Free The Cost To Play (Slivers of Love) by Oliva Gaines

her as well,” Brionna added.
    “Did you finally find someone to dust the cobwebs off that sealed up pocketbook, girl?”  Tamika burst into laughter at her own question as she dug at Jayne’s celibacy.
    “No one is sticking their fingers in my pocketbook,” Jayne said with ease. The margaritas arrived and she began to pour. “Besides, I would rather have dust on it than more fingerprints than the bathroom door at Walmart!”
    Balance had been restored as the ladies laughed at the dig, but RaShunda knew that Jayne had avoided the question.  For Jayne, there was no real answer. She and Toshi had only shared two kisses and two meals.  There was some chemistry between them, but too many differences which could not easily be overlooked.  Her focus centered on her and Toshi getting through New Year’s Eve tomorrow night with her panties on and intact. The rest, she would deal with later.

Chapter 11
    Raheem, Felix and P hở sat in the Mexican restaurant laughing and having a good conversation with their friend Toshi.  The four had been friends since ninth grade math club at Lakeside High School. Each man was successful in his own field, but Felix was the only one who was married.
    Felix Masterson, the science genius had come from a meager background and was that student who lived in the trailer park close to the school.  The ongoing joke between them was that Felix used his knowledge of science to create drugs in the ‘90s that helped him create a slush fund for college.  His parents, both hard working people, had no idea what he had been up to. The saving grace was his grades that, along with some help from Toshi, earned him a full scholarship to Princeton. Felix returned home when his parents became ill.  He took a job with a local pharmaceutical company and took a major cut in his salary, but he was still happy.  His wife Jenny, was a really sweet woman, who looked forward to giving him a home full of squalling blonde children.
    Raheem Thomas, on the other hand, lived a different lifestyle.  He was shocked when in the eleventh grade he came out to his friends.  None of the group seemed to care since they always knew and it had no real bearing on how they regarded their friend. The friendship meant everything to Raheem, whose father suffered a heart attack when he learned of his son’s sexual orientation. His father’s love for his son was not diminished, especially when Raheem’s sister began popping out babies, year after year.  Finally after child number six, Mr. Thomas asked the doctors to tie her tubes. There was no disappointing his parents when their very large, burly son, who had grown a full beard at the age of 15, received his acceptance letter to Harvard. He had a partial scholarship, but with a supplemental scholarship from Hirishito’s Steak House and one from King’s Beauty Supply, he made it through the first year, earning more scholarships.  Dr. Raheem Thomas came home to take an Assistant Dean position at Paine College in the math department.
       Ngu yễ n HànP hở held an MBA and was also a Yale graduate like Toshi.  As th e eldest son, a few years back, he took over his family’s beauty supply stores and nail salons, doubling the profit margin and retiring his parents.  It was no secret that under his skin, he resented a $150,000 dollar education that was used to make sure plus sized women were pleased when his employees asked, “ you want design?” He also felt some resentment toward Toshi who never had to work in his family’s restaurants.  His friend Toshi never came home from work smelling like Hirishito’s secret sauce. He would come home smelling like nail acrylic and hair weave. The resentment didn’t go very far when he came to terms with no longer having a student loan, his BMW was paid for and he’d made  a sizeable cash deposit on his five bedroom home on Stallings Island.
    All in all, they were good guys and really good friends who truly understood the