“Durbin couldn’t stop looking at you. No doubt.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whateva. The only two things I liked about him was his height and his button-down chambray shirt. I’m not interested. His afro is too unruly and I’m not into nerds. Not now, not later, not ever. Nice try. I’m not in the mood for investing my time and energy into another dead-end relationship. Now get back to the table. Let me know you made it home safe.” Olivia hugged Savvy and headed to the car.
“We’ll see. Check out Durbin again. I’ll send you a message. Try not to worry too much about tomorrow.” Savvy hustled back inside the wine bar as Olivia slid into her car and drove home.
ELEVEN
Savvy
Ping.
Ping.
Ping.
Back to back text messages aroused Savvy from sleep before the phone began to ring. She groaned, rolled to the side of the bed, and groped to find it on her nightstand.
She squinted as she raised the phone close enough to her eyes to read without her contact lenses. An unknown number appeared on the screen.
Savvy rejected the call and tossed the phone on the nightstand. She flipped onto her side and yanked the covers to her neck. After letting a deep breath out, sleep crept in with ease.
The ring of the phone interrupted her dreams. Savvy snatched it from the nightstand and answered with a yell, “Who is this?” Blaring rap music met her ear. “Turn your damn music down,” she bellowed.
“No need to be upset, sweetie,” Kolby murmured and lowered the volume on his stereo. “I told you I would call you this morning.”
“It is four twenty-one in the morning. I know you don’t think this is okay,” Savvy seethed.
“I couldn’t stop worrying about you since you were out drinking with your college friends last night. You didn’t respond to any of my text messages. I needed to hear your voice and make sure nothing happened to you.”
Savvy’s nostrils flared with a sharp inhalation followed by a forced huff of air. She raised from her pillow, awake with anger and disbelief. “I am fine, Kolby. Do not call or text me in the middle of the night ever again. Do you understand me?”
“No harm meant, sweetie. I didn’t get much sleep. I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”
“So, you figured you’d wake me up since you couldn’t sleep?”
“I had to get on the highway to head to my next pickup. I’m hoping you’ll keep me company with your conversation while I drive.” Kolby sounded like he did nothing wrong.
Savvy glared at the phone as if he could see her expression. “No. I will not be talking to you on your drive. I’m going back to sleep.”
“You must be one of those people who needs at least eight hours of sleep, huh?” Kolby laughed. “I bet you have to have coffee as soon as you wake up. What time did you go to bed? I assumed you would’ve called me once you got home.”
“I told you I wasn’t going to call you last night. When I said we could talk tomorrow, I didn’t mean at this time of the morning,” Savvy said with a sharpening tone of voice. “I’m not trying to be awake right now.”
“Oh. I guess you and your friends hung out all night, huh?
Is that why you’re tired?” Kolby asked.
Savvy adjusted the scarf on her braids and considered cussing Kolby out. “Look. It’s none of your business when I got home. We don’t even know each other for me to have to report in to you.”
“Sweetie. Ain’t nobody asking you to report in. I didn’t mean to get you upset by me checking on you. Isn’t this what real men do?”
“What real men do is wait until a decent time to call a woman,” Savvy snapped.
“I see. My apologies. Well, since you’re awake anyway, how about staying on the phone with me.”
“Are you kidding? You aren’t serious, right?”
“Yeah, I’m for real. The drive is about four hours. We’ll learn a lot about each other.”
“Kolby. You need to call someone else to chat it up with. I am not available. I’m going back to bed and turning my phone off. Goodbye.” Savvy clicked the end button and threw her hands in the air in disgust. She powered her phone off and tossed it back onto the nightstand.
Savvy fluffed the covers and flopped back onto the stacked feather pillows. “Please let this man lose my number,” she mumbled. Dreams about Pharrell began to reel her back into a blissful sleep.
TWELVE
Olivia
Sunlight peeped through the clouds and brightened the day after a rainstorm passed. To her delight, the presence of a vibrant rainbow popped above the trees and lifted the dreariness in her mind. “Thank you, God, for letting me know you are in full control.”
Olivia squinted from the sun beaming through the raindrops on the car windows. She’d been roleplaying with herself how the conversation with the kids might go. After fifteen minutes of sitting in the parking lot of the apartment complex where Malcolm and the kids lived, the time had come to go inside.
The buildings were in mediocre shape, and the property lacked maintenance. The dumpster overflowed with trash. Garbage collectors must’ve missed weeks of pick-up from the way it appeared. The stench seeped through her car vents and overwhelmed her from the moment she drove into the parking lot.
Olivia detested the fact the kids lived here with Malcolm for as long as they did. He claimed he couldn’t afford to move them anywhere else. She knew he could’ve done better than this hazardous waste of a place.
She drew in a deep breath and let it out in a slow calculated way to refocus on what she should tell Simone and Christian without upsetting them.
Olivia placed her hands in a prayer pose. “God. I know you are the regulator of this crazy situation. If his poor excuse for a woman is in the apartment, please keep me from going upside her head. Jesus,
