"I'm impressed," Brenda said, as she exited the car and admired the colorful landscaping.

Garrett glanced around as they waited on Hailey to answer her door. He turned when he heard the door open. He was taken back when Hailey stood looking as if she stepped off the pages of Essence magazine. Her smooth chocolate skin glistened and the crevices in her dimples seemed to get deeper as she widened her smile and welcomed them in to her home.

She hugged Garrett. The floral fragrance she wore attacked his senses. "Boss man," Brenda repeated several times.

"Yes Brenda."

"I'm going to check out the house. You're coming or staying?" she asked.

"You two go ahead. I'll take a look around outside." He didn't give either a chance to respond before heading out the front door. Garrett was acting like this was his first time meeting Hailey. In fact, it was the opposite. They had been friends since college. He admitted to looking at her as a sister. Well that was stretching, a distant cousin.

Trevon and him vowed to treat her like one of the guys; well that is, until the day he came home early and caught them two butt naked on the couch. Although the dynamics of their relationship changed, Garrett still treated Hailey as he would any other female friend that he wasn't sleeping with. She was the friend he called when he needed female advice. As they had gotten older, they rarely had heart to heart talks; instead he seemed to always be caught in the middle of playing referee between her and Trevon's on again off again relationship.

Garrett removed a notepad out of his pocket and jotted down some notes. Hailey didn't know it, but she was about to have a brand new security system put in. There were so many holes in her current system, he wanted to find whoever sold her the one she had and slap them himself. He wouldn't trust the system she had with an enemy and being in this line of business, he was sure he had plenty of those.

He caught up with Brenda and Hailey in an upstairs bedroom. Although her place was elegantly decorated, it felt like home.

"I was just telling Brenda that we go way back," Hailey said, as she looped her arm through his arm as they headed back down the stairs.

"Don't believe a word out of her mouth," Garrett responded.

"One thing hasn't changed. He's still a ladies man," Hailey said.

"I'll pretend like I didn't hear you say that."

"Would either of you like anything to drink before you go?" she asked.

"No, but I could use your little girl's room," Brenda responded.

"It's the third door to your left."

As soon as he knew Brenda was out of earshot, he said, "I know the game you're playing and I'm not going to be a part of it."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Hailey led him to the living room.

"I get that you've been threatened, but I'm sure you could have gone with another security firm."

Hailey batted her eyes. "I wanted the best and the last time I checked. GT Securities was the best."

"You thought Trevon was going to run over here. Trust me, he would have but I think it's about time you two grow up and part ways."

Hailey walked closer to Garrett. "I think you need to mind your own business and do what I'm paying you for."

"Me and my employee can walk out and let you fend for yourself. You and your faulty security system." Garrett refused to be bullied; especially by the likes of Hailey.

Brenda walked in the room. They ignored her. She cleared her throat. "Hailey it was nice meeting you and I look forward to working with you. Garrett, I'll meet you in the car."

Neither said a word. Hailey was the first to break the silence. "Maybe this wasn't a good idea after all," she said, as she shrugged her shoulders.

"You hired us to do a job and we will do our job; but as your friend, I hate to see you get hurt."

"I'm a big girl."

"Tre told me about what happened. Tre's my boy, but you can do better."

Garrett noticed Hailey's body tensing. She said, "Let's agree to keep our personal life separate from our business."

He extended his right hand out to her. "I can, but can you?"

Hailey hesitated before shaking his hand.

Hailey let out a scream she had been holding in since learning that Garrett was the one handling her case and not Trevon. Her little plan to get some alone time with Trevon without it seeming obvious was backfiring. She had to come up with another plan. Brenda seemed like an okay person but she was not who she envisioned on being her bodyguard.

Garrett was still the same conceited man he had always been. She wanted to knock the smug look off his face. If she wasn't trying to get Trevon back, she would make it a mission to make Garrett fall in love with her and then break his heart like he had done the countless other women she knew about.

She meant to ask him what he meant about her faulty security system. The thought left as quick as it came. Her cell phone vibrated in her pocket. Trevon's name displayed. "What do you want?" she snapped.

"Just checking to see if everything is okay."

"If you cared so much, then it should have been you over here."

"Under the circumstances, I just thought it was best."

"Best for who? You. You're one selfish m-f." Hailey mouthed several other obscenities.

"You need to calm down. I thought I was doing the right thing. If you want me to handle things from now on, I'll talk to Garrett and we can see about re-arranging things."

"I don't care what you do." Hailey flipped her phone close, which disconnected the call.

He actually thinks I'm going to sit back and let him dictate what goes on in my world; he has another thing coming. I hope Garrett doesn't agree with him. It'll serve him right. In fact, having Garrett overseeing my safety might be better. I know it will be. Garrett can help me get my man back.

~ 5 ~.

"Mo, I want you to meet Brenda. She's my new assistant."

They shook hands. "Girl, you should be a hand model." Mo held her hand up and looked at it from different angles. "They're so soft."

Hailey pulled Brenda's hand away. "Ignore him. Come on, I'll introduce you to everyone else."

"Think about it. I have a friend who could hook you up," Mo said.

Brenda followed Hailey throughout the building as Hailey made her introductions. "Bach is the head of security and will be able to tell you everything there is to know."

