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It was Friday night and Jayla Jefferson and Taraji Spencer couldn’t believe it as they made their way to the booth in the back.

“You showed up,” Taraji said when they made it up to the booth where Roni was seated.

“And the bitch showed up on time,” said Jayla happily. “I don’t believe it.”

“I don’t know why y’all trippin’,” Roni said as her two close friends hugged her neck and then sat on the booth seat across from her. “I told y’all I was coming.”

“You told us you were coming other times, too, and were a no-show. But we’re glad you’re here, girl,” Taraji said as she reached out her hand and squeezed Roni’s. “We just want you to be happy too.”

“I am happy. Just because I don’t have a man doesn’t mean I’m unhappy. I’m very happy. Especially,” she said happily as she flashed her brand new badge in their faces, “since I’m a detective bitches!”

They high-fived her and laughed like their normal, boisterous selves, causing others in the restaurant to glance their way. “You did the darn thing, Roni,” said Taraji. “You did that girl!”

“I was the same way when I got my bar card,” said Jayla. “I wanted to run down everybody that said I wasn’t lawyer material and shove it in their faces. And up their asses too,” she added. “‘Who knew, bitches, who knew,’ I wanted to scream.”

They laughed. “Girl you crazy,” Roni said.

The waiter came and took their drink orders, their rowdiness getting his attention too. Within a couple minutes, he was back with their drinks. Jayla nearly drank half of hers with one gulp. “I needed that,” she said, and then belched. They laughed again.

“So,” said Taraji, an OB/GYN who made it her business to stay out of her best friends’ business. But in Roni’s case she stayed plugged in. Roni had a tough exterior. Even tougher than Jayla’s. But she was the sweetest girl Taraji had ever known. She so wanted her to get married and have a houseful of babies just like she knew Roni wanted. In Taraji’s eyes, nobody deserved it more. “Once Melvin arrives, we’re going to take our leave and hope for the best.”

“What Miss Prim and Proper is really saying,” said Jayla, “is that we hope you don’t blow it like you know how to do.”

Taraji ignored Jayla’s dig. “What I want to know is how do you plan on handling this date?” she asked Roni.

“I don’t plan on handling it or him. I’m going to check him out and see where it goes from there. That’s all I can do. Besides, you’re missing the other part of this. It may not be me this time. He may be the one that says no thanks and leave.”

Jayla and Taraji looked at each other and shook their heads. “To be a cop, you are so na?ve.”

“Na?ve?” Roni was shocked. “How in the world am I na?ve, Jayla?”

“No man is going to say no thanks to you, okay?”

“Oh here we go,” said Roni.

“She’s telling the truth,” Taraji chimed in. “You just don’t believe it.”

“I don’t believe it because it’s not believable! If I’m so all-that why has every relationship I’ve ever had failed?”

“Because of Brax McCrae!” Jayla and Taraji said together.

“Which I never understood,” said Taraji, “because every single time you two are together all you do is argue with each other. But I’m with Jayla. He distracts you, Roni.”

“That’s not true.” Roni wasn’t buying it. At least not like they meant. “That’s not true at all. My problem with men has never been because I was distracted with Brax or anything like that. It was because they cheated.”

“Gus Rogers didn’t cheat on you,” said Jayla.

“I was a rookie cop,” said Roni. “All those times we talked on the phone I kept telling you I was trying to figure out how to be a good cop. I didn’t have time for any hot and heavy romance in my rookie year.”

“The one that got away,” said Taraji.

“That’s what you say,” said Roni. “That’s not what I’m saying.”

“What are you saying then?” asked Jayla. “And what does it have anything to do with you not being able to see your beauty because Brax’s mean ass is always in the way?”

“I’m telling y’all to stop blaming Brax for everything that goes on in my life with these men. That’s what it means. And all this beauty talk is just talk because other than Gus, every single man I’ve ever been with cheated on me. Which is the ultimate no thank you, we don’t want you, we aren’t interested in you. So damn right I don’t believe all that talk about how beautiful I supposedly am. My experience tells me not to ever think for a second that I’m some bad bitch every man wants. That I’m somehow rejection-proof.”

“That’s not what we’re saying,” Jayla said. “No woman is rejection-proof. What we’re saying is that you underestimate your beauty.”

“Which you do,” Taraji added.

