Chatting With Chelsea **Q&A session**

Chelsea: Welcome back everyone for another episode of Chatting With Chelsea. I’m your host, Chelsea Graham. You guys have no idea how excited I am about today’s guests…well if you watch my show regularly, all you all should be, then I guess you do know. I’ve been talking about this for weeks, how another one of my favorite shows was ending. I mean at the rate shows are dropping off, I won’t have anything left to entertain me, or guests to interview. But I’m rambling. Anyway, like I said I’m excited because today we have none other than the cast from the hit drama series Kiss of A Vampire!

So please give a huge round of applause for the woman you all know and love as Amari Smith, Vanessa Hale! **applauding** The man we all loved to hate to love in his role as Mulo Drakul, Thomas Palmer! **applauding** Mr. Licensed to impregnate, seriously his character knew how to make some babies! The one, the only Lamar Harrison! **applauding** Last, but certainly not least, the mastermind behind it all, Ms. Jazen Self!

Chelsea: Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you so much for making time to come on my show and Jazen, thank you for coming back.

Jazen: Thank you for having me again.

Vanessa: I’m happy to be here.

Thomas: It’s my pleasure.

Lamar: Been looking forward to it.

Chelsea: Okay, well let’s get right into things shall we? Jazen, we wouldn’t be here if not for you, so we’ll start with you. I love the spin you have with your story. How did you think up the "Cursed love" angle for Kiss?

Jazen: Is that what this was? *laughing* seriously I didn’t think things through when I first started this script and the plot changed so many times that I really questioned who was in charge, me or the characters. Turns out they were. Honestly going in all I knew was I wanted to have a reason why Amari had to have the babies and things all morphed from there. Characters changed, grew, and somehow it all worked out into the show you got to enjoy.

Continue Reading: "Chatting With Chelsea **Q&A session**"

Epilogue: Live, Laugh, Love

***1.5 years***

This was my favorite time of day. I’d started taking a lot of joy in the simple, yet peaceful quietness of sitting out on my patio first thing in the morning, with a warm cup of tea. It was my me time before the day really started. Sometimes these moments lasted longer than others. Today would be a short day as I heard wailing coming from the other side of the house. I welcomed the distraction because it meant I was going to keep busy instead of watching the clock.

“Good morning Graham.” His eager little arms reached out for me. 

Most days he was the first one up as if he knew he had to get the attention before his sisters woke. The only problem with that his crying usually woke up the other three. He was lucky this morning, his sisters seemed to be snoozing away still. After a quick diaper change, the two of us exited the room quietly.

“You hungry baby boy?”

“‘Ood, ‘ood,” he babbled happily in response.

“Yes, mommy will feed you. How about some banana nut oatmeal?”

I got him strapped into his chair before preparing his breakfast. The self-feeding stage was messy, especially when all four ate at the same time but it was all a part of the growing up thing. With each new milestone, I was a little sad at the fact these were my last babies, but at the same time I was relieved. They were getting older, doing more, which meant their personalities were starting to come through. They were all so very different, and even though they wore me out most days, I loved every minute.

“Are you excited to see sissy today?”

Graham frowned and shook his head. “No sissy!”

I laughed at his reaction. Most days they got along, but some days it did seem like the girls ganged up on him. If he had a toy that they wanted, they would just snatch it from him. Most times he didn’t even put up a fight. It’s like he already knew it was a lost cause. If they were like this now as toddlers I only imagined what the next few years had in store for me. I heard the beginning sounds of light talking coming from their room. The others were waking, my day was really about to take off.

Two hours later everyone was fed, dressed and happy. We were all having a good time in the play room when I heard the car pull into the driveway. I already had the door open before they got a chance to ring the bell.

“They will never be able to sneak out the house,” Finley said with a smile as she threw her arms around my neck.

“I’m sure they’ll still try. You did,” I returned. “Hi Zana dear. How are you?”

Continue Reading: "Epilogue: Live, Laugh, Love"

Chapter 133: The Writing's On The Wall

It was strange walking into a completely empty and quiet house. Not even Fred and Wilma were here to greet me. CeCe and Trey had taken them for me since Ashley had been asking for a pet. They hoped it would be a good way to test how responsible she’d be in caring for one. I didn’t call or text anyone about when I’d be back. I knew they’d all show up here at some point if I did, and I needed just a few more hours alone.

