A test of Love - Navaura Campbell (best management books of all time .txt) 📗

"I love you too, Jordan. I'm going to go see if I can help the young lady you brought with you."
Jordan laughed, "I thought you'd be suspicious of her." he shared.
"Suspicious?" The milk colored face frowned with beautiful age lines.
"Yes, grandma. Denise is black."
"And?" Mrs. Williams stood there puzzled.
"And...our people have never gotten along with African Americans, so I just wanted to know how you'd perceive her."
Mrs. Williams sighed, "Maybe your grandpa would've had a problem with her, but to me, people are people. There is no one race that's better than any other."
"Ok."
"I accepted you didn't I? Your blood isn't a hundred percent Irish."
Jordan grinned, "I guess so."
"So, I'll accept her now as far as your uncle Mel and uncle Arlyn goes, that's a questionable if."
" I thought Uncle Arlyn would love her, considering the fact that she could probably listen for hours and hours about him growing up as a boy in Ireland."
"She likes history huh?"
Jordan smiled, "She's majoring in History at the University we attend."
"Oh, really? So, she's educated too?"
"Yep."
"Did you meet her at the college?"
"No. We met in high school."
Mrs. Williams raised a brow, "In high school? I bet you never thought you'd date her some time in the future did you?"
Jordan shrugged, "I guess."
"Anyhow," Mrs. Williams stood up, closing out the conversation, "I will go see if she has everything she needs and then I'll be on my way down stairs for a cup of coffee. You know your uncle likes fresh coffee."
Jordan cleared his throat. "Yep."
On that note, his grandmother gave him one last peck on the cheek, before heading downstairs.
Chapter Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty One:
Lasaire Gregory came into the house, dropped her bags into the only room that was still vacant and immediately went to find her favorite cousin.
After a long luxurious nap, Denise awoke well rested and ready to start her day. As she pushed her arms out and made the sounds of a cat, she enjoyed the taught stretch of muscle within her body. She glanced around the room, automatically remembering that she was in Chicago, meeting the rest of Jordan's family. A wide, toothy grin spread across her joyful face. She couldn't believe that she was finally getting to meet his family. All of them. It was amazing.
When they'd been in high school, she'd been apprehensive about the meeting, but once they'd split up she'd began wandering what it would be like to be on the end of the spectrum. The longer they'd spent apart, the more aggressive her daydreams had become. Sighing, she sat up in bed, still dressed in her clothing from the day before. Grabbing a mauve colored sweater, a pair of underwear and a pair of skinny jeans, she made her way to the restroom. Knocking on the door, she waited to see if anyone was inside. The door opened and Jordan stepped into the thresh hold where she stood. "Taking a shower I see."
Denise smiled sweetly, "You know how much I hate to smell bad."
Jordan laughed and leaned forward. Denise, who knew how horrible she did smell, moved out of his proximity, a few steps away. He pinched his nose and with a squinted up face, said, "You ain't lying either Denise, you smell like Fritos."
Denise narrowed her brow, "what ever sweaty gym socks."
Jordan let go of his nostrils and grinned cheekily, "Sweaty gym socks smell better than fritos."
Denise rolled her eyes playfully, "How do you figure that?"
"Fritos smell like feet. Sweaty, smelly, dirty feet."
"And sweaty gym socks don't?"
Jordan shrugged his shoulders, loving this useless conversation. "Sweaty gym socks smell delightful."
Denise giggled, "Sure they do."
Jordan grinned displaying a dimple. He was leaned up against the doorway. Denise smiled, her face glowing. He met her gaze, his eyes showing how much love he had for her. Jordan reached out and was about to plant a kiss on her cheek, when he heard a voice from the stairwell. "Awww, isn't that cute."
The tone was sarcastic with a hint of bitterness to it. Jordan turned his attention to the voice.
A tall lanky guy, who wore blue rimmed eye glasses with even light gray irises behind them and a black leather jacket was coming toward them. The hair on his head fell to his shoulders in soft straight strands. He looked like a mixture of a nerd and bad boy type.
"Let me guess, you're the new kid grandma was talking about?"
The kid rolled his eyes and hunched his shoulders. "And you must be the dildo I have to bunk with?"
His accent held tone and sound native to chicago.
"You need to chill out with the attitude." Jordan stated.
Again a pair of gray eyes were rolled behind the black rimmed glasses. "You're not the boss of me man, I can do whatever I like."
"You are in my house, with my kinfolk, so you need to cool it with the attitude or I may have to adjust it for you."
"Kinfolk? Where the hell are you from, Georgia or something?"
Jordan glared at the young man.
"Aren't you one to talk with an equally funny accent." Denise spat out, irritated with the young man herself.
The sound of her voice seemed to perk the young man's ears up. Turning to face her, he grinned. "Hello and who might you be?"
"Denise. What's your name?"
"Elliot. Are you from the east coast?"
Denise raised a brow, "Yes."
"Nice to meet you, Denise. I'm from New Jersey. It's good to know that I won't be the only east coast resident over here."
"Blah, blah, blah. Don't you have to put your bags away before you can spin a bunch of lies?"
The young man narrowed his eyes back at Jordan, "Nothing I say is a lie."
