He barked out a laugh. “I’m not even gonna lie. I’m glad those days are behind me.”
“Me too. Hopefully, your bar fight days are behind you too. Angel is not about that bail money life.”
“Damn, you’re right about that. I can’t even imagine having to explain that to Mehki.”
My phone beeped, and I peered at the SYNC display before declining the call. “Shit,” I muttered.
“What’s up? She chasing you?”
“Nah.”
“You might want to take an alternate route. Don’t want her to follow your ass home.”
I peered out the rearview mirror, his words echoing in my mind. The last thing I needed was a stalker. “I’m good. She’s probably fucking her daddy right about now.”
“What the hell?”
I shook my head. “You don’t want to know,” I murmured.
“Where you ‘bout to go? Want to shoot some pool?”
My light mood turned dark as thoughts of what I’d find when I reached my destination took over. “On my way to the east side.”
“This late?” When I didn’t respond, he said, “Alright, man. I know when to change the subject.” Coop updated me on the status of the project closeout he was handling while in town. “The client is already talking about hiring us for their next venture,” he explained. “We need to go ahead and hire another architect. You’ve been working nonstop, bruh. You can’t be everywhere at once.”
Leaving my corporate job as an architect to launch this company had been the best professional decision I’d made. Instead of stuffy board meetings and impossible expectations from firm partners, I had the opportunity to do meaningful work in the community. It helped that Coop and I had the same vision, the same desire to improve life for the residents of my hometown, Detroit.
Over the past several years, we’d expanded the company in ways we hadn’t fathomed when we’d first started. Our little company had increased in value, and we’d cultivated a clientele that only brought in more business.
“I’m good with that.” I merged onto the expressway. “We definitely need a bigger team. And while we’re at it, we can figure out how we want to handle Dave’s upcoming retirement.”
“I’ll have Jackie put a meeting on the calendar to discuss our hiring plans,” he offered. “I have a feeling we need to think bigger for staff.”
“My schedule is jam-packed next week, but I’ll make it work.”
A moment later, he asked, “Sure you’re good?”
“Fine,” was my clipped answer.
Cooper sighed. There wasn’t much we didn’t know about each other, and he’d been in my life long enough to know why I’d be driving out there this late. “You need me to meet you there?”
“Have you told Dallas about the move yet?” I asked, effectively answering his question without actually telling him no. “It’s been over a month since you’ve been back in Detroit.”
Since Cooper had been down south, I’d actually spent a fair amount of time with Dallas. True to her word, we’d never discussed what had happened in that bathroom at her birthday party. If I was a punk, I probably would’ve been offended or hurt, but I wasn’t trippin’ about it. I figured we’d talk at the right time—or never. I certainly wasn’t going to question her about it. I’d been through enough to know when to shut the hell up and move on.
“I’ll tell her before I leave,” he admitted. “Maybe tomorrow. I have a lot of shit to do, and Dallas will slow me down with all of her damn questions.”
“If you’re worried about PHC, don’t.”
“Hard not to.”
“We already had this discussion, man.”
“I heard what you said,” he argued, “but executing business remotely is—”
“The same shit people do every damn day,” I interrupted. “Look, we have a plan in place, and we’re going to work it. You haven’t been here since January, and business is still booming.”
“I’m just sayin’,” he argued. “This is a big change.”
