Sabella & Malcolm

CHAPTER 1

"Come on girl," Sabella Jamison called to her best friend and sister-in-law Regina. "I'm going to be late picking up my baby.

"I'm coming," Regina replied smiling at how excited Sabella was. "I don't understand why you're in such a hurry. You've got Mr. Stephens so scared of you, he wouldn't dare close his lot for the night before you got there."

"I'm not taking any chances," Sabella said. "I expect them to be ready to hand over the keys the moment I get there, so I'm going to do my part and arrive on time. So get your butt in gear, so we can leave now and not get caught up in rush hour traffic on 285."

"I don't know if I should take you after you told my baby your goddaughter, she couldn't ride in your new car until she learns to eat without a bib," Regina said fighting the urge to laugh.

"Don't get mad at me," Sabella said. "I told your husband, my brother the same thing. Where do you think your daughter gets her messy genes?"

"Mark is still stinging from that one," Regina said as they climbed into her car. "You were wrong saying that to your brother."

"The truth will set you free," Sabella said buckling up her seatbelt. "Mark is well known for eating and driving at the same time. I cringe every time I get in the car with him, and he pulls up to a drive through window and orders a combo-meal. Then after he gets it, he lays it out on the seat beside him like, he's sitting at home at the dining room table and starts to eat. And I don't even want to talk about when he does if he isn't driving. Ugh!"

"Lay off my man," Regina said laughing so hard tears were rolling down her cheeks. "He just enjoys his food."

"Your man is a menace on the road," Sabella said laughing by this time herself. "And he's messy. That's why he and lil messy won't be riding in my 2009. Not until they learn to eat without advertising what they've eaten all over their clothes."

"I should make you find someone else to take you to pick up your baby," Regina said teasingly.

"But you won't because you're just as anxious as I am to see what my baby looks like," Sabella said giving her sister-in-law a knowing smile.

"You got that right," Regina said starting up her car.

When they reached the car lot Sabella jumped out of Regina's car, as soon as she put it in park and made her way to the inside. Mr. Stephens the owner of the car lot smiled and made his way over to her the moment she entered.

"Hello, Ms. Jamison," he said walking over to Sabella.

"Hello, Mr. Stephens," Sabella replied. "Is my baby ready.

"Yes," Mr. Stephens said laughing at the way Sabella was trying not to jump around like a child anxiously waiting to receive a new toy. "Its waiting for you in the garage. Follow me."

Sabella and Regina followed Mr. Stephens into the garage.

"What do you think?" Mr. Stephens asked pointing to her car.

"It's beautiful," Sabella said making her way over to her 2009 Solar Flare Metallic colored Hummer H2.

"Nobody's gonna miss with that whacked out color," Regina murmured.

"You're just jealous," Sabella said tempted to stick her tongue out at her sister-in-law. Regina opened the door and looked inside the huge car she called a tank.

"You've got this thing blinged with every option you could get on it," Regina remarked.

"I know," Sabella said laughing. "I couldn't help myself. Once I saw all the extras I could get on it, I couldn't stop. Of course all the things Mr. Stephens threw in for free helped defray the cost."

"It's not everyday we get a cash customer," Mr. Stephens said. "Or a customer who negotiates as well as Ms. Jamison."

Mr. Stephens was smiling but he hoped he never got another customer like Sabella Jamison again. He remembered the mental happy dance he did when she walked into his dealership.

He had her pegged as a dim-witted woman who was only interested in a car that would crank up when she put the key in the ignition, looked pretty and would take her where she wanted to go.

But the questions she asked him about the car she was looking to purchase let him know that he had seriously misread Sabella Jamison.

The woman was Stephens' worse nightmare an informed customer who knew what she wanted. He was making a profit on the vehicle she was purchasing but not as big as he wanted. He got ill when he thought about all the extras he threw in order to get her to purchase the car from him.

Which he would've been able to recoup through hidden charges if she would've financed the car through him instead of paying cash.