"Yeah, sure it isn't. Anyhow, there's still other people I have to introduce Denise too." Jordan stated, his tone hard.
"Don't let me stop you."
Jordan rolled his eyes at Elliot and with a protective arm drawn around Denise, he attempted to lead her away from the insufferable teen. Denise put an arm on his and stopped him. "Jordan, in case you've forgotten, I was about to take a shower."
Jordan stiffened up a bit. "Can't it wait?" He just wanted to get her away from Elliot.
"No." Denise replied, her nose wrinkled, "I stink."
Elliot smiled at her, "Cute."
Denise pulled away from Jordan and sighed, "Now, please let me take care of this. I'll be right down when I get out."
Jordan turned and gave a soft smile, "Promise?"
Denise gave a full one, "I promise."
A groan was heard and they turned to see Elliot rolling his eyes. Putting his bag upon his shoulders, he sighed, "You're such a dweeb."
This only caused Jordan's brows to furrow even more than what they already were doing.

By the time Denise made her way down stairs, she was a bundle of nerves. It was around eleven thirty in the morning and the last of the guests had arrived. She had not seen Lasaire yet, Nor had she met any of the other family members. She paused at the entrance to the kitchen, took a step back into the living room and closed her eyes, reminding herself to take a deep breath. She could hear the laughter coming from the kitchen as A male's deep voice filled the space, sounding like echoes off the wall.
"So, where's your lass, mate?" Another voice inquired, that of a male.
Jordan's voice was heard in reply. "She's taking a shower."
"That's odd, I don't hear any water running." Another voice stated.
"If I know Denise, unc, she's listening to the conversation we're having right now."
"This came from Lasaire."
Jordan smiled, "How would you know, Lasaire, having only been around her one whole year?" The smirk could be heard in his voice. She knew he was right.
"Because, Denise is a peculiar apple. She's the type you meet once and you never forget her."
"Ah, kind of like my Dezmund." A female voice stated.
"Yep." Jordan stated.
"Then she just may be shy." Lasaire's mother stated.
Lasaire laughed, "I'll go get her before she decides to leave and go home."
"She's not like that any more Lasaire." Jordan stated.
"No?"
"She doesn't run anymore, she confronts her issues now."
"And all of this time, I thought her hanging around Quinton was a bad idea." Lasaire commented.
Jordan sighed, "Quinton's got more balls than you'd think he would have."
"Jordan." His grandmother reprimanded. "Watch your mouth."
Jordan cleared his throat, "Sorry Grandma."
Swallowing her nerves, Denise decided it was time to make her presence known and stepped into the kitchen. It was a lot bigger than what she would have guessed from the outside. There was a huge wooden table in the center of it, where everyone held their perspective places. There was a man with graying temples and hair the color of black ink sitting next to a woman with long ash blonde colored hair. The man was tall and thin, while the woman was of medium height with more than enough weight on her. Her cheeks were a rosy pink color, while her skin was naturally flushed. She sported freckles along her entire frame. She glanced up at Denise and Denise was taken aback by the sky blue eyes that studied her with unabashed curiosity.
"Why hello, Denise, my name is Adrienne Gregory, Addy for short and this is my husband," The lady held out a hand toward the tall man referred to earlier, "Dezmund Gregory." The lady spoke politely in her English accent.
Denise smiled and stood in the kitchen, her gaze going over everyone.
"Hullo, I'm Melvin Archer. You can call me Mel." Such a difference in sound brought Denise eyes to an older male who looked to be atleast fifty, with curly gray hair. He was pudgy with an affectionate, yet aloof set of eyes. She thought he was really hearty.
"Aye, you can call me Arty or Arlyn. It doesn't matter." This Irish tone was so different than the one who'd spoken previously. This was one of a man who was authoritive. One who knew what to say and when to say it as well as how to say it. Denise turned to the voice and find that it belonged to a man who was at least two inches taller than the first man she'd seen, with a stealthier build. Uncle Arlyn had wavy red hair, blue eyes and dream like quality to him.
"And, you already met me. Elliot." Elliot stated.
As the introductions got to Lasaire, Lasaire came up and grabbed her shoulders in a warm hug, "Hey girl, how have you been?"
Although Lasaire's accent still remained the same, her speech had changed.
Denise smiled at her and wrapped her in a hug as well. "Hello, Lasaire." She spoke, her voice sounding foreign to her own ears.
"You don't sound any different than you did in high school." Lasaire stated, letting her go. Bringing her over to the group with a smile on her face, Lasaire said, "Everybody, this is Denise Calloway, Jordan's girlfriend."
"Wasn't that supposed to be my job?" Jordan inquired, slightly annoyed.
Lasaire gave him a smile, "I'm sorry, cous. I couldn't help it."
Jordan sighed, "It's cool."
"So Denise, where are you from?"
"New York." Elliot answered for her. Addie's gaze went over to Elliot's. "Why thank you, Elliot, but I asked Denise, not you."
Denise gave a shy grin. She liked Addie's response to Elliot answering her question. "I'm from New York."
"Which part?" Addie inquired, showing interest in Denise's background.
"Albany."
"Really,