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by Cassie Verano


  She laughed. “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “Is it that bad?”

  “Or that good?” she asked, tilting her head to look up at me.

  “Oh, so you don’t hate me after all?” I asked, shifting my laptop bag to my other arm.

  “I never hated you.”

  “Then what?”

  “You were mean, Kole. Just pure...mean that first day that I met you. But I found you weren’t so bad after all,” she shared.

  “And that’s your conclusion? That I’m not so bad?”

  “No, that’s not my conclusion about how I feel about you.”

  “Then what is it, Silver?” I asked as we stopped at the traffic light before crossing over to the corner.

  “Eu acho você muito atraente.”

  I smiled. “What does that mean?”

  She giggled. “I’m not telling you, Kole.”

  “Wait, that’s not fair,” I argued.

  Shaking her head, she said, “Still not telling.”

  I laughed. “Okay, that’s how you want to play it.”

  “Who knows, maybe you’ll find out one day,” she said with a wink as we stepped into our building.

  “If I didn’t know any better, Silver Wang, I’d think you were flirting with me,” I replied.

  She smiled shyly up at me and looked away. “I was doing nothing of the sort,” she replied in a bashful tone.

  I left it alone, not wanting to cause any tension or discomfort between us. We waited outside of the elevators for a few moments before one arrived.

  I could feel her gaze on me as she took me in after we stepped inside the elevator. I punched the button for my floor and then noticed she hit one that was two floors above.

  “Hey, uh—”

  “I’m sorry if I—”

  “You go first,” I said.

  “Kole, I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression and crossed any lines. I didn’t mean any harm,” she apologized.

  “None taken. I just didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable by my statement,” I said.

  She nodded and turned her attention to Bear, who was prancing happily in the confined space of the elevator. The doors opened before we could finish the conversation.

  “You live two floors below mine,” she said.

  I had the impression she was trying to find something to smooth the awkward moment before I left.

  “Yeah, number sixty-one-oh-eight,” I said.

  “Okay, cool. I’m in eighty-two-thirteen,” she said with a polite smile.

  The elevator doors began to buzz because I was holding it open. “Good to know. See you tomorrow. Get some rest because we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us,” I said.

  “As usual,” she said with a soft giggle.

  Nodding, I walked away and headed down the hall to my apartment. I wasn’t sure why I felt odd, but it seemed as if we had just crossed some invisible line, although nothing had happened between the two of us.

  In some ways, that was disappointing. But I knew I couldn’t afford to let anything happen, no matter how much I might want Silver.

  CHAPTER 9 – KOLE

  “Where the fuck you been, man?” Darnell asked, bursting his way into my apartment once I’d opened the door.

  My brother had banged on my damn door like he was twelve or some shit.

  “Working. Where’ve you been?” I asked, handing him the beer that I held and heading to the refrigerator for another one.

  “Same here. But I didn’t see yo’ ass at Bishop’s for the game lately. What’s up with that shit? You know we’ve got a weekly standing game on Saturdays at noon.

  I grabbed my laptop from my recliner and sat it on the table in front of me. Propping my legs up on my ottoman, I popped open the top to my beer bottle and took a swig.

  When I’d finished, I set it on the little table beside me and looked at my brother. He was staring at me all crazy. I knew his ass was pissed that I was taking my time answering his question.

  “Yeah, about that. We haven’t played for the last couple of months. So, how you gon’ come up in here talking about a standing game?”

  “Well, I had a big project going on at work for the last few months, so I haven’t been able to make it. But I was back today, and yo’ ass wasn’t. Zy, Bishop, and ‘nem said you ain’t been coming around the last few months. They figured we’ve been hanging together, and I know that shit’s a lie. So, wassup? What’s her name?”

  “Who?”

  “The honey you’ve been hitting!” Darnell said, widening his eyes at me as if I were playing crazy.

  I chuckled. “You wild! Ain’t nobody been hitting up no honeys. I’ve been teaching Taekwondo.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Unnecessarily-big-as-fuck-muh’fucka! Who the hell are you fucking up? I know whoever you’re teaching is getting their ass kicked!”

  Shaking my head, I said, “Not quite. I teach it to women and ten to twelve-year-old kids on Saturdays.”

  “Damn, you need a woman.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you’ve got too much free time on your hands. Between working and MMA, wherein the hell do you find time to teach women and kids how to fight?”

  “It’s one day a week, Darnell. And I haven’t done MMA in a minute.”

  “That’s one day a week you can be racking up on all the pussy you can get!”

  I shook my head. “You know, sometimes, I swear your ass was adopted.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I don’t know how Mama and Daddy had two sane as fuck kids like Lauryn and me and then produced yo’ ignorant ass,” I said before taking another swig of my beer.

  “What the fuck ever! Anyway, what’re you getting into now?”

  “Chilling. I’ve had a long week. After I finished those classes this afternoon, I did my usual workout at the gym and ran some errands. Shit, I just got home about an hour ago. I’d just finished my shower when you rang the doorbell,” I said.

  “You need to hook back up with that Kim chick. I could tell her ass was a freak,” Darnell proclaimed, returning to his prior conversation.

