Chapter Seventeen – Caddy’s Problem
Chapter Seventeen – Caddy’s Problem
~Shontae~
For an hour after Likosa vanished, I sat alone, staring out the massive windows at freshly falling snow.
Whether my friends meant to give me the space or not, I appreciated the solitude; my mind was reeling.
I could still feel her presence—I even held on to that pink fur coat she’d left behind.
I buried my nose in it, inhaling her fragrance and allowing myself to hope for more.
This mysterious woman had walked into my life and changed everything without doing much at all.
And there I was, contemplating never seeing her again.
It hurt more to think about than any breakup I’d ever gone through.
I wouldn’t be able to just file this away as a failed experiment and move on with my life. It made no sense.
She got you down bad already?
That inner voice teased me as I tossed the coat aside, triggered by the sound of approaching laughter.
“Knock, knock!” Tayvion said in that instigating tone that meant she hoped to catch us in a compromising position, but I was alone. “Is it safe to come in?”
“Girl, stop it,” I fussed at the face poked through the cracked door with tightly squeezed eyes.
“I told her she was doing too much.” Cadence pushed Tayvion, who fell into the room, holding two bags of what smelled like wings.
“Excuse me for not trying to see my friend with her ass out!”
“Why would my ass be out, Tay?” I sucked my teeth.
“Don’t act like you weren’t looking at each other like clothes were about to hit the floor the second we stepped up out of here.”
“What did she say?” Cadence asked before I could say anything to Tay.
“She examined me.” I held my hand up to stop Tayvion, who I knew would have something crazy to say. “And what she suspected about the kiss is true. She left and is going to bring back a temporary solution, but we will have to do more to fix it permanently.”
“Okay, that’s good news, right?” Tayvion asked. “That means it can be fixed.”
“Yeah. That's great news.” Cadence nodded, picking up on what Tayvion meant. “So why do you look so sad?”
“I don't look sad, I'm just tired.” Shrugging, I sat back on the couch and pointed at the window. “It’s been a long day. Look, the sun is already about to set.”
“Sure.” Tayvion sat next to me. “We can go with that.”
“Can we talk about something else, please?” I dropped my hand. “How are you two doing?”
“Deflecting, but I'll take it. I love talking about myself.” Tay popped a fry she’d pulled from the bag into her mouth.
“But you know, things are going well over here. I’m in one of those moments when you don't really want to brag about how happy you are when both of your friends are clearly going through something.”
“Both?” Cadence looks shocked. “Who the hell said I was going through anything? Or do you have other friends we don’t know about?”
“Oh, girl, stop acting like we don't know you.
Outwardly, you appear fine, but there's something going on inside your head, maybe even in your heart.” Tayvion stood and pulled Cadence over to the couch to sit between us.
“I mean, ever since you said that guy dipped on you with that business venture, you've been kind of floating around.”
“Yeah, I noticed that too.” I put my hand on Cadence’s shoulder. “I was trying to give you the space to tell us when you were ready.”
“Let me remind you both, we’re supposed to be here to clear up Shontae's issues, not mine.”
“So you’re admitting there’s an issue?” I latched on to anything that would keep the focus off me.
“Girl, we can't do much more dissecting over there. Her magic is out of whack. We're waiting for the weird little witch to come back with the solution. What else is there to talk about?” Tayvion nudged her.
“Weird little witch?” I jutted my neck out. “Really?”
“I mean, what else are we calling her? We don't know what she is, right? All magical beings are witches until proven otherwise. That's my rule.” Tayvion threw her hands up and then turned to unbox the rest of the food, setting it out on the small table in front of the couch.
“Okay. We'll go with that for now, just so we're not distracted from Cadence.” I eyed the different wings. “She needs our help now.”
“Not you trying to use me! I told you, I’m fine,” Cadence fussed. “Besides, your abilities are all out of whack right now. We can’t rely on what you’re feeling. For all we know, you picked that up from someone else. Maybe it's residual information from Likosa.”
“Now that’s a stretch if I ever heard one. How’s your back feeling? Nice and limber now?” Tayvion laughed.
“She really trying to play in our faces, isn’t she?” I shifted off the couch to grab a plate. “Caddy, I don't need my abilities to know you're lying. We’re your friends, and we’re literally sitting in your safe space, so drop the act and tell us what's up.”
“Didn’t you just say you were going to give me time?”
“I said I wasn’t going to bring it up, but Tay already did, and now that it's out there, we need to talk about it.” I pointed at the plates. “You want some of this?”
Cadence nodded, and I went to work putting her plate together as she spoke.
“I didn’t say anything about it to you because I really don't know what it is.” She gave in.
“That one business venture fell through, true, but it’s not the first one that didn’t work out and, odds are, it won’t be the last. Usually, I bounce back from things like this, but this time, I can’t.
