Cutting Loose

Cutting
Loose

A Novel by

Jayson Dash

Copyright © 2013 by Jayson Dash

ISBN: 9781301441495

All
rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.

This
book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are
products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not
to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual
events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

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to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person,
please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting
the hard work of this author.

***Content Advisory***

CUTTING
LOOSE is a new adult erotic romance with scenes and language not suitable for
readers under age seventeen.

Summary:

Recent college  graduate, twenty-three
year old Sabrina finds love in the most unexpected place when she examines her
own values and stand up against what everyone expects her to do.

Chapter One:

Baby Showers and
Other Pointless Things

How many more baby showers would Sabrina
have to sit through? Honestly, she was more vexed than usual as she sat at a
table full of women pretending to be excited for the woman she didn’t know
personally. In fact, she was only here for the cupcakes. In the back of her
mind, she knew it was in bad taste not to be happy for someone else but why did
everyone think that having a baby was a must? Surely not every woman is meant
to be a mother.

Sabrina couldn’t help the bitter
emotions raging inside of her as she watched the mother to be waddle over to a
chair to begin opening presents. Every so often Sabrina checked her watch. She
was too young to be feeling so old. It seemed as if just yesterday she was
walking across the stage accepting her bachelor’s degree at the top of her
class. Though it was only less than a year ago, she was proud of herself for
not racking up a bunch of student loans. Having loaded parents may have helped
but she had the will power not to open credit cards and ruin her credit. Her
mother certainly wasn’t having that.

Sabrina had to be the youngest of the
group there, besides the excited girl sitting next to her. She looked about her
age…twenty-three? Twenty-four? “I’m so jealous. I mean, look at her—she’s
glowing! It’s so beautiful.”

“Yeah,” said Sabrina, “I’m sure her
swollen ankles, fingers and stretch marks would agree.”

The girl blanched. “How can you be so
crass? Don’t you want to experience motherhood one day?”

Sabrina looked at the pregnant woman,
than back at the girl next to her. “I want a lot of things in this life but it
doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.”

The girl was speechless. She turned
around in her seat and never spoke to Sabrina again for the remainder of the night.
Good thing too because Sabrina had other things on her mind, such as getting
ready for her anniversary with her man.

Finally freed twenty minutes later, she
was finally pulling up to the gate to get to her home. After punching in her
pass code, the gates opened and she entered the beautiful neighborhood of
Crystal Lane, a small and quiet gated community nestled in the suburbs of North
Miami. She passed the manicured lawns, the happy couples smiling and chatting
about this and that before pulling into the driveway of a charming one-story
beauty with cream trimmings, two-car garage and large manicured front lawn. Not
too small or too big. She thanked God every day that her days of living in a
dorm were far behind her.

From the car she noticed the house was
dark so that only meant that Carl hadn’t gotten home from work yet. She looked
at her wristwatch and realized she had plenty of time to prepare for what was
about to go down.

Carl didn’t usually get home until eight-ish
so she was right on schedule.

Once inside, she flipped on the light in
the grand entrance and went into the living room and flicked on another light
that illuminated the enormous room; the high ceilings and large windows made
the room look twice its size, there was a mocha-colored sofa and matching love
seat, a marble fireplace, and white tile that attached the living room to the
box-sized kitchen full of top of the line kitchenware that she never used. She
was twenty-three—not a Betty Crocker wannabe.

The kitchen was Carl’s department; he
was always the one in the kitchen cooking up a storm whenever he was in a good
mood to cook or if Sabrina didn’t feel like going out to a restaurant. But she
couldn’t help that she was a picky eater; a woman like her liked to watch her
figure, but that didn’t mean she went ballistic and count carbs after every
meal like some people that she knew; she simply believed that if she was
hungry, why the hell not eat what you want.

She went to the bar where the phone and
answering machine sat. She saw that she had two new messages: “Hey, Rina! It’s
me Larissa calling to say what’s up. Anyway, you still haven’t gotten back to
me on whether or not you’re going with me to that new club that just opened on
South Beach. Hurry up and call me back. Bye.”
Beep!
“Hello, Sabrina my
dear, this is your mother calling to see if everything’s okay since you didn’t
answer your cell phone. Please give me a ring when you get in so I can stop
worrying about you, okay? I love you. Bye.”
Beep!

She erased every message without
hesitation and nearly lost her mind after she realized that she hadn’t heard a
single message from Carl, the one person she was looking forward to the most.
She eyed the Victoria’s Secret ensemble she picked up on the way home and
calmed as she pictured herself in the sexy negligee she couldn’t wait to slip
into. She was not going to lose her mind and sit up by the phone all night and
instead went upstairs to her bedroom and plopped on the edge of her queen-sized
bed covered in red and black satin sheets; she couldn’t wait to get between
those sheets with Carl and make love all night. Hopefully he would bring his
A-game.

Sabrina checked the clock and it was
after eight so she grabbed the cordless house phone off of the charger on the
nightstand and called Carl on his cell phone. One ring, two rings, three rings,
four rings and then came the damned answering machine. She couldn’t believe
this shit. “Hey, baby, it’s me calling to see where you at. I was just hoping
you haven’t forgotten about tonight. Call me if you can. Bye.”

