Cutting Loose (12 page)

He had no idea how bad Sabrina wanted
lean over and tongue him right there as he licked his lips again in a way that
told her he knew she was watching him.

“So um, Brett,” Sabrina said a moment or
so later, “what do you like to do when you’re not fixing computers?”

He leaned back and said, “Uh, most days
I like to go fishing or stay at home and watch TV. If I’m not doing that I’m
probably trying out a new recipe from TV.”

“Can you cook?”

“Can I?” said Brett rhetorically. “I can
throw down in the kitchen! If you had some of my cooking you’d think it was
prepared by a professional chef.”

Sabrina laughed. “That’s good. I suck at
cooking.”

“Are you kidding? You can’t be that
bad.”

“Actually I am,” she said nonchalantly.
“The only thing I know how to make is small stuff like breakfast stuff, nothing
major. I tried to make a casserole once and it turned out horrible.”

Brett chuckled and said, “So I guess
that means you eat out a lot then?”

“Yep.”

He tilted his head to the side. “Jeez,
woman. How do you live like that? I bet your pockets hurt.”

“Nah. Not really.”

Brett took a sip from his daiquiri and
said, “If you’d like, you could come over to my place and it would be an honor
to whip something up for you.”

“That would be nice.” Sabrina sipped on
her daiquiri as well.

Brett waited a beat and asked, “So, what
do you do for a living?”

She paused before saying, “I’m the
co-editor-in-chief at
Fabulous
magazine.”

He looked at her closely. “Really?” He thought
for a second and said, “That must be an awesome job. My sisters love that
magazine. I kind of hate it.”

She pushed her drink to the side. “You
hate it? Why?”

He hunched his shoulders and said,
“Because it’s a magazine read by females and the male-targeted one,
Finesse
,
is read by closeted gay guys who spend way too much time in front of the
mirror. But hey, that’s just my opinion.”

Sabrina waited a beat. “Just because
some men like to take the extra time to dress nicely doesn’t make them gay.”
She looked at him and added, “You look like you spend some time in the mirror,
do you not?”

“Of course I do. I’m just saying I think
you should broaden your target market to real men who don’t look like they’ve
been getting dressed by mommy all their life.”

For the first time in a long time,
Sabrina was hearing the opinion of a man who wasn’t afraid to be brutal honest
about the way men dressed. Over the years at
Fabulous
some men spoke out
but never actually had their opinions voiced in print because they were too
afraid to come forward.

At first she thought Brett was being a
bit cocky but then again she liked his boldness. She always liked the kind of
guy who wasn’t afraid to say what was on his mind, even if it was something she
didn’t like to hear. That was one of the reasons she didn’t understand Carl;
every time they had gotten into an argument he was always quick to back down
and let her get the last word. It was cute in the beginning but after a while
it became quite pathetic.

She knew why at
Finesse
few men
had a hand in the magazine because the name of course appealed to a nice target
audience that were often overlooked because it was never really brought up. But
she was new to fashion journalism and definitely needed to do some research.

She pulled herself from her thoughts and
said to Brett, “That’s a good point. I’ll be sure to mention it to my
coworkers.”

“Cool,” said Brett. He changed the
subject and asked, “What do you like to do in your spare time?”

“I don’t know. I barely have time to
myself most days. I guess I like to shop for new shoes if I get a chance. And I
also like to hang out with my friends whenever the opportunity comes around. Oh
and I like romance movies, comedies and dramas. Anything that keeps my
attention I guess.”

“You don’t like scary movies?”

“Heck no! The last scary movie I watched
was back in middle school and I had nightmares for days.”

Brett exploded with laughter. “That’s
terrible. I love a good gory movie. How can you not like scary movies?”

“Hey, I’m afraid of the dark so whatever.”

Brett smiled and said, “That’s cute. I
love all the Jason movies. I just love watching people scream and run around
like idiots.”

“Don’t even think to ask me to see any
horror movies ‘cause the answer will be no.”

“C’mon. The only way to get over your
fear is to face it head-on. It’s just a movie. It’s not even real.”

“You think you’re slick, don’t you?”

“What are you talking about?”

Sabrina glared at him and said, “You’re
trying real hard for a follow-up date, aren’t you?”

Brett smiled and replied, “Maybe.”

Just then the waitress brought the hot
wings they ordered and asked how everything was. Then she was gone again.

They ate up the hot wings and not before
long the waitress brought their entrees.

They ate in silence and a few minutes
into their dinner the stage to their left was lit up and someone announced that
it was time to start karaoke. Several moments later people were going up to the
stage embarrassing the hell out of themselves as they tried to sing different
songs.

Sabrina couldn’t help but laugh her ass
of as a guy stood on the tiny stage and butchered Vanilla Ice’s “Ice, Ice
Baby.”

“That’s so embarrassing,” Sabrina said
more to herself than anyone in particular.

Brett heard her and asked, “You think
you can do better?”

“I never said that. But if I wanted to I’m
sure I can.” She sipped her daiquiri and added, “Don’t even think about it.”

“What?” he smiled and looked towards the
stage and back at Sabrina.

“I’m not going up there.”

“I didn’t say you had to.”

“Yeah, but you were thinking it.”

Brett chuckled and said, “What are you
afraid of? Don’t tell me you’re a chicken.”

“I’m not a chicken.” She looked at the
stage and back at Brett and said, “Fine I’ll go for it. I don’t back down from
anything.”

He smiled. “Let’s see what you got.”

