George was taken back by my question. At times, my intrusive thoughts won, and I had to almost always smooth things over because of my mouth. “Excuse me?”
“All I’m saying is that you cannot continue to clean up things for him. Eventually, Teddy has to get his hands dirty and then wash them on his own… without daddy’s help. This is real life, people’s freedom lays in the hands of us doing our job.” I found some bullshit saying to deter him from my weird ass question.
It wasn’t all that weird, because his son needed to learn to wash his damn hands.
He relaxed some and nodded his head. “Understood, Zoya. I think I misunderstood your analogy.”
“I’m coming onto Preston’s legal team, so whatever he wants. This isn’t my call, but I do appreciate you coming to give me the news instead of me being blind-sided.”
“No worries. Thank you for taking the news so easy.” He stood up, straightening his suit jacket and headed toward the door.
“Tell the wife I said hello.”
He always lit up whenever you mentioned his wife. If there was one man, aside from Meer, that was proud to be married, it was George.
“Thanks. I sure will, Zoya.” He winked and closed the door behind him.
Kennedy: ??
When Kennedy sent another message, I stared at the original message. It wasn’t out the ordinary for Ken to call and ask to stay with me for a few days. At first, the excuse was that she hated to stay in the house alone when her boo traveled.
Little did I know, the girl was engaged and hiding it from all of us. She knew how close I was to my brother, so she knew the moment she would have mentioned she was engaged, I would have told him.
Me: When?
Kennedy: Tomorrow.
Me: Fine.
I didn’t have much time to sit and think about Kennedy being homeless because I had a few video meetings, and then I had court in a few. I needed to focus on those, and not Kennedy’s lack of accommodations.
I handed valet my keys, as I rounded my car and headed into my building. It was a little after five in the evening, but the sun was still up. It was coming to that time when the sun wouldeventually go down earlier, and the cooler weather would come in for fall and winter.
Seasonal depression would set in, and then the holidays would soon follow. The holidays were always nothing to brag about. I cannot remember the last time I spent a birthday or a holiday with my family.
Those were things that we never did.
Menace usually went to Aspen and disappeared for a few weeks. I busied myself with work and holiday movies just so I could feel something. Don usually came to sit on my couch to complain about us never getting together.
Kora brought a wreath and then bragged about being festive, when in reality, she was usually out the country in Europe with whatever white man she was dealing with at the time. None of us did the holidays and I used to hate it, but it became our norm, so I got used to it.
I spent the majority of my time alone. Like tonight, it was a Friday night, and my only plan was to walk Bando, order in, and sit in my office while completing things that I didn’t get the chance to complete earlier at the office.
One of them being Kingston Steele wanting to retain me as a lawyer. I was familiar with Kingston because he was Bia’s older cousin, and Bia was Kora’s best friend. I made a mental note to call Kora this coming week to get the tea on that situation.
Since Kora and Kingston were familiar, I knew she was the one who told him to retain me. If Kora gave you legal advice, you usually took it because the woman knew what she was talking about. Kora saw and heard things as a federal judge.
I pressed the fob against the access pad and pressed my floor, leaning back onto the wall. The door was taking forever to close, and just as it started to close, I saw Gerald walking through the lobby.
He didn’t come from the main entrance, which meant he was coming from the gym. I watched as the door slowly closed, and he walked straight toward me. His eyes were locked on me, and mine were locked on his dick print, as it was swinging in those gray sweatpants he wore.
The compression workout shirt he wore clung to his body, showcasing those muscles that demanded attention. I leaned forward and continued to press the button so the door could close quicker. He noticed and nodded his head while smirking, knowing he had to wait for the next elevator.
We hadn’t spoken in over two weeks, and I wasn’t about to start on this elevator. The elevator flew up to my floor, skipping floors as it usually did. When you were on a higher floor, it often skipped floors to get you to your floor quickly. Whenever I went to Don’s, it skipped every floor and went straight to the penthouse.
Soon as the elevator opened, I rushed down the hall as quickly as my heels would allow me. My condo was all the way down toward the other end of the hall along with his.
The chime from the second elevator sounded. “Shit.”
