A Good Woman

By Jalana Remy

When the flirtatious and sexy bartender, Faye Thompson, is place in a difficult situation by her abusive ex-boyfriend, she agrees to take refuge by the handsome and charming, but arrogant Anele Williams. She soon falls in love with him, but is careful to guard her heart since she knows that Anele would not be interested in  a long term relationship with a woman like her. 

 

Anele, who has been in love with Faye from the moment he met her,  is becoming more and more frustrated as she continues to offer him her body and hide her heart. And even if she does offer her heart, is his love strong enough to handle the increasingly evident damage of her abusive past?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jalana Remy
• Release date: May 10, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224511068

Jalana Remy

Jalana Remy is an primary school teacher  with a dream of becoming an acclaimed author. Fueled by a lifelong love for storytelling, she began writing short stories for the entertainment of her friends in high school. She wrote her first book, while in college but althought it was well recieved by her peers, she did not take the step to publish. Now, with her debut book, 'A Good Woman' she hopes to take her writing to a wider audience and hopefully write the book that would be someone's favourite romance novel.

Book preview

Chapter One

WHO IS SHE THIS TIME? Sam asked, laughing.

Anele chuckled and shook his head. This one is different, I swear, He said looking at his father earnestly. She’s beautiful and smart and so perfect, everything about her is just perfect Pops.

He was picturing her as he spoke. She had taken up residence in his mind from the very first moment he laid eyes on her. There was just something about this woman, he could not quite place his finger on what it was, but he was sure she was special.

His father sighed, Okay, what’s her name?

Anele grinned. I don’t know yet, he admitted, but I’m working on it.

Samuel was the one shaking his head this time, What’s all the rush about anyways, can’t you just let things happen naturally?

Anele looked at his father. Samuel was beginning to look like an old man his son thought. His hair was almost all grey now and he no longer had the well-toned body of a construction worker. He was still strong and stood upright, although his gait was slower, and his persona was tired. Anele supposed that’s what years of construction work would do to a man.

The two were sitting in the veranda chatting and having a light drink. Anele knew that his parents were worried about him, especially after the disaster of his last relationship, which had left him broken beyond recognition. It was why he made a point of visiting them every week and keeping them abreast of what was going on in his life.

He grinned again, I’m thirty-two Pops, I want children when I’m young enough to enjoy them. And I want my wife when I’m young, I want us to have years in front of us.

His father laughed. You still have time. I never met a man that could fall in love like you. In the last two years I’ve met Five future ‘Mrs. Anele Williams’, He said, using air quotes and pronouncing the last three words sarcastically.

Six, if you count Patrice, Anele corrected him.

A chill seemed to run down the older man’s spine. Well, no one is counting Patrice, he said almost sharply.

Patrice had only been in the running for a month or so but had done more damage to Anele than anyone else. She was drop dead gorgeous in a bold, outrageous, over the top way that demanded attention. Anele, being the fool he was, could not see it as a red flag. His parents on the other hand did not trust her from the beginning.

That’s not the woman for you, his mother told him the day after he brought her to the house to meet them.

When he looked back at it, Anele couldn’t for the life of him remember what he loved about Patrice, but he had fallen so foolishly for that woman, it was pathetic and insane. His behaviour surprised no one, he was well known for diving in headfirst and falling hard and fast. Patrice had been his life for that month.

He never told his parents what happened between them, and for once, his cousin Dante had kept his mouth shut.  But it was clear for everyone with eyes to see how deeply she had hurt him. The changes in him were significant and instant.

He had come home from work early one afternoon and found Patrice in his bed with Daniel, one of his labourers who had called in sick that morning. Anele was a man that loved quickly, he was accustomed to heartbreak. But Patrice had taught him a new kind of pain.

Weeks and months passed, and he could not get over it. He started skipping meals and having trouble sleeping. He got thinner, and his face began to resemble sickness. Everyone became concerned. His parents especially, were scared and wanted him to move home for a while.

