Love Bombed

You have 10 new likes. Mandy sighed as she looked at her phone. “I wonder if these are all repeat offenders,” she thought to herself. One month in and she wasn’t any closer to finding her dream guy. “Why don’t you have a boyfriend,” folks always asked. “Cause the dating pool is dry,” she would say in jest. She put down her phone and headed to her kitchen. “But first…coffee,” she said aloud to no one in particular. Her phone sounded with a new notification. She looked down. It was text message from Reagan. How’s it going? Any new matches?? Mandy sighed, “It’s too early for this…” She popped a Caramel Vanilla KCup into her machine and watched as the glorious black liquid began to stream into her mug. “Hallelujah! Thank God for coffee!” she said. She began to sip from the mug when her phone started ringing. “Hello,” she said. “Hey girl! Did you get my text?” Reagan’s Jersey accent filled her ears. “Yes, I saw it 30 seconds ago,” Mandy said. “You didn’t give me time to respond.” “Well, I figured you were avoiding me so you wouldn’t have to look at your matches,” Reagan giggled. “If you want to avoid these early morning calls, you could always give me your password. You know I live vicariously through you! I met my lover before all of this online dating was popular! It’s probably a good thing too cause I would be the biggest ho! “ she laughed. “I met my man the old-fashioned way…in a club!” “I know,” Mandy said. “You were too drunk to drive and James felt sorry for you! You are so lucky that he turned out to be a nice guy cause you could’ve gotten r***d or worse!” “Mommy, what’s a ho?” Mandy could hear Reagan’s 4 year old son, Dylan, in the background. “Busted!” she said. “Sh!t, I mean shoot!,” Reagan exclaimed. “Hey baby, what have I told you about ear hustling while mommy’s on the phone?” “But mommy, I wasn’t trying to hear you. I came in here because I was hungry. I asked Daddy to get me some cereal but he said to come up here because he needs to go to work and you have been on the phone long time.” “Oh, I’ll let you get to it,” Mandy said. “I need to get ready for work.” “You’re not getting off that easy,” Reagan laughed. “I wanna hear about your matches and what are you getting ready for?? You work from home!” “Girl, go feed that baby before he starves!” sniped Mandy. “Ugh, you sound like the monster-in-law,” Reagan sighed. “She is convinced that I’m starving my baby if he isn’t eating every 30 minutes and I will never ever be good enough for her Ivy League son!” “Girl, you definitely snagged a good man. It was a bad idea to tell her where and how y’all met,” Mandy laughed. “Fast forward a few years…what would you do if it was Dylan bringing home a drunk hoochie that he met in the club and promising to marry her because she got pregnant??!” “Did you just call me a hoochie, slut??” Reagan laughed. “But I see your point! However, it’s been 3 years. Madame Country Club needs to get over it!” “Mommmmyyy,” Dylan whined. “Gotta go girl! I guess he really is hungry this morning,” Reagan said. Mandy could hear the smile in her voice. “Alright, girl! I’ll chat with ya later!” She ended the call and headed upstairs to her bedroom. All she wanted to do was take a shower and wash away some of the stress. Her friend was so lucky. She and James had married right after Dylan was born. Reagan refused to be pregnant in her photos and waited—even though James and his mother, Ms. Adeline, had wanted to make an honest woman out of her before Dylan was born. James was a Harvard graduate with an MBA in Business. He worked at one of the top advertising agencies in the city. Their relationship was definitely a case of opposites attract. James had come from one of the few affluent African American families in Nashville while Reagan was a straight up Jersey girl who talked more with her fists than her mouth. She loved to let her hair down and have fun. Raised by a single mother who had passed away during their first year of college, Reagan had been used to doing everything for herself. Recently, she had started to reconnect with her dad, but their relationship continued to be estranged. Reagan just wasn’t ready to trust him yet.