Can't Be That Other Woman

by Ambria Davis

Genres: African American Urban

Synopsis

Which woman will decide that she Can’t Be That Other Woman? This blazing tale of a dangerous love triangle will leave you wondering: Can two women share one man?
For seventeen-year-old Delaney Ragein McGuff, life hasn't been easy. Both of her parents are strung out on drugs, so Delaney, the oldest of five siblings, skips straight over her childhood and focuses on being there for her sisters and brothers.
At work one day, she meets Onijae Love, and she’s instantly attracted to the older man.
Onijae, a well-known businessman, is twenty-four and one of the handsomest men living in the state of Texas. With a head full of dreads, a fat bank account, and a body to die for, he's every woman’s dream, but Onijae only has eyes for
longtime girlfriend Bianca Harris—until he lays eyes on Delaney and finds himself constantly thinking about her.
Bianca’s been by Onijae’s side through everything, and she has no plans to leave it. Even though she has a few secrets of her own, she will be damned if she lets someone else get what she sees as rightfully hers. She’s willing to do anything
necessary to be Onijae’s only woman, no holds barred.

Release date: July 26, 2022

Publisher: Urban Books

Print pages: 288

Sample

“Laney, Laney!” I heard someone calling my name repeatedly. It felt like that sleep was just getting good, only for them to come and fuck it up. Frustrated, I threw the covers over my head, looked at the clock, and noticed that it was a little after 7:00 in the morning. I was never able to sleep in on a Saturday morning. It was either I had to work early, or this shit was always happening. Lord knows I was beyond tired. I had closed the store the night before, and I did not get in until almost 12:30 because I ended up missing my bus home. Then, to top that off, when I did get inside, it was filthy. Therefore, I had to pick up everything and clean up. I would be lying if I said I was not tired of doing the same thing repeatedly, because I was, and it looked like the shit wasn’t getting any better. Every day, I had to come from work or school and then clean up.

Bad thing was, my little sister, Daija, was 16 years old, so she knew better. Her little fast ass was too busy out there running those streets and chasing after those no-good-ass niggas to even care. She didn’t even go to school anymore, and my mother was so tired of the people at the school calling her that she ended up giving them my cell phone number. Almost every day, I had to tell her something about not going to school, and she would always pretend that she was listening to me. Honestly, everything I was saying to her would just go through one ear and out the other. It was obvious that she was more grown than I was, so I had stopped wasting my time with her and decided to put more energy into my other three siblings. It made no sense to try to help someone when they didn’t want help.

Throwing the covers back, I got out of the bed and went to answer the door for whoever was knocking. Opening the door, I was ready to cuss someone out; then I noticed who it was. I smiled at the sight of Dedrick, Derrick, and Dallas, my two brothers and little sister, all standing there in the pajamas that I had gotten for them last week.

“Laney, we’re hungry,” Dallas said, rubbing her eyes. I smiled at her batting those long eyelashes of hers, which immediately melted my heart. Baby girl was my heart. All of my siblings were, but Dallas and I had this deeper bond. She was a loving and caring person for someone so little, and she would always listen the first time I told her to do something, unlike my little brothers, who I’m pretty sure had woke her up and made her do this. They knew Dallas was my weakness. I tried my best to give her anything her little heart wanted. She was my baby, and I had her spoiled.

At a young age, I could tell that Dallas was destined for greatness. She wasn’t like the rest of us. I only hoped that she would be the one to get up out of here one day and make something out of her life. I hoped that she would go to college, get a degree and a well-paying job, and have a wonderful family—all of the things that I would like to do, but I could not because of my situation.

Maybe she can be the one to break the cycle in this family, I thought.

“Let me wash my face and mask my breath. Then I will come and cook you all some breakfast,” I told them.

They immediately began dancing and cheering all at once, like I had just told them I was taking them to Chuck E. Cheese or something.

“But first, tell me if y’all brushed y’all teeth or not.”

They instantly stopped dancing and stood there staring at each other, which let me know that they hadn’t. I almost busted out laughing at how scared they were now looking.

“How about y’all go brush those teeth first, and I’ll go get breakfast started.”

“Yay!” they all yelled at once before they took off running toward the bathroom. Shaking my head, I headed to the kitchen.

On my way to the kitchen, I stopped by Daija’s room. When I had gotten in from work the night before, I noticed that she wasn’t there, and when I finished cleaning up, she still hadn’t made it home. Therefore, there was no telling what time she had come in that morning. Peeking through the door, I noticed her sound asleep under the covers.

