“What’s up, bruh?” He gave me dap and slid into the booth. “Sorry I’m late, man. I had to dig my shit out of a ditch this morning.”
Snow was part of Michigan’s charm. Or at least that’s what I told myself every time we got more than five inches. Last night was tame compared to the blizzard that had ruined Thanksgiving last year. But the drop in temperatures had made the roads slick and dangerous. Luckily, I only had a ten-minute drive to campus. But Linc lived at least forty miles away, so his commute was a beast.
“Damn, bruh.” I sipped my coffee. “But don’t you think you should finally trade in that old-ass car for a SUV or something?”
Linc placed his order with the waitress. When she walked away, he said, “I’ve already made an appointment to check out that new Bronco. I’m sick of this shit.”
“Makes you want to take that job offer, huh?”
Last month, Linc had received an offer to join the faculty at Howard University, and had been strongly considering the move. Rubbing the back of his head, he nodded. “It’s been on my mind. My parents keep trying to talk me out of it, claiming they’d miss us.”
“You don’t believe them?”
He waved a dismissive hand my way. “Nah, they just want the kids to stay here.” He laughed. “I called my mother on it, and all she could do was smile.”
“How is Ms. Layla?” Linc’s mother was my sixth-grade teacher. After I left her class, she’d stayed in touch, always checking on me, even after I’d graduated from high school and college. “Is she still regretting retirement?”
Linc nodded. “She’s ready to go back in the classroom, but my father is keeping her busy. They’ve been traveling all over the place.”
“That’s cool.”
He eyed me. “I heard the situation with that student blew up.”
I wasn’t surprised he’d heard about Dory. While Linc worked for the Department of Political Science, our departments worked very close together, and people talked. Seemed like everyone loved to gossip, especially faculty. “What did you hear exactly?”
Shrugging, he said, “Man, you know by the time I heard anything, the story was somewhere left of the truth. I was told she broke into your office and stole a painting.”
I chuckled, shaking my head. “Bullshit. She didn’t break into my office. She left a painting on my porch,thenbroke into my house.”
He leaned back in his chair. “What the fuck is wrong with her?”
“Hell if I know.” The waitress set our food down on the table and disappeared. “She ran away when the police showed up, and no one has heard from her since.”
“Damn, bruh. Did she get away with anything valuable?”
“Nah, but she had an accomplice.”
He cut into his short stack of pancakes. “Another student?” he asked with a raised brow.
“Actually it was your cousin Blake.”
Pausing, fork midair, he said, “Wait a minute…Blake broke into your house?”
“Yeah,” I answered.
Linc pushed his plate away. “Hell no.”
“I’m serious.”
“Shit. How did you find out?”
“The police caught her—with my grandmother’s vase in her hands.”
“Shut the hell up. They arrested her?”
I shook my head. “I didn’t press charges.”
“This is crazy, bruh. Did she recognize you?”
