Domino

By Jonathan Poku

Have you ever thought of cheating whilst you were in a relationship? Well, imagine how much harder it would be to resist that urge, if you were a player for so many years, before you met the partner you’ve always dreamed of.

Domino follows the woeful love life of Kalvin Setray (aka Mr Nice Guy). Whose desperate search for love, over the first last 28 years of his life, only leads to him being put in the friendship zone or women taking advantage of him.

When, a traumatic experience pushes him over the edge, he decides to transform himself into the ‘bad boy’ he believes women really want and he subsequently leaves a trail of destruction in his wake.

Five years pass, and Kalvin’s womanising ways become a habitual way of life. Quite simply, being trash is like breathing for him.

Is Kalvin Setray ready to find love? Is being a Bad Boy the key to him finding it? Or will his playboy ways jeopardise the one thing he has always yearned for? True love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jonathan Poku
• Release date: Aug 22, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463047279

Jonathan Poku

For as long as I can remember I've always loved listening to and telling stories. I guess this part of my personality might have been influenced by my Ghanaian heritage because for years stories have been passed down from generation to generation in my culture.As a young child, I spent most of my time imaging fantasy worlds and characters. At the age of six I started writing down the stories I had in my head, so that I could revisit them at a later date. However, I never showed them to anybody because I was such a private person.As time passed by, I threw away most of my stories but still the desire to write burned at my very core so I continued to put pen to paper.I’ve always loved reading. Many a night, I laid awake with a book, unable to put it down because I loved the way it transported me to worlds full of magic, suspense and interesting people.During my teens, I wrote most of the poems that I put into my debut book of poetry called 'welcome back to paradise'. However this book wasn't published until after I finished university. At university I studied psychology and sociology to broaden my understanding of individuals, groups and myself but I soon learnt that the theories within these disciplines were just that - theories - not facts written in stone.Whilst at university, my desire to read and to be creative was curbed quite a bit because I had so much work to do. However, I continued to write songs and produce music.Fast forward a few years - I started to work in a call centre and I did something I hardly ever did - showed someone a few of my poems. That person loved them and suggested I publish them in a book, so that's exactly what I did. Some of them were put into anthologies and one of them was actually published in the voice newspaper.It wasn’t easy but after a while I made a profit by selling my books at the end of my poetry readings.Years went by - I wrote a few scripts and made a few music videos...One day I remembered the role play game I used to play as a child. Subsequently, I started to write a book based loosely around that game. After several rewrites and vast amounts of hours spent moulding the characters and the story into a book I'm truly happy with I finally published it as an e-Book here on smashwords.CONTACT:Email: [e-mail]:@JonathanPoku

Book preview

PART 1

Kalvin Setray’s story: Kalvin's Perspective

CHAPTER 1

Allow me to re-introduce myself.

I was laying on a king size bed, in a plush apartment, situated in the centre of London’s prestigious West End, whilst listening to Kano’s ‘leave me alone’ and thinking to myself, I could definitely get used to this, chilling in a nice pad, with a sexy girl lying on my chest, when suddenly Sharon Cooper, the quote unquote, sexy girl, who was lying on my chest, interrupted my trail of thought, by sitting up and saying, ‘you're the swee –’

Knowing damn well what she was about to say, I interrupted her before she could even finish her sentence. ‘Don’t you dare say that!’ I looked at her caramel coloured skin, hazel eyes, and athletic physique, and thought to myself why did you have to go and open your mouth, and spoil such a good thing.

Shocked by my abrupt reaction, but still undeterred, she replied, ‘but, I'm just giving you a complement –’

I frowned at her. ‘I just don't want to hear it.’

Confused by the sudden change in the evening’s mood, Sharon said to me, ‘what did I say wrong? You're definitely the nicest guy, I've ever met - No guy has ever treated me this good.’

I sighed and replied, ‘look - what don't you understand? I'm tryna tell you, I just don't want to hear it.’

Sharon put one hand on my chest. ‘Kalvin, like where's this coming from.’

I shrugged her hand off my chest, as I got off the bed and stormed towards the Door.

Baffled by the transformation of my persona, Sharon watched me, as she pleaded, ‘Kalvin! Kalvin! Wait – look - I'm sorry. Let's talk about this. Kalvin!’

However, I ignored all of her pleas, as I left her apartment, without uttering another word, or looking back to see the emotional turmoil I had left in my wake.

Once I was on Oxford Street, I marched purposefully to my bus stop, only stopping twice, to successfully chat up two women. Apart from these minor detours I was on a mission… Like plenty of other females, these two seemed to like my six-foot, lean muscular frame, cheeky smile, and my milk chocolate complexion. Of course, I know that physically, I’m not every woman’s cup of tea, but my confidence increases my chances, with even those who have tastes, which I far from match… Take it from me people, confidence is sexy, and confidence plus my boyish handsome looks is close to irresistible - If you don’t believe me, then just ask the plethora of women in my life.

I sat down on the bench beside the bus shelter and looked straight ahead.

