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He beeped the locks.
I rushed to get in the truck.
He was there when I went to close my door. He handed me the food and closed it for me.
I remained silent.
I was able to sustain this on the drive home. I was even able to sustain it when he parked, we both got out, I tried the rushing thing again but failed when he caught me by the back of my dress, and I had no choice but to come to an abrupt halt and do so without say, yelling at him or something. I continued to sustain it when he took the food from me and flattened his hand against the small of my back to guide me to the gate.
Since his hands were busy, I punched the code in.
I knew we were in for it the minute I saw Martha, Linda and Patsy hanging out by the pool.
Linda and Patsy were lovely.
Martha was Martha. She wasn’t lovely, as such. She was a woman who had no filter, but when the rubber met the road, she’d be your ride or die.
Though, just like the Oasis residents that were out last night, they all took one look at us, and even though Martha’s mouth was opened to say something (per her protocol), she shut it the instant she saw Javi guiding me to my apartment.
I was me (indeed!), so I called, “Hey!”
“Uh…hey,” Linda called in return.
Patsy just started grinning madly.
Martha’s stare turned into a glare.
I hustled us to my door. I let us in. I was mildly surprised I tripped on something on the way to my tulip lamp, seeing as there was nothing in that trajectory to trip over. I hit the foot switch. Javi and I took one look at the state of my apartment.
I gasped loudly as my lungs hollowed out.
Javi growled.
He then grabbed hold of my hand and dragged me right back out of my apartment, through the courtyard, with Linda, Martha and Patsy watching, to Jacob’s apartment (Jacob was an Oasis resident first, NI&S recruited him from his contractor job to be one of their men later). Javi pounded on the door.
Jacob opened it looking like he wanted to murder somebody, which was no surprise. I’d just learned that Javi could pound on a door like no other.
But he took in Javi, me, went alert, Javi shoved me at him, Jacob caught me, and Javi ordered, “Look after her. I’ll be back.”
He dropped our bag of food in my hands then he jogged back across the courtyard.
To my ruined apartment.
SEVEN
“CRANES IN THE SKY”
(SOLANGE)
I sat on Jacob’s couch shoving spicy chicken bites into my face while Alexis, Jacob’s girlfriend, flittered around me being caring and supportive. Jacob stood off to the side with his hands on his hips and a ferocious frown on his face, and Javi talked to the two police officers that showed after Javi returned from going to inspect my wreck of an apartment.
Unsurprisingly, my adorable green and white striped glass mushroom hadn’t survived what looked like a tornado that had gone through my living room.
I bought that mushroom before I moved in. That was just months ago. I loved that thing, and I didn’t know if they had any left at the store so I could replace it.
On this despairing thought, I rammed another chicken bite into my mouth as one of the police officers said, “Alvarez is not gonna like this.”
“Alvarez can take a fuckin’ number,” Javi returned.