Femme Tales Read online

  “It’s just a five-minute walk from here. Plenty of time for you to change your mind,” Cass joked.

  “Just to warn you, I have a black belt in tae kwon do and recently completed a Krav Maga self-defense class.”

  Cass whistled. “Impressive. I’ve been training in mixed martial arts for about a year now. Helps relieve stress.”

  “That’s a pretty aggressive stress reliever.”

  “I get pretty aggressive stress.”

  “Is that same stress that brought you here?” Faith asked.

  “I guess it is. This trip wasn’t planned, at least not by me,” Cass said, sounding a bit annoyed.

  Faith’s step hesitated. “Oh, are you here with someone who planned it?” she asked. Did she misread Cass’s flirting and lunch invitation?

  “No, I’m here alone. My assistant and one of my coworkers decided I needed a vacation and had me hijacked here.”

  “Seriously?” Faith asked in surprise.

  “Seriously,” Cass said.

  Faith laughed. “You had to be hijacked into going on vacation to Turks and Caicos?”

  Cass looked down with an embarrassed smile.

  Faith shook her head in disbelief. “I guess you really do stress aggressively.”

  “So I guess you don’t have to be strong-armed into going on vacation,” Cass said.

  “My mother and I used to rent a private villa here every year,” Faith said, sadness tingeing her voice.

  “Used to?” Cass asked.

  Faith gazed quietly ahead for a moment. “My mother passed away several months ago.”

  Cass’s steps halted. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “She had been sick a long time so it wasn’t unexpected. I’m actually here for one of her final wishes to have her ashes spread here on the island.”

  Faith started walking again and Cass followed. “Have you already spread her ashes?”

  “Not yet. Tonight at midnight. Tomorrow is her birthday,” Faith said.

  Cass frowned and Faith looped her arm around Cass’s. “It’s really okay. I’m fine. I had just been thinking I really didn’t want to be alone today and then you showed up.”

  “Really?”

  Faith smiled. “Really.”

  They resumed their stroll in companionable silence. A short time later, Cass spotted Serge on a spot of beachfront in front of her villa setting an umbrella table. He looked up as they drew closer and his eyes widened in surprise. Cass wondered what he could be thinking; she’d only been there two days, and her first day out of the room she brought someone home.

  “Faith?” Serge said, walking toward them with his arms outstretched.

  Faith released Cass’s arm and walked into Serge’s embrace.

  “Serge, it’s so good to see you!” Faith said.

  “You two know each other?” Cass asked in confusion.

  Chuckling, Faith stepped back and grasped Serge’s hands. “Serge and I are old friends. He’s taken care of my mom and me since we started coming here.”

  “I was so sad to hear about her passing,” Serge said.

  “I brought her with me for a final good-bye if you and your mom would like to join me tonight. I had planned to call your mom later today to let her know,” Faith said.

  “We would be honored,” he said with unshed tears sparkling in his eyes.

  Faith wiped a tear away before it could escape the corner of her eye. “I’m glad. It will be at midnight at the property.”

  “Will you be joining Miss Cass for lunch?” Serge asked.

  “Yes, she will,” Cass answered.

  “Excellent. I will get another place setting.”

  “Thank you Serge,” Cass said.

  Cass walked over to the table and spotted a small cooler. She opened it to find Serge had supplied her with her favorite beer, a bottle of white wine, and bottled water.

  “Can I offer you something to drink?” Cass asked Faith.

  Faith looked over her shoulder at the contents of the cooler. “I’ll take a bottle of water for now.”

  Cass handed her a bottle and picked up a beer for herself then offered Faith the lone seat. Serge returned shortly with another chair and place setting.

  “Your lunch should be brought up shortly,” he offered.

  “Thank you again, Serge.”

  Cass watched him leave then turned her attention back to Faith. “So you weren’t kidding when you said you were here every year.”