I wonder what kind of trouble she got into last night, I thought as I continued to watch her sleep.

Although she was heading down the wrong path and making bad decisions already, Daija was a very pretty girl. She stood a few inches shorter than I was, at five foot three inches. She weighed in at about 140 to 150 pounds, with a perky set of 38-C cups and an all-right booty. To me, her body made her look much older than her true age, which was why niggas were always up in her face. I could only wish she would be smart enough to know better, but I knew she wasn’t. Daija was a rebel. She would do anything to cause trouble. That’s how she demanded attention. Unfortunately, I knew she wasn’t a virgin, which saddened me, because had she just looked around at everything and seen the bigger picture, things could’ve probably been different.

“So, are you going to just stand there and stare, or are you going to say something?” Daija asked, scaring the shit out of me. I hadn’t even noticed that she was up. Hell, her eyes were still closed. How did she know I was even there?

“Umm, I came to tell you that breakfast will be ready in twenty minutes.”

“Well, you wasted your time, because I’m not hungry. Now get out of my room and close my door behind you,” she said, pulling the covers over her head.

I didn’t miss the attitude she had either. Shaking my head, I stepped back, getting ready to close the door, but then I stopped. I was tired of her and that flip-ass mouth of hers.

“You know what, Daija? That little attitude you catching, you can keep. Know that I will never kiss anyone’s ass, I don’t care who it is. You getting an attitude for nothing, but that’s cool and all. I only came up here to let you know so you can put something in your stomach, and here you want to bitch. Just remember when your little ungrateful ass comes to me and ask for something, my answer is no!” I yelled back at her. I was sick and tired of her ass playing with me as if she were so fucking grown. If she were fucking grown, she wouldn’t be out here making those silly-ass mistakes she keeps making and take her stupid ass to school.

“I don’t care, Delaney. I don’t need you. I can go out there and get my own shit. You don’t have to do shit for me. You’re not my momma. Sonya McGuff is,” she yelled, hopping out of the bed. She walked—more like ran—to the door. She stood only a few feet away from me, rolling her eyes with her arms folded across her chest.

I don’t know if she thought she was intimidating me, but just to be spiteful, I folded my arms across my chest and began rolling my eyes back at her. I wanted to see if her bite was half as big as her bark.

“You’re so dumb. You don’t even know better, and I feel sorry for you. I know that I’m not your mother, and I’m not trying to be. I’m just your sister, who’s actually trying to look out for your little stupid ass, but all of that ends today. Since you’re so grown, make sure your ass fends for yourself. Pads, tampons, food, clothes, shoes, hair needs, and everything else. Make sure you take care of that shit on your own. When you’re out there being fast and carrying on like you don’t have the sense God gave a billy goat, make sure you call on somebody else when the police have you. Do not call my phone for anything, because I won’t be helping you. You don’t need me, and I’m not trying to help anyone who obviously doesn’t want my help. So, since you’re grown, stay grown!” With that said, I left the room and headed straight to the kitchen to get breakfast started. I didn’t have any more of my time to waste on Daija. She was on her own from now on.

It took me a total of thirty minutes to finish cooking breakfast. Since I still needed to take care of my hygiene, I decided to do that first. When I was done, I walked into the living room, where the kids were sitting down, watching their Saturday morning cartoons.

“Come on, y’all. Let’s go eat before the food gets cold,” I said to them. My brothers took off running for the kitchen. “Hey, y’all walk now, and don’t touch nothing. I’ll be there in a second.”

“Come on, Laney. Let’s go eat,” Dallas said in an innocent little voice that melted my heart. She grabbed my hand with hers as we began walking to the kitchen. Once we made it to the kitchen, she released my hand and took her seat, which was always next to the chair that I would sit in. Again, I smiled at her before I went about the task of fixing their plates. There was a little bit of everything, from grits, eggs and bacon, to sausage, ham, toast, and waffles. I wanted to make sure that they were nice and full until it was lunchtime.

Once I finished fixing their plates, I fixed one for myself and sat down with them. We prayed and gave God thanks for our food before we dug in. As we sat there and ate our breakfast, we talked about day-to-day things, like what was going on in school, the kids’ grades, cartoon shows, things that were happening around the neighborhood. and what the kids wanted to be when they grew up. I wasn’t surprised when Dedrick and Derrick said they wanted to be professional football players. Hell, they ran around the neighborhood playing football almost every day. I knew that by the time they grew up, they were going to be awesome football players. Dallas, on the other hand, said she wanted to be a doctor, which came as no surprise to me, because she was always trying to help others.

