We'll Make It Through: Jaylen and Jessica, #3

By Shaquanda Dalton

From Best Selling Author of "When Love Hurts" and "I Won't Cry" comes part 3 of the dramatic love story.
Jaylen
He was able to convince his girlfriend Angela to forgive him after having a baby with his best friend Jessica. Now, not even one month later, he finds out she's cheating on him and that the baby she's carrying might not be his after all.
Jessica
She's finally gotten a grip on her life and tries her best to downplay her intense love for her best friend Jaylen. When James comes into the picture he's the perfect distraction. She can't find a thing wrong with him! But when they finally get intimate and she find out that the one thing he can't come to plate with is his sex game. After a few unsatisfying nights, Jess contemplates asking her friend Jaylen for a favor. But how important is sex in a relationship? Is it worth risking the relationship for a one time fling? 

But when it's time to face the consequences of their actions Jaylen and Jessica's friendship will be put through the ultimate test. Will they make through and work thing out? Or will it crumble and result to nothing more than a memory?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shaquanda Dalton
• Release date: Nov 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781386431725

Shaquanda Dalton

Shaquanda Dalton currently lives in Milwaukee, WI where she continues to fufill her passion of writing until it turns into a full time career. She also enjoys reading teen fiction and will  be working on a YA book in the future.  Please connect with her through Facebook, Shaquanda Dalton, or through email [e-mail]

Book preview

Part One

Jaylen

Chapter 1

The total to replace all the windows including the ones in your back office will run you around a thousand dollars at the minimum, Mr. Kenneth, the balding white man, says, showing me the paperwork he brought with him.

I clench my fists and scan the inside of my bar, Miller House, slowly for the fifth time today, scoping out all the windows. I can’t believe I had swept up all the glass, replaced all the broken tables and bottles, and put bars where the windows used to be—just because my friend’s abusive ex-boyfriend got mad that me and my brother beat his ass. I don’t regret doing it, because after he beat up my best friend, Jessica, who he was trying to get pregnant—and who he then tried to kill—he deserved a lot worse than going to jail on a drug bust charge.

I wish Jessica never met that nigga Chris, my brother Malcolm says while sitting beside me at the bar. He’s also a manager at my other bar, Miller, which luckily didn’t have any damage done to it. Would have saved us a lot of trouble.

I nod my head. As long as Chris stays in jail and Jess is as far away from him as possible, I’m good. She can do a lot better than him anyway. When we found out that the baby she was carrying wasn’t Chris’s but was actually mine, I took it as a blessing because it meant that she would never have any connection to that man again.

My girlfriend, Angela, took that news pretty hard, and I didn’t blame her for breaking up with me, but she forgave me and moved back in because she was pregnant as well. She and Jess do not get along—to say the least—and I never would expect them to.

Mr. Kenneth coughs, and I look up at him. Mr. Jaylen, uh, sir, would you like to see models of the windows in person? Fall’s coming in a couple of months, and I imagine the weather will start to get pretty drafty.

I narrow my eyes at him. It’s only May.

Yes. However, you will take note that the weather now is actually not very comfortable to be outdoors without a coat on for very long.

Before I get a chance to argue with this man, someone knocks on the door. It’s ten in the morning, and all our regular customers know we’re not open for another hour. I stand and reach the door in three long strides.

When I open the door I see Jessica holding our daughter, Jaslene, in her arms while standing next to Kayla on the sidewalk. A smile stretches across my face automatically when I see her, but it vanishes just as quickly when I notice the look of worry on Jess’s face.

What’s wrong? I ask, trying to keep my voice calm even though I know that’s impossible.

Jessica turns her face up and our eyes lock. I need to talk to you. It’s serious.

A thousand questions pop into my head, and I nod and lead her back into my office leaving Kayla with Malcolm. I’ll be right back, Malcolm.

My back office is used only by me. I shove my key into the lock and open the door. There’s one couch, one solid mahogany desk and two chairs. I also have a small safe that holds a few thousand dollars in cash, a few records, and other important files for my business. Take a seat.

She takes a seat in the closest chair, and I lean against my desk. Her long hair falls over her shoulders and curves around the bottom of her 38Ds. To me, her hair and smile are the most attractive parts of her body. Okay, I’ll just come right out and tell you—and I’m only telling you this because we’re friends, she says, drawing in a deep breath.

Okay.

She nibbles on her bottom lip. I saw Angela cheating on you with a dude at the mall about thirty minutes ago.

What the fuck!

Angela and I have been in a relationship over a year and a half and had just recently got back together after a one-month breakup. I love her for her smile, her conversation, and her strong independence. I spent the last month trying to win her back after she found out that I was the father of Jessica’s baby, Jaslene, instead of Jess’s ex-boyfriend Chris being the father. She screamed at me for weeks for being unfaithful and called me a dog—and here she is doing the exact same thing.

I take a deep breath while staring face-to-face with Jessica and try to keep my cool for her sake, but I can still feel my whole body shaking. Angela is pregnant. That I know because she used it as her main reason to get back together with me, so if this child she’s carrying is not mine, I’m killing somebody. That’s for damn sure.

How do you know? I ask in the same monotone voice I have when I’m trying to control my temper.

Kayla and I were at the mall on the way to the food court, and I saw her and this tall black man with thick glasses on kissing her on the first floor near the escalators. I know that was her because I saw her face when she turned slightly while they were kissing. Kayla saw her too.

What does he look like?

He was dressed in blue jeans and a gold button-down silk shirt. He was dark-skinned, very tall with broad shoulders. He looked liked he worked out. His face was covered while he was kissing Angela so I couldn’t get a good look at him.