  “Yeah, we started coming to Turks and Caicos when I was about sixteen, and we met Serge and his mom at a smaller resort where they were working. He was actually the one who suggested we start coming to this resort several years ago when they left the other one to start working here. His mom is the director of housekeeping and Serge is head butler. He and his mother are planning to open their own bed and breakfast on the island.”

  “So you all are close?” Cass asked.

  “It started with our moms chatting it up and eventually they became good friends over the years. Serge and I ended up becoming friends by association.” Faith took a sip of her water.

  “So, when you’re not being tricked into going on vacation what do you do?” Faith asked.

  “I’m a music producer,” Cass answered, which was partially the truth. She didn’t think Faith would be one of those girls who only saw dollar signs when Cass told them she owned a recording label, but she didn’t want to take that chance. “What about you? What do you do?”

  “Shoe designer,” Faith answered.

  “Really? What brand do you work for?” Cass asked.

  “None. I have a little boutique and design studio in Jersey City. I’m trying to find an independent distributor to get my own shoe line in the major stores. Until then, I’m very happy with my boutique and doing custom orders. When you’re back home you should stop by my shop and studio.” Faith reached for her bag, pulled out her card case, and handed a business card to Cass.

  It was a white card with a drawing of a glass stiletto shoe on a red pillow. “Glass Slippers by Faith,” Cass read.

  “Yeah, it’s a take on Cinderella’s glass slipper. It was one of my favorite fairy tales,” Faith said. “Don’t let the picture fool you. I do all kinds of shoes, from stilettos to flip-flops,” she said, lifting her foot to show off her platform flip-flops.

  Cass gently grasped Faith’s foot to get a better look at the shoe. The heel was a platform wedge made to look like sandblasted wood with turquoise rhinestones, wood beads, and shells along the wide leather thong. She couldn’t help but also notice Faith’s smooth feet and French manicured toenails. She softly ran her hand up Faith’s ankle and calf as she lowered her leg and didn’t miss the quick intake of breath from Faith as she did so.

  Cass grinned knowingly. The moment was interrupted by Serge bringing their lunch. He rolled a cart with covered dishes and stopped just where the lawn and sand met. He placed dishes in front of each of them, then whisked the covers away to reveal a plate of conch salad and lobster tail, then placed another dish in the middle of the table with slices of mango, melon, and pineapple chunks.

  “Bon appetite,” Serge said with a bow. “I’ll be nearby if you require any further assistance.”

  “Everything is lovely,” Faith said.

  “Thank you, Serge,” Cass said.

  They brought their attention back to their food. Cass reached for serving utensils. “Would you like some fruit?” she asked.

  “Yes, please.”

  Cass placed several slices of the fruit on Faith’s plate before serving herself. The courtesy made Faith smile.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  They focused their attention on their food for a few minutes.

  “So you’re a music producer? Do you work with a particular label or independently?” Faith asked.

  “I work strictly with Pure Music Records. Have you heard of them?” Cass said.

  “Some of my favorite artists are from that label. The group Charity, g
ospel singer Frank Lazarus, and of course The Beast.”

  Cass gazed at Faith in surprise. “I would have never pegged you as a ‘Beast Monger,’” she said, using the nickname Ebony’s fans had labeled themselves.

  “The single ‘Retribution’ got me through a really tough time in my teen years.

  “Oh you thought that you could break me

  But your demons have remade me

  Into something that should not be

  I won’t fight the beast within me

  The Devil even fears me

  When I rain down retribution”

  “Check you out,” Cass said, impressed that she knew the verses from one of Ebony’s lesser played singles. It had been one of her underground hits that Pure Music decided to record for her first album. Unfortunately, it didn’t get much airtime because the stations believed it was too hardcore to add to their regular rotation. Ebony had refused to record a radio edit version so the only ones who really knew the single were diehard Beast fans because they had the albums.

  “Don’t let the pretty face fool you. There’s a little thug under all of this glamour,” Faith said with a wink.

  Cass laughed. “All right, Miss Thug, I’ll have to remember not to get on your bad side.”

  “Did you start out as a hip-hop artist also?”