That was all more than six months ago now. Anele was over it and ready to begin to make a fool of himself with a new and better woman. A rude sexy bartender who would not give him the time of day. But he could not seem to get her off his mind. Sometimes he felt like there was something hidden inside her that he needed to find. Foolish thought he knew, but he could not shake the feeling.

Take my foolish advice son, let love find you. Stop chasing after it like a lunatic, Samuel said, interrupting his son’s thoughts. From the time you hit fourteen, you have been in love with some female or the other. Always running around like a headless chicken after some woman.

Anele chuckled, I hear you Pops. I won’t rush into anything this time. Even if I wanted to, this one won’t let me. I’ve been all but stalking her for over a month and don’t even have a name yet.

Samuel laughed, Well at least one of you has a head on.

Samuel adored his son. He had grown up to be such a fine man, even if he was a little foolish when it came to the opposite sex. And the problem was, the women gravitated to Anele like magnets. He was good-looking. Tall, lean, and muscular. His skin, like his mother’s, was dark and smooth till it shone. His eyes too, like hers, were a dark grey that looked like the brewing of a storm on the horizon.

And as if his good looks were not enough, he was also successful and romantic. When he was in a relationship with a woman, he fancied himself in love with her from day one, and always treated her as such. Always handing over his whole heart, without knowing if the woman wants or even deserves it.

I better head down, Anele said, standing up and stretching himself, I’m tired as hell.

Tell your mother you’re leaving, his father responded, but Anele, who had always intended to do so, was already heading into the house.

Maaa? he called.

In here, his mother’s gentle voice came back. Leaving already?

He found his mother in the kitchen ‘tidying up’ as she liked to call it. He thought that she was beginning to look old too. Ayoni Williams was tall and beautiful even at sixty. Her eyes were as bright as they were in her youth, but wiser and more kind. Anele though, was sure that he saw new lines on her face and her hair was all grey.

Whenever she saw her son, Ayoni’s heart filled with pride. He was so tall and handsome, and he was a good man. Too good sometimes she thought, knowing the games women played with his heart. But she supposed it was not all the women’s fault, he was careless with his heart as well.

It’s getting late, he told her, And I’m dead tired.

She shook her head. You must learn to rest a little more, you’re just like your father. Here, take some food with you, you can eat it tomorrow. She handed him a container big enough to serve him two meals and patted his arm.

Thanks ma, he said and kissed her. You might see me Saturday. Dante wants me to hang with him, we’re supposed to be in the area.

Ayoni just smiled.

Oh, and before I forget, the Davidsons moved out yesterday, so apartment four is empty, it needs cleaning too.

Ayoni nodded, Okay, I’ll send someone next week to clean it out. She watched him descend the three small steps before getting into his car and driving off with a single pop of the horn and a wave.

Ayoni was anxious for her son to meet a good woman and settle down. It pained her to see him unable to find the love he so desperately craved. He always had a big heart and wore it proudly on his sleeve.

At thirty-two, her son had been looking for love for twelve years. It was originally his plan to be married at twenty and had already chosen a bride at that age. But Ayoni could not pretend to be sorry that things didn't work out. Both he and Faith were too young, and it was clear to everyone but Anele that the love was one sided. Faith was a nice girl, but she was not in love with Anele, and Ayoni was glad in the end when Faith had realised just that.

Now that he was thirty-two, Ayoni thought it was about time that love went his way. The memory of the extent to which his last relationship had torn him apart made her shudder as she walked over to her husband and placed a hand on his shoulder.

He thinks he’s in love again, Sam said laughing, But he doesn’t know this one’s name yet.

Ayoni could not help but chuckle, Well let’s hope she’s at least better than the last one. She bent and kissed her husband’s lips, hoping that in the end, her son would be as lucky in love as she eventually was.

Anele did listen to every word his father said to him. Samuel was his role model, and he loved and respected his opinion, but he could not believe it. Not really anyways. He was not about to ignore a perfectly good woman, that he wanted, to wait for some unknown woman to show up by magic.

Even then he could picture her behind the counter, in the short pleated-skirt and shirt she wore as a uniform. A large puff of curls around her head, rolling her big, beautiful eyes at him. She was flirtatious and mean, that was his type unfortunately. But he could not shake the feeling that she was different. There was something beautiful about her that he could not explain.