Sabrina’s stomach was swarming with
butterflies as she sat and watched other people go up on the stage and
humiliate the hell out of each other. She would have loved to see Brett go up
there and try to sing his heart out and laugh her ass off at the outcome. He looked
like he could carry a tone, probably could sing her right out of her panties if
he wanted to.

She liked taking challenges and this was
necessarily in that category, but all in all, it was something she figured
would show her personality and show that she could be spontaneous. And since
this was their first date, she wanted to leave a nice impression so that the
chances of him calling her back for a second date, or even a third, was very
high.

“Why don’t you go up first,” Sabrina
offered coolly, just to see how he would react.

He smiled and replied, “Ladies first.”

 Sabrina laughed it off and grabbed the
microphone from the guy who had just finished and went on the stage. They threw
a couple songs randomly at her that she didn’t think would fit her voice or
something close to it. She felt silly when she realized Brett has his blue-eyed
gaze on her as she tried her best not to look like she was about to melt from
his glace.

She had to admit that she was very picky
when it came to the songs and finally decided on the ‘90’s classic, “Another
Sad Love Song” by Toni Braxton.

She couldn’t stop giggling within the
first few minutes because she was so busy watching Brett laugh his ass off
while she stuttered the words to the song.

It was only a matter of time before she
was able to find her rhythm and sing the song close to how it was supposed to
be sung without giggling too much.

Once she was done with the song people
applauded her as she made her way back to the table. She took her seat and
finished off her daiquiri.

Brett was still laughing when he said,
“Wow. I must say that I’m impressed.”

“Oh, whatever, Brett.” She laughed and
said, “I told you—I don’t back down from anything.”

“I see.” He looked at his watch and
said, “It’s getting a little late. Feel like heading home?”

“Yeah,” Sabrina said as she looked at
her watch as well.

Even after they pulled into the driveway
of Sabrina’s place they were still laughing about Sabrina’s karaoke
performance.

“So, I guess this is good night,” Brett
said as he walked Sabrina up the walkway to her door.

“Yep.” She looked at him and said, “I
had a good time tonight.”

“Me, too.”

Silence fell between them.

She looked into his eyes as she looked
back into hers, unsure what to do or say.

Brett broke the silence and asked, “You
won’t freak out like the other night if I kissed you, would you?”

“Only one way to find out.”

Instantly, she closed her eyes as she
felt Brett bring her body close to hers, his lips on hers, his hands probing
and rubbing on her ass. He squeezed and she jumped in surprise but she didn’t
want him to stop. But she had to because she knew where things were going to
lead.

“Good night, Brett,” Sabrina said,
pulling herself away from him and unlocking her door.

“Um, good night, Sabrina,” he said with
a confused look on his face.

She closed the door in his face and
leaned up against the door in the dark as her heart hammered against her chest.
What the hell was her problem?

Chapter Eleven:

If at First You
Don’t Succeed…

“Dust yourself off and try again!”
Cassandra was damn near screaming into the phone.

 Sabrina felt terrible about the way her
date with Brett ended and called her up a couple of days later, only to hear
the same speech Sabrina gave her when Cassandra was in her shoes a short time
ago.

 “I don’t know if I can,” Sabrina cried
into the phone in between her low sobs and dabbing at her puffy eyes from an
hour straight from crying for no apparent reason. “Why would he be interested
in me when I can’t even kiss the guy without freaking out?”

“It’s really not that serious. And it’s
not your fault. I mean, look how long it’s been since you’ve been on a date
with a guy other than that jerk Carl? A long ass time!”

“I know, I know. That’s what sucks about
it all.”

“Firstly, Rina, stop feeling sorry for
yourself—and stop all that damn crying. You think those tears are going to make
things better?”

“No,” murmured Sabrina. “I know it
won’t. And I’m not feeling sorry for myself. I just can’t help the fact that
I’m finally getting over Carl and I messed things up the first chance I got.
Would you be interested in me if you were Brett?”

Cassandra waited a beat and said, “Yes,
I would, especially if you told me what the deal is and seeing that you just
got out of a long relationship, it would only make sense.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” She sighed and said, “Look, just
because you had a small hiccup with Brett the world is not over. Just let him
know what happened and spend some time with him. Get to know him some more.”

“That’s true. So what should I do?”

“I just told you, Rina. I can’t do it
for you. All I can do is offer you my advice and hope you put it to good use
because I’d hate to see you show up to your ex’s wedding next week looking all
depressed and shit.”

Sabrina had forgotten all about Carl’s
wedding being next week. She really didn’t care about it and pushed it out of
her mind.

She considered Cassandra’s words and
said, “You’re totally right. I have to pick myself up and go after him. It’s
only been a couple days. Thanks, Casey. You always know the right things to say
for every situation. I don’t know how you do it.”

Cassandra chuckled. “It isn’t easy, but
somebody has got to keep you and Larissa on y’all toes.”

Sabrina laughed for the first time since
her date with Brett. “Yeah, yeah. Speaking of Larissa, what is she up to?”

Cassandra paused and said, “Don’t tell
her I told you, but she missed her period and thinks she might be pregnant.”

“I told her crazy behind to use
protection but she’s so damn hardheaded. It’s like talking to a brick wall with
her.”

“I know, girl. But Larissa is going to
do what she wants to do no matter what anybody tells her. She better slow down
before she has more to worry about than carry some stranger’s baby.”

“I feel you. Well, thanks for the pep
talk; I have to get myself straightened out so I don’t end up all depressed
again.”