“I mean look at you,” said Jayla. “Five-feet-seven. Got that perfect body. That badass hair. That badass face. That flawless brown skin. Girl bye! You’ve underestimated your uniqueness ever since we’ve known you. And we’ve known you since grade school, so we know your ass,” she added to laughter.

“But we see how men look at you. We see it with our own two eyes. They want your ass,” Jayla added, and they laughed again. “You don’t be wanting them. That’s the problem. Let’s just keep it one-hun’ned. Let’s just keep shit real.”

“Any who ,” said Roni. “Moving right along.”

Taraji and Jayla looked at each other and shook their heads. “She’ll never believe it,” Jayla said. “So let’s move on too.”

“How was your first week as a Robbery/Homicide Detective girl? Can we at least talk about that?”

Roni nodded. She had no problem with that subject. “It was alright. I’m overall pleased. Although it started out rocky.”

“How so?”

“I had to get my first partner straight within the first few minutes of our acquaintance when he threw that you’re just a diversity hire bullshit in my face.”

Both ladies were shocked. “He said that?” Taraji asked.

“He said it girl. As if diversity means unqualified. Which it doesn’t.”

“I know that’s right! I hope you checked him right then and there.”

“Oh I checked him. He was red-hot when I finished checking his ass,” she added, and they high-fived. “But other than that,” Roni continued, “it went okay. I got to meet the infamous BG.”

“Bruce and Gabe?” Jayla asked.

“The one and only.”

“Who’s Bruce and Gabe?” Taraji asked. “Sounds like rock stars.”

“That’s what they think they are in the crime business,” Jayla said. “They’re two robbery/homicide detectives known as the dynamic duo for how fast they close cases. I’ve had to cross-exam their lying butts many times. But I have to admit they’re great on the witness stand. They’re liars. But nobody’s better at it.”

“Wait a minute,” said Taraji. “Didn’t I hear you say your first partner?”

Roni exhaled and nodded. “That’s what you heard.”

“So you aren’t with your first partner anymore?”

“Nope. They paired me with a different detective.”

“In just one week?” asked Jayla. “How did that happen?”

“Don’t ask me. I thought Carter and I had come to a truce. He keep his bullshit to himself, and I keep mine to myself. But then the next thing I know, my precinct captain calls me into his office and introduces me to this brother named Demetrius Dixon But everybody calls him Dean.”

Taraji and Jayla looked at each other. Then they both nodded and said Braxton McCrae in unison.

Roni frowned. “What does Brax have to do with my new partner?”

“Did you tell him what your first partner said about you being a diversity hire?”

Roni thought about it. “Yeah I told him. I tell him everything going on in my life. So what?”

“So he probably contacted the brass and told them to eject Carter from being your partner.”

Roni shook her head. “That’s ridiculous. It doesn’t work that way.”

“And I guess he had nothing to do with your promotion either, did he?”

Roni was offended. “I earned that promotion.”

“We know you did,” said Jayla. “You earned it at the NYPD. But you never got promoted there. You come already promoted here. Come on now, girl. We aren’t deaf, dumb, and blind.”

“Yes, he put in a word for me. But I had to be worthy of that word or Brax would tell me to go fuck myself. That’s what y’all don’t know about him.”

“Oh please,” said Taraji. “We know he’s mean as a junkyard dog. We know that, honey.”

“We know that in spades,” added Jayla. “But do you know it is the question.”

Roni couldn’t win with those two.

“Again, wait a minute,” said Taraji. “Didn’t I hear you say your new partner is a brother?”

Jayla was shocked. “You’ve got a black partner now?”

Roni nodded. “I sure do.”

“Don’t tell me he’s an asshole too. Please don’t tell me that.”

Roni smiled. “No, he’s actually pretty cool. We’ve only been together a few days, mind you, but I like him.”

“Describe him,” Jayla said.

“He’s a nice guy.”

“Describe him, Roni,” Taraji said.

“I don’t be paying attention to that man like that.”

“How old is he?”

“How would I know? I never asked him.”

“How old does he look?”

Roni was only guessing. “Late thirties. Maybe forty.”

“Older men like sassy women you know.”

“What in the world does that have to do with me?”

“Brax is much older than you.”

Roni frowned.“And?”

“Is he tall?”

“Is who tall?”

“Dean Dixon.”

