As Time Goes By: A BWWM Interracial Romance Read Free Page A

for work the next day, only she wasn’t
working. Neither did she have much in the way of a tantalizing dinner in her
empty fridge. And she hadn’t been out having fun on the town for so long that,
that…
     “Marg?”
     “Still here.” She spat the words out the way a dieting
person says ‘maybe’ when presented with a triple fudge Sundae with all the toppings.
She knew from experience that a handsome, buff guy like Arnold wasn’t going to
stay on the bachelor shelf for too long if he kept on flashing those emerald
greens and expensive dates around. A sweet, good looking guy with money to burn
usually could afford an above average engagement ring. Marg now had to wonder
if fate was finally playing into her hands or if fate was simply replaying a
piece of history that was about to blow up in her overanxious, love starved and
sex starved face.
     “So, can I take it we’re on for tonight?”
     “Tonight?” Marg blurted out, almost mindlessly. She had
just wrestled with herself over the thought that she was far too good looking
for her own good. A mag cover face and an hour glass figure that was to die
for. A lot of women viewed her as being some kind of slut, but then again they
didn’t have to endure the same kind of wicked temptation she did. Most of the
guys coming on to her were Denzal Washington lookalikes, and so bursting at the
seams with charm and biceps that it was a wonder she hadn’t gone out with even
ten times as many men by now. She was being constantly serenated by the crème
de la crème, and it was a miracle she had any resistance to going out with them
at all.
     “Shall I swing by at six?”
     She frowned at how stupid she had been, letting him drive
her home yesterday after lunch. Now he knew where she lived, and now he could
easily weaken her resolve by constantly tempting her by coming over, and whisking
her away to someplace really nice. She waited for that shoe to drop. She didn’t
have to wait long.
    “I made reservations for us at Capatroni’s Palace.”
    His words enthralled her. You couldn’t buy a dinner there
for under a hundred bucks, and she had heard stories about their seafood that
made her suddenly drool with envy. Arnold certainly knew how to push a girl’s
buttons. Although she was desperate to say no and spare herself the probable
heartache coming down the road. She shrugged at her own weakness and bit the
bullet.
    “Six sounds fine,” she managed.
    “Good, see you then.”
    The disconnecting click had a certain finality to it. They
had a chance meeting the day before. She had, three years before that actually
sat in his office when he was councillor because she had a zoning issue over a
building rented by a charity organization she worked for, a building they now wanted
to purchase. The land had been zoned industrial, which meant that the city up
till then had been collecting taxes on it. In order for the building to be
declared tax free, then certain expensive, time consuming clearances would have
to be obtained. Arnold had helped her and her organization avoid the hurdle of
mind boggling red tape. At that time he had made a lot of goo-goo eyes at her,
but hadn’t asked her out. She assumed it was because he had been married at the
time. Now he was divorced. She had no problem with dating divorced men. It were
the so called ‘separated’ ones that made her reluctant and antsy. Separated men
tended to get re-attached to their spouses at some point. A time bomb waiting
to happen, and a bomb she had allowed to go off in her life one time too many.
But at least with Arnold, she wasn’t going to have that problem. Divorced men
rarely went back to their ex’s. Not that they didn’t at times talk about them or
rant about them or whatever. But they rarely went back to them. Arnold’s
declaration that he was safely divorced and had the papers signed sealed and
delivered, made her feel more at ease with his status. And she had only become
concerned with his status