Chapter One


[img]https://4.bp..com/-dsqeXondMuo/W-LO9zpgUnI/AAAAAAAABLQ/kiBhYm3l0N4ZnAj2XOdwgpkSE4ldmTXMgCPcBGAYYCw/s400/rebound.JPG[/img]

I was at the first of my two jobs when I texted Venus to see if she still wanted to meet late that night after my shift was done at my second job. She asked me a few days ago to come by after I was completely done with work. Although I'd reminded her that I would get off work around midnight and then have to travel to her, and be up early to pick up my daughter, the next day, she insisted. So days later, knowing that she asked me more than once to consider meeting her, I sent her a text while on lunch break. Since I didn't worry or stress myself when she didn't text back. When I was done at my day job, I decided to send her another text. Just a question mark to see if she'd respond or at least
acknowledge that she received the text. She did this often so that's what I anticipated.

When she didn't respond, I figured she would while I was at my second job. This was based on the assumption that she was working during the day and would be free in the evening. Knowing that was a big possibility, I texted saying that if she responded and I didn't respond immediately it wasn't intentional. The manager on duty that night is extremely against phone usage while at work. I assured her that I would respond as soon as I could. To my benefit, that specific Manager was tied up for most of the shift. He was busy defusing situations for most of the shift. I was able to glance at my phone more often than I originally thought. Each time I received a notification I secretly hoped it was

her. I was tired, and probably wouldn't be able to perform well that night, but I knew my efforts were what mattered most.

Although our situation was far from perfect, and was operating in a state of limbo, I knew that she would appreciate what I was attempting to do. As the night went on I grew impatient. When there was about an hour left in my shift I called her from the job's phone. She, like a few others knew the number and would recognize it when she saw it. She usually answered if I called from there so I assumed she would. The phone rang all the way out and her voice mail came on. I sucked my teeth in disappointment and assumed I'd be ending the night alone at home.

The next and final hour at work was purely comical. My coworkers were joking on each other, sharing funny stories about the shift and mocking each other. We were red with laughter and my mood was reset. As I waited for a friend of mine to change his clothes, I decided to give Venus one last call. I knew it was a long shot, but I figured that I'd lose nothing by calling. The phone rang several times and just before the voicemail came on I heard her pick up. Her voice was raspy and exhausted. I knew she was sleeping and the call had woken her up. I was relieved and couldn't hold back my smile as I said:

“Hey there”.
“Hey…”, she said with her drowsiness oozing through the phone.
“How are you?”, I asked sarcastically.

Catching the hint she conceded and said,

“I know… “I cut her off and asked sarcastically, “Are you good? Cuz you've been MIA all day”.
After offering me a half truth she said, “I know, I'm sorry. I did see your message at like noon when you sent it.”
She fell silent and after a second or two she said, “I purposely didn't respond. I didn't
respond because I can't see you tonight”.
After a chuckle I asked, “If you're busy or gotta be up early you can just say that silly.
You know I don't stress that.”

I figured I'd just see her Sunday night when my daughter went home and was ready to say goodbye.

“I'm not. I'm tired, but that's not why”, she said.
“What's wrong V?”, I asked as I began to grow concerned.
“Nothing”, she paused. “I can't see you tonight. I just can't see you tonight”, she repeated.
“I got that memo already”, I said after a bit of laughter. “But what's up? You good?”, I
asked again.
“Yeah Jay. Tonight isn't good, I can't see you tonight”, she repeated.

My mind couldn't fathom why she kept repeating that. I hadn't asked why, and I hadn't pushed the issue. Yet she kept repeating it.

“.... Okay”, I said confused.
“Yeah, and we should talk. We have to talk.”, she replied.
I couldn't help but laugh. As I did so, a coworker who was sitting a few feet away from
me shot me a look that told me she was intrigued.
“No, for real. We have to talk.”, she repeated.

“Yeah. I heard you, but I'm not having that discussion right now. I'm still at my job, so I'll
talk to you later.”
“Okay….goodnight”, she replied.

As I hung up the phone my friend patted me and asked, “We out?”

“Indeed”, I replied. We walked toward the train station, then parted ways when we got there. As I stood on the platform at 12:35am - Saturday morning now. I couldn't stop

thinking about two things. The first was that it sucked that I had to stand for another twenty minutes after standing for nearly the entire day. The second was that Venus had really disappointed me. Not only had she neglected my efforts, she didn't appreciate them. That is a huge pet peeve of mine. Especially because she is in the comfort of her own home and I'm doing all the work, all the reaching out and all the traveling if this went as planned. Then a pop up window arrived in my brain. The flashing message read,



“THIS WAS HER IDEA! SHE KEPT ASKING”.

My thoughts turned into a moment of clarity and that moment turned into two text

messages. They read:
“I'm sure you went back to sleep already. I apologize for the way I hung up. But I wasn't
about to have the ‘we gotta talk’ discussion in front of my coworkers. I tried to see you as
you requested even though I am on very little sleep, worked both jobs and have to get my
daughter in the morning. I don't know what you want to talk about, but it was a very big
turn of mentally for that to be the first thing you say after ‘I can't c u tonight’.
I'm not even mad, just disappointed and turned of by how you've done things our last few
conversations. Honestly I don't know what's up with you or what you want to discuss.What I do know is, I'm not digging this right now. Again, I'm not mad. Disappointed.”

When I woke up the next morning I had a few text messages. One was her apologizing and her wishing me and my daughter a great weekend together. I saw the text and chose not to answer it. She is several years older than I am and she knows what she did yesterday. She's also been fucking me for a few months and was not new to doing that when we started back a few months ago. In fact, the state of limbo we are in was what she preferred and the exact opposite of what I usually do when talking to someone. As I got ready to leave my apartment and go get my daughter I thought back to everything going on between Venus and I. She'd been so confusing these last few months. She wanted a relationship but had issues committing because of our history. She also knew that I despise being told, “we have to talk”, if we're not going to talk at that moment.



When I left my apartment I called her to settle the matter. She answered and tried to act as if nothing had happened. She spoke about her plans for the weekend, what'd she'd done today and asked what I had planned with my daughter for the weekend. I cut it short, and asked what it was we had to talk about. After some hesitation she began with a long sigh. She gave me a long speech about why we couldn't continue and why she needed to rid herself of me. She went on to say, “Also I'm going to have to put your number on the block list for a while too. ‘Cause if we keep talking we're going to have sex again like we always do. So, that can't happen. Sorry.” She tried her best to sincere but all I could do was laugh.

“Is that all?”, I asked when I stopped laughing.

“Yeah…”, she said. I could tell that she was bracing herself for my response.

“Okay cool. Talk to you later.”, I replied and hung up the phone laughing once again.I had no way of knowing how wild the next three days would be or, how fast things would rise and fall...

Next Chapter to be published soon.

Source: https://www.crystalmag.com.ng/2018/11/romance-novel-off-rebound-short-sexy.html