I’d been second guessing myself since yesterday. Was I doing the right thing? I’d thought my decision was a good one, that the time at the resort had given me some much needed clarity, but being back home now I wasn’t so sure. Dropping my small overnight bag on the floor, I dropped down onto the couch and let out a forced exhale before digging through my purse to locate my phone.

I’d dreaded turning it back on, but I knew I couldn’t ignore everything forever. Once it was powered up, a flurry of dings rang out as all the missed messages started coming through. Text messages and voicemails, some from the kids, but most were from Marcus. I read through the messages from the kids, they all had the same tone, they hoped I was okay, that they would take care of things while I was gone, each one made me smile. It felt good to know they were supportive of the time I needed. My thumb hovered over Marcus’ name in the list, highlighting it, I hit the little trashcan at the top of the screen. Confirm Delete? I hesitated for a moment, I’d told myself I wanted to hear anything he had to say directly not through text or voicemail, but maybe these messages could let me better prepare myself for when I had to face him.

Continue Reading: "Chapter 133: The Writing's On The Wall"

For Your Information

Hey guys, I just wanted to let everyone know what what was coming up. All things Kiss will end next week. :(

The schedule is as follows:

Monday: final chapter

Wednesday: epilogue

Friday: Q&A session

For the Q&A I'll be doing another episode of Chatting With Chelsea.

The set up for the Q&A is a talk show format so the characters will be portrayed as 'actors'. So I wanted you guys to all be aware that they will refer to the characters that you've known and loved for the last 4 years as just that, characters and not themselves if that makes sense. They may or may not have different names to play into that 'actor' thing. Let me know how you'd feel about that. If it'd be too confusing or if you'd think it'd be a fun thing. :)

The time to submit your questions is open until Thursday of next week (April 7). Just comment on this post if you have any more. Thank you to everyone that has already submitted, if you have more feel free to pop in again.

I can't thank you guys enough for the love and support shown to me over the last 4 years while I worked on this story. It's meant a lot to me!!!

Continue Reading: "For Your Information"

Chapter 132: And They Call Him Temptation

A warm breeze caused a soft whipping sound through the sheer curtains of the cabana. I inhaled deeply, enjoying the relaxing scent of salty sea air. Diego put more warm lemongrass oil on his hands before continuing his attention on my back. I swear he had the hands of an angel. I was a little nervous when he walked into the cabana for my scheduled massage, especially after hearing some of the things said about him. It didn’t help matters to see his uniform. I tried not to stare, but I couldn’t help it. If he moved the wrong way, that little loin cloth was going to fail in its job to hold in all his…manliness, and it looked like he had a lot of it packed in there. I should have been used to it since that had been the basic attire for the staff here, but still it took some getting used to. The downside of traveling with no set plans, you have to take what you can get when you don’t have a reservation.

It’s not to say that Free Spirit Resort and Spa wasn’t a great place, it was a beautiful locale. I’d never even heard of Isla de las Flores, but the escape to this small, semi-private Caribbean island was just what I needed. The resort had excellent amenities, friendly staff, all in all perfect. The only issue, clothing was optional. That freaked me out at first, mostly because I was surrounded by women whose bodies reminded me of the woman taking care of my children and possibly my husband. There were all types of people here, but the first few that I came in contact with were all the type of people others wanted to see naked. Initially I thought about leaving, finding someplace else to go, but I decided to stay anyway and experience something new. It’d been a great week; the time away was just what I’d needed.

Continue Reading: "Chapter 132: And They Call Him Temptation"

Chapter 131: Misery Loves Company

Two days. It’d been two days since Amari had dropped off the kids and gotten upset after seeing Jenelle. She took off and hadn’t returned my calls, hell she wouldn’t even take calls from the kids. She sent some vague ass message to them about needing time for herself, that she was fine, and that one of the kids needed to take care of the dogs. She left no way to reach her in case of an emergency, she just took off.

The ceramic tiles in the shower cracked under the impact of my punch. How could she just take off like that? How could I make her take off like that? Things were to the point that I didn’t even know what I was doing anymore.

Shutting off the water, I stepped out of the shower, not feeling any more relaxed than when I got in. Since finding out she’d taken off, there’d only been one thought in my head about where she’d gone. It’s all I could think about and each time that I called her and got voicemail those feelings of jealousy and hatred that I’d been trying to move past took a stronger foothold.  No matter how I’ve tried, based on her past actions, I’d been unable to make myself believe her when she said I was who she wanted. 

