19. Legacy
Legacy
I spent the remainder of the weekend holed up in the house.
I had called Zenobia and told her about what happened, and her exact words were, “Lord, bless it.” She was shocked that Josi had done that to her sister, but she was like me; it wasn’t Mauri’s place to intervene between the two sisters, especially considering that she and Eliana weren’t good friends like that.
After spending all day Sunday in bed, with brief intermissions to use the bathroom and answer the door for the Uber Eats driver for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I was well-rested on Monday.
The physical, mental, and spiritual exhaustion that hung over me like a dark cloud on Saturday night was no longer in sight.
I had to let grown people be grown people.
We were all adult enough to make our own choices, Legend included.
If Josi wanted to creep with her sister’s ex, that was on her.
If Mauri wanted to create confusion between the two sisters, that was on her.
And if Legend wanted to creep around behind my back, then so be it.
I had washed my hands of it all. I deserved better than what any of them were giving, and I was determined to steer clear of negative energy.
Although that was my mindset, my heart ached and longed to see Legend and to hear his voice.
I would be a lying fool if I stated that I didn’t miss that man, because I truly did.
I headed back downstairs at lunch on Monday afternoon, around one thirty, for a late lunch.
I had been caught up in doing some research on a corporate sexual harassment case for a client.
My stomach had growled so loudly that Sendya, the paralegal who was sitting in the research library beside me, glanced my way and then offered me her granola bar.
I was a little flushed by the time that I got to the bottom of the stairs. I was lethargic and didn’t have much energy because I had eaten breakfast at six. A smile lit my face when I discovered that the café was still open.
Rushing inside, my face lit up when I saw they were serving lasagna today. I loved Italian food, and the vendor of choice at the café today was a little Italian couple. Zito’s was a popular Italian restaurant that often came as one of the vendors to our office building.
“Hello, Luisa,” I greeted, walking up to the station.
“Hi, Legacy. What can I get for you today?”
“I’ll take the veggie lasagna with a Caesar salad, some garlic knots instead of the bread, and some sweet tea.”
“Okay, coming right up.” She began fixing my plate, and my stomach growled loudly again.
“We’ve got some Italian wedding cake. Would you like a slice?” she offered.
“I’d better not. I can’t afford to gain another pound, or I’ll be shopping for a new wardrobe.”
“I doubt that with the way you’ve been hustling up those steps lately,” a voice stated beside me.
I spun around to see Courtland, Legend’s best friend, and one of the name partners in the architecture firm that he worked at.
“Hey, Courtland. What’ll you be having today?” Luisa asked.
“Same as her,” he stated, jerking his thumb at me.
“Hey, stranger. How are you?”
“I’m doing well. But nobody’s seen hide or hair of you. So who’s really the stranger?”
“You two make a gorgeous couple,” Luisa declared.
I blushed, and Courtland responded, “Thanks, Luisa, but this is my boy’s girl. He’d kick my as—butt if he saw me trying to kick it with her.”
“Luisa, mind your manners,” her husband Joseph called from his place at the register.
“What? I just call it like I see it,” she countered.
“I’m not your boy’s anything,” I muttered to Courtland as I accepted my plate from Luisa’s hands while Joseph rang up my order.
“Hey, Joseph. Put her order on my tab.”
“You don’t need to do that.”
“You make a cuuute couple. And if he’s paying for your meals, then you should definitely consider going on a date with him,” Luisa stated.
“Luiiisaa,” Joseph groaned.
“Okay. All right already.” She finished fixing Courtland’s plate, and I waited until he had paid for our lunches and retrieved his container.
We walked out of the café together and back into the lobby.
“Listen, I don’t have all the details, but I know that he’s missing you.”
“No, he’s not. He’s missing the woman he was cheating with.”
“What woman, Legacy?”
“The woman he was out with at Cisaro’s Cuisine the weekend before last.”
“What did she look like?”
“About my height. Brown-skinned with dark brown hair with caramel highlights.”
“Did she have freckles on her face?”
I bobbed my head. “She did. The only reason I remember is that it’s odd for a black woman of her color. Why?”
“That was his ex-wife, Kali.”
“And? He wants a hero cookie for it or something? I mean, if he was considering getting back with her, then he should have said something to me. He didn’t need to distance himself from me the way that he did and all of a sudden start lying to me about where he would be.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That he had an appointment.”
“What date was this?”
“I don’t know the date. It was two Fridays ago.”
“The sixteenth.”
“And?”
He sighed and shook his head. “That was the date that Kali miscarried their baby. It was the second anniversary of her death.”
“Her?”
“Yeah. They were having a girl.”
“He never told me that.” Shame and regret flowed through me. I wanted to disappear.
“I’m surprised that he told you anything at all.
He doesn’t like to talk about it with anyone, and if it weren’t for his family and me knowing that they were expecting, I doubt we would know anything about the miscarriage either.
He’s dated women since then, but he’s never told anyone about that baby.
That tells me that his feelings for you run deep. ”
I felt bad. An unease worked its way deep inside of me, and if I hadn’t felt foolish the day that it happened, I truly felt foolish now. I showed my ass on that man and his ex during a very important time.
“It’s difficult for both of them. I know that they’re not getting back together, but what I do know is that they are there for each other on the anniversary. They were, on the first.”
“And they were on the second, and they will probably be on all subsequent anniversaries.”
Courtland shook his head. “I’m not gonna debate that with you. But I can promise you that if he had someone he could lean on, he wouldn’t be there with her.”
“I thought that she was involved with someone else.”
“She is. She’s getting married to her boss. But I doubt that he understands the pain they’re both going through. It may be natural for them to reach out to each other on that day. Don’t kick him out.”
“He kind of kicked me out, Courtland. He doesn’t call or text anymore.”
“From what I heard, neither do you.”
“He doesn’t even take the stairs anymore. I’m not even sure if he’s here most times.”
“He is at times and not at others. The only reason that he took the stairwell in the first place was because of you. Those stairs were kicking my man’s ass.”
I chuckled. “You want to take them with me now?”
“Still scared of the elevator, huh?”
“I’m not fooling with them.”
“All right. I’ll let you get to it. I’m taking the elevators. I’m not built like either one of y’all.”
“Man, please. What are you talking about? You’re in great shape.”
“Don’t let the looks fool ya. Anyway, I’m gonna get back. I hope to see you around at game nights again soon.”
“Yeah, well, take care,” I stated softly and turned to head toward the stairwell.
I climbed the first flight and took my time climbing them, trying to get my emotions together. I kept thinking that I should have given Legend the benefit of the doubt. How could I ever go to him now and ask for forgiveness? I felt like a fool.
I tried to drum up a plan as I walked up the twelve flights of stairs. When I reached my floor, I realized I didn’t need to come up with any plan at all.
He looked so good in his dove gray suit with his light pink button-down shirt underneath. His tie was dove gray with soft pink pinstripes. He was sitting on the top step with his elbows resting on his knees.
Every part of him was beautiful, from his light caramel coloring to those russet brown eyes that flickered with danger. But what I missed the most about his appearance were those tattoos that covered his body.
“Thought you might need this,” Legend stated, holding a water bottle out to me as a peace offering.