Free Relapse: A Novel by Nikki Turner Page B

off her chest. “I’m done, finished, out of here. I refuse to let you take me down that road with you—willingly or unwillingly. Audi 5000!”
    Beijing took one last look at the man she thought could possibly have been the man of her life before making her final decision.
    She recited the words at the top of her lungs as she wrote them out in her mocha lipstick on the mirror:
Good-bye, Don. Holla back when you get to rehab!
    Then she walked not only out of the room but out of the house and out of his life.
    Don called Beijing later on that same night, but she didn’t want to hear any of his lame excuses. After answering her phone, she screamed, “Don’t fucking call me back until you carry your junkie ass to rehab.”

CHAPTER 7

You Are Fired
    Beijing missed the hell out of Don. It had been two weeks, three days, and four hours since she left him OD’d on the bathroom floor. When he wasn’t high, Don was one of the most fun and loving people she had ever been around. Before the breakup, he would call her from six to sixty-six times a day to keep her up on his every move as well as tell her all the breaking news around the world. But Beijing knew that she did not want to get caught up in his madness. She thought about what the old folks would always say:
The best cure for the ex is the next!
    Beijing had to do something to get her phone ringing again and get her mind off Don or she would drive herself crazy.
    “Girl, why you so quiet,” her girlfriend Rayna asked Beijing over the phone. They had been friends for a little over two years and talked about everything and everybody.
    Rayna and Beijing met at self-defense class. Beijing’s father had convinced her that the class would be a good way for her tolearn to protect herself since she was traveling around the country by herself. Rayna was there trying to shed both a few pounds and her frustrations.
    The cardio that the instructor put the class through was such an intensive workout that it kept Beijing’s body in tip-top shape. However, Rayna was a different story. Rayna was a brown-skinned girl who rocked a short Halle Berry haircut, and though she appeared to be very confident and have it all together, the truth was that she was obsessed with losing weight and had tried anything and everything from B12 shots to Slim-Fast, Fen-Phen, and any and every other kind of diet and diet pills. Rayna had even gotten liposuction a couple of times, and while the results were fabulous it didn’t fix her issue. Her problem was that she loved good greasy food, and especially junk food, and would eat it in excess, knowing that it was bad for her health and her waistline.
    “No reason.” Beijing lied as she used her shoulder to hold the cordless phone while she opened up the curtains in her hotel room, which she had made her home, to let some sun into both her suite at the Tabby and her life.
    “Tell that nonsense to somebody that don’t know any better,” Rayna shot back.
    Beijing admired the Charlotte skyline through the window. “You think you know me so well.” She smiled as she quickly became bored with the view, picking up her cell phone off the nightstand. Beijing pushed the button that brought up her contacts while she listened to Rayna invade her business.
    “I do—” Rayna paused. “—too well. You thinking about that damn Don, huh?”
    “Nope, actually I’m trying to find someone to get my mind off Don.”
    “What about Larry Love?”
    “Hell naw.” Beijing sucked her teeth and twisted her face up like a foul odor had assaulted her nostrils. “Now, how does thatsound? If I am trying to get my mind off a damn near double-platinum rapper, why would you think a wannabe rapper would be a sufficient substitute?”
    “You right.” Rayna chuckled at herself. “Especially one that has never done as much as a high school talent show.” They both laughed.
    Beijing continued to scroll through her contacts list, and she wasn’t coming up with