The bar where she worked was a dank, depressing shithole, where his cousin Dante had taken him a few weeks before. But when Anele saw the bartender, he thought God had put her there for him. It was by such an off chance too that he had even agreed to go into that place with Dante, that he was convinced that it must be faith. So, he had taken it upon himself to fall in love with her before he even got her name.

He tried talking to her a few times, but she never showed distinct interest. And when he tried to tell her his name, she rolled her eyes at him. Then he heard her calling him ‘the idiot in the red shirt’. He called her out on it, because he wanted a conversation, and since then, she always calls him ‘Idiot in the red shirt’.

Dante, who was trying and failing miserably with her friend, told him the name was fitting. Anele did not mind it one bit, she always said it in a flirty way, and he liked that. He was sure that if she gave him the slightest of chance, he would make her his forever.

He checked the time on his stereo, wondering if he could check on her, and still make it home in time to get his eight hours. It was a long day, and he was dead tired, but he had an easy day tomorrow. Resolving that seven hours would be just as sufficient, he decided that seeing her could only make his night better.

As planned, he pulled up in front of Shotter’s bar at eight thirty. He checked his reflection in the rear-view mirror and grinned at himself. By nature, he was romantic, and the love and attention from two wonderful parents to an only child, had done nothing to sober his ridiculous expectations. He was already picturing this woman as his wife and mother to his children.

Taking his usual seat at the bar, he looked about a bit. She was not in sight, but he was a patient man, he could wait. Loud Soca music blasted from scratchy speakers, but Anele still bobbed his head religiously to the beat. A game of cricket was playing on a small, grainy screen over the bar which was holding the interest of most of the patronage. Mostly men, but the occasional woman could be found in a corner, being felt up by some drunk guy. Thankfully the waitress was not one of them.

He was looking around wondering if she was even there, when he heard the loud thump of something hard hitting the wooden counter. Turning, he saw the bartender looking at him, her sexy smile lifting one side of her mouth a little higher than the other, and the gleam of mischief in her large, dark eyes. She had placed a cold Stag in front of him, slamming it onto the counter to make him jump. 

What if I wanted something different? he asked her, grasping at the opportunity for a conversation.

She rolled her eyes, and he wondered if they would roll like that when he finally had her under him. He’d bet they would, she looked like the kind of woman that got downright freaky.

Do you? She looked at him, her full lips twisted into a sexy half smile.

He allowed his eyes to move slowly over her body and watched the way she shivered under his gaze. Maybe, but I’ll keep this for now.

She turned on her heels and walked away, swaying those full hips in a way that made the pleats of her skirt dance over her behind. He watched her like she was an animal of prey. She was not very tall, about five and a half feet. Her body had that curvy style of small waist with full, luscious hips and breasts. She had an oval face with high cheekbones and a somewhat prominent forehead. Her hair was natural and puffy most of the time. Tonight, it was in a high kinky-style that together with her large hoop earrings, reminded him of Lauren Hill in the mid-nineties. 

At the other side of the bar, her friend stopped, looked at him then whispered something to her. She looked back at him, grinned, then responded to her friend. He liked that they were talking about him. It did not even matter what they were saying. She kept looking back, but never for extended periods and almost always with that half smile on her face. Perhaps, he thought, it would be a good night to ask her out.

Faye had worked a double shift and was now exhausted and beginning to develop a bad mood. Plastering that big plastic smile on her face, she handed a beer to another drunk asshole, then leaned onto the bar to give her legs a much-needed ease.

Her eyes, whether involuntarily or not, wandered over to the area where she knew Anele was sitting. She hated guys like him, or at least she told herself that she did. Not for any justifiable reason, she hated them on principle. Handsome, tall, intelligent looking and probably had a decent job too, from the way he was well groomed and dressed. Always coming around trying to chat her up when he had no interest in her beyond a few nights. She knew his type well, to him, women like her were disposable.