“Yes, he’s tall.”

“Taller than you?”

“Yes, Taraji, he’s taller than me.”

“Is he as tall as Brax?” Jayla asked.

Roni rolled her eyes. “I’m not even dignifying that.”

“Is he good looking?” Taraji asked.

Roni didn’t want to say so because she knew how they were. But she was no liar. “Yes. He’s very good looking.”

“Great body?” Jayla asked.

“Yes, he has a great body.”

This seemed to excite both of her friends. “What church he attends?” Jayla asked her.

Roni had to think about it. “I think he said Bethel Baptist. Why?”

Jayla and Taraji looked at each other and smiled.

Roni was baffled. “What?”

“Roni likes Dean,” the ladies sang. “Roni likes Dean!”

“What did I possibly say to make y’all even think that?”

“He’s your type.”

“I don’t have a type.”

“Yes you do. You don’t fool with the younger guys, or guys your age, either, because they’re too immature for you. So he fits your type. He’s older, well-built, good-looking. And you already knows what church he attends. That ain’t no random dude if you asked him what church he attends.”

“I’ll bet you invited him to our church,” Taraji said.

Roni ignored them.

“Did you?” asked Jayla.

Roni, instead, picked up the menu. “What’s on the menu?” she asked, and they all laughed.

But then Taraji noticed something. “Uh-oh,” she said, and they all looked at her. “We got company.”

“He’s here?” Roni asked nervously as she and Jayla looked toward the entrance where Taraji was looking. But Roni didn’t see her blind date. She, instead, saw Braxton McCrae with a female on his arm as the waiter escorted them to a table. They were both laughing as if they were having a ball.

Roni’s heart dropped as soon as she saw him, which she hated. She knew he still had his barnyard of women and would continue to do all sorts of things with them, but after what they did that night in New York just seeing him with another woman kind of stung her more. She’d been with him. She knew what that lady was going to get from him later that night. Especially when Roni knew that what she and Brax did that night didn’t help their relationship at all. It might have even set it back further than it already was, as they both had been trying to avoid each other. Which saddened her. She promptly looked away from them.

But as Jayla and Taraji continued to watch them, the waiter pulled out a chair for Brax’s date while Brax sat down across from her. The waiter gave them menus and took their drink orders, and then he left.

But the date, who was facing the back of the room, quickly noticed Roni and kept taking peeps at her.

Finally, she had to ask it. “Isn’t that her?”

Brax continued to check out the menu. He was starving. “Say again?”

“Isn’t that that girl?”

“Isn’t that what girl?”

“The black girl. The one with the big afro who thinks she’s all that. The one they say you like.”

When she said that last sentence, Brax’s mind immediately flew to Roni. She was the only woman on earth that anybody would declare he liked . He looked up, saw where his date was looking, and turned around to see for himself. As soon as he saw Roni sitting in that restaurant with two of her friends, his heart squeezed. Just seeing her did that to him. And even more so after that night in New York.

Without saying a word to his date, as if she didn’t count at all anyway, he got up and began making his way to the back of the restaurant where Roni was seated.

But before he got up, and before he knew Roni was in that restaurant too, Jayla and Taraji were already shaking their busybody heads as they watched him and his date take their seats. Then they looked at Roni. But Roni wanted no parts of any pity parties over Braxton. She continued to sip her wine. They were just friends even if her friends didn’t believe it. That was why she never told them about what happened in New York. They figured she and Brax had slept together long ago anyway. That was why she ignored them. But that was also why Jayla and Taraji continued to stare at Brax and his date.

“That man and his women,” said a disgusted Taraji.

“At his age you’d think he’d settle down by now,” said Jayla.

“And you never see him with the same one twice. I wonder why is that?”

“Probably because he has to have every skirt in town before he’s done. He’s so full of himself. As if he’s God’s gift to women.”

“That doesn’t even sound like Brax and you know it,” Roni said to Jayla.

Jayla looked at her. “Why do you always defend him?”

“I’m not defending anybody.”

“Then what’s his problem, Roni? Why is it that you never ever see him with the same woman twice unless you’re the woman?”

“Keep me out of that mess,” Roni said, and her friends laughed.

“But answer Jayla’s question then,” Taraji said. “Why is it that you never see him with the same girl twice?”

