Little Petty Notions Read online

  Little Petty Notions

  Rae Shawn

  Rae Shawn

  Copyright © 2020 by Rae Shawn

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  Rae Shawn asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

  www.loveraeshawn.com

  To friends … far and near.

  Author’s Note

  Writing the story of Jada and Tra’Mel was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Not because of the content, but because I used the names of people who I cared deeply about.

  Jada and her best friend Demontré were the names of two of my closest friends. Tra’Mel was the name of a family member I admired. I wanted to honor them the best way I knew how.

  My writing may be fiction, but the personalities and internal struggles will usually reflect someone I actually knew at one point or another.

  Sign up for my monthly newsletter to keep up-to- date with what I’m working on.

  The pre-order for Book Four is available everywhere. Little Harbored Suspicions, order now.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Epilogue

  Thank You

  Acknowledgments

  Also by Rae Shawn

  1

  Jada

  Not many folks plan to drive halfway across the country at the start of a new year. A 2,000 mile road trip with my two-year-old daughter wasn’t exactly something I expected to be doing. Ever. But, given that the past two months amounted to five years of wasted time, I’d say moving on was a necessity.

  The entire ordeal with my ex-fiancé, Raiden, made me realize that Houston wasn’t the place to be. When my best friend said the time for change had arrived, and he didn’t want me trying to do it on my own – thousands of miles away from family and friends – I begrudgingly agreed.

  I was born in San Diego, used to the calm ocean and endless summer. Having bounced around a few places before settling down with Raiden, I knew what I was searching for was what I missed the most. Home. But that wasn't where I was heading. My best friend moved from our big party city to another. San Francisco. So, it was a time for new experiences.

  I hadn’t been back to California since leaving for college. After my sister graduated and moved out, it was just me and my parents. When I got accepted to Georgia State, my folks moved to North Carolina. I didn’t see the need to move back to a place that my family also abandoned. I had a habit of avoiding places if they were likely to bring me sadness; be it nostalgic or otherwise. I guessed that's part of the reason I ended up in Houston in the first place.

  It started with a run-in at an art gallery exhibit in New Orleans, where I met Raiden in the most random of ways. He caught my eye as he spoke with another person across the room, but I was fresh out of a relationship and in no mood to start anything.

  Yet and still, before the night ended, magnetism drew us closer and closer, and a glass of champagne on a waiter's tray was our accidental hello when I knocked it over on him. We talked for a few hours after, but I kindly excused myself to my hotel and that was that.

  Almost a year later, we saw each other again, this time in Houston while I was visiting a friend. To say Raiden swept me off my feet the second time couldn’t begin to describe it. Somehow he convinced me to move to the city about six months later.

  We had a whirlwind romance and spent several years in bliss together. Just after our daughter’s birth, he asked me to marry him. We decided to set the wedding date for after she turned two years old, so that she could actively participate and enjoy herself. But, everything changed about two months before we were to say our vows.

  I’d been home working on a new painting when I received a peculiar text. Raiden said he had plans at home tonight, and would be there in a few hours, but could meet at the usual place tomorrow.

  At first, I thought nothing of it, figured he texted the wrong person by accident. So, I didn't trip. He was a financial advisor and often met with clients at a many of places.

  When the part about not wearing anything when he came through the door pinged through on my phone, I had to remind myself that my mother raised a Christian – but she didn’t raise no fool. I thought about cutting him, but I chose the high road.

  I packed the essentials Jaiden and I would need, placing boxes full of stuff in the trunk of my SUV. More likely than not, I'd be leaving tonight.

  To make sure I wasn't overreacting, I called my dad because he was a family law attorney and could give me some sound advice. Once I gave him the gist of what I knew, and he asked about our relationship, his final question was whether I wanted to work it out.

  I told him “I’d rather swallow battery acid on an empty stomach” so he chose to quickly walk me through how custody hearings worked and what paperwork I needed to fill out and file, which I printed off the website as we spoke.

  I had just enough time to run to the attorney my father recommended, so I could leave the documents for her to review. On my way, Jaiden fell asleep, so I called my best friend and gave him the same rundown. His fingers banged so hard against his laptop keys, I could hear him typing as he said he was booking the next flight down.

  When Raiden finally got to the house, I’d relaxed enough to cook dinner, put a plate out for him and sit at the table. Jaiden and I were waiting when he walked through the door.