No, he didn't make as much money as he expected when he sold the car to Sabella, but he had to admire the woman and her determination to get the kind of car, she wanted at the price she was willing to pay.

"You're ready to go," Mr. Stephens said to Sabella as she took the papers for her new car from his hands.

He laughed when she took the papers from his hand and almost ran back to the garage to claim the hulking, gas guzzling vehicle she lovingly called "her baby."

"It's all mine," Sabella cheered when she rejoined Regina in the garage shaking the keys he held in her hands, a smile nearly splitting her face in half.

Regina laughed as she watched her sister-in-law stand in one place, move her feet up and down like a cork ready to pop out of a bottle.

"I'm going to assume you're happy," Regina said teasing Sabella.

"No," Sabella said teasing back, "I'm a little depressed.

"Come on," Regina said, "your brother is biting at the bit waiting to see you drive up in this gas guzzling monstrosity. He has talked about this car for a week dropping hints about us getting one."

There was a hint of anger in Regina's voice which Sabella chose to ignore because she wasn't going to let a problem between the married couple ruin her happiness.

"Thank you for bringing me to pick up my baby," she told Regina throwing her arms round her friend.

"You're welcome," Regina said. "I'm glad you and your baby are finally together."

"I'm going to load her up with everything I'll need for my trip," Sabella said rubbing her hand over the body of her new car as she walked around it. "I can't wait to get her on the open road."

"You'll probably use a tank of gas driving from here to my house," Regina remarked.

"That reminds me," Sabella said walking over to the manager of the garage. Regina watched as Sabella talked to the man. He handed her an envelope and Sabella hugged him.

"I went over to talk to the garage manager to make sure, they filled up my gas tank as Mr. Stephens promised. He said he did, then he handed me this gift card for one hundred gallons of gas," Sabella said the tone of her voice showing her surprise.

"You're kidding," Regina said her voice showing that she was just as surprised as Sabella at what the manager had done.

"The manager said, Mr. Stephens said it was a gift for teaching him a lesson," Sabella said. "You are so lucky," Regina said, "I've never known anyone to be as lucky as you are."

"I'm not lucky," Sabella said.

"Girl please," Regina said. "Only you could miss out on a scholarship to Princeton only to wind up getting it because the person they gave it to no longer qualifies for it, and how many people do you know who could finish their internship fill out one application and get the job they want on the first interview, and how many people would get their dream job, request a six month delay in starting and get it."

"They're just giving me time to take care of things down her and get situated in Texas," Sabella said.

"Why are you moving so far away?" Regina asked.

"I need a change Gina," Sabella said calling her friend by her nickname. "I need a place where I can really start my life on my own."

"You mean without your big brother looking over your shoulder?" Regina asked.

"You got it," Sabella said moving over to the driver's side of her Hummer, opening the door, climbing inside, buckling up and starting the engine. "I'll follow you home."

"You better stop by a service station," Regina said teasing her sister-in-law, "because you're going to need to fill up."

Sabella stuck her tongue out at her best friend and the two women were soon on their way.

A week later Sabella was putting the last of her things into her baby, and she was preparing to say goodbye to her brother Mark, his wife/her best friend Regina and her niece and namesake Little Sabella.

They stood in the driveway of the house she sold three weeks before she was scheduled to leave, her brother trying to be a man and not cry, her sister-in-law allowing her tears to flow instead of holding them inside and her niece reaching out to her demanding that Sabella take her into her arms.

"She doesn't want you to go," Regina said passing little Sabella to her Aunt. "None of us want you to go."

"Don't do this Gina," Sabella pleaded, "don't make it hard for me to go please."

"I'm sorry," Regina said reaching over and giving Sabella a hug. "I'm going to miss you. Who am I going to talk to when Mark does something that drives me crazy or upsets me?"

"You can call me," Sabella said joining her friend crying. "I'm going to another state, not another country."