She shook off the feeling of uneasiness
and disrobed; she took off her blouse, skirt, undergarments, heels, and headed
to her master bathroom. She stepped into the enormous room smelling of a mix of
sweetness and spiciness. She turned on the hot water in the bathtub and poured
something that smelled like roses into the bathwater to make bubbles. Once the
water reached the top she slid into the lukewarm water and relaxed her body.
This was a part of her evening ritual that she looked forward to the most. As
she tried to enjoy her bubble bath, thoughts of Carl filed her mind and she
just couldn’t wait for him to get home so she could rip his clothes off and
jump his bones and then lay in the bed and reminisce on the past two years they
shared despite all the crazy shit they had to endure along the way.

Once she was squeaky-clean, she slipped
into her Victoria’s Secret ensemble and finished the look with her six-inch
heels, and then she applied some lotion and perfume. She lit a few candles,
dimmed the lights and went down stairs and grabbed a bottle of champagne from
the fridge and poured two flutes halfway full. As she sipped away, she couldn’t
help but feel agitated by the quietness in the house. That was something she
definitely could do without. That was one of the reasons she agreed to allow
Carl to move in with her in the first place, just to keep some company.

She sat at the dining table and drank a
little Rosé in an attempt to calm her nerves and push back the tears that were
beginning to build as she stared at the clock that read eight-forty-five. “Calm
down, Rina,” she said aloud, as she walked in a circle holding the flute of
champagne that wasn’t calming her down at all. How could Carl do this to her?
How could he be so selfish and be late for their two-year anniversary? What was
so important that he couldn’t think to call? Was he out screwing another woman
while she was at home on the brink of an emotional breakdown all because of
him? No. She would not allow herself to cry or even to entertain the thought of
Carl with another woman. She loved him too much to think he would put her threw
that heartache all over again ever since he claimed he was done cheating on her
and was going to devote himself 100% to their relationship. And where was he
now?

She gathered every nerve in her body as
she dialed the number to his cell phone.

“Hello?” a familiar deep voice finally
answered.

“Carl?”

“Rina? Oh, hey baby. What’s up?”

“What do you mean what’s up? Where the
hell are you? Do you know what time it is?”

“Whoa, baby, slow your roll. Of course I
know what time it is. Look, something came up tonight and I have to stay at the
office a little longer.”

“Carl, it’s our anniversary! Can’t you
get out of it?”

“I already tried, baby. I’m sorry. Well,
um, happy anniversary. I have to go. Don’t wait up, ‘kay?”

Click.

After she hung up the phone with Carl
she poured herself another glass of champagne and sat in the living room on the
loveseat. She turned on the fireplace and tried to convince herself that their
relationship was not falling apart.

The phone rang, shattering whatever
peace and quiet she had. “Hello?” she answered impatiently, praying it was
maybe Carl calling to tell her he was playing a cruel joke on her.

But it wasn’t. “Hi, Rina!” Larissa’s
energetic voice babbled into the phone. “Are you busy with your man, seeing as
how it is the night of you all’s two-year anniversary?”

Sabrina sighed. “Unfortunately, no, I’m
not busy at all. I’m just sitting here all by damn self.”

“Wait. Hold on. Where is Carl?”

“He claims he’s at the office doing work
and he couldn’t get out of it.”

“Oh,” said Larissa. “I’ve heard that one
before.”

“It’s not even like that. I trust my
man.” That was a total lie. She didn’t trust Carl as far as she could throw
him. But yet here she was wasting her time on him once again.

Larissa said, “Really? Well, let’s have
some fun. I’m bored out of my mind and you have a cheating boyfriend on the
prowl and I can just bet you I know where he is.”

“I don’t know about that. Besides, Carl
has been good to me lately. I trust him more. And it’s late. I should be
getting to bed anyways. Matter of fact, I think I’m going to do that. Good
night, Larissa.”

She tossed the cordless phone to the
side and broke down in tears when she finally came to the realization that her
best friend was right—her so-called boyfriend—or rather ex-boyfriend was
cheating on her while she was here all alone feeling sorry for herself.

There was no point in her crying her
eyes out about it and as much as she hated to admit it, she knew something was
up with Carl, even if she wanted to believe that he was actually at work like
he said he was. And there was only one thing left for her to do.

Chapter Two:

Moving On

Sabrina Evan’s blood boiled under her
skin as she pressed the phone to her ear as it rung, waiting patiently for a
response.

“Hello?” a female voice answered.

“Hi, this is Sabrina, Carl’s girlfriend.
I was just wondering if he was with you tonight.”

The woman waited a beat. Then she said,
“Hold on a second.” A moment or so later she said, “Sabrina, I don’t mean to
sound rude or anything, but whatever is going on between you and Carl, it’s a
done deal.”

Sabrina gathered as much patience as she
could before saying, “This is Jasmine Phispatrick, right?” The gold-digging
mistress on the side she’d heard about through friends and snooping--among
other incriminating evidence. The Feds had nothing on her tactics to get to the
bottom of things.

“Yes. I’m the one who supposedly ruined
your relationship when Carl realized what a mistake he made when he broke off
our engagement.”

She could feel the tears began to rim
her eyes. She held them back. “How long have you been fucking him?”