  “No, but I’ve always been around music. My mother is a piano teacher and my father is a session musician playing bass guitar and drums for studio recording sessions. I spent a lot of summers in the studio with him,” Cass answered.

  “Do you play any instruments?”

  “Yeah, piano, drums, and bass guitar, but I was more fascinated with the technical and production aspect of recording music rather than making it. I actually started out making a name for myself as a club DJ which is how I ended up in New York. I met the CEO of Pure Music at a club one night, made some suggestions on how I could help give her artists a better sound, and instead of kicking me to the curb she brought me to the studio for a session with Ebony Trent, liked what I did, and I’ve been there ever since,” Cass explained. She intentionally left out becoming president and CEO of the label. “Now it’s your turn,” Cass said. “Tell me how you got into the shoe game.”

  Faith grabbed a beer from the cooler Serge left them.

  Cass smiled. Faith appeared to be the epitome of style and sophistication yet she was quoting hardcore rap music and preferred beer instead of the wine Serge provided for them.

  “My favorite book to read with my mother was Cinderella and she loved shoes, so one Christmas when I was about six years old I decided to make her very own pair of glass slippers like Cinderella. I broke into my piggy bank and recruited my grandmother to help me purchase a pair of plain inexpensive pumps and some stick-on rhinestones from the craft store. I spent a week every day after school at my grandmother’s house carefully placing rhinestones over every inch of those shoes to make them look like glass slippers.” Faith smiled.

  “They were the gaudiest pair of shoes, but my mother loved them. She wore them the entire day as well as to church on Sunday bragging to everyone how I had made them and that I would be a famous shoe designer one day. Then for my birthday she bought me a sketch pad, art pencils, a one-hundred-dollar gift card for a local craft store, and about ten pairs of those five-dollar hanger sneakers from some discount store so I could create my own custom shoes. I’m where I am today because of her and I miss her so much,” Faith said, tears escaping from the corner of her eyes.

  Cass’s heart broke a little at the heartache in Faith’s eyes. She grasped her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. She’d just met this woman yet she somehow was feeling her pain as if it were her own. Faith wiped her tears with her napkin and gave Cass a smile in gratitude for her comfort.

  “Okay, no more weepiness. Let’s enjoy this delicious lunch.” Faith gave Cass’s hand a squeeze in return before releasing it to grab her fork.

  After a few minutes of eating Faith asked “So there’s no one special in your life that would have loved to have been kidnapped to go on vacation with you?”

  “No. I honestly don’t have much time for a social life, which is why my assistant and Ebony had to have me hijacked for a vacation.”

  “I know the feeling. I’m working practically twenty of a twenty-four-hour day trying to keep my boutique open, expand my locations, and find distributors so I guess you can say I was somewhat hijacked to come here per my mother’s final wishes because I would not have taken my vacation this year if it weren’t for that,” Faith said.

  “So I guess that means there’s no one special in your life?” Cass asked, trying not to sound too hopeful.

  “No. I haven’t even gone on a date in at least a year,” Faith said with a chuckle.

  Cass’s eyes widened in surprise. “Really?”

  “Really. A friend of mine has tried fixing me up with a coworker and a couple of musician friends of his, but they were a disaster. The last one was a high profile attorney who spent most of the date talking about herself and her celebrity clients and answering calls. I promised myself right then and there that, one, I wouldn’t let anymore friends set me up on dates, and two, I would stay away from celebrities and women with high-profile careers. I’m already playing second fiddle to my career. I don’t want to be second fiddle to someone else’s, and I’m not good with being in the spotlight. I don’t even use my own image on anything to do with Glass Slippers except my name,” Faith said.

  Cass was now glad she hadn’t told Faith what she really did. It wasn’t a lot, but she did spend time in the spotlight often enough. “I could understand that. Because of the business I’m in I end up dating people who are also in the industry, in front of and behind the mic, but I do my best not to mix business with pleasure.”

  “You’ve never dated an artist you’ve worked with?” Faith asked.

