Chapter 22
TWENTY-TWO
Alex
It is six thirty, and I’ve been standing across the street from Mona’s apartment building for a good twenty minutes already.
I can see my breath every time I open my mouth, and my extremities are numb from the cold.
The only smart thing I did was to put a knitted hat on my head, so at least my ears don’t feel like they’re about to fall off despite the brain freeze I am experiencing.
Today has been a total waste. I went to the office, where I achieved absolutely nothing. All I could think about was Mona and whether she’d meet me today, all while trying to avoid calling her number since I already know that I am still blocked.
Now, as I pace the sidewalk, I pray. It is a weird feeling, asking God for a favor when I don’t even believe that he exists.
I walk down the sidewalk until I reach the end of the building, then turn back around. I do the same, over and over again, realizing how ridiculous it is that I came here this early.
“Hey, weirdo!”
A voice calls out in the distance, but I ignore them since they can’t be referring to me. With hands in my pockets and shoulders hunched over, I continue pacing.
“Yo, I’m talking to you, asshole!” Something hits the back of my head. It’s not hard enough to do any damage, but enough to grab my attention and then some.
I look back just in time to see a guy hanging off a second story window. He looks angry as hell, his eyes boring into the side of my head.
I raise my chin at him, the attitude obvious in the move. “How can I help you?”
“You can help me by going the fuck away,” he yells. “My woman needs to take out the dog, and she’s been waiting for half an hour now for you to go away.”
I open my arms and make a production of looking around. “How am I stopping her from walking the dog?”
“You creep around! She’s scared of coming downstairs.”
I roll my eyes. “Well, maybe if you were a real man, you’d walk the damn dog yourself. It’s way too cold for her to do it anyway.”
The white of his eyes stands out even more against his dark skin when they bulge out of his head.
Suddenly, he disappears from the window, which then slams shut.
Blowing some air into my hands to warm them up, I resume my pacing.
This wasn’t my best idea, and the cold seeping into my bones prove it.
A door slams somewhere, and quick steps echo onto the sidewalk. Too late I realize that they’re rushing at me. A heavy hand lands on my shoulder, turning me around.
“Say it to my fuckin’ face, you motherfucker!”
The guy from the window is now in my face, to the point where our noses almost touch. I try not to lose my cool because I don’t have time to get into a fight. The guy takes my silence as a challenge.
“I’m gonna show you right now how real of a man I am,” he yells into my face again. “You gonna be waiting for your crack delivery with no teeth,” he threatens.
I pull back a little. “My crack delivery?”
I’ve never done drugs in my life, and I am offended that he thinks that I do.
This guy eyes me up and down. “You seem to be the type,” he declares.
“The fuck I do!” Steam from my breath floats around before it dissipates.
“The fuck you don’t,” he retorts.
I blink a couple of times, unsure of what else to say. The last time I got into a street fight, I was in college, and I don’t even remember what it was about.
“Dude, go along with me on this.” The guy leans closer when he speaks. “My girl’s watching, and she’ll yell at me if she thinks I didn’t stand up for her.”
I shake my head in confusion. “But I didn’t even do anything. I’m just waiting for my girlfriend.”
It feels so natural calling Mona my girlfriend, and I sure hope I can pull this off and make her my girlfriend again.
“Well, you look like a creep walking back and forth for hours,” he deadpans.
“Hours?” I snort. “Earlier you said half an hour, and by now, it’s got to be maybe forty minutes.”
“Yeah,” he nods. “That’s fucking weird. Go home. Or better yet, go up to your woman’s apartment. Unless…” His eyes me suspiciously. “Are you stalking this girl? Cause I’ll kick your ass, then call the crackheads to finish you off.”
I fight the urge to laugh. “I thought I was the crackhead.”
“And a stalker?”
This time, I do laugh because the entire situation is beyond ridiculous.
“Darian, everything okay?” a woman calls out, presumably from the same window he yelled at me.
