Please Please Please

""I always get what I want,"" says brazen Babysister, an L.A. bank teller and heroine of Swindle's debut novel, a confection that follows a sassy, single black woman's cutthroat, even ruthless adventures in dating. The minute she lays eyes on handsome architect Darren Forrest Wilson, she's got to have him. There's one tiny hitch: she already has a boyfriend. Rob is an easily dismissed inconvenience, considering that the real obstacle is that Darren (""Prince Charming, Superman and Superfly"") is the beau of her loyal best friend and bank teller colleague Deborah. This gives Babysister pause, for about one minute, before she's aiming for Darren's bed while trying to talk him out of dating Deborah. Soon she does seduce him, and hides their affair from everyone while rationalizing her betrayal. To her surprise, Darren dumps her and proposes to churchgoer Deborah; undaunted, Babysister comes on to Darren at the wedding, a ploy that may seem outrageous even for a player like Babysister. She stops scheming for a few moments while she provides readers with a little background: her mother died when she was four and she became her father's adored little princess, while her older brother, Malcolm, kept his distance. Babysister gleans some insight into her family, and her community, when she trades her position at the bank for a waitressing job, and gets to know Malcolm's ex-model girlfriend, Sharice, and her young son, Prophet. The entire cast inhabits an Afrocentric world, with references to Nation of Islam, traditional hair-styling rituals and contemporary, laid-back vernacular. The narrative coheres more energetically as Swindle veers away from the somewhat implausible love triangle and focuses more on Babysister's extended circle of family and friends. This is a slight story with mostly comic nuances and simple characters; readers won't be surprised to learn that Deborah spinelessly, though spiritually, forgives her best friend's betrayal, that Darren's a dog and that Babysister's impudence remains unchecked. First serial to Essence; Literary Guild selection; author tour; foreign rights sold to Germany and Japan. (July)