Huh – what are you looking at me like that for? Oh - I guess you're wondering why I switched back then, but if you knew about my past experience with women, then you'd definitely understand. For years I've heard women complaining that their boyfriends don't listen to them. That they cheat on them. That they lie. That they can't be honest. That they're too controlling and that they don't treat them good - Nearly each and every one of these women, will tell anyone who will listen to them that all they want is a nice guy - But that's bulls#*t. Yeah you heard me correctly - Bulls#*t. For years I was that nice guy, but where did it get me? Nowhere. Women don't want a nice guy as their boyfriend - He's alright as a friend or as a stop gap, but that's about it. In their eyes, dependable and considerate, equals boring, and unattractive. They want a bad boy for their boyfriend - someone who is going to treat them mean, use them and abuse them, and then throw them away - That's the truth… Nine out of ten - if not ten out of ten, of you ladies, aren't ready for a good guy, even if you fool yourself into believing that you want one - Tell the truth and shame the devil ladies - am I lying - No seriously - am - I - Lying? Anyway, five years ago, after twenty-eight years of being a good guy, I realised this, so I decided that I was no longer going to be, Mr nice guy…

Oh, I know some of you women out there, will find what I just said offensive or you'll try to argue that it's untrue, but hey, the truth hurts ladies, and your actions speak way louder than your words - Anyway, back to my decision - a few years ago, after being rejected or dumped by countless women, who said something on the lines of, ‘Kalvin you're so nice, but we're more like friends than lovers -' I decided to research exactly what women want, and to transform myself into just that. Can you blame me? Oh - you think you can - well let me take you back to the beginning of my ordeal, with the so called fairer sex, and maybe then you'll re-assess your view -

Hold on – hold on - Hold on - maybe before I tell you my story, I should tell you that for as long as I can remember, I always wanted to be loved - Truly loved… And I think that was because when I was growing up, I never felt loved by my parents. Nope, never truly - unconditionally loved... Sure my parents took care of all of my physical needs, but they never truly loved or nurtured me – And yes, I know, this kinda contradicts what you've seen and heard thus far, but - ahh what's the use - it's not worth me wasting my breath, most of you have already made up your mind about me –

So anyway, where was I – oh yeah – let me take you back to the beginning of my ordeal, with the so called fairer sex…

It all began when I was sixteen. It was at that tender age that I had my first encounter with Michelle Williams... She had green eyes that glistened in the sunlight, like jade, a slender physique and long auburn hair…

CHAPTER 2

School days of the distant past.

I had had a crush on Michelle for years, but I could never muster up the courage to say hello to her. She was so smart and stunning. At that point in my life, I had never spoken to any females, other than my mother, my family members and my teachers… Something about females overwhelmed me.

Anyway, one day after advanced maths, Michelle Williams walked up to me in the corridor and said, ‘hi, Kalvin.’

Embarrassingly, I opened and closed my mouth repeatedly, for what seemed like an eternity, as I started to sweat profusely.

And to make matters even worse, whilst this was happening, my hands became clammy, and my heart beat got faster and faster…

Michelle brushed her fringe from her face. ‘Kalvin, honey, can you please help me. Look, I tried to start our math's homework, but I'm - like - struggling! So I was wondering if you could come over to my house, after school, and – erm - help me with it… If you could, that would be like - great, and I would be – erm - forever grateful.’

To which I replied, ‘err,’ as I avoided eye contact.

Michelle touched my arm and said, ‘oh, come on, please. You're one of the smartest guys in our class, and I'm really stuck, on a part of the homework.’

I looked at her hand, which was still touching my arm - No word of a lie, at that very moment, a tingle ran up my spine and then I hesitated for a moment, before I replied, ‘ok.’

Michelle hugged me close, allowing her chest to rub up against me.

It was at that point that something really weird happened, something that had never happened before... Yeah, you guessed right, I had my first hard on.

BOING.

I felt so uneasy and mortified; I froze because I didn't know what to do. Michelle smiled at me, hugged me even closer, and then turned and walked off.

My eyes remained transfixed on her, as she walked in what seemed like slow motion; when she reached the far end of the hall way, she turned her body, partially backwards, flicking her luscious hair in the process, and then she looked at me and smiled, before she turned forward and continued to walk around the corner…

After that brief encounter I wondered if I was dreaming, because, firstly Michelle actually knew my name and secondly she had spoken to me… Me - the social pariah who each and every other child in the school avoided like the plague, because they thought that if they spoke to me, then they would get infected, and either forced into social exile, or social quarantine. But I wasn't dreaming – oh my god – I wasn't dreaming…

♦♦♦

Later on that day, Michelle gave me her address, and hugged me again.

I wondered what it meant, but then I realized it meant nothing at all, she just needed help with her math's home work - but it felt good to be the recipient of her attention.

The school day flew by. As soon as it finished, I ran all the way to Michelle's house and stopped in front of her front door. I was just about to knock it, when I heard Michelle’s voice, inside