"But you're going to be so far away," Regina said her tears falling faster. "It might as well be another country."

"I'll come home for the holidays and you, Mark and Little Sabella can come and visit me."

"I'm still going to miss you," Regina said sadly.

"Will the two of you stop it?" Mark said laughing at his wife and sister being so emotional. "Sabella's not going to get around the corner before she changes her mind and comes back here asking if she can stay with us while she looks for another place to live."

"I'm really leaving Mark," Sabella said she didn't want to take away her brother's hope that she would stay, but she wanted him to know that she was really leaving. "I'm going to Texas, I have a job waiting for me, and I've purchased a home. I'm not changing my mind this time."

"Sure you are," Mark said. "Regina is cooking steak for dinner. I'll be sure she fixes you a plate and keeps it warm until you get back."

Mark had a good reason to doubt that Sabella would actually leave the state of Georgia because she had made numerous attempts at being on her own only to end up back at her parents home or her brother's home.

The only time she actually moved out and stayed any length of time was when she moved into the house she'd just sold with her boyfriend Edward Overton, but their relationship ended when Edward said it was too much like being married but without the sex.

Edward ending their relationship didn't upset Sabella, she was glad when it happened. The only reason she agreed to move in with him when he suggested it was because she was trying to shed her goody-two shoes image and shock her family and friends by showing them that she could do something unexpected.

Their reaction to her little stunt wasn't what she expected at all, her parents were so stunned her mother fainted and her father wanted to go next door and borrow their next door neighbor's shotgun and would've done it if Mark hadn't held him back.

Mark after calming his father down grabbed Edward by the neck and started choking him and probably would've killed him if his father hadn't grabbed him and pulled his hand from around Edward's neck.

Edward ran out of the house, jumped into his car and sped away after Mark released him. Her family accepted her decision to live with Edward when she convinced them, it was what she really wanted to do, and she was not trying to be a rebel.

The sour taste of that easy lie still fills her mouth when she thinks about it.

She and Edward lived together happily for about three months when Edward started dropping hints about living like a monk. Sabella gave him her standard reply that she wasn't really ready to have sex, and she reminded Edward of his promise to wait until she was ready.

That held him at bay until a month later he asked her the ultimate question; would she ever be ready?

Sabella didn't have to verbally answer the question, the look in her eyes told him everything he needed to know.

No, she wouldn't ever be ready. Edward didn't say anything that night he just got up, left the room, went upstairs, packed a suitcase and left. Later that night he sent her an email telling her to sell the house and to mail him his half using his job address.

Their house had increased in value during the short time they lived in it and the improvements they made increased the house's value even more enabling Sabella to purchase her dream car, and make the move to Texas where she would be starting her new job and life that her brother didn't think she was serious about.

"She's really leaving Mark," Regina said her voice bringing Sabella out of her thoughts. Mark looked at his sister, and he saw the truth of his wife's words in her eyes.

"You're really leaving?" he asked his tone still refusing to believe.

"Yes," Sabella said her voice letting her brother know that she was serious, "I'm really leaving."

"I'm going to miss you," Mark said walking over and giving his sister a hug.

"I'm going to miss you too," Sabella said wiping tears from her eyes after her brother released her from his embrace.

"I want you to call me everyday until you reach your destination," Mark said.

"It's less than a ten hour drive, Mark," Sabella said. "I'll call you later tonight when I get to Tyler."

Sabella gave her brother, sister-in-law/best friend, and niece one last hugs, climbed into her baby, got comfortable, buckled up her seatbelt, started her baby up, checked her mirror, slipped her homemade cd of golden oldies into the cd player, shifted the car into drive, released the emergency brakes and drove out of the driveway of the house that used to be home to head to the new home where she would start her new life in Texas.

Mark watched his sister drive away sending up a silent prayer as he did to god asking that he watch over her and keep her safe. He also prayed that she some find the happiness she was looking for along the way.