Hailey felt Brenda was in capable hands. She left the two alone as she prepared for the taping of her show. The show went off without a hitch. Brenda was waiting near her office. "Did you get a chance to see any of the show?" Hailey asked.

"I caught some of it, but I mostly spent the time going over the letters Bach had. I'm having some of my people run some tests. So far nobody has been able to get any prints, but don't worry. Working together, we should get to the bottom of things."

"I still think everybody is overreacting," Hailey confessed.

"You never can be sure in incidents like this. It's best to be prepared than not." Brenda followed Hailey inside the room. She sat down at her make-shift desk and began typing something into her laptop.

Jackie, Hailey's assistant, stormed through the door. "I heard you hired a new assistant. If you were going to fire me, you could have called me," she complained.

"Jackie, we have company." Hailey wasn't in the mood to deal with her sometimes overly sensitive assistant.

Brenda waved. "Hi, I'm Brenda."

Jackie ignored Brenda. "I know who you are."

"You've forgotten the golden rule. There can only be one queen in the midst." Hailey pointed at herself. "And that's me. Since you're so concerned about your job, I've been saving some things for you."

Hailey handed her a folder filled with sheets of papers. "I need you to contact these people and see if they are willing to come on the show. I've already made some notes for you; so you really don't have much to do."

"If I'm doing all of this, what is she here for?"

Hailey pushed her towards the door. "You worry about the list and I'll worry about Brenda. Now skedaddle."

"If looks could kill, I would have been dead on the spot," Brenda joked.

"She'll be alright."

"As soon as I have her checked out thoroughly, you need to tell her who I am."

"Competition is good for the soul."

"That's an evil young lady if I ever met one."

Hailey hoped Jackie wasn't guilty of sending her the pictures and letters. She trusted her with so much of her day to day operations that it would be the ultimate betrayal. It would hurt her almost as much as Trevon's upcoming nuptials. She slid the invitation out of her purse and read the date. She looked at her calendar. She needed to convince him that marrying that other woman would be a mistake. The countdown was on. She had exactly six weeks.

Garrett sat behind the desk of his home office. He listened as Brenda gave him an update on the situation with Hailey. "The security system has been installed and I did a run through. All's secure," Brenda assured him.

"I still can't believe she was left wide open as far as security is concerned," Garrett commented.

"She was impressed with the new system. I showed her how to activate and deactivate. So far no more strange letters."

"Good. We'll keep you with her a few more weeks and if nothing else happens, I'll probably pull you from this project and reassign you."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Brenda responded.

Garrett stretched his arms out as he moved his head from side to side to release the tension in his neck. He had been in and out of meetings all day with prospective clients. Trevon had taken the day off which left him with handling everything. He was mentally exhausted and looked forward to a long hot shower and laying across his king sized bed.

The business phone rang so his shower would have to wait. "I should have let it go to voice mail," he said to himself as Shareeka's voice blasted from the other end.

"Aren't those signs of cheating?" she asked.

Garrett sat back down and shook his head. He wanted to laugh. She was concerned about Trevon cheating and here she was calling him wanting to hook up. "Baby girl, this is a conversation you should be having with Tre."

"He'll only lie about it."

"Well that's between you two. I'm out of it."

"What woman are you with now?" she asked.

"Your wedding is six weeks away. I think you need to be more concerned about your husband to be than who I'm dealing with," Garrett responded.

"I hate all men right now," she snapped.

"Then why are you calling me?" he asked.

"I thought we could hook up one last time," she confessed.

"Look Shareeka, I let our little fling or whatever you want to call it go on longer than I should have; but it's like this. You're marrying my boy and unbeknownst to him, me not sleeping with you is my present to him."

"But..."

"There's no buts. But I will tell you this. If after you are married, if I find out that you even look at another man, Trevon will know about it," he threatened.

"You wouldn't?"

"You don't want to try me."

Shareeka stuttered, "I...I got to go. Tre's coming through the door now."

Garrett hated to be rude to her but he knew Shareeka's kind. If she thought she had the upperhand, she would use it to her advantage. He's always made it clear that she had more to lose if Trevon found out about their indiscretions than he did; although truthfully, he didn't believe it. As long as she thought it was the case, he knew she wouldn't go blurting out their little affair in the heat of one of their disagreements.

His rippling muscles relaxed under the hot water streaming from the showerhead. This was the first time in a long time that he was spending the night alone. He closed his eyes and instead of a relaxing thought, a woman's face kept invading his thoughts.

"Hailey," he yelled as his eyes popped open.

~ 6 ~.

"One more...you can do it," Ralph said, sounding like a military sergeant.

Hailey and Brenda groaned from the intense workout her personal trainer was putting them through. Hailey wiped the sweat from her forehead as she did one more sit up.

Brenda stood up first. "I thought I was in shape, but now I'm not so sure." She picked up a bottle of water and took a sip.

"I like to turn it up a notch when I get a new student." Ralph winked his eye.

Hailey used her towel to wipe the sweat off her neck. "But did you have to make me pay for it."

Ralph walked in front of her and placed his hand on her flat stomach. "It's worth it."

She turned and admired herself in the mirror. "Somebody give him a raise. You got me looking good."