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Everyone raised their hands, except Martha.
“You can’t run unopposed on a ballot no one knew we were voting on!” she yelled.
“We can and just did,” Zach said. “The ayes carry it.”
Bill clapped his hands together loudly like he was a human gavel.
I heard Jessie chuckling, and I was right along with her.
Seriously, I loved this place.
“Second item on the agenda, the two-bedroom unit that’s coming up for rent since Maggie’s being permanently relocated to Seattle,” Zach announced.
I’d only met Maggie a couple of times. Her job required a lot of travel. So much so, she’d been on an extended assignment in Seattle for months.
And apparently, now, it’d be for a lot longer.
“Maggie’s leaving?” Sally cried in shock and despair.
In case you hadn’t noticed, we had a tight-knit group. This was one of the reasons why it was the best apartment complex in all of Phoenix.
“What is this?” Martha demanded. “The whole reason we’re here is to discuss the crazy shit that Raye, Luna, Harlow, Jessie, Shanti and Willow are up to their necks in.”
Bill took the microphone from Zach. “That’s item five on the agenda.”
“Item five?” Martha spluttered. “It should be item one!”
Bill ignored her and said to the crowd. “Now, we got two couples who are probably eyeing that unit, Alexis and Jacob, and Raye and Cap. Raye and Cap squeaked by Alexis and Jacob in becoming a couple by, our estimation, a couple of days. Since this is so close, we thought we’d give the floor to a member of each couple to state their case before the decision is carried on who gets that unit.”
Raye looked to Cap.
Cap was looking at his boots.
I didn’t know how to take that until he lifted his head, and I saw him smiling.
Raye stood. “I didn’t know the unit was opening, or that we’d be put on the spot to stake our claim, so I haven’t discussed this with Cap. But Harlow organized the shit out of our pad, and it’s working. So?—”
What she said after that was drowned out when Patsy shrieked, “What’s that?”
Everyone looked her way.
But Patsy was staring at Alexis, who was blushing so profusely, I felt the need to run and get my thermometer.
Martha stormed to where Alexis was sitting, seized her left hand, lifted it in the air, and shook it.
I gasped.
There was a huge diamond on her ring finger.
“Are you two secretly engaged?” Martha accused.
“It’s not a secret when my woman is wearing my rock,” Jacob drawled, all leaned back in his chair like he just ate the best Thanksgiving dinner ever, his arm slung around the back of Alexis’s seat.
“Jacob asked me last night, after the police left,” Alexis announced shyly. “Obviously, I totally said yes.”
That must have been why Jacob was scowlier than usual when he found out stuff was going down with the Angels. We were ruining his pop-the-question jam.
“Oh my God!” I squealed, jumping up, dumping my plate on my seat, handing Javi my drink, and dashing toward Alexis.