AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“They said your special delivery came up to$24,900.”
“Yeah… all new livin’ room furniture, new TV for the living room, spankin’ brand new bedroom furniture for you and Ayanna, couple laptops, and kitchen stuff, too. Now, maybe you can work on settin’ up your website for your store, like I told you, and maybe sign up for that class you thought about takin’. The old furniture is being hauled away by the same people, or you can donate it. They’re takin’ it to the Salvation Army, if you want. You need to empty your drawers for them… and later on tonight, for me.” He chuckled.
“You don’t even know my tastes! I can’t believe you did this!”
“What? You don’t appreciate it? Well, ain’t this a kick in the teeth? Are you actually mad about this?”
“No… it’s not that. I’m just… shocked.”
“Idoknow your taste. I picked out the furniture based on your nails.”
The woman was silent on the other end for far too long.
“My nails?”
“Yeah. I realized, while seein’ you at the grocery store for all those months, that you love getting those long ass pretty nails of yours polished, and you seem partial to purple. Eli told me that was your favorite color, too. Seems you tell him all sorts of things, but I had to pull teeth to get anything outta you… made me work hard for it.”
“You sound jealous, and that’s because Eli is sweet and trustworthy, and you’re… well,you.” She burst out laughing, and he followed suit.
“Anyway, your nails are often purple, red or green, and when I’ve been at your home, I noticed all the purple decorations in your bathroom. The shower curtain, towels, rug… Stuff like that. I peeked in Ayanna’s room before I left the other day and saw she likes pink ’nd white, but most of the stuff was chipped or too childish for her age, so I got her brand-new pink and white furniture, all that furry shit, the fake rugs and stuff teenage girls like nowadays. At least that’s what the salesman said. You also said her favorite bands and artists are BTS, Drake, Ariana Grande, and Billie Eilish, so I got ’er some framed posters of ’em.”
“Jude… what you’ve done is… exceptional. You’re so sweet to include her in this.”
“I don’t know much about girls, Iris. I grew up in a family with mostly boys, but I learn fast. When can I meet her?”
“…You… are, uh, blowin’ my mind. I think we can all meet up soon. I just don’t like introducing Ayanna to different men because—”
“You don’t have to explain it to me. I understand. We’re together now, though.”
“Yes, we are. We’ll arrange it soon.”
“Maybe I can bring my nephew, too, and we could go bowlin’.”
“Oh, that sounds fun!” She sniffed, then again.
“Are you cryin’, baby?”
“…No. My allergies…”She’s lying.He smiled to himself.
“Well, tell those weeds and flowers to stop makin’ you so emotional.”
“You didn’t have to do this. When I get to this apartment, Jude, I… I just don’t know…”
“I’m just doin’ what a man is supposed to do. I told you, anyone I love, who I feel adds joy to my life, I take responsibility for them. It doesn’t matter how independent you are, how capable you are of pullin’ your own weight. I know you can do many things without my help. It would just take you longer because you don’t have the financial means right now. But I’ve got it. You’d do the same for me.”
He heard a long, deep sigh. Perhaps Iris wasn’t used to people doing things for her anymore? Life had been difficult the past few years. A messy divorce, the tattered relationship with her sister, and so much more.
“My mama once told me, Jude, that you know a man loves you not by what comes out of his mouth, but by what he does. My father wasn’t a big talker anyway, but he showed how much he cared by workin’ real hard and making sure he could provide. He also loved us girls. I miss my daddy every day. Not many men like him anymore, and I’m not talking about the providing part—I’m talking about the loving on me hard part. When I look at you, I feel… complete. I’m… scared. I hate admitting that, but I am. In some ways we’re so different, but where it counts, we’re the same. I know you care about me and want the best for me. It almost feels like we’re friends who fell in love, ’cause I had seen you so many times before this even started…”
Jude had come clean to her, admitting he’d been the one who’d leave a rose under her car’s windshield wiper at the Kroger parking lot. He’d started doing it way before he even spoke to her.
He’d also been the one to send the mysterious gift card to her job, so she could go on a shopping spree. He’d signed it, ‘Grateful customer.’ He’d become obsessed with her, seeing her as a beacon of light. He couldn’t get the way she’d fought for her niece in that courtroom out of his mind. Nothing but pure love. He couldn’t shake how she would comfort Lark when she’d cry due to man problems, hugging her when the store was practically empty, and they thought no one was looking. He couldn’t let go of how she’d helped Monroe off the floor when he’d fallen one time, drunk off his ass. Instead of making him feel bad, she helped that man get on his feet, and called him a cab. He’d overheard some of her discussions with her niece, reassuring her about a test she was scared to take.
He’d seen her the very first time during one of the worst times in his existence, when his big brother was going off to prison. For life. According to one of the attorneys, Cain narrowly escaped the death penalty. Jude had lost his best friend. The only person on the planet he trusted. He was mad at the world.The world created people like me and Cain, and then get mad when we do what we’ve been made to do…
But then, she came into his life. Iris, going through her own pain, her own loss, her own heartbreak, and he somehow found his way to that store soon thereafter, of all the places he could’ve walked into. And there she was again, like some dream repeating itself. It was fate. It simply had to be.
“So, all jokes aside, I want to express my gratitude. I got a call while over my Aunt Blue’s house from Boston Furniture, talkin’ about they were about to deliver some goods in the next few hours, care of ‘The Judge.’ I don’t have to see it to express my gratitude. So, thank you, Jude.”
