Seasons of Love (BWWM Interracial Romance)

Chapter One - Disturbing the Yuletide

"What did you do, beat it with the ugly stick?" Topaz Aura Sinclair considered herself an expert on all things ugly. Working as a DJ, she'd seen her fair share of ugly, straight-up ugly, uglier and fugly. Yet the twinkling wreath decorated with Santas in striped underwear and reindeers with party hats had to be one of the ugliest things she'd ever seen.

Her friend Justine just looked at her and tried to cover her snickers. "I know it's ugly, but it's what they had in the basement." Justine began to approach Topaz's DJ sign with the offensive shrub and a nail gun.

"Hold up—don't you dare cover up my new sign with that thing. Do you know how much time was spent to get each one of those letters to look like a blue flame?" Topaz stood in front of her DJ table, her stance indicating that she would take down anyone who dared to mess with her DJ Bluefire sign.

"Oh, sorry, T, how is this?" Justine held up the wreath and Topaz nodded in agreement. Topaz knew she was doing a huge favor for her best friend by agreeing to supply the music for the last-minute Christmas party. When Justine practically cried at the idea of having to pay an upcharge to get a DJ during the holiday season at the last minute, Topaz, as always, stepped in and offered her services.

"Justine, tell me again how you got dumped with taking care of the decorations, the food and the entertainment for this little to-do?" Topaz asked while unwinding her cords and plugging in her MP3 player and mixing table.

"Um, well, I volunteered," Justine said with a slight smile—a smile that said that was all the info Justine would share. Justine called herself a private person; Topaz couldn't relate. Everything she thought, she said.

"Yeah, okay. So in this volunteering, did you manage to find someone to cater this event?" Even at the mention of food, Topaz's stomach growled. She had forgotten to eat lunch in the rush to help her friend. What she wouldn't give for one of her dad's famous club sandwiches right about now.

"Yes, I did find a chef willing to take on a last-minute order. And he was cheap too. Either cheap or he was taking pity on me," Justine said, looking at her handiwork on the corporate cafeteria.

"I opt for pity. You can sound pretty sad when you want to," Topaz said. Just as she turned to pick up another cable, she got plastered with a face full of silver tinsel. Justine laughed as Topaz picked the silver things out of her jet-black hair.

"You should leave it—it looks great with the leftover blue dye on your tips. I still can't believe you dyed your hair blue for that one job."

Topaz shrugged. Her dad had always told her to let nothing or no one stand in the way of her dream. The job required a DJ to look wacky for a water polo event. Dying her hair blue seemed to be the logical course of action.

"You know, I work hard at making my brand known. And I happen to like the blue, thank you very much!"

Justine laughed at her friend and looked at her watch.

"Oh ,oh, crap! I have to go and get changed! But the caterer isn't here yet."

"Go ahead, I'll watch for them. I would hope they know what to do." Waving her friend off, Topaz continued to plug in cables and turn on her equipment.

"Yes, they're a good crew. Just show them where they can set up the buffet." Justine grabbed her purse and coat and ran out the double doors.

Topaz was thankful for the time alone—she needed to relax before her gig. Pulling the spare MP3 player from her denim jean pocket, Topaz let herself be taken away by the sounds of Carlos Santana's "Black Magic Woman." It was one of her "mood" songs, and she loved listening to the wailing guitar.

She finished hooking up her equipment and stood back, satisfied. She took a look around the cafeteria and was amazed at what her friend had managed to pull together on one week's notice. The white chairs were decorated with tinsel and greenery. The large tables each had poinsettia centerpieces complete with holly berries. The string of white Christmas lights twinkled, casting a sensual aura around the room. Mistletoe dangled from the ceiling, twirling as the vents blew air on the plants.

The spirit of the season had taken over the room, and all that good cheer made Topaz sigh. It was her first Christmas alone after her father passed earlier this year. The doctors all said that his heart just gave out, but Topaz believed he'd died of a broken heart. Topaz's mother, Sapphire, passed just one month before her father. While all her cousins had said it was such a shame she was all alone, Topaz found it hard to be sad. She knew her parents had the kind of never-ending love that couldn't have been broken even in death. Topaz knew they were inseparable in the afterlife just as they were inseparable in this one. She hoped she would find a love like theirs, but at thirty, she wasn't so sure she ever would.

Topaz decided to shake off her melancholy state and get her playlist ready for when the partygoers started to arrive. She always thought it was nice to have music playing as people arrived—it tended to set the mood for the evening. Still swaying to Santana, Topaz powered up her laptop and cracked her knuckles. She peppered the playlist with fast-paced songs, slow ballads from Frank Sinatra and Maxwell, and a few Christmas-themed tunes. Feeling slightly mischievous, she even queued up Run DMC's Rock the Bells. Snickering at that one, she figured from the looks of the overstocked bar that no one would notice she'd snuck one of her favorite songs into the playlist.

It was at that moment that Topaz's stomach began to growl once again. Damn! She wondered if there was anything in the kitchen she could make a quick sandwich with. In her house, they had sandwich nights, and her dad always told her that even in their darkest days, a sandwich would always do. Topaz remembered being so poor that the only thing they had to put on bread was butter, so her dad and mom made it fun for her by telling her that they were "golden" sandwiches. Topaz had a lot of good memories from this time of year.

Those memories of laughter and music during the holidays were part of the reasons she became a DJ. When her family went through hard times, her mom would always hum and sing, and her dad would tap out a beat on their heavy oak dining-room table. There was always music flowing in the house, and her mother would always sing her name even when Topaz got in trouble. She certainly was missing her family severely. Maybe she would make the trip to Mississippi to visit her cousins after all, she thought as she made her way to the kitchen.

As Topaz looked in the huge stainless steel fridge, she hummed to herself along with the sounds of Sade, letting her hips sway with the music, her jean-clad derriere all that was visible as she began to reach in the back of the refrigerator.

"Damn, this thing is bigger than my closet," Topaz muttered as she reached for a jar of pimentos. Her prize found, Topaz backed out of the refrigerator and closed it with a click. As she brushed her hair out of her face, she didn't bother to look around to see if she was still alone. She frowned as she saw two feet standing in what could only be described as striking position. The high polish on the black shoes shone so bright she could almost see her reflection in them.

As her gaze traveled up, Topaz noticed that the feet belonged to a very, very large man. The black dress slacks did nothing to hide the tone of his muscled legs, or the slight bulge in the zipper area. Topaz only let her eyes linger there for a moment, as the man hadn't made a sound yet. She perused the tight fit of his maroon t-shirt tucked into the band of his slacks. Her vision traveled farther up the torso, past the bulging biceps that were crossed in front of the muscled chest, past the thick corded neck, past the square set jaw, past the full lips, past the aquiline nose, and right into the purest green eyes she had ever seen. Whoever the giant was, his chocolate eyebrow quirked at an odd upward angle that made Topaz want to hand over her birth certificate. It was an unspoken question, but his body language said it all. Who the hell are you?