Free Joy's Valentine by Destiny Wallace Page B

look tiny.
    Joy gazed at herself in the three way mirror, speculatively.  Her hair was pulled back in a low ponytail.  Her rich brown complexion went well with the maroon dress.  She was 5’6” and had a generous helping of boobs and hips, which gave her a nice hourglass figure.  Joy knew she’d never be tall and thin like Marla, but most of the time she didn’t care; especially times like this when she wore a dress that accentuated her favorite assets.
    “It’s amazing!” the sales girl, exclaimed clapping her hands.
    Joy nodded in agreement and retreated back into the dressing room to try on something else. She had just gotten down to her underwear when her cell phone rang. She dug it out of the purse, under the “maybe” pile of clothes she’d already modeled. “Hello,” she said quickly without checking the caller ID.
    “Joy Ayanna Grady,” her mother Terri responded.
    Joy’s stomach clenched. She’d been avoiding her mother’s calls since the now infamous Christmas blowup when she’d left the family home after causing quite a scene. Now her mother used her full name and that scary emotionless voice, like she’d done something wrong. Well…something else…
    “Oh, hi Ma.”
    “Don’t you ‘hi Ma’ me. I just got off the phone with your sister.”
    Joy cursed her sister…then Alexander Graham Bell for inventing the telephone in the first damn place. “Oh, I just left Marla. We met for coffee. She looks good; dyed her hair brown.”
    “Save the pleasantries,” Terri snapped, “What’s this I hear about you shacking up with some man you just met?”
    Joy glanced at the door and lowered her voice to just above a whisper. “I’m not shacking up.”
    “Oh really? You’re not? Well, last thing I heard you were living in Virginia with no boyfriend and no prospects. That was two months ago…now you’re staying in some guy’s apartment in Manhattan after you followed him to Europe instead of spending Christmas with your family.”
    “I didn’t follow him…I accompanied him on a business trip.” Joy cupped her hand over the phone to further cover her conversation.
    “What the hell kind of business was that? You know what…I don’t want to know. You just get this fellow here as soon as possible so I can meet him. I want to know what kind of game he’s running.”
    “He’s not running a game!” Joy snapped. She’d forgotten about privacy and her voice echoed in the tiny room.
    “You tell me what a grown ass man is doing picking up a woman and sweeping her away, then holing her up in his apartment and keeping her from her job, her home, and her family! What’s he up to if he’s not running a game? What could he possibly want?”
    “ME!” Joy sobbed. Her mother’s words made too much sense.
    No doubt, Marla told Terri just how attractive Eli had been. In Terri’s mind he was probably a pimp. They didn’t know it was Joy’s idea to take a sabbatical so they could get to know each other even more.
    Joy had been waiting for the other shoe to drop for going on three weeks. The romance of their weeks in London and Paris was fading. Any moment now, she expected Eli to look at her and ask what the hell he was thinking. Joy was waiting for him to come to his senses, so in spite of what her mother thought Joy had not taken leave of her senses.
    “Oh, honey,” Terri said with a sigh. “Just bring him home and we’ll straighten everything out.”
    Joy swiped the tears off her face and shook her head. “I can’t do that. We’re going to Florida for Valentine’s Day. Our flight leaves in the morning.”
    Terri was silent on the other end. “Okay. Fine. Go ahead and go to Florida, but this isn’t over.”
    “Trust me, I know.”
    Her mother sniffed. “I’ll call you every day you’re down there.”
    Joy glimpsed Eli’s shiny leather shoes standing just outside the door. “Considering it’s supposed to be romantic…I won’t answer…but you can leave messages.” She