I roll my eyes because I know without a name or a picture it will be hard for me to find him just on a brief description of what he’s wearing, especially in Chicago. Malcolm can handle this from here, I say, nodding back toward the bar. I’m going home to talk to Angela.

Can I come? Jessica asks, hopeful, with her eyes on me. I think I can help.

Help how? I want to ask, but I shake my head instead. No thanks. I want to keep you and her separated as much as possible. But since Kayla brought you to Chicago to chill, I’ll drop you back off down there after I talk to Angela, I say. And when she nods, we head back out there. Malcolm looks at me like he’s ready to roll, and I figure Kayla told him what’s going on.

The man here to replace our windows whimpers something about another appointment and scoots out of the bar like he dropped his wallet outside. I shake my head and walk toward the door.

When I finally get home, I’m disappointed to find that Angela is not back from the mall. She told me her friend was going to pick her up since she doesn’t own a car. I’m thinking I should have gotten acquainted with her friend before she left.

I try to keep myself calm in the apartment while I wait for her to come home. She’s been gone for two hours since we walked out of the house, so I know she should be back soon.

I’m sitting at the kitchen table with only the sound of my fingertips tapping the wood to help direct my thoughts to something else, when the front door swings back open. Angela’s face appears with her arms full of shopping bags like the mall was going out of business. As soon as I see her face, I rush over to her.

Angela smiles when I approach her, and she shoves a few bags in my hands. Can you take those, sweetie, and put them down somewhere? It was a killer getting up those stairs. We should move to an apartment at ground level or something. This one is working my last nerves.

I ignore her comments about the apartment and drop her bags on the couch. Who were you with?

Excuse me? she asks, coming to sit on the couch. I told you who I was with—my friend Tonya, remember? God, you never listen to me. It’s like when I talk it goes through one ear and out the other. You know that?

I ignore her nagging and focus on the questions I want answered. I never met her before.

That’s because you refused to come to my book club meeting or anywhere else she might be at. God, and now you want to complain about never seeing her. What’s gotten into you? Are you still upset about your little bar needing to be fixed? I told you that Jessica girl was trouble to begin with, and you should have stopped hanging around her once you met me.

I want to slap her but I restrain myself. Focus on what you need to focus on. Someone I know said they saw you today at the mall locking lips with some older black dude. Is that true?

Angela’s face gives off a fake shocked expression. Wow. Whoever said that was clearly lying. She starts digging into one of her many bags for her goodies, but says nothing else about the comment.

I’m serious, Ang. Who the fuck was the man?

There was no man. Who said this thing anyway? Wait! Let me guess. It was Jessica, wasn’t it? I swear that woman works my last nerves, always in somebody else’s business . . . She shakes her head, pulls out a pair of shoes from her bag, and proceeds to try them on.

I don’t think she’s lying.

She stops midway shoving her foot into a pair of boots and straightens herself to focus on me again. I’m standing in front of the couch with my arms crossed staring down at her. She says, What proof does that woman have that I was cheating on you?

I think back to the conversation I had with Jess at the bar, and they didn’t have any proof.

None? Angela continues when I don’t respond. Then how can you believe her? Her tone went from cheery and preppy to sweet and serious.

Listen, Jaylen, she’s just saying these things to break us up. She doesn’t want us to be together since she found out that I’m having your child too. She hates not being in a relationship with you and is now making up things to make you want to break up with me. Now why would I cheat on you? What reason, other than the fact that you had a baby on me with that stupid bitch—

Don’t call her a stupid bitch, I say, drawing the line there. Ang can say all she wants about me, but Jessica never, ever, badmouths her, so I won’t allow Ang to disrespect her.

Woman, then, Ang continues. What reason do I have to cheat on you?

That seems like reason enough, I say, nodding.

I’m a better woman than your Jessica. Believe me. Besides, what is she doing in Chicago anyway? I thought she was still staying at your mom’s house in Aurora.

She came to spend the night with Kayla.

Angela rolls her eyes at the mention of Kayla’s name, or maybe at the idea of the two of them having a sleepover to begin with. Don’t you think it’s kind of weird that the one night she’s here she starts a rumor that she saw me with some other guy? She hasn’t seen me face-to-face in a long time—what makes you think she knows what I look like now? I got my hair cut, you know, and the last time she saw me I still had that weave down my back. I’m telling you, Jaylen, she has to be mistaken. Can’t say it’s entirely her fault. She wasn’t raised in a proper family home with only that grandmother of hers, so we can’t expect her to think outside the box when it comes to most social things, like actually walking up to a person who they think is doing wrong or snapping a picture for proof or evidence. You want to know why there is no picture? That’s because what she told you never happened, and you can keep playing the misguided baby father who keeps going back and forth with this ‘she said, she said’ drama, but I’m telling you right now, I don’t have time—my soap opera is about to come on. And with that she grabs the remote and clicks on the TV.

I’m still staring at her, looking like she just insulted my mother. First of all, Angela. I trust Jessica a lot more than I trust you. I’ve known her since I was nine, and I’ve known you a little over a year, so don’t think for a second that when Jessica tells me something I’m just going to overlook it whether I’m her baby’s father or not. Disrespect her or how she was brought up one more time, and it’s going to be a muthafuckin’ problem. In terms of this whole cheating thing, you said it yourself—that you have a reason to cheat on me. And Jessica is not the type of person to make up a lie to break us up, because she was the one helping to get you and me back together, so don’t ever fuckin’ assume shit when it comes to her, because, to be honest—you don’t know her like that.

I snatch my keys from the coffee table. Do what the fuck you want to do. I’m out.

Chapter 2

Tell me again what you saw.

I steal quick glances at Jessica sitting in the passenger seat beside me. We’re on our way