  Some might say everything I did was too calculated, or even petty, but I gave this man five years of my life and a child. We were about to get married, and he out here making arrangements to mess with somebody else?

  Cheating was my end all be all. No working it out, no apologies. I moved on. I’d been in a relationship where I was left at the proverbial curb, I wouldn't put myself or my daughter in the situation for it to become a real one.

  Raiden kissed my temple when he walked into the kitchen, and while we ate, he told me about his day. I played my role. After we put our daughter to sleep, he went to wash away his workday. I walked to the shower door and opened it, his sultry eyes met mine thinking I’d be joining him.

  Instead, the paper I held in my hand smacked and stuck to his wet chest.

  "No need to go around hiding your flings anymore because we’re done." I walked from the room, scattering another 20 copies across the floor.

  He hopped from the shower, runni
ng behind me stark naked. When he caught my arm as I started down the hall, I tugged from his grasp while rounding on him.

  “You texted the wrong person,” I whispered furiously, as not to wake Jaiden. “We were getting married in two months. What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “It was an accident, a mistake,” he pleaded. “It won’t happen again, Jada. I'm so sorry.”

  “How long, Raiden?” I crossed my arms over my chest to keep from swinging on him.

  “What?” His head drew back from me.

  “How. Long? How long has this accident been happening? See, you say mistake, but the text implies it was a regular, everyday act. So how long?”

  He sighed, but didn’t form his mouth to answer. I nodded my head, taking another step away.

  “Right,” I sniffed. “I’m filing for custody and our daughter is coming with me.”

  “You can’t take her.”

  “I had her and, until an agreement is reached, I can and will take her out of this house because it damn sure ain’t no home," I worked to keep my voice level and low. "I'm filing the paperwork in the morning, see you at litigation.”

  Jaiden still didn't understand why we didn't live with daddy anymore, but I explained in the barest details what happened, and she didn't like that daddy shared his “special toys” with people that weren't mommy.

  I didn't want to keep her from him, but staying in that house wasn't an option – being with him wasn't either. We moved into a long-term hotel a few miles away for the duration of the custody suit. My best friend got a second room to stay with us at the hotel off and on for nearly two months in suit Raiden came trying to cause me issues.

  Demontré – the most important man in my life besides my father – put his entire career on hold to keep me safe and sane. It turned out to be necessary because Raiden honestly thought I had no chance, so he filed his paperwork without hesitation, then proceeded to find every reason to make me feel like shit.

  He thought because he had the more “concrete job and home,” he’d win without the shadow of a doubt. The worse part was, Raiden didn’t even want to keep Jaiden, he just wanted to be hurtful and harmful to me. It came out that he not only had three different relationships on the side, one of which dated back before the birth of our daughter, but he also had an eight-month-old son.

  I didn’t let Raiden see Jaiden for Thanksgiving or Christmas, which happened during litigation. That wasn’t me being a bitch, it was a matter of principle. He’d already moved one of his skanks up in the house we’d been sharing. He also had her and her son from a previous relationship making all the food and expecting “his” daughter to be there like one big happy family, but I wasn't invited.

  What did I look like sending our daughter to spend the holiday with him and his replacement family, right after we broke up and were going through a custody suit? Shoot, his parents pretty much stopped talking to him, as did his siblings, so he quickly uninvited them as well. He had me fucked up, right, left, down and twisted if he thought it would be all honky dory and fine for him to have our daughter around another woman like that.

  Don’t get me wrong, he’s welcome to date and do whatever he pleased, but our daughter is young and impressionable. He’d already said some nasty ass things since the breakup, mad about having to explain everything to our guests who had already booked flights and hotels for the wedding.

  Jaiden will be around him and whoever he dates as well as whoever I date, but we just broke up and are getting custody situations settled. Now ain’t the time for the “meeting daddy’s new friend” shit.

  When my parents learned about the additional relationships, my mother nearly lost her marbles. I remind you, we are God-fearing women, but if we got angry, it could get scary. I thought she’d mow his ass down. They flew over for the holidays as did Raiden’s parents, and we spent the time together.

  With my attorney’s assistance everything settled fairly quickly and only a few days into the new year. Raiden would have visitation, but I had custody and could move out of state. A few days after the suit settled, Demontré helped me pack everything from my storage, so I could hop on the road to make the move to his place in San Francisco.