But the man was damn fine! He had popped up a few weeks ago with his friend Dante, and like a bad cold sore or rash he just won’t go away. He came in at least three times a week, had a couple beers, if he had anything at all, and just sat there staring at her.

Faye liked it and she hated it. If she was fair, she would admit that the only reason he irritated her so much was because she liked him, and she liked all the attention he gave her. But she was not about to be fair, especially on a night like tonight when she was tired, in a bad mood and kept thinking all kinds of naughty scenarios with him at the lead.

At the moment they were engaged in a staring competition, and she wondered what he would do if he only knew the thoughts that were going through her head. Sighing audibly, she broke eye contact to take the order of a customer.

It was pleasing for her to think that a man like him could show any interest in her at all, even if it was just for a short time. But she knew that after a few nights with him, she would be hooked, and he would have already moved on. For that reason, his attention irritated her, it was a temptation she would like to act on but one that she didn’t need.

Your idiot’s staring you down again! her friend Jane said laughing while holding the strands of her locks into a ponytail.

Faye scoffed and turned to look at him, he was sitting at the bar, still staring with a daring grin on his handsome chiselled face. She smiled at him despite herself. He’s hard to miss, sticks out like a sore thumb in this dump. No need to tell her friend she had been staring back for most of the night.

I think he might be stalking you, Jane said and walked away laughing.

Jane was Faye’s best friend and as a matter of fact, her only friend. The two had met eight years ago when Faye had entered the world of work for the first time and Jane was working to help her mother and sisters. Faye had become attached to the beautiful, slender bartender from the first.

It was a friend when she had none, and Jane’s kind and gentle spirit recommended her to Faye. The two had been close ever since. Jane had helped Faye manoeuvre the ‘real world’ and Faye had helped her friend the best she could when she had gotten pregnant, and the father of her baby died even before the child was born. Then again, less than three months ago, Faye was a shoulder for her friend when Jane’s apartment building burnt down, and she had lost everything.

The two were as close as sisters, and Faye had even become quite close with Jane’s mother. Jane had sisters of her own though, both younger and both married.

"Jane has no ambition, it’s why she’ll never amount to anything," her sister Karen had told Faye, the only time she had ever met the woman.

She was standing holding her husband’s hand, while her young daughter looked up haughtily at Faye. Jane looked embarrassed and Faye only smiled and made no response. There was another sister, Leanne, but Faye dreaded meeting her after she was told that Karen was the nice one.

Faye’s attention went back to Anele, she could not seem to keep it off him for very long. Tonight, he was dressed in a pale green sweater, and a pair of snug fitting jeans, that accentuated the fine figure of a man that he was. She had noticed him the moment he walked through the door. His hair was cut low, and he had the sexy healthy appearance of being well groomed and clean.

He was the kind of man Faye’s mother wanted for her. But Geraldine Thompson had been dead for eight years, and her daughter was no longer following her advice and leaning more on her example.

Anele was sitting upright and rigid, in a manner that told Faye he was not accustomed to bars. Faye was fascinated with him. He was gorgeous. She especially loved the colour of his skin, which was so dark, it appeared to shine even in the dim lighting. His eyes too, were a strange shade of black that seemed to pierce her very soul. They looked so tempting when they stared at her. Faye enjoyed looking at them, and had ample opportunity to do so, since they seemed to be always aimed at her, looking greedy and lustful.

‘Perhaps a night or two under him would not be so bad if she ...’

Stop staring at the man, Jane stopped in front of her pulling her back to reality.

Faye laughed guiltily, You see anything better in here to stare at?  Plus, he’s been staring at me all night, I’m just returning the favour.

Jane should be the last one talking, cause when his friend Dante came in, she was all googly eyed over him. And as much as she liked to pretend that she was immune to Dante’s attention, Faye knew that Jane was beginning to fall for him.

Dante was different to his friend though. He was an easy-going kind of guy and always seemed to be in a good mood. The kind of man Jane needed. But Anele mostly just sat at the bar looking like a sexy, arrogant stalker, definitely not what Faye needed. Not that she really needed a man, but if she did it would not be him.

