Author's Note- Merry Christmas! Yeah, I know I'm late as hell with this, but I won't give you any lame ass excuses. Sorry. But thank you for the reviews and alerts. Think of this chapter as your Christmas present from me to you, okay? Okay.

Disclaimer- Ya'll already know. Need I say it again?

If anyone were to ask Jazmine about her first love, she'd talk to them about her dancing. Ballet, if she wanted to be specific about it. Ballet was something that she held dear to her heart. It was what she turned to when she needed to clear her mind of more unappealing thoughts, and, with her feet hitting the polished wooden floor beneath her and her body moving along with the music that resonated in her ears due to the earbuds in them, she could find a little bit of peace. And it was the promise of peace that brought Jazmine to the dance studio well before she had to be there seeing as it was about eleven in the morning on Saturday and she didn't have any classes until about one in the afternoon.

Tracy, the receptionist, had regarded Jazmine with a look of confusion when she saw her and questioned why she was there so early. Jazmine briefly mentioned wanted to work on some new choreography that she thought the kids might enjoy before hurriedly walking away, hoping that Tracy wouldn't come up with more questions to ask that Jazmine really didn't feel like answering.

Things hadn't been too great for Jazmine as of late. Life had been a chaotic mess that she couldn't seem to work out and the stress of it all made her want to lock herself in a closet away from the rest of the world and wait for this phase, if she could even call it that, of her life to pass. She felt so boxed in and constricted and she blamed it on her relationship with Caesar. Every time she was around Caesar for more than a few minutes a heavy weight settled around her and she felt like she was suffocating, which was one of the reasons she had left the house so early that morning. Jazmine supposed that it was partly her fault, her feeling that way. She could just leave Ceasar, break off their engagement and go her own way. And it sounded good and simple in theory, but it was surprisingly difficult. Maybe two months prior, after Caesar had a particularly nasty episode that left her bruised and in pain for a couple of days, Jazmine had almost done it. She had waited until he was asleep and slid from under his heavy arm and proceeded to quietly pack her things (just a couple of things, she'd come back for the rest) using her cell phone as a light. Jazmine had made it to the door of the bedroom when her cell phone clattered to the floor, loudly, so loud that it sounded like a gunshot to Jazmine, when Caesar sat up in bed, his dreadlocked head in his hands. Jazmine had frozen like a deer in headlights and instantly regretted attempting such a feat at two in the morning with Caesar asleep just a few feet away from her. She blamed that on too many viewings of What's Love Got To Do With It and Enough. She had briefly considered making a run for it but then Caesar had promptly turned on the teary, regretful, "Baby, I'm sorry. I love you. It won't happen again" act and she slowly felt her resolve fading away. Her thoughts of "I'm tired of this. I deserve better. I'm not happy" had turned to "Maybe if I put some effort into us, things will be better" and "I loved him at one point, maybe I can again" and with that Jazmine's first and last getaway attempt had been aborted.

Jazmine paused in her movements, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. She snatched her earbuds out of her ears and stared at her reflection in the mirrored wall in front of her. Jazmine noticed that she was different. Not different in her outward appearance, but internally, she had changed. She had a hard time deciding if it was for better or worse.

At the shrill ringing of her cell phone, Jazmine jumped. She glanced over at the offending object sitting on top of the duffel bag she had tossed to the side as soon as she had entered the room. Sighing, mourning the loss of her peace and quiet, Jazmine walked over to her phone and picked it up. Her emerald green eyes rolled heavenward at the name on the caller id, becoming irritated almost instantaneously. It figured that it would be him.

Jazmine took a deep breath and put on a falsely cheery voice. It wasn't very hard. The action was almost natural. "Hello?"

"Hey, babe. Where were did you go this morning? I woke up and you were gone."

"Uh, I had some errands to run," Jazmine quickly said.

Jazmine heard him pause, probably doubting the truth to her words. Jazmine kept quiet; it was a flimsy lie, not one of her best if she were honest with herself. But it was better than telling Caesar why she really left him to wake up alone: she simply didn't want to be bothered. She didn't want to hear any more promises and she did not need that ridiculous act Caesar liked to put on where he liked to trick himself- and try to trick her- into believing that life was good when, at least Jazmine felt, it was complete shit.

"Errands? What kind of errands?" Jazmine noted that while Caesar sounded nonchalant there was an edgy undercurrent to his tone. The average person wouldn't notice it, but Jazmine did. She always noticed it.

"Yeah, I had to do some things for my mother. She's sick and Dad is on some business trip."

"Right...well, tell me next time. I didn't know where you went, I was worried."

Jazmine rolled her eyes, head shaking as she did so. Worried? That was a laugh. "I will."

"Good. Hey, I called because I need a favor."

Jazmine cocked an eyebrow. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah. Remember Jamison?"

Jazmine furrowed her brow, trying to place a face to the slightly familiar name. And then she remembered the tall, handsome, broad shouldered blonde that flirted with her endlessly at the Christmas party. It was all good-natured fun, of course, he even flirted with some of the older women there, taking obvious pleasure in making them blush and giggle and swoon, but it had encited a jealousy within Caesar that Jazmine didn't even know existed beforehand. "Jamison? The guy from the Christmas party?"

"Right. Look, he and his girlfriend want to go out to dinner tonight, like a double date or whatever." Caesar's voice was a bit rough and irritable; he obviously remembered that night.

"So..."

"So...I need you to do this for me."

Jazmine sighed heavily and lifted a hand to her temple, hoping to fight off what she knew was an impending headache. Jazmine already knew that when she got out of work, she wouldn't want to go anywhere but home, but here Caesar was asking her to go out to dinner with people she barely knew and be sociable, and pleasant, and look like the happy fiance. "Caeser, can't we do it another time?"