  “Why, demented brother of mine, are you worried about who I’m fucking?”

  “Because your ass needs to get some. That’s why you’re so big. Pumping all those weights and shit, you’re so full of testosterone you don’t know what the fuck else to do,” Darnell said before turning his beer bottle up again.

  I shook my head. “Speaking of which. Are you and Gina still walking down the aisle in a few months?”

  He glanced at me out the corner of his eyes and then sucked his teeth.

  “She’s on some stupid shit again.”

  I chuckled.

  “So, the wedding’s being postponed again?” I asked.

  Gina was notorious for pushing the pause button whenever my brother didn’t act right. He had a great job as an engineer, made good money, had a nice home and car, and he was great at investing his money. But he wasn’t shit when it came to women.

  That was why I couldn’t figure out why he’d asked her to marry him in the first place. His wandering eye kept him in trouble. The problem was he didn’t want anybody else to have Gina either. He just wanted her and every other Sue, Tameka, and Claire, too.

  “She’s on some stupid shit right now. She swears up and down I’m not ready, and she’s wondering if our goals are aligned,” Darnell said, waving his hand.

  “What happened?”

  “She claims I was trying to holler at her friend, Jasmine.”

  “Were you?”

  He sucked his teeth again and then reached for the remote on my table.

  Laughing, I said, “Dude, you don’t go up in another motherfucker’s house and take his ‘mote and shit.”

  I reached out and snatched it from his hand.

  “You on some petty shit, Kole.”

  “Nah, not hardly. But did you?”

  “Look, I had no idea that was her friend,” Darnell said.r />
  “That’s some fuckboy shit, Darnell.”

  “What?”

  “How the hell are you gonna ask the girl to marry you, and yo’ ass ain’t ready? You should let her go’on and live her life, man,” I said, shaking my head and polishing off my beer.

  “Yeah, whateva,” he said, pushing off the couch and heading into my kitchen.

  “Why’d you come over here, anyway? To harass me? To eat all of my food?”

  “Shit, yo ass ain’t got nothing up in here!” he shouted back.

  “That’s because you ate all of my food!” I hollered back.

  “Bruh! I ain’t even been over here in the last couple of months!”

  The lights flickered before they went out completely.

  “You ain’t pay your damned light bill, Kole?”

  “Hell yeah. All of my bills are paid on time. The payments for every bill are automatically withdrawn every month,” I said, pushing off the recliner.

  “Do you have money in your account to cover them?” he asked, popping his head out of the kitchen.

  Pointing my finger at him, I said, “I won’t even dignify that with an answer.”

  I walked to my laundry room to the fuse box and opened it. Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I turned on the flashlight app and shone it inside.

  All the switches were flipped to the “on” position, so I knew a fuse hadn’t blown. But just to be on the safe side, I flipped them off and then on again.

  Nothing.

  “Shit!”

  Slamming the door closed, I frowned and walked back to the front of the apartment. I knew that all my bills had cleared my household expenses account. There was no way my shit was turned off.

  “Wasn’t a fuse, bruh?”

  “Nah.”

  “You sure yo’ ass paid the electric bill?” Darnell asked, stuffing a couple of Oreos he’d found into his mouth.

  I waved him off and headed for my balcony. There was no storm brewing, so it wasn’t like lightning had struck an electric pole.

  Opening the door to the balcony, the blast of heat from the sun hit me like a punch to the face. It was May, and hot as hell already.

  Leaning forward on my balcony, I looked down the street to the right and instantly saw the problem. At the corner, a bad accident had occurred. Someone’s car had flipped over, and another car had hit an electric pole.

  “Damn!” I said just as my doorbell rang.

  “I got it, man!” Darnell hollered.

  Shaking my head, I watched as people were running and trying to help. I pulled out my cellphone and dialed nine-one-one, which I was sure someone had already done. But just in case they hadn’t, I made the call. I sent a silent prayer that the victims would be okay.

  During my call, I learned that one person called just before I did. After finishing the call, I returned inside of my apartment to see an unexpected visitor.

  CHAPTER 10 – SILVER

  Drawing relaxed me. And for the first time in a while, I was sketching a new design. Something that had been elusive in the last month and a half. Come to think of it; I’d been struggling with a unique design concept since Kole had come to work for us. I liked to chalk that up to the fact that he’d been working me half to death, trying to get to the heart of what was causing our slumping sales and whatever else he had ticking off in that ongoing brain of his.

  But the truth was, it was far from that. The thing that had kept me from coming up with a new design was the same thing that kept me awake most nights. Reminiscing about Kole’s scent that permeated the air and tickled my nostrils all day. That heady aroma of melons and basil that created the most earthly and masculine of smells.

  Pitifully, I had spent an entire afternoon at the mall trying to track that scent down. I’d found it on the counter of Macy’s in the form of Polo Blue.

  Another thing that kept me from sleep was because I spent my nights trying to decipher what a particular comment he’d made meant.

  The other thing I’d been thinking about while lying awake were those broad shoulders and dark flashing eyes. Kole was a big man. A big, sexy man who liked being in control.

