Page 109 of The Need to Know

“It won’t happen again,” I said.

“And Nastasia…?” Pops asked.

She wasn’t there when I woke up. “Unless it’s an emergency, I won’t be missing work again, Pops.”

Pops sighed. “You know, it sounds like Cesar got him a good woman.”

I glanced out the window, watching other people come and go from Phat Fitness. It was a little after eight a.m., so there was a good chance the facility wasn’t crowded. “Yeah, Leslie cool.”

“I want that for you. When you’re ready, and if you want to take time to be with your lady, let me know. In the meantime, we can’t have these absences. Am I clear?”

He was a father first, but business was still business. “Yes, sir.”

“All right, I’ll check with you later. I love you,” he said as he got ready to hang up.

“I love you, too,” I told him as I disconnected.

All I needed was a session in the gym, so I got out of my ride and put everything else on the backburner.

BLVCKJVCK opened at ten p.m. on the dot and a large crowd of people infiltrated the building. Nastasia hadn’t called or texted me all day, and I hadn’t attempted to get ahold of her either. I had a job to do, and I couldn’t keep fucking it up over this woman.

Still, that didn’t stop Cesar from questioning me.

After meandering throughout the building, checking each suite and feeling the crowd to make sure things were level, we settled up in the Spade Suite. Of all the suites, the Spade Suite was my favorite. When I needed a moment away to think and simply chill, the Spade Suite never let me down. It was Sunday, one of those nights where the suite was blossoming with people. Babyface was playing and a lot of the grown patrons who came to this area of BLVCKJVCK were feeling the music.

The vibe was calm and serene, you’d hardly know there was a massive party going on below us.

Cesar and I managed to grab a spot by the railing that oversaw the front of the building and the street down below. It had been a hot day out earlier, ninety degrees of unrelenting sun, but now that night had fallen, it had cooled into the seventies. It was the last night of July, and after a very successful month, I was ready to relax for the night.

“So, tell me, what happened?” Cesar wanted to know as he sat across from me.

When I’d opened the doors tonight, he’d looked at me with a knowing smirk and hadn’t said anything. Now, he was all ears.

And there was so much to tell. “She had a date last night. Apparently Paisley set her up.”

Cesar whistled. “Wow.”

I lifted my glass of water to my lips and saw red above the rim at the thought. “I shut that shit down though.”

“Word?”

“After ignoring me all day, she finally picked up on the date and I told her to come over.”

Cesar cracked a grin. “Of course, Eaze got pull like that.”

It wasn’t a bragging right. She shouldn’t have gone on that date to begin with. “The rest of the night was history.”

“Uh-uh, give me more than that. How was it?” Cesar pressed.

There was no denying something had happened. I wouldn’t have called off otherwise.

I scratched at my head, not wanting to explain it all. “She workin’ with somethin’ mean.”

Cesar wasn’t satisfied. “Mean, huh?”

It had been an illustrious swim. Something worth experiencing again in the morning. Had she been there. “Yeah.”

Cesar read me, narrowing his eyes. “So why the cold energy?”