BWWM Interracial Romance 1: Professional Relations Read Online Free PDF Page A

out the big guns.”
    Regina shook her head, staring at him. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” she said. She felt an instantaneous doubt; had she been unconsciously trying to flirt with the men in the meeting? Her ex-husband had constantly accused her of that—usually right before he’d moved to hit her or at the very least spend an hour screaming at her. In spite of knowing that she hadn’t intended to flirt with the representatives, Regina still worried that she was the type of woman who would lead a man along without thinking. The thought of her ex-husband’s constant reprimands for her “slutty” behavior sent a chill through Regina. She bit her bottom lip and swallowed against the lump in her throat, moving away from Bradley quickly and fumbling at the door to her office.
    When she woke up on Saturday morning, Regina was only too glad that she would be meeting her older sister Abigail for lunch. She had a lot on her mind; her stress over the scope of her new responsibilities, her difficulties with Bradley, and the lingering issues she had over her disastrous marriage. Regina spent the morning lounging around her apartment, drinking coffee and catching up on the week’s news. She tried to avoid thinking about work, but her mind kept turning back to the topic of Bradley. Regina tried to pin down the reason she found him so annoying in particular: he was arrogant, but Regina had dealt with over-confident people before. He was competitive, but then so was she. Regina tried and failed to figure out the puzzle in her mind.
    She finally got dressed comfortably, knowing that after her lunch with her sister she had an appointment at the salon to get her hair done. Regina wanted to get rid of the hair extensions she’d had for so long; her natural hair had grown out over time, and she had wanted to do something with it finally. Her ex-husband had insisted on her maintaining her fake hair, coercing her to go to the salon twice a month to get a new style. Regina’s natural hair was curly and thick, and she thought that lightening it a little bit—to a nice, deep brown instead of her natural black—would be a fun change, and really help her to get to the next stage of recovering from her tempestuous divorce. With a little maintenance, she could have nice ringlets falling almost to her shoulders—and Regina had imagined that outcome with a smile for longer than she had been separated from her husband.
    Regina sped slightly on the way to the restaurant where she planned to meet Abigail, anxious to see her sister and unload her troubles and thoughts. Although Regina sometimes felt guilty, burdening Abby with her woes, her older sister was always adamant that she should go to no one else; particularly since their mother had passed away. Regina and Abigail had been in each other’s confidence from childhood, when Regina had started asking her sister “big girl” questions that she wasn’t comfortable talking to their mother about.
    The thing that Regina enjoyed most about her conversations with Abigail was that her older sister had a way of telling her the truth bluntly—but without being mean. Abigail had been the first and most vocal champion of Regina’s divorce, goading her sister months before Regina finally went to a lawyer for the first time. Abigail had insisted on cataloguing Regina’s injuries at the hands of her husband, and went to court defiantly to testify to what she knew of the relationship and Regina’s husband’s behavior. It was a debt that Regina could never pay back, and she knew it.
    Abigail was waiting for her at the entrance to one of their favorite cafes. Regina smiled at the sight of her sister; Abby was three years older than Regina, with skin maybe two shades darker. She had given up on what she termed the “oppressive rigmarole” of having her hair done and maintained every two weeks, instead opting to keep her hair natural—she didn’t even color it. Of the two