“Yeah, baby,” he responds. “Just setting this fucker straight.” He then looks back at me. “What are you doing walking back and forth like that? And why can’t you go to your girl’s place if what you say is true?”
I stick my hands back in my pockets and shrug as I look away. “I’m supposed to pick her up at seven. I told her I’d wait outside her building.”
“Seven?” He frowns and brings his phone up. “Why you come out so early? It’s fuckin’ cold out.”
I grin at him. “Told you so.”
He throws a glance toward the building. “What floor is she on?”
“She’s in the building across the street,” I explain.
He gives me a puzzled look. “Then why don’t you go back and forth on her sidewalk? You got my woman all wigged out, and now I’m out here, freezing my balls for no reason other than to pretend like I’m kicking your ass on her behalf.”
“Sorry to inconvenience you,” I smirk back.
He eyes me up and down like he can’t believe what he’s hearing.
“Why aren’t you picking her up from her door, like a real man?” he challenges.
His words sting a little, but not as much as one would think. It’s a fair question.
“Because I promised her that I’d wait for her down here.”
He pulls back a little. “This a date, or what?”
Again, fair question, very complicated answer.
“It’s a date,” I say. “She just doesn’t know it.”
He takes a couple of steps back and pats at the pockets of the coat he’s wearing.
“Damn, I don’t have my phone,” he mumbles to himself.
I instinctively pull mine out. “Do you need to use mine?”
He eyes me up and down again. “Uh, yeah, but it would be kinda fuckin’ awkward considering I need to call the police on you.”
“What? Why?” I forget all about my cold extremities as my breath floats around when I speak.
“Why?” he laughs incredulously. “Because you’re obviously stalking this girl, man.” He throws his arms toward the building where Mona lives. “You’re a damn freak.” He pauses for a second. “Unless she’s super hot. She hot?”
“I’m not stalking. I am waiting,” I yell back. “And yeah, she’s hot.”
He puffs his chest, ready to attack. “Then why the fuck have you been creepin’ up and down my sidewalk for the last hour?”
My head is about to explode, and there’s a good chance I might end up in a fist fight with this asshole who decided to insert himself into my business.
“I’m not fuckin’ creepin’! I am trying to get her back, and I promised I would wait here for her so there’s no pressure if she doesn’t want to come at all. I am giving her space!”
I am breathing heavy by the time I’m done yelling my shit to the ass. He doesn’t say anything at first while he squints his eyes in suspicion, scanning me up and down.
“Where are the flowers?”
That is the last thing I thought he’d ask, and to say that his question throws me off does not begin to cover it. I open my arms wide as I stare at him.
“What the hell flowers?”
He opens his mouth to answer when a woman pops up at his side. I almost jump back from being startled. She has the most amazing curly hair that’s so high up, I bet it gives her at least another four inches in height.
“Darian, what the hell is going on here?” she snaps at the guy in front of me. “You said you’d be taking care of this. Lulu almost went on the carpet.”
He wraps a protective arm around her and pulls her into him.
It is a move filled with affection and familiarity, and I’m jealous as hell.
I don’t even remember ever being like this with Mona, at least not in public.
It’s startling to realize that my friends are right; I really did treat her like crap.
“He’s not a criminal,” Darian points at me. “In fact, I’m pretty sure you could take him out, babe.”
They both snick at that last part as I roll my eyes, pulling my hat lower over my eyes when a gust of wind comes out of nowhere.
“He says he’s got a girl in the building across the street. He’s trying to win her back by waiting for her here.”
Darian’s lady eyes me like I’m slow. “That’s stupid. Is this a date?”
“That’s what I asked, too!” he hold his hand up for her to high five him, excited that they’re both on the same page. “And he said yes.”
“No flowers?” The disgust in her tone is obvious. And damn it, she’s right. Why didn’t I think of bringing her flowers? Did I ever even do that for her? I really don’t remember ever getting her flowers.
