my first best friend

A novella

Chika Okafor has always marched to the beat of her own drum. She dropped out of law school at the top of her class, and she walked out of her own marriage introduction ceremony without looking back. Through every bold move, one constant has remained: her bond with her best friend, Kelenna Agu, and her close ties to the Agu family. But on the night of Kelenna’s wedding, she feels the quiet ache of being left behind.

John Agu has always been the steady one--driven, focused, unshakeable. But when his sister marries his best friend, he is aware of how alone he is. And in a room full of celebration, there’s only one person who understands exactly what he’s feeling.

One electric embrace, a vow unspoken, and secrets revealed shifts everything between John and Chika in one night, and ignites a change neither of them expected.

Set against the stunning backdrop of Georgia and strong Nigerian-American family ties, My First Best Friend is a tender romance novella about friendship, timing, and the courage to claim the love that’s been there from the beginning.

The Right move

Book Four

A year after Dr. Zoe Callas’ twelve-year relationship comes to a heartbreaking end, she finds herself in a secret romance with her colleague, Dr. Benjamin Fine—the same man whose impulsive kiss caused her breakup. Even though she isn’t sure she can love again, she can’t deny that Benjamin is worth a try. He happens to be the most eligible professor at Everett University, and he treats her like she hung the moon.

But just as Zoe is ready to take things to the next level, one night at a salsa club changes everything. A dance teacher who is as handsome as he is talented catches her eye, and when he shows her some moves on the floor, she is mesmerized.

Days later, she uncovers the dancer’s real identity. He’s Dr. Grant Emilio Peterson, a new addition to the Everett faculty, and suddenly, it seems like she cannot escape him. He’s on her campus, at her committee meetings, and he’s there when she first learns about the troubling allegations involving Benjamin and one of her favorite students.

When those allegations are revealed to be exploitation, pressure, and even assault, Zoe refuses to look away. And as she puts her career on the line to stand up for her protégé, she finds the unlikely ally in Emilio.

Fighting for others may come easily for Zoe, but what about fighting for herself? If Zoe is to finally find true love, she has to have the courage to make the right moves.

The thing between us

Book Three

Dev Patel’s love life may be in the slumps after a failed arranged love connection, but his career as a medical science liaison is on the rise thanks to Alistair Pharmaceutical’s best-selling drug, Scalitz.

Jaya Kohli has just lost one of the most important women in her life and she’s convinced that big pharma’s latest shiny toy, Scalitz, is to blame. She needs answers and is ready to do anything to get them including creating a fake LinkedIn profile to professionally catfish the devilishly handsome Dev Patel.

When Dev discovers that Jaya thinks Scalitz could be responsible for her grandmother’s death, he freaks out. But he can’t ignore her concerns for long and they join forces to find out more. The problem is, their investigation could start a fire that might see the company he works for and his entire career go up in smoke. And that’s not the only thing that’s getting hot.

Neither Jaya nor Dev can deny the chemistry bubbling between them. Dev has never let any woman ruffle his feathers, but this doe-eyed, PhD student with an unhealthy obsession for the sitcom Friends could be the first to get under his skin. And as their investigation goes deeper so do their feelings—like molecular level deep. The trouble is, Dev hasn’t shared everything with Jaya. So even though she’s falling for him, can she trust him?

Scalitz brought them together, but now it threatens to tear them apart. What will it take for Dev and Jaya to realize that there may be something greater between them?

Tell me everything

Book Two

Nichole Masterson has struggled with recurring nightmares since she was robbed at gunpoint during a shift at the pharmacy. She expects therapy to help her self-diagnosed PTSD, but after her first session with Dr. Marie, she walks out with a myriad of other issues to address. Between the nightmares, her romantic relationship that is more of a situationship, her estrangement with her father, and the monotony and drudgery of her work life, she has no idea where to begin.

Then, during a drunken night at her friend’s pre-wedding party, Nichole wakes up next to a condescending, know-it-all stranger, Kamili Parker, and is horrified to realize that she’s spilled all her secrets to him. Though she’s embarrassed beyond belief, her confessions reveal just how discontent she’s become with her life. Despite how much she hates his smug commentary, when her therapist assigns her the task of finding an accountability partner, Nichole surprises herself by asking Kamili, and he reluctantly agrees.

Tell Me Everything follows Nichole’s journey toward personal fulfillment as she works to overcome her anxiety, better her relationships, and fix the source of her dissatisfaction. Guided by her patient but firm therapist, and helped by Kamili, who quickly grows beyond annoying stranger and into something more, Nichole fights to build something beautiful out of her life.

The Way You Look At Me

Book One

Kelenna Agu loves her job as clinical pharmacy manager at Preston Regional Hospital. It gives her fulfillment and validation, and is where she’s always shined. It’s also a far cry from how she fares in her love life. Six months after her break up with The One Who Got Away, he is back in the arms of a former flame, engaged to be married, while she is finding herself on bad dates with men who yell at waitresses or have irredeemable bad breath.

But when the opioid epidemic sweeping across the nation suddenly lands at the doorsteps of Preston, Kelenna is caught off guard. The drug shortage and tragedy that follows occurs on Kelenna’s watch, causing her to question her professional competence. But her love and work fortunes must be flipping, because just as she is about to give up on dating altogether, she is introduced to the perfect man: a Harvard-trained pediatric neurosurgeon who looks as good in real life as his résumé, and seems too good to be true.

What will it take for Kelenna to find the balance she so deeply desires? Trying to solve the opioid problem at Preston is one thing, and handling the affairs of the heart is another, right? But what if they’re not that different? In The Way You Look At Me, Kelenna must learn to look beyond the surface to see what really matters.