Once we were finished eating, I ushered the kids into the living room, while I went to clean the kitchen. After I was finished washing the dishes and putting them away, I went to throw out the trash and get the mail.

Walking back into the house, I threw the mail on the counter and went back into the kitchen. I was about to sweep and mop the floor when my mother walked into the kitchen. I immediately became disgusted at the sight of her. She stood there in a dingy white T-shirt that actually looked like it hadn’t been washed in days. She had on a pair of sweatpants, which were too big for her, with her hair all over her head. I’m pretty sure that her breath was stank because she hadn’t used either one of the toothbrushes that I’d bought her. Nor had she used anything else I gave her to take care of herself.

“Why didn’t you wake me for breakfast?” she asked, walking over to the now empty stove.

Rolling my eyes, I didn’t even answer her. Why the fuck would I feed you when you’re always leaving us hungry? I thought as I began filling the mop bucket with water.

“Delaney, I know you hear me. Make me slap the fuck out of you, hear?”

Stopping what I was doing, I stood there, and I just looked at her. I hated when she started trying to play momma all of a sudden. Where the hell was all this motherly shit when we needed it, like when we didn’t have any food to eat, or soap to take a bath? Where was the mothering when she let the light people come and turn off our lights? I could think of a few other times when we needed her to act all motherly, but right now was definitely not one of those moments.

“What? You got something to say, Delaney? Well, go on ’head and say it.” She posed with her hands now on her frail hips. She was moving so much that I was afraid she was going to break them.

Opening my mouth, I immediately closed it back when no words came out. Who was I kidding? Even though my mother wasn’t shit, I still loved her, and no matter how much she didn’t do right by my siblings and me, she was still my mother. No matter what she said to me, I wasn’t going to disrespect her, so instead of telling her anything, I simply walked off to my room.

As soon as I walked through the door, my phone started to ring. Walking over to the dresser where it was, I picked it up and noticed that it was the number to my job. But today is my off day, I thought as I debated whether I should answer. After a few seconds of debating and the phone still ringing, I decided to answer it.

“Hello,” I said, taking a seat on the bed.

“Good morning, Delaney. It’s the assistant manager at the store. I know today is your off day, and I’m sorry to be calling you, but Leila wasn’t able to make it to work today. I was calling to see if you could come in and work her shift.”

“Well, what time does it start?” I asked, a little annoyed. I had made plans to chill with my friends that day, but now it seemed like I would have to cancel.

“It starts at eleven this morning,” Christina, the assistant store manager, replied.

I looked at the clock and noticed that it was almost ten, which meant that I would have to hurry if I wanted to be there on time.

“Okay, I’ll be there,” I told her.

“Oh, thank you so much, Delaney. I already called two other employees who weren’t able to come in, so this really means a lot. Saturday is our busiest day. I couldn’t fathom being here by myself all day,” she said, sounding relieved.

“Okay, I’ll see you in a minute, Christina.”

“Okay, and thanks again,” she said, hanging up the phone.

I sat there for a few minutes after getting off the phone with Christina. I was still tired from the night before, but Lord knows I needed all of the money that I could get. I knew my friends were going to be mad with me, but the money came before anything, so they were going to have to wait. I could hang out with them some other time. Right now, I was about to head to the money.

Unlocking my phone, I went straight to my contact list. Once I found the name that I was looking for, I clicked on it and hit CALL. Placing the phone to my ear, I began getting my things ready for work as I waited for my friend to answer the phone.

“Hello,” she said, answering the phone and sounding as if she had been asleep.

“Damn, it took you long enough to answer the phone. I bet your ass was still sleeping, huh?” I said before I busted out laughing.

“And you know this, which is why I don’t see why you called me this early,” she said in between yawns.

“Actually, I called to tell you that I won’t be able to hang out with you guys today.”

“Damn, Delaney. Why you can’t come now?” she asked, sounding a bit sad. “You know we were really looking forward to spending some time with you. Shit, we haven’t seen you outside of school in forever.”

“I know, and I’m sorry, Tracy, but my manager just called asking if I could come in today. You know how hard things are right now. I just couldn’t turn down extra money to hang out.”

“I know, and I feel you on that, which is why I’m not mad this time. But you know Kaleb is going to be disappointed, right? He was really looking forward to seeing you.”

