really, I thought you were just packing up your
things,” he said with a smile.

“And I was just thinking of you at the same time. Isn’t that possible?”

“I’m just messing with you I’m on my way over there so we can get moving.”

“Ok, I’ll be ready when you get here.” 

“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

“Ok bye,” she hung up. 

Victoria got off the couch and moved back to the boxes.  “Ok let’s see . . . one, two, three, four . . . those are the last.” 

Victoria was excited about Chicago, she knew that the crime rate was bad, but she also knew what areas were good.  Last year she took a four season trip to Chicago.  This basically means every season for all four seasons she would go and visit the state of her choice to stay for two weeks out of that season.  It was a parting gift from her senior class faculty.  Victoria was delighted to take advantage of the vacation.  She was not worried after all she was a born again Christian with God for her who could be against her? He had provided a good strong man, and that man provided a Smith & Wesson and a twenty-two for protection if she needed it.  Hopefully she wouldn’t, but after her house was broken into twice in the same week, Joshua decided to take them to the gun range for practice and they both got a license to carry. 

Victoria was born and raised in Memphis Tennessee.  She grew up in Orange Mound.  She could hardly see anything shaking her up in Chicago after what she had witnessed in Memphis.  Victoria was a girl who couldn’t be easily run over. She lived in the hood before and violence and poverty shaped her into a stronger person.  She always wanted to raise the bar and be as professional and successful of a model citizen as she could be, but on the contrary she would not be backed into a corner either.

She did have one habit she couldn’t seem to shake.  Well, she really wasn’t tryin
g to do anything about it at the time, it was her thing.  During her college years she partied and she did experiment with the usual drugs, but weed stuck with her.  She is so used to smoking it that she carries a little gold case with already rolled joints inside as if they were cigarettes.  She would open it up and smoke at her leisure as if smoking weed was legal. She enjoyed smoking it only relaxed her and she was a workaholic.  She didn’t plan on giving it up any time soon unless Jesus himself told her too.

Victoria looked around the empty apartment,

“This is the last time I’ll stand here”, she said out loud
.

A
car pulled into the driveway her Blackberry showed twenty minutes exactly had gone by. Joshua was always on time, he was so precise that it was kind of impossible, but he managed to pull it off.  That was one of his pet peeves; his motto was time is money.  The handle turned and the door swung open. 

“M
y sexy lady.” 

His six foot four frame walked up to her and kissed her passionately.  His soft kisses tasted like chocolate mints.  Wrapping her in mounds of chocolate arms and softly squeezing her they continued to kiss. His workouts and early morning runs were apparent.  His body was the proof.  She squeezed his arms and shoulders slightly and tightened her embrace. Victoria felt her ears tingle and her
heartbeat sped up, she was praying about her hungry sexual appetite.  How she would stop fornicating long enough to become the righteousness of God she had no idea but she was trying to work on it.

Victoria pulled back slightly from his embrace with a hand on the side of his face, “Well I’m happy to see you too,” she said. 

“B
aby let me bend you over,” he said turning her around and pressing up against her. 

“No stop,” she said trying to get away from him. 

“Yeah, come on you turn me on in a serious way and you know it.”

She took a step back, turned her back to him and pulled out her gold case.  She popped the lid open and pulled out a joint.  She did the universal pat down that smokers do when their looking for a lighter.  Josh
ua laughed and held one out.  She inhaled; Joshua proceeded to kiss her on her neck, soft deep kisses. Victoria felt herself unbuttoning his shirt.  He picked her up, took her to the kitchen, sat her on the counter and pulled her sundress off as they were still kissing.  She passed him the joint. Victoria pulled his pants down and the rest was history.