“How should I know?” Roni asked. “Apparently they can’t keep his attention long enough for a second date, is my best guess.”

“Well apparently you can keep his attention,” Jayla said as Brax got up from his seat and began heading their way.

Roni looked at her. “Why would you say that?”

“Because he spotted you and he’s on his way to our booth.”

Just as Roni was looking, he was upon them. “Scoot over,” he said to her, which caused Jayla and Taraji to look at each other as if they wanted to say out loud the nerve of that man talking to her like that . Especially when Roni dutifully moved over and he sat down in their booth beside her.

They were shoulder to shoulder against each other, and just their nearness and touch had her heart pounding and his heart hammering. He couldn’t even look at her until he inwardly settled his emotions back down.

That was why he looked at Jayla and Taraji instead.

He knew neither lady cared for him, and both would be thrilled if he just left Roni alone. But that wasn’t happening. “Hello ladies.”

“Hi,” Jayla said dryly.

“How are you?” Taraji, who always respected decorum, asked.

“I’m well, Dr. Spencer. Thank you for asking.” Then he looked at Roni. As soon as her big, milky eyes looked at him, a soothing, warm feeling came over him. “And how are you, young lady?”

“I’m okay.”

“I’m surprised to see you here.”

Jayla bumped Taraji’s knee under the booth table when Brax’s eyes moved down to stare at Roni’s breasts.

“I didn’t think a place like this was your speed,” Brax added.

Roni considered him with his large green eyes and his sexily messy hair, and with his five o’clock shadow. She could easily see why so many women wanted him, and why he had so many to choose from. And why, she also thought sadly once again, he was really not marriage material. “It’s a nice restaurant. Why wouldn’t a nice restaurant be my speed?”

“I’m saying,” said Jayla beneath her breath.

Brax knew to ignore Jayla and her hostility. “I didn’t mean it that way,” he said with that smile Roni found so charming that she smiled too. “But there you have it right? Our expectations of others. What’s the occasion?”

Roni was still smiling. “Ah let me see? Dinner?” The ladies laughed.

Brax had to smile at that one too. “Okay, you got me there. But I mean I come here often. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you here.”

“No, you’re right. It’s my first time.”

He wanted to kiss her. It was that same impulse he had that night in New York City, an impulse he knew he had to control. But it was still strong. “Give me your phone,” he said to her instead.

“Don’t tell me you’ve got another save the date ,” Roni said as she began fishing her phone out of her purse.

“I’m afraid so.”

Taraji and Jayla looked at each other. It was no secret that whenever Brax had to attend a big event in town, he always had Roni on his arms. Not any of those other women, but Roni only. She used to come all the way from New York City to be his date for that night, and he’d fly her in as if he’d do whatever it took to have her by his side. Which always baffled her New York City friends, and her Victorville friends too, who knew her even longer.

But it didn’t seem to baffle Roni at all. She loved being his date on those big occasions. It made her feel as if she and she alone held that special place in his heart. She handed him her phone. “What’s the occasion this time?” she asked him as he put in her password, which Taraji and Jayla could not believe he knew by heart.

Brax pulled up her calendar. “The Chamber Awards banquet,” he said, responding to her question. “You still haven’t told me why you decided on this particular restaurant.” He had a feeling something was up if Jayla’s ass was involved. He just couldn’t figure out what it was. “Just decided to try something new?” he asked Roni.

“She’s on a blind date actually,” Jayla said happily as she and Taraji gave Brax a hard look. His eyes told everything, and they could see his interest was piqued.

And it was. He looked up from the phone. “A blind date? What is this, a thropple? She’s on a blind date with the two of you?”

“Boy bye!” said Jayla. “You have the wrong ones baby.”

“Her date isn’t with us, silly,” Taraji said. “We’re only here to hold her hand until her date shows up. And then we’re out of here.”

Brax felt an uncomfortableness deep within himself when he heard the news. He took a second, but then he looked at Roni with a hard, concerned look that had Jayla and Taraji bumping knees beneath the booth table so hard that they were hurting each other. Jayla even said ouch as they stared at him. And the way he was looking at Roni as if he was some lost puppy said it all to them. Just friends their asses.

And they were right. It was royally serious to Brax. “You agreed to a blind date?”

Roni could see how it bothered him, which made no sense to her. He was on a real live date himself! “Apparently so,” she said.