I keep trying to refocus, find new projects to work on, but honestly, I’m just going through the motions now. ”
“It’s that bad?” I asked as I handed her the plate.
“Suddenly, I had this break in my calendar, and I didn't know how to fill it, you know? I tried traveling, but that didn't work. I tried fucking, and while it was fun, that didn't work. By the way, I’ll have to catch y’all up on Dericus. He’s a troll, and he’s kind of obsessed with me now. I really don't know what's going on.”
“You’ve been holding back a troll from us?” Tayvion slapped Cadence on the leg. “Oh, you’re in big trouble. Fussing at me for my vampires.”
“I know.” She shook her head.
“Is this like a midlife crisis?” Tayvion asked. “Do fae even have those? I mean, you’re still pretty young. You shouldn’t be suffering from that for at least a few hundred years, right? Is this something I have to worry about?”
“Is she really old enough to be considered midlife?” I scratched my chin. “I mean, how long do your people live?”
“I am not claiming this as a midlife crisis.” Cadence pointed at us. “It’s just a moment of crisis. I lost my way, and I need to find a path back.”
“Did you like the guy? The one who went missing. Were you hoping something would happen there?” I suggested. “Suddenly losing a love interest like that can be jarring.”
“Don’t get me wrong, Raymond was good, and he looked fine as hell, but I wasn't interested in him in that way.
There's something shifty about him. It was like a puzzle I couldn't solve.
Maybe that's it. I never got the answer to the question I had about him,” she explained.
“He popped up out of nowhere and took to his business quickly. When I looked into his background, I found nothing; everything he was doing was legit and highly profitable. Figured I could get to know him, make some money, and solve a mystery. It added a thrill to the game.”
“It sounds like you might just be bored with what you’re doing,” Tayvion said. “I mean, you got into business with a shady guy for the thrill? That doesn’t sound like something my friend would do.”
“She’s right,” I said. “You’re always so cautious about everything. Maybe this means it's time for a change.”
“What do you mean?” Cadence frowned. “I love what I do.”
“Two things can be true at the same time.” I returned to my seat next to her, balancing my plate on my knee.
“Cadence, you've been doing the same thing for a long time, building businesses into empires and selling them off.
You never stick with them long enough to experience the lows, the thrill of the pivot, rebrand, and rebuild.
“That could be why this new thing with Raymond felt exciting to you. You weren’t just starting from scratch, using a tried-and-true formula.
You two were supposed to be getting into businesses that needed that pivot.
I think you love what you do, but you’re bored, and you need to find a way to make it thrilling again.
You’re looking at a moment in your life when you have to shift. ”
“I hate to admit how unsettling that sounds.” Cadence leaned back, tossing her arms over her face.
“I should be ready to face this head-on. I’m the problem solver, not the woman who runs from them.
But this time, it feels different. Whenever I’ve had to be innovative in my life, I’ve done it, no problem. This time, it feels crushing.”
“Trust me, I know the feeling. I've been doing a lot of shifting lately.” Tay sighed. “Career, personal, emotional, all of it. It's scary, but it's necessary if we're ever going to get to where we really want to be. I think we’re just at that age when it hits. You know, most of the successful black women I’ve been following lately—I did a feed cleanse and removed all the drama content creators. I want to see what I want to be. If I’m feeling dramatic, I’ll read it in a book! But, most of the women I follow now say they were around our age when they hit their stride. They had to pivot and approach issues differently. That’s when things took off!
We’re all right there. Look at Shon. Same thing, just with a magical flare to it. ”
“I've always had such a clear vision of what my life would look like for as long as I can remember, you know? I knew the plan, I knew the timeline, I had everything mapped out. Now, out of the blue, I look at the picture, and it doesn’t look like I belong in it anymore. The plan looks like someone else made it.”
“Caddy, you’re not the same person you were when you made that plan.” I pulled her hand into mine. “You’re allowed to evolve, and when that happens, your goals will do the same.”
“She’s right!” Tayvion jumped up and vanished for a moment, and when she returned, she had the massive whiteboard that lived in her home office. “Let’s work on designing a new map for you while we wait for Likosa to return.”
“You can’t be serious.” Cadence straightened. “You want us to do this now?”
“What else do we have to do?” Tayvion looked at me, and I hopped up, clapping my hands like an eager cheerleader.
“Tay’s right. It's time for a think tank. The operation is to figure out what's next for our friend Caddy!”
“And if we have some time leftover, we can figure out a classification for that Likosa chick.” Tayvion pursed her lips. “I’m not taking alien off the list just yet.”
“Caddy, please, save me!” I begged.
“Fine.” She stood and shook a piece of chicken at us. “But let me eat first?”