Of course I would like to thank God, first and foremost, for giving me the creativity and drive to pursue my dreams and the understanding that I am nothing without Him. I would like to thank my wife for being my first and most important critic, and I would like to thank my mother for always pushing me to be the best I can be. I would like to thank Janae Hampton for being the best advisor, supporter and little sister a brother could ever have. I would also like to thank (in no particular order) Brandy Rees, Denise Bolds, Sabrina Scott, Dianne Guinn, Kierra Pease, Sharon Blount, BRAB Book Club, Trey Williams, Jason Owens and Uncle Steven Thomas, one love. I’d like to thank everyone who purchased and enjoyed one of my books. Everything I do has always been to please you. I know there are folks who mean the world to me that I’m failing to mention. I apologize ahead of time. Rest assured I’m grateful for everything you’ve done for me!
CHAPTER ONE
FRIEND REQUEST
Kyra Michelle Reynolds took her son to the juvenile section before she settled into her seat behind one of the 20 computers the library offered visitors. The computer table had cubicle-style walls standing on either side of the monitors that effective blocked Kyra from seeing her neighbor’s screen on the right and on the left. But the area was not really private. The computers were in the very center of the library, so anyone walking behind Kyra could see exactly what she was looking up on the World Wide Web.
She thought that would be a deterrent from risqué searches, but the man sitting next to her was on Sports Illustrated’s website drooling over pictures from their swimsuit issue. He was totally enthralled. He didn’t notice when Kyra took a seat next to him. Her daughter Katavia tried to squirm out of her lap the moment Kyra sat down, but there was no way she was going to let her baby run wild in this place. Kyra barely felt comfortable enough to let her eight year old son peruse the children’s literature by himself.
Kyra wasn’t very computer savvy, but she found her career builders website fairly easily. She logged-in to her account and was disappointed to see that she didn’t have any job offers in her inbox. She created her profile less than a week ago. She didn’t expect a miracle, but it would’ve been nice to see at least one company was interested in her pitiful accomplishments.
Kyra went to her profile and pulled up her resume, wondering if there was anything she hadn’t embellished the hell out of yet. She didn’t go to college, so there was nothing she could add to the education field. Her high school diploma from Little Rock was all she had to offer. Kyra looked over her work history and blew out a slow sigh. She wanted to delete her job at McDonalds, but that would leave a two year gap between her gig at Showtime Cleaners and her customer service position at a telemarketing firm. It was bad enough she hadn’t worked in nearly a year since her last job at Ricky’s Barbecue. And that gap was growing bigger and bigger, every day she remained unemployed.
Kyra backed out of her resume without making any changes. She figured she already had enough going against her. The last thing she needed was some overzealous recruiter to find out she wasn’t the manager or even the assistant manager at McDonalds. Kyra had never worked in a leadership position, but she was sure she could do it, if someone gave her a chance.
For the next twenty minutes she scanned a huge list of (supposedly) available jobs on the career site. The list got smaller when she weeded out the positions that required experience. It got smaller still when she subtracted the ones that required a college degree. What she was left with was the bottom of the barrel gigs that required manual labor, a mop or a broom and sometimes steel-toed boots.
But these were the jobs Kyra was most accustomed to, so she applied for as many of them as possible. Fibbing was fully acceptable at this point because Kyra was sure that if she made it to an interview, she could talk just about anyone into hiring her. She was attractive, energetic, and she was eager to learn. Plus she was desperate, which was the best qualification of all.