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“Oakie doakie!” she sang, spinning out of the doorframe.
I turned back to Marion. “The median age for Clifton residents is almost forty, Marion. Our research team found a significant number of those residents were raised in the town and, like their parents, don’t want to leave. That creates a market for downsizing and not having to leave their beloved town.”
Marion sighed, pushing his arms in the air then turning to his sidekick. “Paulie!” he cried. “I don’t find this to be very prudent!”
Paulie pushed his hands into the pockets of his jeans and shrugged his slender shoulders. “You know what this is, Lucci.” He turned, strolling away. “Not much can be done at this point.” Marion then squatted against his desk. “But I’ll give it to you, Sinclair; you’ve got an eye on you. If I’m being honest, a few of my parents’ friends would have preferred downsizing to moving in with their children or going miles away to a decent senior living facility.”
“Wait a minute.” Marion’s brow peaked. “So, this is going to be a senior facility?”
I laughed, heading for the door. “Nah, Lucci. But it will be good enough for decent people to live in. Watch me work.”
Mentally shaking my head, I wanted to really laugh in his face. Paulie Rizzo understood his future here at the firm. He’d grown more into a mentor—not the friend type—since the top of the year. A part of me believed he was looking forward to retiring. His president, on the other hand, was still grasping at straws to maintain control of the firm. Rizzo didn’t want the fight.
The sounds of snickers in the distance had me lift my head, breaking my thoughts. As I approached my office area, Ava was outside my door at her desk fighting a smile. Louise was at the door laughing at Juggy, who was in my office standing over my desk. Marie, another office assistant, seemed to be leaving my office as she snickered, too.
What…
Louise slapped my shoulder good ol’ boys style as I crossed into the office. That was weird as hell. She couldn’t stop laughing.
“She wild, yo!” Juggy damn near shouted as I walked to my desk. “Fuckin’ wild, yo!”
Then I saw it. A box of chocolate covered strawberries. There was a dozen with a white coating, and on top of each were letters spelling out “BEST DICK EVER” with the letter I in the shape of a cock.An actual Black cock with balls. I was stuck, staring at the shits, at first confused.
“These came for…me?” I asked Louise.
And damn. When I looked up, Ava was at the door fighting to keep her mouth closed as she giggled.
“Yes, sir. And based on the timing and notes, I guess we know you had a pleasant weekend.” She could hardly finish her sentence, laughing so hard.
“Damn!” Jug shouted in response. “It’s like that, bruh?” I knew that question was sincere.
The last Jug knew of Witherspoon and me, she was running out of my crib. He knew we talked last week atBrown Baristabut I never shared the details. Even when I missed my curfew on Friday, pulling up at home early in the morning, I didn’t talk to him about why. I figured he had a clue.
“Yo, don’t you have that site inspection in Totowa?” Jug had to go.
“I was just ‘bout to leave, but then L told me to come look at this shit,” he snorted on his way to the door.
Just as he passed Louise, she rubbed her nose. “Just let me know if you need help eating those.” Laughing again, she turned and walked off.
I pulled out my phone and dialed Witherspoon. The call went to voicemail and quickly, I decided on leaving a message.
“Yo, you know better than this.” I tried keeping the smile out of my voice. “I just told you my situation here and then you go do this? I’mma spank ya ass. Hit me back.”
When I ended the call, I complimented myself on sounding angry. I should have been angry.
Who does shit like this?
And then to think, she had me believing my shit was trash all last week.
“Would you like for me to take those?” Ava, standing at the door in her silk pink blouse and white dress pants, startled my ass.
“Uh…” I looked down at the strawberries. “Yeah. Thanks.”
She walked over to my desk, grabbing the box. “They say you’re intense and a whip-snapper. Nice to know you have a life,” her voice was soft, but not flirtatious. And that’s all she said before leaving out.
My thoughts raced back to Witherspoon and I found myself wondering where she was. I hadn’t heard from her since leaving her place on Saturday morning. I wanted to call her yesterday but thought to give her some mental distance from me, considering what we’d done with her period being on. That night, I’d gotten the feeling Witherspoon’s desire for it embarrassed her. That shit was deep, and the last thing I needed was “deep” with Witherspoon. We didn’t want the same thing and somehow it felt like we’d been using each other to satisfy our mutual physical attraction.
Somehow, I found my way to herInstagram.
