“You have to give me something, Li. Something. I already know you’re not gonna tell me who he is. The least you could do is confirm or deny.”
I crossed my arms and looked her over. “You watch too much TV.”
“Yes or no? And is it good?”
I gave in so she’d drop the subject. “Yes, and if it wasn’t good, would it be worth mentioning?”
She snapped her glove covered fingers as a grin indented itself into her features. “That’s what I’m talking about!”
She and I talked for a while longer before I decided to check on my father at the shop. He’d called this morning, but I was a little late getting back to the city.
I was a couple steps from the door when I felt my phone in my pocket. I pulled it out and once again Forman was calling. She hadn’t called since the last time I didn’t answer. This would be call number two, meaning by the third she would be coming to me. I didn’t answer this time either. Now more than ever I wasn’t sure if I was ready to step back into that version of myself.
Truth be told, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to go back, more unsure than I was a few weeks ago. Dela’s words from one of our earlier conversations replayed in my head.
“You gotta figure out what you want, Liora. ’Cause that’s the only thing fit to make you happy. Moving from place to place isn’t gonna do anything but drain you every time because you keep going places you don’t belong. If this is where you belong, make what you choose to do here work for you.”That was when I first came home, when I had to sit down because my body was no match for what had happened.
I closed my eyes and sighed before entering the pawn shop.
“And what’s wrong with you?” Sissy asked, seated on the stool behind the glass counter.
“Nothing. Where is your father?”
“In the back. Where are you just coming from? Bell called in today.”
“Over at the flower shop with Lauryn. This your shift?”
She nodded, then pushed her attention back to the magazine, flipping through.
“Who is he back there with?”
“Fine and mysterious.”
As soon as she said that, the hairs on the back of my neck rose because those were definitely two words I’d use to describe Iso.
I should have played it cool, but of course I didn’t. I walked toward the back without a second thought.
I didn’t move like this.
When I stepped into the doorway of the office, my eyes landed on my father and a man who was not Iso. I was disappointed, even though I shouldn’t have been. It didn’t make sense for me to expect him to be here when my father dealt with all types of people who werefine and mysterious.
When I leftthe pawn shop, I went to Dela’s. I wasn’t surprised to find her behind the counter chatting it up, but when I walked in, I felt her eyes.
“Aht aht. Don’t you ease your way past me. Come on over here so you can tell me where you been.” She caught me before I fully passed her.
I laughed, backtracking but taking a left and going behind the counter.
She pointed to her office door. “I’ll be right back there.”
I nodded and continued into her office. Knowing how longwinded she was, I took a seat in one of the chairs in front of her desk and pulled my phone out. I still didn’t have a message from Iso and we were well into the day. I questioned if maybe I should text him, but that would break routine.When had I ever cared about routine? Now since I found myself in one with a man who seemed to pedestalize it.
The opening of the office door made me look up. She was wiping her hands on her shirt and giving me that stern look I knew all too well.
“And where the hell have you been?” No hey, hello or nothing.
“Low. Damn, Dela, you miss me or something?” I slouched a little in the chair and dropped my phone into my lap.
“Dearly, because I actually worry about you.”