Something in the back of my mind kept nagging at me that Amari’s settling, that she was  putting forth this effort out of guilt more than love. That thought had me rethinking my answer to her question last time we talked. While I did love Amari and admittedly a part of me always would, was I hanging on for the wrong reasons? My actions were pushing her away. I was now doing the same thing she’d done, sabotaging things whether it was consciously or unconsciously, it was happening.

I was an ass for not talking to her for weeks, but I didn’t know what to say. I’d used my wife in the worst possible way and to hear she let me because of my past attitude towards her stripped away everything I was trying to reclaim. I was left with feelings of shame, completely embarrassed that I could have stooped so low. Like she’d said, I was supposed to be better than him.

The doorbell rang bringing my thoughts back to the present. I needed to get my day started. Jenelle was already here and I heard her footsteps as she walked across the hardwoods to answer the door. Voices. A male voice. His voice. My mind had to be playing tricks on me because there was no way that he would be at my house. Hell, how would he even know where I lived? As soon as the question popped into my head, the answer followed. He had to have gotten the information from Amari. 

The sight before me was the last thing I expected. That son of a bitch was holding my daughter, giving her a bottle like it was the most natural thing in the world for him.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

The smug bastard smiled at me. “With all the kids you’ve made, I’d have thought this would be fairly obvious. Your very sexy…assistant here had her hands full so I offered to help.”

“I…I’m sorry Marcus, he said he was a friend,” Jenelle stated, clearly picking up on the tension that quickly filled the room.

“Friend? There’s a lot of things I’d call you, but friend wouldn’t be one of them,” I responded keeping my eyes fixed on Mulo. “Jenelle, please take Gwen and Gracie upstairs and stay up there with all of them until he leaves. Which should be shortly,” I added.

She nodded before walking over to gather Gwen from him. Mulo’s eyes followed Jenelle as she walked up the stairs. “I can see why you hired her. The sexy nanny thing, a lot of men have that fantasy. You even have the built in excuse of having actual kids for her to also take care of. A win/win.”

Jenelle cast a quick glance over her shoulder and smiled. I ignored his implication, it was the same one Amari hinted at when she was here. She instantly assumed I was sleeping with Jenelle. It was the excuse she needed to go running back to him guilt free this time and she seemingly wasted no time in doing so. I sent her running straight to him.

Continue Reading: "Chapter 131: Misery Loves Company"

Chapter 130: Destination Unknown

It’d been close to three weeks since I’d talked to Marcus. When he came to pick up Zana and Finley for their move he’d only given me a courteous hello. We talked a little about getting them settled. We’d decided that only one of us would go this time since it’d be a drive instead of flying in order to get their stuff cross country. When he got back, I’d expected him to come pick up the quads for his visit, but he sent me a text asking if I was okay to keep them for another week. I didn’t know what to make of things. I’d thought that night we’d made some headway, that we’d gotten over that wall and could be on the path to working things out finally, but now I didn’t have any clue where things stood.

As I rounded the corner of his street, I wondered if we’d finally have some sort of conversation about us or if he would just take them then ask me to leave. He’d moved clear across town in his attempt to get as far away from me as possible. The townhouse he rented was in a nice area. There was a park across the street which was good since he had virtually no yard. I didn’t know what his long term plans were, for a short while the fact that he didn’t go and buy a place was my comfort during the lonely nights right after he’d moved.

I didn’t want to acknowledge the real reason; he was eager to go and renting was a hell of a lot faster than buying. In the months following, we’d not discussed his long term plans, so for all I knew he could be house hunting now, looking to put down permanent roots in a home he wasn’t going to share with me.

Pulling into his driveway sent my nerves into overdrive. Taking a deep breath, I steadied my nerves before sending him a text so he’d know I was here, then got out to start unbuckling carseats. Marcus used to be the person that would make all these feelings of uncertainty and fear go away. Now he caused them any time I was faced with being around him.

  

“You’re early,” I heard him say from behind. He walked around to the other side of the car and started getting Graham free from his seat.

He was freshly showered. The faint scent of his soap lingered in the air. I could see droplets of water still on his skin as if he’d dressed in a hurry.

“Oh, sorry. It’s not that early and you haven’t seen them in weeks, so…”

“No, it’s fine.”

Continue Reading: "Chapter 130: Destination Unknown"