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ChapterFifteen
NYX
I walked in on an argument.
Actually, I couldn’t tell if it was an argument, or more of a “heated exchange”, but either way, Blue and Tati were going at each other in a way only brothers and sisters ever did.
Meaning it wasn’t my fucking business.
I made myself busy with the boxes Keira pointed out to me between her own attempts to interject in their disagreement—input theyclearlyweren’t interested in. I was happy to tune their asses out and act like the shit wasn’t even happening until I heard Blue say,“Goddamnit Tati, ain’t nobody driving all those damn bikes to storage just so they canbe close to you,and that’s the end of the shit.”
All those bikes?
Clearly, there was something I’d missed.
“Hey,” I said to Keira, who looked up from her tablet ready to spring into action. “How many bikes does she have?”
Keira’s eyes went wide like I’d lost my mind, but then a grin spread over her face.
“Come on.”
Tati and Blue had taken the loud shit deeper into the house somewhere, so it was an easy decision to follow Keira through a door in the hall that blended in with the textured wallpaper, one I hadn’t been shown during my “tour”.
“Watch your step,” she told me, gesturing at the black hole in the wall. I hadn’t fully taken a step before twin rows of light illuminated one after the other, creating an effect like one was being “lit” by the next to create a line of sparks.
That sudden luminosity revealed a pristine oversized garage. One end was occupied by a white Bentley convertible and a red Range Rover in a matte finish, but the space was dominated by bikes. There was a wide range of styles, from vintage to conceptual, each on its own rounded raised platform like in a showroom.
Whew.
I wasn’t even reallyintobikes like that and even I knew this shit was impressive.
I stepped out onto the glossy floor, trying to figure out what to even look at first.
“Is she a collector?” I called over my shoulder to Keira, thinking she was still in the doorway behind me.
She was not.
When I didn’t get an answer, it prompted me to turn around. Blue and Tati were standing in the door. Blue was glaring at me like I’d fucked up, and Tati was glaring athim, looking very smug.
“See? Evenhegets it,” she quipped, parking her hands on her hips. “How thefuckam I supposed to just choose a couple?!”
“Maybe start with the ones you actuallyride?!” Blue huffed, stepping into the garage to gesture around him. There were a solid fourteen or fifteen bikes up on the elevated daises. “This is why I told you not to buy all this shit,” he added, mutteringthosewords as he moved to stand next to me. “Why are you encouraging this shit, bruh?”
My mouth opened, confused about how simply standing there was doing… anything. Before I could say anything though, Tati was already in his face.
“First of all,fuck you!” she said, jabbing a finger into his chest.
I didn’t envy him being on the receiving end of whatever point she was trying to prove, but I liked that she was up and about like this.
And… I liked that she was cussing somebody out, honestly.
It felt more likeher.
“Second of all,this shit? My daddy gifted me some of these, so watch your mouth, uh-kay? My Black Dahlia is notshit; it would dust any-fucking-thing in your garage. And yes, I’d like to put that to the test,” she challenged, with this wicked sneer thatshouldn’tbe turning me on, but…
“Tati, will you—”
“Thiiiird,” she said, her tone dripping with sarcasm as she talked over him. “Thisis why you tried to talk me out of my collection? This exact situation? You’re a fucking prophet now? You had it in your head,Tati is gonna get assaulted and wanna move, so she shouldn’t buy these bikes?Really, nigga?!”
