Hey you, dear reader. haha. I decided to share a chapter with you from my book, “Coffee & Things”. I had so much fun writing this book and I do plan on discussing this book with you more. The book can be found on Amazon.

Chapter 7: Love Spell

Years passed just as fast as Brian came the last time they slept together. It had been sometime since she last saw Brian. They tried to continue seeing each other after leaving the Jersey Shore but when they left the beach house the intensity between them fizzled.

  On nights where she had too much to drink, she would call Brian. He would answer knowing that she was drunk calling him. She would ask him when he planned to visit her, if he had plans to do so at all. He would tell her that he wanted to set something up, that his schedule looked promising. She knew that he wouldn’t but enjoyed the thought of seeing him again. Too many nights she would call him after having too many drinks and ask him why she hadn’t heard from him. He wouldn’t give her an excuse. He would simply sigh and say, “Moringa its 2:00 in the morning.”

     He would call her too on nights when he drank too much and Moringa was sober. He would tell her how much he missed hearing her voice and how much he missed her. He would tell her that he wanted to take her out to new restaurants and stay at the beach again, just the two of them. He would forget the conversation the next morning though. He would go about his day like nothing was discussed.

   They tried to reignite the flame, but just like the fire pit that sat in the back of the beach house whose flame kept burning out every time the wind hit it, it didn’t stay. They really tried to fan it, to throw more wood into the pit, but life got in the way.

   They carried on and when they met, if they ever met, on occasion, they went out to dinner which led to them laying together in bed.

    Brian who was used to traveling for work, became uninterested in traveling to Moringa though the ride down the Garden State Parkway was less than an hour away in her direction. Moringa who at first was furious with Brian’s growing disinterest, lost herself in her new line of work and dreams of opening up her own bakery.

    Phone calls dwindled and conversations grew short. When they did have the chance to speak, they snapped at each other with disgust. Moringa felt the dismissal and hated it.

   What was she supposed to expect?  She should have just enjoyed the moment and had fun like Addison said.

  Moringa started to reminisce about that summer years ago. She looked back at that summer fondly, in the way she looked back at her childhood at her grandmothers. She wished she could pull the summer out of her back pocket and hold it. She wished that she could pull the summer out of its vinyl cover and place it on a record player like a classic, smooth like the sounds of Marvin Gaye. She wished, she wished she could scoop up the summer and rock it in her arms like a baby.

  She missed it. She missed him. She wondered if he felt the same.

  After sitting on top of a pot full of steaming water and allowing the steam to penetrate her, releasing the grief, the loss, to better connect to her feminine energy she heard Addison’s voice in her head telling her to not do it in the same tone she told Moringa to “just have fun” in.

After scrubbing herself in the shower with a bar of soap with purpose, as if she was trying to scrub her skin off, as if she was trying to rid herself of something that stuck on her skin, like years of doubt, past lovers and hurt she heard Addison’s voice again. “Have Fun.” The soap gathered on the bottom of the bathtub made its way down the drain.

  After drawing herself a bath, slipping out of her bathrobe and sinking down into the tub. She heard the voice again. She sank down into the tub, beneath rose petals, hibiscus and orange slices mumbling prayers to Oshun.

   After sitting in front of her altar, head bent, mumbling prayers, petitions to Oshun, and despite hearing Addison’s voice telling her not to, she lit the candle and went to bed during the full moon with thoughts of seeing him again.