Xpress Yourself Publishing: Author: Tonight I Give In by Mia A. Moore

Tonight I Give In
Mia A. Moore

Xpress Yourself Publishing, June 1, 2007
ISBN-10: 0-9792500-7-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-9792500-7-1
5½ x 8½ inches
Trade Paperback
$15.00

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fter a hectic first year of graduate school and working, Myella McBride just needs a release and to let off some steam, but little does she know across the room destiny could await in the form of the battleship of masculinity, parting the sea of people and making his way towards her.

Mya's workload for her masters in English literature while teaching overloaded sections of English composition has left her wanting and on the verge of burning out. At the persistence of her free-spirited best friend, she decides to take advantage of Memorial Day weekend, the first collective opportunity around Chi-Town to shed the cold weather frocks and don something crazy, sexy, and cool, before she retreats to the pseudo security of her books. All she is looking for is some fun and a little harmless flirting with the background of good music to groove to, because unlike her friend, she does not believe the panacea to everything is a man. Besides everyone knows you cannot meet a good, quality man at the club.

In walks Travon Threat, all-star pro linebacker, charming, handsome, and intelligent. This intriguing modern day gladiator blows her mind and all her preconceived notions about the spoiled self-indulgent conceited athlete. This man with the intimidating name and ferocious occupation spawns emotions and awakens feelings she didn't realize she was capable of feeling. The commonality of past sorrows and mutual interest, along with preternatural chemistry forms a solid, special bond of friendship that grows into more. A painful past, with a mentally and emotionally abusive mother and a failed four-year long-distance relationship with an unfaithful boyfriend, has left her with steamer trunks of suppressed baggage. When Mya initially avoids the pitfalls of this baggage and overcomes her fears, she is able really to give her heart for the first time. A dream romance develops between the two friends, but is friendship, romance, and love enough for them to maneuver through the sexual politics of a new relationship and find their way back together, while combating an onslaught of jealousy, envy, insecurity, temptation, and miscommunication, which is only compounded by Tray's high-profile career and outside foes?

Mya and Tray are perfectly flawed round, dynamic characters. Their attraction excites you; their friendship renews you; their romance captivates you; and their love nourishes you. Their story is an engrossing emotionally complex journey of growth, understanding, and love that all readers will enjoy.

MIA A. MOORE grew up in Illinois approximately thirty miles west of Chicago. She studied English literature at the University of Illinois at Chicago, earning a Bachelors of Arts on Mother's Day. While caring for her young family, she continued her studies at the university, attending graduate school and teaching undergraduate English composition.

Mia has been making up and writing stories of love and romance since as long as she can remember. She has always had a passion for literature, writing, communication, rhetoric, and language. Even though, it may seem as if she was always destined to traverse the path of the romance writer, her vision was not always so clear when it came to her destiny. Recent life changes, like Lasik, has brought destiny in clear, full focus. Mia is ready and it is on! Her debut novel, Tonight I Give In, was published in June 2007 by Xpress Yourself Publishing, and she is currently working on her second novel.

As a writer, she endeavors to create well-developed, multi-layered stories of love and romance with believable human beings at the center. Mia writes novels with perfectly flawed, round, dynamic characters located within the framework of emotionally complex storylines, defined by friendship, romance, intimacy, sensuality, passion, and love. She desires to entertain with engrossing stories in which the reader will become emotionally invested, free of gratuitous drama—drama just for the sake of drama without a well-constructed purpose. Her ultimate goal is to make you laugh, cry, think, and believe.

On a personal note, Mia loves spending time with her family. When she is not writing, her interests include reading, shopping, cooking, and volunteering. She also likes listening to music, playing an occasional video game, and watching sports. Mia is an avid sports fan. During March Madness, she is seriously into "bracketology" and practically sequesters herself at game time (there really is nothing like the tournament). Her favorite channel is the NFL Network. Mia really loves football like a man, but truly appreciates certain aspects of the game like a woman.