  Admittedly, he could be a bit arrogant and a bit of an ass at times, but I found myself attracted to those types. Hence, the one-night-stand with Ryan. But Kole was different. He wasn’t a total jerk like Ryan, and he was more genuine, more down to earth, and more confident than Ryan was.

  Plus, he was smart. And that was always worth ten points in my book.

  But I’d finally come up with a concept for a new design, and as I was sitting in my spare bedroom getting the details just right, the power had gone out. The sunlight filtering through on the backside of the building wasn’t bright enough to continue working.

  I had no idea what could’ve created the problem, so I’d checked out the fuse box. It clearly wasn’t that. But I had no idea what else it could be.

  I’d called down to the front desk of the building, and the switchboard was busy. At that point, I realized that it had to be impacting everyone in the building, and they were probably all calling down there.

  Frustrated and worried at the same time, I’d called my brother and my brother-in-law. Neither of them was available.

  Seok wasn’t at the salon with Sue this afternoon; he was out on a date. And Chung Hee had a line of customers waiting for him that he couldn’t walk away from. Sue had promised she would send him as soon as things slowed down at the salon.

  On a Saturday in May, that could be six hours from now, if then. Women were faithful about their manicures and pedicures in the spring and summer. It was my sister’s busiest time of the season, especially with graduation right around the corner, and some people still heading to prom.

  So, I’d done the only other thing that I knew to do. Took two flights of stairs down to Kole’s apartment. For a moment, I thought I had the wrong apartment when another guy answered the door.

  He sort of looked like Kole, but he wasn’t as tall or nowhere near as big. He was dark like Kole but probably about three inches shorter and didn’t have that same sex appeal. Kesha always referred to Kole as a Mandingo Warrior.

  I shook my head every time she said it. After a couple of conversations, I realized she had no idea Mandigo was the Mandinka. West African people of whom some were shipped to America in the sixteenth century and sold as slaves.

  His brother invited me in when I explained that I was a neighbor and co-worker of Kole’s. He introduced himself as Darnell, Kole’s brother, and wore a strange smile on his lips the entire time he stood checking me out while we waited for Kole to finish the call he was taking out on his balcony.

  I hoped for two things. One, that Kole had been able to get through to someone in the building about our electric issue. And two, that he would come into his apartment soon so that his brother could quit grinning like a Cheshire cat.

  Or maybe, he wouldn’t, I realized when Kole stepped into the apartment. I tried not to stare, but I couldn’t help it.

  Planting his hands on his hips, his biceps flexed in the muscle shirt he wore. My eyes dropped to his waistline, taking in the way his grey and white basketball shorts hung low on his hips. A Carolina Panthers baseball cap was turned backward on his head.

  His dark eyes were staring at me like he was trying to figure out a complex puzzle.

  “Silver?”

  “Hey, I was just checking to see if you knew anything about our electric situation,” I said, pointing up towards the ceiling where his lighting fixture was suspended.

  “Oh?” he said, looking from me to his brother.

  “I...uh...I didn’t have your number to call, so I dropped by. I couldn’t get in touch with the front desk. Figured a lot of people would be calling down there,” I explained nervously.

  Maybe I shouldn’t have come. I’d known it wasn’t a good idea when I first thought about it, but I’d just been looking for a reason to be around Kole. If I wasn’t careful, the man might start thinking I was creepy. H
ell, for all I knew, he could’ve been down here with a woman.

  “Not sure when it’ll be back on, but I know what caused it. There’s a bad accident out there on the corner. One car flipped over in the middle of the intersection, and another hit the utility pole, which is what caused this power outage. People in the building across the street are outside, as well as the folks at the corner deli down there,” he said.

  “Oh,” I replied, nodding my head. “Thanks.”

  He eyed me closely. “You’re welcome.”

  His brother was still grinning like a Cheshire cat looking back and forth between the two of us. Yeah, this was getting awkward. I guess I’d better go.

  “Well, um, thanks for that. I guess I’d better get back upstairs,” I said, making my way to the door.

  “Uh...Silver?”

  “Yeah?” I replied, turning around too quickly.

  “You can chill down here if you’d like. I mean, until the lights come on. I know that it’s the weekend, and we’re not officially working, but I’ve got some ideas I’d like to run by you,” Kole said.

  “Really?”

  Why did I have to sound so excited, I wasn’t sure. Thirsty much, Silver?

  “Yeah, come on in and have a seat. Would you like something to drink? Before anything gets too warm, you might as well grab it while it’s cold. I have no idea how long it’ll be before the utility company restores the power,” he said, moving towards the kitchen.

  “I’ll take bottled water if you’ve got one,” I said.

  “I do.”

  His brother was still smiling, but now he was following Kole to the kitchen. I sat twiddling my fingers while he retrieved the water.

  Although their conversation wasn’t loud, I could overhear them.

  “What the fuck?”

  “What?”

  “What’s with all this proper talk, dude?”

  “Man, don’t start that bullshit, D,” Kole said.

  “I’m just sayin’; yo’ ass don’t talk like that.”

  “This is work-related, D. I know yo’ ass don’t talk like this either, dog when you at work. What the fuck you want me to do,” Kole asked.

 

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