She notices my startled look and shakes her head at me. “Why did she break up with you?”
My mouth goes dry as panic sets in. “She didn’t. I broke up with her.”
“Does she even want you back?”
The way she asks the question implies that she thinks the answer is no. Unfortunately, I am leaning that way as well.
“Darian,” she snaps at her boyfriend. “Walk Lulu. Make sure she goes.”
I just notice the smallest dog in existence that she’s been holding. The beady eyes staring back at me look scary as shit. She passes the dog to Darian like it is the most precious thing, then turns around and goes back inside the building without another glance back.
“I can’t believe that’s a dog,” I tell Darian once it’s just the two of us.
His face stretches into the biggest grin, with his teeth looking incredibly white against the dark skin.
“She’s my baby.” He drops a kiss onto the dog’s head. “Good luck, man. I’m sure your balls are frozen and incapacitated, but make the best of it.”
As far as conversations with strangers goes, this was a weird one, but I’ve had weirder. Living in the city of New York is not for the faint of heart. At least my life was not in imminent danger that I could see.
I check the time surprised to see that it is now seven oh-five.
“Fuck,” I whisper to myself. Mona’s not coming. I’m sure she wouldn’t have left me hanging like this if she wanted to come with me. With that said, I did promise her that I would wait until seven fifteen, so that leaves me with another ten minutes of freezing my ass off on the sidewalk.
Sadness and despair invade my very soul as I start pacing again. I know that I should leave her alone, allow us both to move on. But there’s this nagging in my head that tells me I will regret it for the rest of my life if I give up now.
Taking my cell out of the pocket of my coat, I check the time. Six more minutes passed, bringing me closer to when time’s up.
“Hey, creepy dude!”
I turn around on instinct, only to come face to face with my new buddy Darian’s girlfriend. Energy exudes from every inch of her short stature as she pushes something in my hand. When I look down, I find myself holding one red rose.
“You’re lucky that my man loves me and got me flowers. I broke my perfect dozen to give you one,” she points at the rose. “Now shoo,” she moves her hand back and forth. “Leave my sidewalk so I can walk my Lulu in peace.”
She doesn’t give me time to acknowledge her kind gesture or respond in any way. Instead, she spins on her heels and takes off after her man who’s quite a ways away by now.
Staring at the lone red rose in my hand, I remain standing on the edge of the sidewalk, facing the street. I raise my head when a hear a horn from a car driving by, and once it passes, I realize what’s waiting for me on the other side of the street.
Mona is in front of the door to her building, up on the tips of her high heeled boots, looking from side to side, a small frown scrunching her forehead.
I bring my phone back up to check the time. It flips to seven fifteen right as I do that. This is the time I told her I’d leave if she didn’t show, but I was honestly bracing myself for waiting much longer, just in case.
There’s a lump in my throat when she finally looks ahead and our eyes clash. First there’s confusion, followed by recognition, then confusion again.
Letting out a long breath of air, I look both ways before taking off in a light jog to cross the street. With each step I take, I am closer to her, and my heart feels like it’s about to jump out of my chest.
“Hey,” I say when I am close enough for her to hear me. “You came.” Steam from my breath floats in front of my mouth.
She watches me with wide eyes. “I thought you’d left already.”
Her voice is barely a whisper and a lot more emotional than I am used to hearing from her. She drops her eyes down the length of my body until they reach my hands.
“Is that…” She points at me when her voice gives up on her. “Is that for me?”
I drop my chin to my chest and see the red rose I’m holding. I don’t even know how to give it to her since that’s never been me. Not to mention, I didn’t even make the effort of buying it.
“It is.”
I raise my hand and give it to her. The smile lighting up her entire face about knocks me off my feet. Why didn’t I ever see her like this?
Our eyes meet, and something shifts in my chest. I see a future with her that scared me to death before. I am scared to death that I will somehow ruin it because she won’t let me have it.
Or, I won’t know how to earn it and keep it.