And now, to make things worse, as Faye knew all too well things loved to be worse, Marcus walked in. He had been making it a habit of popping up at least twice a week over the last couple months or so and begging her to take him back. Something she would never do. It had taken a fractured jaw, a split skull, a concussion, and several cracked ribs which taught her the lesson of her life, one she taught that she would never learn. 

She had put up with all of it way too long, enough was enough. No more accepting useless excuses and apologies that she knew he did not mean. It was getting worse too, they had moved on from minor bumps and bruises, to waking up in the hospital days later. It had to stop, and she had put an instant stop to it.

Marcus sauntered over to the bar, giving her his best smile. ‘How could I have ever loved this man?’ she wondered. And yet, somewhere at the back of her mind was a memory of when she did. A time when he would enter a room, and the first sight of him caused her heart to palpitate, and heat to rise to her face.

He was handsome when he took care of himself but mean like the devil when he was drunk. And he was usually drunk.

Hey babe. Marcus said when he reached the counter.

Faye stared blankly at him and did not respond. He smelled of stale drink and skunk, his favourite cologne, she thought scornfully. His large T-shirt hung haphazardly over his thin, abused frame, and his sunken eyes red and glazed over.

Oh, come on, don’t do me like that, he continued, sounding childish. I said I’m sorry, I promise, it ain’t gonna happen again.

Faye didn’t answer. She met Jane’s eyes across the room, and her friend gave her a sympathetic look.

Come on Faye, please, Marcus continued again Let me talk to you during your break, we could work it out, you’ll see.

Marcus’ loud words began to draw attention to himself, and soon everyone was looking at her too. Anele was looking at them, and she was not sure why, but that bothered her the most. Knowing full well that they could not work out a damn thing, but hating the attention he was drawing to them, Faye told him they could talk. Unconsciously, she glanced at Anele again, he looked at Marcus, then at her and frowned. She ignored it and turned away.

It was eleven fifteen, she had her break over an hour ago and they were not planning to close till at least half twelve.

Can you cover for me? I need a couple minutes to deal with Marcus. I won’t be long, She walked over to Jane and said, And keep an eye on that one for me.

Jane looked in the direction Faye indicated and smiled at Anele.  She then looked at Marcus, rolled her eyes and nodded at Faye.

The back of the bar served as the carpark. It was mostly dark, with tiny spots of light where the glow of the streetlight managed to peep through. It was dirty, deserted and smelled strongly of urine and vomit. A sudden feeling of uneasiness crept across Faye’s body, as the door shut behind her, muffling the sound of the bar on the other side. Darkness pressed in, and goose bumps rose violently over the entire surface of her skin.

Perhaps it was not the best idea, she thought, coming out there with Marcus. But she would not stay long, she just needed to let him know that nothing had changed since they last spoke. Hell would freeze over before she would even consider getting back with him.

Marcus came around the building staggering drunk and walked right up to Faye and kissed her. She pushed him hard, and he staggered several feet away.

No! She said flatly. I told you it’s over. I won’t ride this roller-coaster anymore.

A dark shadow crossed his face so quickly, that even if she had seen it, there was a chance that she would not have understood.

So why did you come out here with me then? he asked. His words slurred, and she could smell the liquor on him even from where he stood. He quickly closed the distance between them and crowded her space. You know we are meant to be together Faye, let’s not fight it. He spoke.

Faye cocked an eyebrow at him, Meant to be together Marcus? You beat me and left me bleeding on the floor of my kitchen to die. You think I was meant for that? she asked, feeling a surge of anger rising in her.

The man had the nerve to smile, Talk all you want babe, but if you didn’t want me, you wouldn’t be out here with me, He said, sounding cocky.

It was something she liked about him in the beginning. He was a confident man, and she likes confident men, but now his attitude grinded on her last nerve.

She gritted her teeth as she spoke, I’m out here, because you’re constantly showing up where I work, and embarrassing me, she said.

She saw the way his jaw worked and knew he was angry too. Faye did not care. They were not together anymore. Done were the days when she watched the way she spoke to him. Her heartbeat became wild, but she made tiny fists of her hands and stood strong.

There you go again, he said, and this time the