Page 62 of When a Soul Cries

“Man…”

“I knew it. Y’all were supposed to meet at nine. What happened?”

“We met. Went to eat. Talked. Nothing serious.”

“And?”

I hesitated.

Kai caught it immediately. “There it is.”

“Shut up.”

“Nah. What happened?”

I squeezed the water bottle between my hands. “I took her home. There was an eviction notice on her door.”

The humor disappeared from his voice. “Damn.”

“She tried to hide it. I didn’t even know what it was until I was leaving and heard her talking to somebody inside.” I looked down at the bottle, watching the plastic cave beneath my fingers. “Then I heard her crying.”

Kai got quiet.

“She said she was tired,” I continued. “Not regular tired either.”

“Yeah.” His voice lowered. “I know what you mean.”

“I almost knocked.”

“Probably better you didn’t. If she tried to hide the notice, she would’ve hated knowing you heard her breaking down.”

“I know. Still felt fucked up leaving.”

“Because you wanted to help.”

“Yeah.”

There wasn’t much more to say about that. My eyes landed on the Eastview folder sitting on the counter, and the idea that had been circling my head since leaving Sol finally started making sense.

“What if we set aside some of the units at Eastview?”

Kai paused. “For what?”

“Income-based housing. Single mothers. Low-income families. Not the whole property. Maybe ten or fifteen percent of whatever hasn’t been leased yet.”

“Nigga, we’re two weeks from opening.”

“I know. I’m not talking about changing the building or pushing the ribbon cutting. Eastview is done. I’m talking about how we lease some of the units that are still available.”

Kai let out a long breath. “And you thought of this because of Sol.”

“She made me think about Mama.”

That shut him up.

I stared at the folder as a memory I hadn’t touched in years surfaced. “Remember Madison? When the lights got cut off and Mama lit candles everywhere, told us we were camping?”

Kai laughed softly. “Our dumb asses thought that shit was fun.”