New York was still the screaming city she had left all those years ago. Julia could smell the exhaust fumes emanate from the cab's clamoring heater. She'd spent the last 5 hours on a plane and the jetlag caught up with her. She'd destroyed her cell phone in an angry fit and left her car in the care of the airline's security back in California. She wasn't going back; neither was her son, not if she could help it. She hailed down a cab the second she was off the plane. Her son buckled in securely by her side.

The cabbie was a man, in his late forties, with a mushroom nose and beady eyes that scanned her face. He flirted with her every chance he got. His hair was a wiry grey that resembled a storm cloud covering up the balding crown of his head. His lips were thin and carried a blue tint as well as a bushy moustache and he had a brusque New Yorker accent that made it hard for her to catch his meaning.

"Is a pretty woman likes you vistin' a boyfriends," he eyed her through the rearview mirror. His salt and pepper eyebrows rose in inquiry, "or you relocating or sumpt'um?"

Julia took a moment to decipher the man's thick tongue. "I relocated for a new job." She tried to keep her answers concise and looked out the window.

About thirty minutes into the ride, her son, Marcus, began to fuss; she placed a soothing hand on his belly as if to say 'it's alright' but his whines became louder and tears began to form at the corners of his eyes. She told the cabbie to take her to the nearest café or restaurant.

There was a little café on the corner of Cherry and Smith, tossing the fare at cabbie. She pulled her son's carrier from the vehicle and the cabbie handed her, her suitcase.

The temperature inside was refreshingly warmer compared to the chilly winter air outside. She found a vacant seat not that far from the Barista's counter. Julia pulled her son from his carrier, and reached for one of his premade bottles. She held her son extremely close; his head nodding on her shoulder, one arm wrapped securely around his back, the other under the backs of his knees, her hand clutching the bottle.

"Excuse me." She tried to capture the green haired Barista's attention. Julia could hear the music blaring from the younger woman's headphones as she turned her head to the side, her head bumping to the ear-piercing beat. Marcus giggled into her sweater his little hands grasping the ends of her hair. His baldhead bobbed up on her shoulder with glee, then leaned off into her neck. Julia tried capturing the Barista's attention again. "Excuse me."

"Oh, I'm so sorry Miss, how may I help you?" Julia took a moment to observe the younger woman. The hair on her head was dyed lime green and stood up in stilted spikes. She had model potential; tall and slender with facial features that one could never forget. Even with the nose and eyebrow piercing, her beauty was still noticeable, her complexion a soft clay brown. Her name tag read 'Lilly'.

"It's fine." She gave a closed lipped smile before she passed the bottle to the young woman. She asked. "Could you warm this up for me?"

"Yes, I can. It'll take a moment." Lilly smiled, her eyes sparkled with mirth. Her lips were coated with a bright red lipstick; her teeth were white and straight and from where she stood, they contrasted against the brightness of her lips. "Here you go."

"Thank you," she wanted to smile but her lips refused to. She walked back over to the sofa where she had left her stuff. Placing her son back in his carrier, she tested the formula on the skin of her inner wrist. Satisfied with the temperature, she placed the bottle down on the coffee table and picked her son up again. Adjusting his head to lie in the crook of her arm she picked up the bottle and began to feed him. With half-mast eyes, he stopped taking pulls from the bottle. Marcus brought a tiny hand up to rub his eyes. She rubbed his back and burped him; after he fell asleep she placed him in his carrier."You are such a guy once I give you what you want you roll over and go to sleep."

"Yeah, we do have the uncanny ability to fall asleep once we're satisfied." Her head shot up and her soft brown eyes met eyes so dark they took on a purple hue. His cheekbones were high and prominent on his face. His lips sported a grin showing a set of damn near perfect teeth. He raised an eyebrow and spoke in his delightfully low voice. "How old is he?"

"Um, he's nine months." She observed the broad stature of his body, wide shoulders, built to have legs thrown over them. A narrow waist that her legs could wrap around with little work and a tight bum that she had the strangest desire to smack. "Nine months and the bossiest thing you've ever met."

"He's gorgeous."He smiled at her, his eyes taking on a twinkle. "Like his mother."

He was suave, cool; too bad she'd been around that track enough times to last her a lifetime, and it wasn't something she was up to do again. She tried to make light conversation because if he kept looking at her like that the couch would be ruined.

"Are you using my son in a flirting tactic?" She smiled, and Lilly appeared from the corner of her eye and placed a bagel, tea, and bowl of applesauce on the table. She left before Julia could pay her.

"That depends." His voice brought her back to the situation at hand. Those dark eyes were observing her with intensity that made her mouth dry and her knees shake.

It was her turn to ask the question. "On what may I ask?"

"Is it working?"

~~~~

'Will Robin please come to register five?' The nasally voice broke through the grocery store's crappy choice in music. 'Will Robin please come to register five?'

Nikko's head throbbed and pulsated. Beside him, George walked, shooting him concerned glances as he sneezed and wheezed throughout the dairy section. George took the basket from Nikko's hand and pulled him towards the checkout.

George was loading the car when Nikko's phone started to rang. Ring...ring...ring...ring...Pick up bitch! Nikko rifled through his bag pulling out his phone "Hello?"

~~~

'Breathe in, breathe out, breath in, and breathe out.' However, Briana found it difficult to oblige the voice in the back of her head. She stared hard at her reflection trying to find a solution to her current predicament. She silently swore never to stray from her natural hair color again and to kill her stylist the next chance she got.

"Briana? Baby, where are you?" Adonis' deep bass echoed throughout the house with proud and exuberant confidence. Her got darn hair was pink, well not all of it, just where she wanted the highlights. Her chestnut hair, that she coveted for most of her life, was mud brown. She wanted to cry and have a conniption over the loss of her hair. She wanted to haul herself inside the bathroom for the rest of the day. A knock on the door interrupted her mental rant "Baby, are you alright?"

"No." She heard their bedroom door open and knew at that second it was Adonis. The soft creaking sound of their joint closet door being opened tickled her eardrums. Adonis knocked on the door asking his wife to let him in. "That would result in you laughing at me. Don't think so."

Adonis took a moment to stare at the door. He tried to cajole her out with comforting words. "Brie, baby I won't laugh I promise." By then he was sitting with his back against the bathroom door half-naked, his clothes sprawled out all over the bedroom floor. He had forgotten to throw the clothes into the laundry bin.

"Come on, it can't be all that bad." He tried again, throwing his watch on the nightstand next to him.

"Fine, but if you so much as laugh, I will end you with a cast iron skillet." He scrambled to his feet as the door opened and he bit his lip to avoid laughing at his irate wife. The soft brown hair he often ran his fingers through at night was mud brown with pink and blond highlights." You know I told you not to laugh."

"I love it when you talk dirty." She smiled into his chest. She pulled away from him after she kissed him. She walked over to her vanity and began to tame the wild mess that was her hair. She leaned back into her husband as his arms wrapped around her pulled her away from the vanity. Together they fell into the bed, she sighed into the kisses, Adonis planted on her neck. His lips found hers and with skilled hands, he tugged off her robe.

Briana knew she should have stopped, thinking about the dinner in the oven. However, once Adonis touched her she stopped thinking and just felt.