  I’d known this kid since we were in middle school. Demontré a grade beneath me, but we still became friends from the moment he sat next to me during lunch. We were able to maintain our friendship through high school and beyond, when I moved across the country for college, and a year later he went to school in Los Angeles – our friendship never waning.

  After college, I remained thousands of miles from him, but apparently my savagery only improved and made my actions toward Raiden "top classic Jada," at least in his opinion. I don’t recall being petty with anybody like I’d been with Raiden over the past couple of months, but Demontré would definitely be the one to know.

  Now that I was away from that situation and living with D, I couldn’t be happier. I missed seeing my friend regularly and this would be the start of something new and exciting. I just had to figure out future holidays and birthdays when it came to Jaiden and Raiden.

  I had a business and made good money from it, but Demontré didn’t want me burning through my savings or having to drop tons of cash, so moving right now wasn't on the board. But I had to spend money taking Jaiden to her father and eventually I needed my own place, so he could come get her himself. He wasn't allowed to come to D’s house. That would only be another whole ass mess.

  Demontré usually kept himself composed, except with Raiden. He didn't like him, like at all and that fighter that’s buried deep inside threatened to surface. I felt like me living in his house was an imposition and went beyond best friend duties, I didn’t need him getting into fights to “protect” me.

  I'd have to get out of his hair soon. Plus, I couldn’t do my work in his home. The mess I made while sculpting would be catastrophic to casa de la Demontré Monteé.

  Absentmindedly, we finally arrived at his place. Still in my own head, I grabbed Jaiden from the backseat and walked up to the front door.

  “Here’s my humble abode, baby girl.” He said as the door opened to reveal his living arrangements.

  Just because I knew how extra he could be, the surprise of what I saw nearly dropped my jaw. He had a two-bedroom townhouse just outside the heart of the city. I didn’t want to imagine his mortgage. The place held a lot of beauty, though.

  The first floor had a long hall which led to a bedroom, living room, guest bathroom and a laundry room. Upstairs the floor plan opened into the kitchen and a second living room with a dining area. The walls of the common areas were a muted gray tone with accents of white, black and gold. Another bathroom and bedroom were around the corner on the top-level and the color scheme revealed several shades of blues and yellows throughout. It was simple and charming. Very him.

  It still tripped me out when he went into interior design, but he’s quick to remind me why. Girls, JJ. Girls. I will get to be around them, and maybe have the opportunity to have some thankful … conversations with a few if I play my cards right.

  That boy became my definition of a whole ass mess the day I met him, but I loved him with all my heart.

  “It’s amazing, kiddo,” I said, holding a sleeping Jaiden in my arms as I finished looking around. “Thank you again for letting us stay with you, D.”

  He looked at me like I’d grown legs out of my ears before shaking his head with his signature grin.

  “I begged you to move out here,” he said as he hugged me from the side. “I didn’t want you to stay out there alone, Jada.”

  He smoothed Jaiden's escaped curls out of her face. “How’s little mama doing?”

  “She still doesn’t quite understand, but I think she’ll be fine. Plus, she loves Uncle D.” I smiled.

  “Well, your sister wants to see you and she doesn’t live far from here, so after you get all settled in, how about we drive over there and surprise her since we made it in a day early?” he suggested.
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  “Ugh, you must not know D’Nae as well as you think,” I said. “She hates surprises, but I guess seeing Jaiden for the first time in like six months might keep her from coming at me.”

  Demontré smiled and went to the stairs.

  “Just so you know, I’m giving you the upstairs room. Figured it would be easier to manage Jaiden up there, what with the kitchen close by and a space for her to play and all that.” He called as he walked down.

  “Lies,” I said. He stopped at the bottom step then flashed me a huge smile. "Just so you know, now I'm not even gon’ boil water for at least a week."

  I knew why he wanted me near the kitchen, I used to cook for us while we were in high school.

  "That's fine, I know a great place we can go, every single day,” Never missing a beat. "The owner is a friend of a friend."

  I shook my head, then walked into the bedroom to lie Jaiden down. For the first time since everything began, I worked to digest my new situation. Wiping away a tear, I headed downstairs to help D bring my stuff inside and shift his clothes to the bedroom on the first floor.

  2

  Tra'Mel

  I woke to an intense pain in my leg. Hadn’t felt anything like it in months. I mean, normally tinges shot down to my foot or up my thigh here and there, but this felt like that linebacker ran into me all over again.