Free Unraveled - A Short Story Collective by KR BANKSTON

thought as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. She began to think again and wondered why she endured all she did from Lathan. Sammy was dying to take her back and she knew he would treat her good. So why was she going through hell? Because Lathan is the marrying kind , her mind told her and she sighed deeply. She was already thirty and she needed some kind of security in her life. She wanted children and a man who would be there to help raise and support them.
    Lathan was the sexiest man she'd dated in a long time. Sammy was fine, but he was still trying to be a player. Marriage was a four-letter word as far as he was concerned, not to mention he barely made minimum wage at
    the nursing home where he worked as an orderly. Kina met her as she returned.
    "Wassup girl?" she asked seeing Alisha's expression.
    "The usual," she replied dryly and Kina sighed lightly. "You wanna talk about it?" she asked hoping she said no. Honestly she was sick of hearing about the pair.
    "No, not right now girl," Alisha replied much to Kina's delight.
    "OK, well lets go on break," she replied and Alisha chuckled lightly as the two headed to the other side of the building where the break room was located.
    *****
    “So basically you’re just masochistic?” Jackie asked Lathan as they talked.
    He and the woman were a lot closer than anyone at the office knew. She spent much of her time being his soundboard about this affiliation with Alisha and the toll it was taking on his sanity. Lathan sighed deeply and told Jackie he just didn’t know what to do at this point.

“I mean, Alisha has her good points,” he told her and Jackie simply nodded. “But most times she does such stupid things to the point I hate even being around her,” Lathan lamented and Jackie looked at him hard.
    “So you stay with her because?” she threw at him and he sighed deeply again.
    “I dunno, I guess I just don’t wanna do her wrong and it come back to haunt me” he replied dejectedly.
    “Well that’s got to be one of the stupidest reasons I’ve ever heard for being with someone,” she returned never taking her eyes off him. “Look Lathan, you need to get your head together and quickly ,” she told him as he continued to think to himself. “Devon seems to really have deep feelings for Chriss and you gonna mess around and let that door be closed permanently worrying about some bad karma bullshit,” she finished bluntly as Lathan shook his head in acknowledgement of her statement.
    “I know ,” he said softly.
    Jackie simply grunted noncommittally rose and left him alone in the office. She ran into Kina on her way back to her own desk. “Hey Miss Jackie ,” Kina greeted her cheerfully. Jackie greeted the woman and they each headed in their own direction.
    Something’s not quite right about that one , Jackie thought to herself of Kina. She knew that Kina and Alisha were supposedly best friends but Jackie couldn’t shake the feeling that Kina had something lurking beneath the surface within her that was cruel, cold, and mean spirited.
    “Not my problem,” Jackie mumbled to herself as she made it to her seat and sat down. She thought again of Lathan and his predicament, sighed deeply and pushed it out of her to mind to finish her day’s work.
    *****
    “I can’t wait to see you” Devon was telling Chrissalyn excitedly as they talked. He’d only been gone for a week, but you’d think it’d been months.
    “I’m excited to see you too Devon,” she returned honestly.
    “I’ll pick you up at 7:30, OK?” he asked and Chrissalyn told him that was fine. “You know Chriss, this month has been absolutely wonderful for me, being with you,” Devon told her sweetly.
    Chrissalyn smiled in spite of herself. “Yeah, it has been eventful. I’ll give you that,” she replied chuckling slightly.
    The two had spent a whirlwind of times together going to plays, movies, concerts, amusement centers and the like. They seemed to be in perpetual motion,