"Aw, come on, J. Look, it's just for a couple of hours and-"

Jazmine quickly interjected, knowing it would piss Caesar off but needing to express how displeased she was with the idea. "Caesar, I just don't want to, okay?"

Caesar's temper did not disappoint. It flipped on like a light switch. "Damn it, J! I'm askin' you to do this one little thing and you kickin' up a big ass fuss about it! I don't ask for much, do I? I don't see what the fuckin' problem is."

Jazmine flinched at Caesar's colorful language. She felt her own anger flare within her, wanting to bring up the fact that Caesar was always asking her for something- her forgiveness most of the time- but she bit her tongue, deciding not to say anything. Jazmine rolled her eyes, listening to Caesar go on angrily about how since Jazmine was his fiance she should want to do these types of little things for him and why was it such a problem? Did she have something else better to do? Jazmine shook her head. She would have to approach this the way she did with all of her other arguments with Caesar. "Okay, Caesar." Jazmine said, immediately hating how meek her voice sounded to her ears.

"What?"

"I'll go. What time should I be at home?"

Her sudden agreeance seemed to make Caesar brighten considerably. Jazmine briefly wondered, like she had so many other times before, if he had an undiagnosed bipolar condition. "Reservations are for seven."

"I'll be home at five, five-thirty at the latest."

"Great. I'll see you then."

Jazmine closed her eyes, exhaling deeply. He had completely ruined the little bit of peace that she had. "Yeah, see you then."

"Hey, J?"

Jazmine was too annoyed to hold try and hide it from her voice. "What?"

"Thanks. I really appreciate it."

Jazmine paused at Caesar's voice. He sounded sincere, but Jazmine couldn't really tell. She hadn't heard him sound so sincere in a long time. "I'll see you later." Jazmine snatched her phone from her ear and ended the call before Caesar could say anything else. She tossed it near her duffel bag and tilted her head back against the wall behind her. She glanced at her bag after a moment of staring at the ceiling. She wondered if she had any Tylenol, because after that, she sure as hell needed it.

"I bet you can't wait to get married. It must be so exciting!"

Jazmine gave Lauren, Jamison's girlfriend, a wan smile. When Jazmine had walked into the house a quarter after five, she walked into the room she shared with Caesar only to see that he'd had a dress layed out for her. It was a dark blue strapless dress that Caesar had bought for her and she never wore on account of hating the color. She'd only worn the damn thing because Caesar had insisted and she didn't want to start any uneccessary arguments. Jazmine bit back a sigh. For the past thirty minutes she'd had to endure mindless talk with Lauren about everything from the weather to shoes, which she admittedly enjoyed, to her impending wedding while the men talked about the NBA lockout and football. Jazmine glanced over at Caesar, starting when she noticed that he was already watching her. Jazmine looked away quickly, turning back to Lauren and their conversation. No matter how she felt about the night, Jazmine didn't want to be rude; she simply didn't have it in her. "Yeah, I can't wait."

The multiple conversations at the table ceased when the waitress finally came back with their food, and with the distraction, Jazmine decided to rise from the table. "Excuse me, I have to use the restroom." Jazmine walked away quickly before anyone (Caesar) could respond, relief flooding her entire being with the more space put between herself and her companions at the table. Jazmine reached the ladies' room and shoved the door open, entering the bright, clean, pleasant smelling bathroom. Emerald eyes quickly scanned under the stalls and Jazmine sighed, taking comfort in the fact that she was finally alone. She walked over to one of the sinks and glanced at her reflection in the mirror over it, pulling a face at what she saw. Quirking her lips to the left, Jazmine lifted a hand to smooth her reddish-orange hair back into the ponytail at the nape of her neck. After another moment of staring at her reflection and growing increasingly displeased with what she saw (she didn't like her hair, don't even get her started on the dress, and her heels were killing her, why had she worn them?) Jazmine turned away, digging into her clutch for something to calm her nerves. Finding a mint, she unwrapped it and popped it into her mouth. Jazmine walked to the door and before she pushed it open, she took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. It was only after preping herself for maybe another hour of this that she exited the bathroom.

"Excuse me," Huey said to a cornrow wearing waiter that he'd almost bumped into on his way to the mens' room. Huey rolled his eyes. He was starting to regret taking Stacy up on her offer to try out this new restaurant, because one, Huey liked around-the-way, everybody-knows-everybody, types of restaurants, not this ridiculous and uptight place (and by 'uptight' he meant mostly white establishment where he kept receiving looks of both curiosity and fear) with it's non-vegan friendly menu.

Huey ran a hand through his afro, tyring to will away his irritation. If someone else in here gave him another funny look, he'd be leaving, with or without Stacy's ass.

"Shit!" Huey was almost to his destination when someone, a petite woman, barreled into his chest, obviously not looking where they were going. Huey instinctively grabbed for the woman before she could fall, his grasp tight around her arm. Refraining from rolling his eyes, it was a mistake after all and she was already apologizing profusely, Huey bent down to pick up the clutch that had fell from her grasp. "Don't worry abou-"

Huey froze mid-sentence when he saw who it was that had bumped into him. His face was an expression of shock, his body unable to move because of it. She looked different. Still as beautiful as she wanted to be, there wasn't a doubt in his mind about that, but there was something unfamiliar about her now. Huey thought that that might be a result of not having seen her in about two years, but then he stopped caring altogether because she was here, right here, right in fucking front of him and, at the moment, that was all that mattered.

"Jazmine."

I know. I know. I'm dirty as hell for stopping right there, but I had to! This is my first real cliff-hanger! So, don't be that mad at me, okay? Cool beans. You know the drill: drop me a review *bats eyelashes* please. I'll try not to make you guys wait as long as you did for this chapter. That was...unacceptable, I know. Expect an update next weekend, maybe. And have a good holiday!