“Who with? Somebody I know?”

“His name is Dr. Melvin Crenson,” said Taraji. “He’s a colleague of mine at Saint Catherine’s who saw Roni visit me at the hospital one day and was intrigued enough to ask about her.”

“He’s a neurosurgeon,” added Jayla. “The chief of surgery at Saint Cat’s in fact. Taraji, being a doctor herself, thought he’d be perfect for Roni.”

It was the kind of news Brax knew was always possible. She was, after all, free to date whomever she pleased just as he did. But it still hit him harder than he thought it would. Breathtakingly so. He looked at Roni again. “This blind date is your idea?” he asked her.

Roni looked at him. It almost seemed as if he was jealous. Which would be crazy to her. How could a man on a date be jealous of her on a date? “What difference does it make whose idea it was?”

But Brax had to know. “Was it yours?”

Roni was staring deep into his eyes. He had the look of a man who could run the streets like there was no tomorrow, but he expected her to sit at home and do nothing. Especially if it involved a man! And that just pissed her off. “Speaking of dates,” she said to him, “yours is waiting.”

Taraji and Jayla were knocking knees again, thrilled that Roni told his ass something real. But Roni could see the anger, but also the hurt, in Brax’s eyes. He inputted the Chamber Awards on her calendar, handed her back her phone, and then got up and went back to his table.

“That’ll serve him right,” Taraji said. “The nerve he has questioning you.”

“The nerve,” Jayla agreed.

But Roni wasn’t feeling so triumphant. Brax was hurt. That wasn’t her intention.

But back at his table and his date, Brax was pissed. His date was asking what took him so long, but he was too steamed to respond to her.

“I was almost going to file a missing person’s report you were taking so long,” his date said jokingly.

But Brax pulled out his phone and began searching for a particular number. When the person on the other end of his phone call picked up, he got up and began walking toward the restaurant’s vestibule for privacy. His date sat down her drink. Now she was pissed.

But Brax couldn’t care less. “Hey Wes,” he said into his phone.

“Well if it isn’t Braxton McCrae. I haven’t heard from you in a very long time, my friend. How are you?”

“I’m good, thanks for asking. How are you?”

“As if you care.” He chuckled. “What can I do for you?”

“I need a favor.”

“Why am I not surprised that the great Braxton McCrae isn’t calling me just to inquire about my good health? But sure, if I can help, I’ll be glad to do you a favor.”

“You’re still chairman of the board of governors over at Saint Cat’s aren’t you?”

Wes chuckled again. “As far as I know I am.”

“Who’s Dr. Melvin Crenshaw?”

“Crenshaw? I don’t know any, uh, wait a minute. Do you mean Melvin Crenson , our chief of surgery?”

“Yeah him. That’s the one. What you know about the guy?”

“He’s a great surgeon. And when I say great, it’s not hyperbole.”

That concerned Brax. “Describe him.”

“Very nice-looking young man. Well-built. In his mid-thirties I think. African American. A mover and shaker.”

Brax exhaled. But what did he expect? He wasn’t the only man that saw what she had to offer. But at the end of the day, Brax was going to put Roni’s best interest over all else. “Okay he’s a great doctor and a great looking guy. But is he a great guy?”

“Great in what way?”

“In the woman way.”

“No way,” Wes said quickly. “Absolutely not. He’s a bona-fide player for sure. I would put him in your league, Brax,” he added, chuckling once again.

Brax exhaled again. There was no way a guy like that was getting within a hundred yards of Roni. Unless it was Brax himself. “He has a blind date tonight with a friend of mine who’s not that kind of girl. Tell him to send his apologies.”

“Ah,” said Wes. “Let me guess who this friend of yours is: Veronica Ross?”

Brax didn’t respond. He knew it was a well-known “secret” all around town that he and Roni had a special relationship.

“I’ll give him a call right away,” Wes said, understanding it was still an off-limits topic for Braxton.

“Thanks Wes,” Brax said, and ended the call.

Then he stared over at Roni as she sat there so dignified and sophisticated waiting for that player to show up. She was so free-spirited and kind-hearted despite the obstacles always thrown her way. She deserved a great man. If anybody deserved one, she did. But he’d yet to meet one that lived up to the standard he set for Roni.

He wished to God he could be that man.

He wished to God he could live up to that standard.