Enticing Mr. Wrong - Ch. 12.3

With the men once again playing with the children, the women were left to socialize among themselves. Delia, who hadn’t given up on the dream of Cami and Bonz yet, decided to use that time to grill Aisha. She needed to know if there was any hope left whatsoever of enlisting Bonz as her cousin’s benefactor.

With Bonz, Cami stood a better chance of having a place of her own. Particularly if she was really good in bed. Which meant Delia wouldn’t have two extra people in her house for an indefinite period of time.

“How did you meet Bonz again?” Delia asked, beginning the interrogation.

“We met at a club about a month ago,” Aisha replied, giving a ready answer. She fully expected to be grilled by the women. She wondered what had taken them this long.

“A month ago, huh? Well, you must not have slept with him yet, because Bonz wouldn’t be giving you the time of day now if you had,” Delia said insolently.

“Why is that?” Aisha asked casually. Feeling additional eyes on her, she looked to the right and caught Bonz staring hungrily at her again. She gave him a flirtatious wink and a smile. Bonz smiled back and returned to his previous activity with a lighter step. He was obviously very smitten with her. That pleased Aisha on multiple levels.

“We call Bonz the king of the one-night-stand. Only a handful of women have ever had seconds of him.” As Delia spoke, she continued to help Alexis stack paper plates, cups, and napkins on the picnic table.

“I won’t need seconds,” Aisha replied smoothly, silently digesting this new information. She would have to make sure Bonz didn’t tire of her quite so easily. “Everything I need to do can be done the first time around,” Aisha added, reaching over to straighten out the red and white checkered table cloth on her side of the table. The thin material had flapped up when a gust of wind teased it.

“What is it that you do again?” Cami asked, joining the interrogation, but not the chores. She looked like she didn’t know how to feel about what she just heard, which might explain why she tried to move on to another subject. Interestingly, Cami still refused to budge an inch to help the other women with the picnic tasks.

“I model mostly,” Aisha replied, sticking as close to the truth as possible. The less lies she told, the easier it was to keep her story straight. “I’ve also done a few commercials and the occasional bit part in movies.”

“I’ve never seen you in any commercials,” Alexis inserted, putting her two cents in the conversation. She retrieved drinks for all of them from the mid-sized white cooler next to her on the bench. The sandwiches and chilled side dishes would remain on ice in the long red cooler below until it was time to eat.

“I’m not surprised since I’ve only done European commercials up until now. There seem to be more opportunities for black women over there.” Aisha paused and casually took a sip of the diet cola she’d just been given. “By the way, Alexis, you could be a model yourself with those high cheekbones and fine bone structure.”

When Alexis blushed, Aisha knew she’d won at least one of the women over. One down, one more to go. Aisha wasn’t particularly interested in winning Cami over since that was her sparring partner, her rival, someone she was going to have to annihilate anyway.

“Aisha, do you know what Bonz does for a living?” Delia asked. She received her drink, then sat next to her cousin. Her provocative words and choice of seat made it clear that she was intent on staying the course of alienating Aisha. After all, what would a woman like her want with a glorified street thug anyway?

“No, we never got around to discussing our occupations. What does Gregory do?” Aisha inquired, calling him by his full name now.

Cami cringed at the mention of Bonz’s real name. She hadn’t known what it was until Aisha came around and started calling him that. Now she was tired of hearing it already. Especially that new nickname Aisha gave him.

“Bonz is what we call a hustler,” Delia replied, putting unnecessary emphasis on the man’s street name. “Meaning, he does what it takes to survive, regardless of the legalities.”

Aisha calmly took another sip of her drink. She knew she was being watched like a hawk as the women waited for her answer. She also knew exactly how she was going to respond.

© 2005 by Suprina Frazier