Books That Make You Go OOOOO Day 9

Love Lessons By Terren Grimble

Stacey Jackson has the perfect life. A senior at Howard University she is blessed with brains, beauty and popularity, a loving family, not to mention a handsome basketball player boyfriend, Patrick. But all is not what it seems, especially when it comes to her relationship with Patrick. Stacey wants nothing more than to cut Patrick’s out of her life completely. However, Patrick’s holding a damaging secret over her head and before she knows it, more problems arise within their already troubled relationship. To make matters worse, Stacey’s long-time crush, Ronnie Morgan, enters the picture.

Ronnie is the drop-dead gorgeous co-captain of the Howard University basketball team and aspiring singer. Stacey’s had a thing for Ronnie when she first laid eyes on him during their freshman year. Unbeknownst to her, Ronnie has wanted to get with Stacey as well. When Patrick goes home the summer before their senior year, Stacey realizes “God definitely has a sense of humor,” because Ronnie starts making his moves. In the beginning, Stacey resists Ronnie’s advances, but after spending an innocent evening together, she gives into her longtime desires. Once those desires are unleashed, there’s no turning back and it’s not just about the sex!

Despite her current relationship, Ronnie feels that Stacey is a safe bet for “no drama” but he has no idea about the abuse both physical and mental that she endures from Patrick. Ronnie tries to be supportive of Stacey’s decision to remain with Patrick but soon, enough’s enough. When Stacey doesn’t break up with Patrick after an ultimatum, Ronnie ends their relationship. Will Stacey let her secret, tear her new relationship apart before it gets a chance to blossom?



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The Perfect “10”


Number 10—Ronnie Morgan, the six-foot-five forward and co-captain of the Howard University men’s basketball team—he led the Bison in scoring and rebounds, averaging six steals per game, shooting eighty-five percent from the free-throw line. And on top of all that, he was fine! Ronnie was so fine that he made my eyes water.

My knowledge of Ronnie wasn’t limited to his basketball stats. Ronald Steven Morgan, Jr., was from Brooklyn, New York. He was a senior and a hospitality-management major. He had an older sister, Raina, who was twenty-seven and a younger brother named Robert, who was eighteen. His parents owned two restaurants and a nightclub.

Howard’s football team was alright but the basketball team had been to the Mid-Eastern Atlantic Conference (MEAC) finals the past three years, so that made Ronnie a big man on campus. It also meant every girl on campus wanted him. I guess I fell into that category too. All the attention never seemed to go to his head though. He was real cool about it.

Since I was a finance major, Ronnie and I both took most of our classes at the School of Business, and I would always see him around campus. I finally met him one night sophomore year after one of our home basketball games.

My best friend, Erika had set her sights on David Washington, the other co-captain of the basketball team. She finally decided to make her move that night. She wanted to wait for the team to come out of the gymnasium and of course, I had to wait too. We were sitting outside on her car freezing our butts off. It had to have been almost thirty degrees that night. After waiting about a half hour, I was about to leave.

“C’mon, Stace, five more minutes,” Erika begged.

Five minutes came and went.

“E, it’s cold as hell out here. I’m ‘bout to be out.” Dave was a nice-looking brother but not all that for me to be freezing. Just as I was getting ready to leave, he and Ronnie walked out of the door. Now Ronnie Morgan was a reason for me to freeze. Dave smiled at Erika, noticeably happy to see her.

“Sorry I took so long. I was waiting for my boy Ron,” Dave explained.

“That’s okay,” Erika responded, smiling widely.

She was so busy being in Dave’s face that she didn’t even introduce me. I nudged her to make sure I would get my introduction.

“Oh, ah Dave, this is my best friend, Stacey.”

“What’s up, Stacey?” Dave said, shaking my hand. “This is my man Ron.”

Ronnie said, “Nice to meet you, Stacey,” and extended his hand. When my hand touched his, it was the first time in my life that my knees actually buckled.

“Nice to meet you too,” I replied, smiling almost uncontrollably.

After that night, whenever Ronnie saw me on campus, he would make it a point to speak. I loved the way he said, “How you doing, Stace?” with his New York accent. He made my name sound so sexy.



Ms. Jackson, Ms. Jackson


In the three years I’d been at Howard, there was never any one girl that I had really been interested in. I mean, I went out with a lot of girls, a hell of a lot, but nothing serious. Most of them were just jocking me because I played ball.

Being a captain on the basketball team did have its advantages. Pulling females was one of them. Also, having females think you’re fine added to my pulling power. It wasn’t like I went out chasing these girls. Many times—actually most of the time—they were right there, handing themselves to me on a silver platter. And there was no way I was going to turn down all of them.

Of course, there were a few girls who would say I was the biggest dog on campus. But I didn’t see it that way. Plus, I found out girls talk a lot of smack when they’re around their friends. There was this AKA from Richmond, VA who was always talking about how big a dog I was. But once she wasn’t around her girls, she was all up in my face—and in my pants. I could call her at anytime, day or night, and she’d let me come over.

It’s not like I wasn’t honest with all the girls I went out with. I told them I wasn’t trying to have a girlfriend. I had tried the girlfriend thing freshman year and it didn’t work for me. Once we broke up, my fun really began.

There were a few girls here and there who started liking me after we kicked it but the feelings weren’t mutual. Besides, my music was my first priority, and I wasn’t going to let anything, especially some female, interfere with that.

Howard, hell all of D.C. for that matter, had no shortage of fine women. When my boys came down from New York, they wouldn’t know what to do with themselves. They acted like kids in a candy store. They couldn’t understand why I wasn’t as hyped as they were. All those girls didn’t faze me. No girl on that campus had yet to really turn my head. That was until Stacey.

Stacey Jackson was beautiful. She had the kind of beauty that caught you off guard. Everything about her was so natural that you almost didn’t notice her. But right when you thought you hadn’t seen her, you realized you most definitely had. She had the most gorgeous mocha-colored skin I had ever seen, lovely brown eyes and the kind of smile that made a brother melt like chocolate. Not to mention a body that could bring you to your knees. She was thick as hell! From head to toe, everything about that girl was sexy.

I had been seeing Stacey around campus since our freshman year. I wanted to step to her plenty of times, but two things stopped me—her twin brothers, Kevin and Devin. They had finished undergrad at Howard the year before, but were still on campus going to grad school and they made it known she was their little sister and anybody who messed with her would get his ass kicked. So for a long time, nobody really stepped to her.

Then my boy Dave finally introduced me to her after a game during our sophomore year. Man, I wanted to step to her then but she was talking to this kid, Pat, who played ball with us. Pat got on my damn nerves—more than likely because he was with Stacey. But besides that, he was always talking about his father owning his own accounting firm in Jersey. I was like big deal. My pops owned a club and two restaurants in Brooklyn.

I didn’t know what to do about Stacey. I really wanted to get with her. I wasn’t really trying to be ruthless but when I heard Pat was going back to Jersey for the summer, I figured I’d stay in D.C. and keep his girl company. As far as I was concerned, what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. He didn’t know what to do with a girl like Stacey anyway. She needed a real man. And I was just the man for the job.



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