“Don’t whatever me, girl. Tell me when I’ll get to meet him. I need to meet the man.”
“No you don’t.”
“Yes I do. Please don’t make me start stalking you. That is not a good idea, Liora.”
“Considering you don’t drive on the expressway and I push the dash every time I drive, you won’t be successful. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to ge?—”
“You’re leaving already? This was a drive-by visit.”
“It was. But we’ll talk soon. Promise.”
She nodded. “Okay, but at some point you’re gonna let me meet him without force.”
A giggle escaped my lips before I responded. “Yeah, at some point.” The funny thing was I was saying that to her as well as myself. I mean, yeah, his situation was unique, but it wouldn’t always be that way. After that, what would my excuse be?
“You wanna talk about it?”I asked, watching his irritation grow. The file held something he wasn’t quite ready to accept or know. It was information that made ignorance bliss.
“Nothing to talk about. The facts are the facts.” He glared at the file I had given him, then slid it over to me and pointed. “Two hundred and fifty thousand a day before and another two days after.”
I looked at it and he was right. “Could it be from someth?—”
“Nah, it’s what it is.” He moved in front of me on the island, his hands resting on my hips. “Now tell me about your day?” He was angry but trying his hardest not to focus on it.
“But you ha?—”
“Nope. Not worried ’bout it. What I’m worried about is why yeen told me ’bout your day. When I called earlier, you sounded heavy. So what’s up?”
I just looked at him. All the moments from my day floating back to the forefront of my mind. “Um, I’m not good at this.”
“Neither am I but I know something bothered you. So talk about it.”
“Why?”
“’Cause maybe I can fix it.”
I stared at him, waiting for a smile to appear on his face or for there to be some sort of indication that he was playing. He wasn’t though. His face was dead ass serious. That somehow had me spilling my guts moments later.
“Adela has brain cancer and asked me to sign on as co-owner of the range.”
“Damn, that’s heavy as fuck, baby. Is that wha?—”
“It’s only her and she put the service first and above everything. When she was of no more use to them, she was back here with nothing but herself. She said she’s fine, but she has to be scared and tired of being so hard. I mean, she’s dealing with this alone.”
“You feel like your life mirrors hers,” he said before I could muster the words.
“I mean. doesn’t it?” I asked.
“Nope.” He responded flat out and firmly. He had more confidence behind that one word than anything. “Your life doesn’t mirror hers because you aren’t her. You’re you and you’re mine, Killa. I ain’t going nowhere and neither are you. Not only that, but your job ain’t your whole life anymore. You have meaning and belonging outside of it.”
He leaned in and kissed my forehead. “You good, Killa. Now find a way to be there for your girl and not carry too much of that shit.” He went to pull back, but I locked my legs around his waist, eyes locked on him.
“Okay, so maybe you did just fix my problem a little. Are you going to let me fix yours?”
“You’re already doing that, Killa.”
“Am I?”
He nodded. “Yeah, you are. Now let’s eat.”
