Read BWWM Interracial Romance 5: Love After Halftime for Free Online Page B

that her love hadn’t been unrequited, so eager to indulge in the fantasies she’d built up over years that now that she’d returned to the “real” world, so found herself at odds with, well… herself. She couldn’t look at herself in the mirror, could barely concentrate on work, and had been avoiding Tina at all costs.
    But that wasn’t all. She’d debated whether or not to tell Tina, and realized that while it might make her life easier in the short term to lie to her friend, it would ruin them both in the long run. And so finally, at last, she’d agreed to meet Tina and come clean. Suddenly, though, she was regretting her decision – even though she had no intention of going back on it.
    “I’m fine,” Marlene said, screwing up her courage and facing her friend at last. She fixed on a smile, though she didn’t feel its warm and rosy glow. “I just… Something happened this weekend, with Joe, Tina, and I feel like I should…”
    Tina slid her hand off Marlene’s, immediately on high alert. “ What kind of ‘something’ happened?” she interrupted, face growing tight and looking pinched after all the weight Tina had lost after the divorce.
    Marlene winced and, before she could chicken out, blurted, “Sex happened, Tina. Sex happened...”
    Tina’s face fell and her eyes narrowed. “You and Joe?” she hissed, leaning closer so the whole restaurant wouldn’t hear. When Marlene could only bite her lip and nod, Tina barked a joyless laugh and sat back, throwing up her hands. “I knew it,” she said, seeming almost satisfied with herself as she nodded vehemently. “I knew you had the hots for him. And this whole time, you’ve been playing me for the fool, just waiting for your chance to—”
                  “You can stop that chatter right there,” Marlene interrupted, waving a hand and lowering her tone so there would be no mistaking her intent. “Joe and I were friends long before you entered the picture, Tina.”
    “Friends?” Tina said, rolling her eyes. “You just fucked my ex-husband, Marlene, what the hell would you know about friendship?”
    “Emphasis on ‘ex’ husband, Tina.”
    “So that makes it right?” she huffed. “How… how long has this been going on?”
    “It hasn’t been going on,” Marlene explained. “It just happened. Just now…”
    Tina leaned close and wagged a finger. “It might have just happened, Marlene,” she said, no longer using her nickname for her old friend. “But you two were just biding your time, admit it!”
    Marlene sighed against the leather barstool of their high-top bistro table. “Please don’t let it be like this, Tina.”
    “How else can it be?” Tina said. “What kind of reaction were you expecting when you dropped this little bomb on me today?”
    “I didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “I just knew I had to tell you.”
    “Why? Why tell me, to make yourself feel better?”
    “Would you rather I lie to you?”
    Tina stood, tossing down crisp bills on the table for the check. “Better a liar, Marlene, than a whore!”
     
     
    * * * * *
     
     
    “You can’t do this to me, Bro,” Brad said, pacing the deck of Joe’s penthouse suit. “I’ve got two sweet birds lined up for us, man, you wouldn’t believe.”
    “Did you hear what I just said?” Joe chuckled, sipping his beer. “Merl and I finally hooked up. I thought you’d be happy for me!”
    Joe was certainly happy. Shit, he’d been walking on air since that long, luxurious weekend he’d spent with her, neither leaving his king-size bed for more than a few minutes before returning to sweet, sexual heaven. If only he’d known that Marlene felt the same way that he did, he would have hopped on that train years earlier – and avoided a whole lot of heartache.
    Then again, he thought, maybe the love he hadn’t felt is what made the love so sweet this time around. Either way, there was no way he could go back to being Brad’s wingman after