  “Yes, and it ended badly,” Cass said with a frown remembering all the media attention around the breakup and the lawyers that had to get involved when her ex started spreading false accusations about Cass harassing and stalking her when it was the other way around.

  “No one since then?” Faith asked.

  “Not seriously,” Cass responded.

  Faith reached for two bottles of beer from the cooler placing one in front of Cass and the other for herself. “We seem to have a lot in common. Serial single workaholics with no social life.”

  “Some of the best relationships have started with less.”

  “True. Do you have plans for dinner?” Faith asked.

  “I was hoping you were available.”

  “As a matter of fact I am. I know a spot that my mother and I used to go to.”

  “An evening on a tropical island with a beautiful stranger at an unknown location, how could I say no,” Cass said with a smile.

  “Great, then it’s a date.” Faith took one last healthy swig from her beer and stood.

  “I’ll swing by at seven to pick you up. Thank you for lunch.” Faith leaned over and placed a soft kiss on Cass’s cheek then headed back the way they had come.

  Cass watched the sexy sway of her full hips as Faith disappeared around a cluster of bushes toward a path leading to other villas in the area.

  “Would you like me to clear away lunch, miss?” Serge asked, startling Cass who hadn’t realized he had walked up to the table.

  “Uh, yes, thank you, and, Serge, you can just call me Cass,” she said with a smile.

  Serge smiled in return. “You’re welcome, Cass.”

  Cass picked up her unfinished beer and headed into the villa. Just as she sat on the sofa, her phone vibrated in her pocket. Ebony’s name flashed on the screen.

  “Everything all right?” she asked, assuming the worst.

  Ebony chuckled on the other end. “Damn, bro, everything is fine. I was just calling to check on you.”

  Cass sighed in relief. “You wouldn’t have to call and check on me if you hadn’t had me kidnapped in the first place. I ne
ed to be there handling business not lounging on the beach.”

  “Cass, you know you needed a break just as much as we knew you needed one. We need you recharged and at one hundred percent for the ball and the upcoming tours. Besides, there is nothing going on here that Stephanie and I can’t handle.”

  “I guess,” Cass said begrudgingly.

  “So how’s island life treating you?” Ebony asked.

  “It’s good. I’m thinking of investing in property here. Maybe some place I could build a private recording studio,” Cass responded.

  “That sounds like a good idea. Have you contacted any Realtors yet?”

  “No, but I plan on doing that tomorrow. In the meantime, can you do me a favor? Would you please have Stephanie create a file for Glass Slippers by Faith and email it to me ASAP.”

  “Glass Slippers by Faith? Isn’t that a boutique in Jersey? Belinda shops there sometimes,” Ebony told her.

  “Does she know the owner?” Cass asked.

  “Yeah, why? What’s up?”

  “Nothing’s up. I happened to meet the owner, Faith, today and I was curious about the business.”

  “The business or the woman?”

  “Eb, can you just have Stephanie run the check for me?”

  Ebony laughed. “I got you, bro. Enjoy the rest of your vacay.”

  “Yeah, thanks,” Cass said with a grin before hanging up.

  Cass thought about Ebony and how she had been through hell and back and managed to find someone to love her, to tame The Beast. There shouldn’t be any reason Cass couldn’t find the same thing.

  * * *

  Faith stood in front of her mirror in the third dress she had tried on in the past ten minutes. All three were dresses she had bought that afternoon after setting up her date with Cass. She couldn’t decide which she liked best so she did something she never did, she bought all three. She had not planned on going out during this trip so she had only brought casual wear, nothing dressy or formal. They weren’t going any place fancy, and she could have just worn one of her simple sundresses, but for some reason she felt the need to dress up a little for Cass, for her first date in a year. The dress she had on was a sleeveless long flowing buttercup yellow maxi dress made from a soft jersey material. The front of the dress had a modest V-neckline that settled just at the start of her cleavage and a slit up the right leg that hit just above her knee. She did a little turn and looked over her shoulder at the open back of the dress which dipped to her lower back just below her rib cage.