Emmanuelle "Emma" Durocher is the kind of woman that most women don't get along with. A five-foot-eleven, curvy and bodacious dame of a certain age, this short-haired, chocolate-skinned diva has been told more times than the law should allow how fine she is. At the Auditors Division of Canada Revenue Agency, where Emmanuelle happens to work, she's a diva's diva and while most of the women at the office despise her, she has the men by the balls.
With the ink barely dry on her divorce papers from her beleaguered African American ex-husband Patrick Stephens, and their son Marty entering his second year at Carleton University, Emmanuelle is on the threshold of something new. Indeed, the Haitian-born temptress is ready to take the Canadian Capital by storm. To put it mildly, the City of Ottawa won't know what hit it as Emmanuelle, newly freed from the confines of decades-long matrimony, is determined not only to enjoy her freedom but also make up for lost time.
In this world, and probably other worlds, women are bound by rules which most men don't even think of. For example, it's perfectly okay for a man of forty to have a girlfriend or wife who happens to be in her twenties. From male celebrities in Hollywood to random guys walking down the street with their younger female lovers, this is considered perfectly acceptable, socially speaking. As far as Emmanuelle is concerned, this double standard has got to go...
Emmanuelle has always found younger men to be quite appealing, and she likes their energy and creativity. Older men with their physical limitations and closemindedness never appealed to her. That's why, now that she's divorced, Emmanuelle has become a panther. What's a panther? The Black equivalent of a cougar. That Black woman of a certain age who likes younger Black men and doesn't give a damn what proper society thinks of her romantic choices...
"Hmm, that's why I like younger Black men, you're so full of energy," Emmanuelle said to her latest overnight guest, a twentysomething University of Ottawa grad student by the name of Sebastien Percival. The six-foot-tall, dark-skinned young man, originally from the island of Antigua, nodded at the curvy, sinfully sexy, forty-something Black woman who lay naked next to him, still aglow from an hour long session of freaky sex.
"Thank you ma'am," Sebastien replied, and Emmanuelle took his handsome face in her hands, then kissed him. When Emmanuelle spotted Sebastien walking around the Rideau Shopping Center in downtown Ottawa, she thought he'd be a good roll in the hay. Six feet two inches tall, beefy and handsome, with dark brown skin and those rugged Afro-Caribbean good looks, Sebastien appealed to Emmanuelle's tastes immensely. Hence why she gave him a taste of her...
"Ah, Sebastien, so handsome and polite, those Black girls at the University of Ottawa are so lucky to go to school with you," Emmanuelle whispered, running her hand all over his hairy chest. Sebastien grinned and shrugged, marveling at Emmanuelle's raw, casual sensuality. She reminded him of the ladies at the predominantly Black church which he once attended in the Sandy Hill area, except, unlike them, she wasn't off-limits...
"Emma, the Black girls at the University of Ottawa like to chase thugs and hustlers, either that or they chase white guys or other women," Sebastien replied with a sigh, and Emmanuelle fell silent, observing the frown on his handsome face. Looks like things haven't changed all that much, Emmanuelle thought. Two and a half decades ago, as an accounting student at the University of Montreal, Emmanuelle met her future husband Patrick Stephens.
In those days, Haitian women living in Canada either married Haitian men or white men, but Emmanuelle surprised everyone by dating and eventually marrying Patrick Stephens, a handsome Black man from the City of Atlanta, Georgia. The two of them definitely came different worlds, but for a while, they made it work. They got hitched, left the province of Quebec, and moved to the City of Ottawa, Ontario. They had a son, Marty Stephens, and a nice townhouse in suburban Findlay's Creek. Of course, that was before the divorce...
"Sebastien, I know all about what it's like to give your all to someone not worth your time, I was married for over twenty years," Emmanuelle replied, and Sebastien nodded, as though he understood. Sebastien smiled at Emmanuelle, who rolled on top of him, pressing those dangerous curves against his muscular, masculine form. They resumed making love again. Just like that, all of his worries melted away like ice in the sun.
