The Savvy Sistahs Read Free

had done. In her own usual “make it real” way she was being the drama queen. Every so often they needed one; especially when their talks got too somber.
    “Forget about your mama for now, Carla, since we established the fact a while back that she wasn’t operating with a full deck. Let’s get back to this Jesse guy,” Brandy said, gripping the edge of the table. “Why do I get these vibes that this brother was fine, fine, fine. Maybe it’s because you’ve said many times that Craig took his looks from his father, and we all know that kid of yours is going to have all the women swooning in about fifteen years or less.”
    Carla smiled. “Trust me,Jesse Devereau was indeed one fine brother, and I fell in love the moment we met. We went to a nice restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner, went dancing, and then later went to his hotel room. By the next morning I was no longer a twenty-nine-year-old virgin, and in the span of twelve hours I had learned bedroom techniques that I’d never heard of before.”
    Amber grinned. “Sounds like a pretty good way to end an evening to me.”
    Carla chuckled. “Yeah, and we used a condom, so he was either too big or I was too small. In any case, the blasted thing didn’t work and I found out less than two months later that I was pregnant.”
    “Did you contact him to let him know about your condition?” Amber asked.
    “No. Although the night meant everything to me, for him it was just a one-night stand, and I didn’t think he would appreciate me interrupting his life to tell him that he was going to be a father.”
    Carla couldn’t hide the hurt in her features when she added, “I later found out that he had lied to me. I had asked him the night we met if he was involved with anyone and he said that he wasn’t. I discovered that he
was
involved with someone and had been for a while. An older woman. A
rich
older woman.”
    A dignified snort came from Brandy. “Men are such assholes.”
    Amber couldn’t just sit there and listen anymore. She had to finally add her past woes. “My time,” she said softly. The pain in her eyes made the other two women hurt, too. “I came home from work after suffering a bad bout of morning sickness to find my husband in bed with another woman. I was three months pregnant and forgot about my condition, went ballistic and began throwing anything and everything I could get my hands on at their naked behinds. When the whore tried running down the stairs to get away from me, I took off after her, lost my balance, and fell the rest of the way…and lost my baby.”
    Amber’s hand trembled from the pain she still felt as she picked up her glass of wine and finished off what was left. “Do you know that Gary not once came to the hospital to see me? And the day I came home he moved out. Before he left he looked at me and said I was one crazy-ass bitch and that I should have been more appreciative of him, since no other man wanted a size-twenty woman anyway.”
    She sighed deeply as she remembered his constant verbal abuse. “He would always say mean and nasty things about my weight. My self-esteem had gotten so low I didn’t think that anything could ever get it up again.”
    Amber studied the almost empty wine bottle a moment before continuing. “More than once I wished that I had listened to my mama and never married him. Even his own mama had warned me that he was no good, but he was so good in bed that I didn’t listen to anyone.”
    She put down her empty wineglass and reached for her glass of water, took a sip, then said, “After our divorce, I decided to leave Nashville and start fresh here in Orlando. I saw Gary last year when I went back home for his mama’s funeral. He took one look at me and saw I had slimmed down to a size sixteen and his eyes and penis got as big as his head. For some reason he thought it would be real easy to get back into my panties, but I told him that he could kiss my black—”
    “Would any of you ladies