Chapter 5

It's the weekend as Joshua prepares for this party.

“Hey Tiffany, are you done?”

There was no answer from the bathroom since she was blow-drying her black hair. She has blue eyes, a slender body, and tall, tanned skin. Tiffany her emotions were not easily hidden on her innocent face. Her pain was evident in the crease of her lovely brow and the down-curve of her complete lips.

But her eyes, her eyes showed her soul. They were a deep pool of restless gold, an ocean of hopeless grief. At the same time, she briskly walked up the block in her low-cut evening dress with her brother Joshua.

Reaching the house, Joshua lays eyes on Winter and thinks, beautiful in a classical way, with no flowing golden curls or ivory skin, no piercing eyes of green. She was shorter than average and more prominent than a catwalk model, but in her ordinariness, she was stunning. Something radiated from within that rendered her irresistible to both genders.

Desmond is wearing a casual white t-shirt, gold chain, and army pants with new sneakers and introduces himself to Tiffany.

Tiffany glances him up and down, making him feel belittled, “let's get something to drink,” she confidently walks to the fridge to grab a beer for herself and her brother. Winter then approaches Tiffany hugging her as she glances over to Joshua.

“Hey, Joshua, good seeing you,” Tiffany notices the awkwardness between the two; she takes Winter's hand.

“Let's sit on that cut-off tree's bark.” The two go over and laugh as Joshua can't take his eyes off Winter.

As the evening progresses, the music becomes louder, and Joshua dances with Monisha; he keeps glancing at winter, and she is looking at him.

Winter then storms off inside, calling Monisha; a few minutes later, thanks for inviting me, Winter; Monisha leans in and hugs Tiffany. “It's been great, ladies,” Winter smiles, pretending to be okay.

Joshua notices Winter is upset and decides to approach her. ”What are you doing?”

“Comforting you. I can tell something made you angry.”

“I'm fine,” She insists, smiling faintly; “thanks for caring.”

He stares at her, and she somehow can not resist but want to kiss him. Something is holding her back; he can tell she is frightened. Winter moves slightly away from Joshua.

“Hey, looking good,” says Desmond to Joshua, glancing over to Winter.

Joshua turns to face him and notices Winter standing up and walking away.”Winter, are you ok?”

“Yes, she is fine.” Desmond answers.

“She must just know her place.”

“What do you mean know her place?” he asks, slightly annoyed.

“Nothing,” says Desmond as he glances over to Tiffany.

Tiffany notices this charismatic guy with dark eyes, short hair, a dragon tattoo on the neck, and piercings wearing blueish jeans cut by the knees with a black t-shirt in the crowd of people laughing with him. Approaching closer, she stands next to the fire to hear what he is saying.

He has a deep voice and sounds confident as she glances at him; he does not notice her.

He is focused on those in front of him; “hey, Tiffany,” says Joshua as this guy looks over at her and broadly smiles as she smiles back. “Hey,” she goes over to Winter; “who is that?”

Winter smiles at her; “it's Alex, a friend of Desmond since school; they grew up together; he lost his mom and dad in a car accident at the age of twelve,”

“Oh my Gosh, that's awful. Who took care of Alex?”

“He was in foster care, and my family decided to take him, so he's now like my half-brother.”

“Is he seeing anyone”

“Does he still stay with you?”

“Girl, you are killing me with the questions.”

“He is a business owner; he owns a few jewelry stores as he worked from the Dark web and had a few connections who hooked him up with the right person to start an independent business,” she was glancing over to Alex.

She smiles, knowing this party was meant to be, as she listens to him entertaining the crowd. At midnight, Joshua notices Winter sitting on the swing, which was attached to a tree, arms folded as he walks over to her.

“You must be freezing.” as he takes his jacket, off-putting it over winter, Winter smiles; “thank you. You're such a gentleman” Winter covers herself tightly in the jacket, looking over at the party, “so Joshua, tell me why you came from Cape Town to this crappy place? I mean, the last time I heard, Cape Town is the place to be.”

“It's my father's business that brought us here.”

“Well, your dad is well known.” She smiles.

Joshua notices she seems distant and starts losing interest in the conversation; “he also adds my brother.” “Your brother?” She says

“I thought it was only you and your sister.” Joshua stares up and sighs; “he is entirely disabled and seven years old,” she says, “I'm sorry to hear that, but I don't get what that has to do with you coming to Johannesburg.”

“He has cerebral palsy, so the climate was too cold for him.” Winter can't think of anything to say. “I am so sorry.’

“No apology needed.”

Her face was so close to his that he could smell the sweet ropy fragrance of the sherry she had been drinking; it was still unclear if she dreamed of this moment to live.

He wasn't sure if nature rooted for this moment or if his mind tricked him into a perfect present, but every breath he took smelled like Sherry, and for the first time since he'd known himself, he didn't feel shy. If anything, the warm feeling of her breath, although destabilizing, was inviting.

This time, he draped both arms around Winter's small frame and met her lips halfway. Staring intensely into her eyes and touching her lips, he feels his heart racing as Winter whispers this is better than I imagined.

She places her fingers between his.

She moves in and pushes her chest tight against his holding him as she puts her lips on hers and breathes deeply. She then takes his hand and stands up, giving his jacket back, “hey, I should go,” he stands up, walks her to the house, and sees Tiffany sitting cozy with Alex walking up to Tiffany.

“Hi, I am Joshua; you are?”

“My name is Alex,” he reaches for his hand and shakes it. ”Tiffany, it's time we go.”

Tiffany squeezes Alex's hand. “Hey, will I see you around?”

“Yes,” Alex shakes his head and smiles, “lunch tomorrow?”

“Can I come to pick you up at about twelve tomorrow?”

“Sure you can.”

“Hey, remembers Family first.”

Tiffany smiles and nods her head. When entering the house, he texts Winter.

“Hope your evening was as great as mine.”

He places his phone down on the tablet, and a popup message appears; it is from Winter. ”I had a wonderful time, but can we please remain discreet from now on.”

Why does she want discretion between them? Did he do something wrong?

Placing his phone down, he reaches for the cocaine and starts sniffing it. What if she never sent the text? It could be her brother:

Seeing her face in front of him, picking up his phone; he wants to call her, then places his phone back down on the table, thinking I am not sucking up to anyone.

Joshua put his phone down on the table and dozed off to sleep.

He hears a sound as he wakes up; it is coming from the fence; he peaks out of the window and notices five shooters, heavily armed, climbing out of an SUV

Preparing for the worst, he puts on his vest and gets his two 9mm pistols. Suddenly blue lights are coming down the road. Joshua stands up and sees the van pull over, two cops climbing out and approaching them, and he gets handed a stack of cash as they all drive off.