Free Seduced By The General by India T. Norfleet Page B

chain!” Kahlil yelled as he yanked the empty top drawer from the dresser and threw it so hard across the room, it slammed into the wall and shattered into pieces.
    “And that's all the fuck that's relevant to me right now!” he yelled, his deep voice shaking.
    “Baby I know you're hurting right now about losing your cousin but enlisting in the army is not the answer. Leaving me is not the answer!” Brandie cried. She wanted to go to him, console him and whisper in his ear that everything would be okay but she didn’t know if she could handle Kahlil pushing her away anymore than he’d already done. She was still stunned at the open suitcases on the bed they shared many nights in.
      “Brandie it’s the only answer for me. I got to go. Take care, and congrats again. Oh and don't forget to lock up after I'm gone.” Kahlil grabbed up his suitcases and headed for the door.
    Not once did he look back over his shoulder. Not once did he say I love you. Not once did he say goodbye.
 
    The sounds of honking horns in the distance quickly jolted Brandie back to the present as she checked her make-up in the drop down mirror one last time. While adjusting her side mirrors, Brandie decided that she was done reliving the past and looking behind her. She was ready to give light to the possibility of finding new love.
    “Kahlil Young, wherever you are, I am so over you. If I never see you again, it’ll be too soon.” Brandie pulled onto the road, driving right past Kahlil as he pulled up in front of her house on the other side of the tree-lined street.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    -2-
     
    When Brandie walked into the ballroom, she looked on in awe at the transformation into a cream, chocolate and black themed affair. There were a diamonds and pearls accenting the room’s beauty inside of the Bronze convention center. It was almost packed to capacity with people from all walks of life. It brought so much joy to her heart to see so many people genuinely concerned with ceasing the all of the senseless violence in her community. Taking a seat at one of the round tables by the stage, Brandie pulled the participation form for tonight’s event and a pen out of her purse while glancing around the room looking for her friend and co-worker Erika. When she was done filing out the paper and noticed that there was no sign of her friend, so she began to survey the room more carefully and suddenly became more nervous than the night she’d lost her virginity.
    All the men in attendance were potential bidders for her and fifteen other women who volunteered to participate in tonight’s bachelorette charity auction sponsored by her job. It worried her to no end that the man she’d end up with would be a complete and utter jerk. Since she hadn’t been on a real date since Kahlil, she felt was overdue for a gentleman’s touch. Someone she could run away with—at least for the night.
    James, the lukewarm guy she was “kind of” seeing for almost a month now, stopped calling as much since she’d refused every intimate date he’d suggested. She knew she didn’t want things to get serious and get hurt. She shook the heavy thoughts away and smiled, straightened up her posture and walked over to the bar and hoped that a cocktail or two would calm her tattered nerves.
    “Good evening miss, what can I prepare or suggest for you tonight?” The handsome bartender with neat shoulder length dreads and piercing brown eyes asked.
    “Yes, I’ll—”
    “She’ll have a sex on the beach with extra cherries and if you don’t have that—a Kendall Jackson Chardonnay.”
    Speechless, Brandie closed her eyes and prayed to the high heavens that her hearing had somehow deceived her and that the man beside her was anyone but Kahlil Young. The same Kahlil that had slam dunked her heart into the trash compactor right before switching it on and grinding into tiny pieces of nothing. It took her a few minutes before she was