Free She's No Angel by Janine A. Morris

twenty-two years old, that she decided she wanted a fresh start. She was tired of those lonely nights, and of pretending to herself. To start anew she denied her past, changed her ways, and handled her life and men differently. That’s where her lies and deceit with Isaac came in to play. She never had planned on having to be the old Charlene again, so she never had prepared for the day when the old Charlene would make an appearance.

Chapter 9
    T he street was filled with parents and their kids, or maybe that’s all Charlene seemed to notice. A small girl was walking alongside her mother and as she moved forward she danced. She was dancing to a tune inside her own head because no one else could hear it. She was about three years old, all of her hair was brushed into two pigtails and you could tell her mom, like a lot of black mothers, gave her the Vaseline face for moisturizer. The little girl was dressed in a beige jumper-style dress with some black Mary Jane shoes and was having herself a good old time making her way down Yonkers Avenue. Charlene was following right behind her on her way to the corner deli for a sandwich.
    She had about thirty minutes left on her lunch break; she had stopped by Pay Half to buy a few shirts before she picked up her meal. Usually she stayed inside for lunch, checking her MySpace page, and more lately, checking wedding Web sites. However, today she wanted to go outside for a little bit, add a little excitement to her week. She was happy that she chose to, because the sight of this adorable little girl filled with so much joy immediately jumped right into Charlene and left her feeling just as joyous. The little girl caught Charlene’s eye at one point and Charlene gave her a big smile, and the little girl smiled right back.
    Unfortunately Charlene had to stop walking behind her dose of joy to go where she was headed to begin with. She went inside the deli and walked up to the counter. She was familiar with the clerk.
    â€œHey, sweetie,” he said to her as soon as she approached.
    â€œHey, Jose,” she said back.
    â€œWhat can I get you today?”
    â€œI’ll take honey turkey on a roll, with cheese, lettuce—” she replied.
    Before she could finish, there was an interruption. “And mayo with a little salt and pepper.”
    She looked over her shoulder, and there was Rich looking absolutely fine as hell, if she did say so herself. He was dressed in a cream Polo button-up, dark blue jeans and cream and tan Timberlands. He had a fresh cut, and his light complexion was just glowing. His light eyes were just piercing down at Charlene, and for a quick moment she was speechless. He gave her one of his electrifying grins as soon as she turned to see who the familiar voice belonged to.
    â€œHey, Rich,” she said, grinning from ear to ear.
    Before he could reply, Jose interrupted. “So, lettuce, cheese, mayo, salt and pepper?”
    â€œYes, Jose, I’m sorry,” she said as she quickly turned to him and then back to Rich.
    The gorgeous, just-caused-a-huge-argument-between-her-and-her-fiancé Rich. Looking in his face, she knew he was worth the trouble. Although Charlene had only been with Rich on and off, they were some of the most magical times in her life. Early on he didn’t know much about her, but that didn’t last long. Mount Vernon wasn’t a big town, everybody knew somebody that knew everybody. So it wasn’t long before somebody who knew everybody knew Rich. Rich slowly began treating Charlene different from the way other guys did. But after a while it went from great to Rich feeling like maybe they should “slow things down.” That was pretty much when their relationship lost any potential, but Charlene took what she could get. Eventually it got worse, but they never stopped communicating. They had seen each other and spoken on the phone on occasion since then, but they hadn’t been physical in some