“Girl, whatever. He will just have to wait until next time,” I said, not even worrying my nerves about Kaleb. “But, umm, can you come take me to work? I have to be there at eleven, and it’s almost ten o’clock. By the time I take a fifteen-minute shower, do whatever I have to do, and try to make it to work by the bus, I’ll be past late. I can’t wait until I can buy me a car.”

“Delaney, I’m still in bed,” she began whining. I felt for her if times were ever to get hard on her. She was so spoiled that she barely knew the word struggle.

“Please! I promise I’ll let you use my employee discount on a pair of sneakers next time you stop by the store,” I said, practically begging.

She sat there for a few seconds in silence. I knew she was going to say yeah. Her being silent was only to make me sweat.

“Okay, but you better be ready by the time I get there, or else you won’t have a ride to work,” she said, hanging up the phone.

Jumping off the bed, I grabbed my work clothes and made a dash for the bathroom. Turning on the shower, I waited for the water to warm up and then got in. I didn’t have time to do the things I’d normally do, so I grabbed the washcloth and soap and immediately got down to business. Once I made sure that I had washed every inch of my body, I rinsed off and repeated the process. When I was done, I turned the shower off and got out. Moving fast, I dried off, applied a little bit of lotion to my body, and got dressed.

Once I was finished, I headed to my room. After putting my shoes on, I brushed my hair into a ponytail just as Tracy started blowing outside. Grabbing my purse and phone, I headed into the living room, making sure to lock my door behind me. Before leaving, I gave Dedrick, Derrick, and Dallas each five dollars for something to eat, gave them a kiss, and left. I was going to miss my babies, but we needed the money, so I would just have to see them when I got back home.

When I arrived at work, the place was already packed with people. I noticed the minute I walked through the door how much Christina’s face had relaxed. I guess she thought I wasn’t going to make it. I couldn’t blame her, though. The way the store was packed, I couldn’t imagine being there alone either. I only had about ten minutes to get myself together, so I headed to the back to clock in.

“Thank God you made it here. I really thought I was going to have to be here by myself today,” she said the minute I came back to the front of the store.

“I told you I was coming. I don’t know why you would worry yourself. When I say that I’m going to do something, I always do it,” I said, placing my nametag on. I didn’t wait for her to reply before I walked on the floor and started helping the many people that were in there. I just prayed that I didn’t get grumpy, being that I didn’t get enough sleep.

It was about two o’clock that afternoon when I finally realized that I hadn’t had a break, or lunch for that matter. The store was super busy, and time just seemed to fly on by. I was on my way to look for Christina when Tracy texted me, saying that they were waiting on me at the food court. Lord knows I wasn’t trying to mess with their asses. I was almost to the register when someone stopped me.

“Excuse me, miss, but can I get some help, please?” a voice said from behind me.

“I’m sorry, but I’m about to head to lunch. Let me grab the manager, and she will help you. Don’t go anywhere,” I said without even taking a glance at whoever it was. By now, my stomach was talking to me, and all I could think about was putting food in it.

“Come on, pretty lady. I promise it won’t be long,” he replied in this sexy voice that I finally noticed.

When I looked up, I almost fainted. Never in all my seventeen years of being on earth had I ever seen a man this fine. I mean, dude was so fine he made my stomach do flip-flops. This man was a stallion, and all I wanted was a ride. Standing at what looked to be six feet two inches, this man was definitely that nigga. His skin was a smooth caramel in color, his body was covered in tattoos, and he had a pair of big brown eyes that would make any woman drool at the sight of him.

As I watched his mouth move, I stood there staring at him. I didn’t hear a word he was saying because he had me in a trance. I had never been with a man physically, but I surely wanted to change all of that with him.

“You okay, ma?” he asked, waving his hand in front of my face.

“Umm, y–yeah. I’m good,” I replied, embarrassed. I couldn’t believe I got caught staring. “What can I help you with?”

“I was wondering if you had this in a size thirteen?” he asked, holding up a pair of black leather Air Max 90s.

“Uh, I don’t know, but I can go check in the back for you,” I said, grabbing the shoes out of his hand. For a brief second, our hands touched, sending this shockwave through my body.

I looked up, trying to see if he had felt it. I could tell from the surprised way he was looking that he felt it too. I quickly pulled my hand back before forcefully swallowing the lump that had formed in my throat

“Umm, l–let me go look for those shoes for you,” I replied, . . .