Chapter One

Charcoal smoke lofted above the community streets and the meat market shelves had been harvested clean. Music jaunted out from almost every open window and door. These sights, sounds, and smells were getting Myella McBride pumped. She grew up in Aurora, a far west suburb of Chicago, but some how always gravitated toward the city and its nearby chocolate burbs. Myella didn’t mind driving; the trek back and forth was worth it. It wasn’t easy finding a good hairdresser that could lay your hair the way you wanted it, and when you found one you stayed loyal.

Every beauty salon, nail salon, barbershop, and carwash was filled past capacity. Young brothers and sisters were coming out in mass tonight to floss and perpetrate; club engagements and picnics filled most of their weekend itineraries, and the preparations had begun. The steps took to prep for an evening out was almost as ritualistic as those probably taken by ancestors going out to the hunt or to battle. Looking good and being clean and polished was a must. The money expended by only a few could probably feed a small African village for a month, but you had to keep it fresh and fly for this occasion. Although the summer solstice may try to dictate that summer begins in June, Memorial Day weekend started summer around Chi-Town—especially in the black community. Weather permitting, it was the official start of barbecue season and the first official, collective opportunity to shed the cold weather gear to don something more crazy, sexy, and cool.

Today Myella was making a preliminary visit to Maywood to get her nails and hair done before she hit the large club on Michigan Avenue tonight. Even if she did not live in the community, she liked to support it as much as she could. How were black communities going to thrive economically, if black consumers did not at least try to make a consorted effort to frequent black-owned businesses? She believed it was a pathetic status quo that most businesses in black neighborhoods, unlike other ethnic communities, were owned by people of other races and from other ethnic backgrounds, whom often didn’t live or spend the money they made in the neighborhoods in which they made it. The owners capitalized on these business locations because the rents were often cheaper. So, their reasoning was not to provide a service to the community, in the first place, but to reap the financial benefits for themselves. These owners often chose not to employ people from the neighborhood, so it is obvious, other than the businesses being conveniently located, they weren’t giving much back to the community. Myella didn’t have extreme views; she just believed economic prosperity, like charity, starts at home in the community.

Of course, there was no parking anywhere near the salon. She knew what was up. She wanted to be able to keep an eye on her ride. Myella wasn’t naïve; crime was often a problem in economically strapped neighborhoods. So she circled the block several times waiting for a parking spot to open up. Several brothers could be seen waxing down their cars or SUVs while some hip-hop tune from Tupac, Nelly, Ludacris, or T.I. boomed out their eighteen-inch woofers, but it was her own stereo that got her going. She turned up the Bose in her canary yellow Mustang and started to bop her head and snap her fingers to the smooth sounds of the summer anthem—Summertime by Will Smith.

As she grooved to the music, a spot opened up two doors down from the salon in front of the currency exchange. Myella was always amazed at the number of currency exchanges in the neighborhood, as opposed to the number of banks. As she exited the car and walked towards the salon, she wondered was this a comment on how unlikely it was the people in the community cashing checks were able to afford to save any of them, and she wondered who was responsible for that comment and the conditions that make it a reality for many. She could not lie. Between her car note, car insurance, gas, clothes, and a very few essential luxuries (like hair and nail upkeep), she was barely able to save herself. Until she finished school, any catastrophe above a minor car repair might land her on skid row, or at least asking her daddy for backup, which she has never had to do.

Her father, Myron McBride, was not a man of means, but he loved his baby and would help her any way he could. He was a hard working blue-collar man who worked his way up as high as he could go in his company and still be in the union, but unfortunately, a machinist’s salary was not enough to finance her college career completely. It was hard enough making sure Myella went to some of the best public schools in the state, so she could get in college. Myella footed most of the bill for college herself. In her bright future, there loomed an ever-present cloud that overshadowed most college graduates’ outlook—student loans.