33. Isaac
33
Isaac
Home Depot was going up on a Monday.
I didn’t expect to get caught up in a crowd while I was up here handling business, but here I was, waiting almost an hour in line to buy my cart full of shit after class.
Am I in love?
Had to be, at this point. A nigga was at a home improvement store learning shit instead of sitting at home getting high. But love was alright. It was kinda cool, actually. I was gonna keep it to myself for now, though. I didn’t wanna scare Zay away, especially since things were going well. As well as they could be minus my unfulfilled desire to stomp a mudhole in her ex-boyfriend.
Once I got all my shit unloaded at home, I logged onto my laptop and got some shit done. It felt good to be productive, and not the kind of productive I used to be at Jackson. This here was my own shit, which went to my bottom line, which was a foundation for my future.
Hopefully Zay stuck with me through the build.
Matter of fact, I grabbed my phone to call her, surprised to see I had four missed calls from her.
My heart pounded while I waited for her to pick up, my mind immediately thinking the worst.
When she answered the phone with a wail, my heart sank.
“What happened, Zay? Are you okay?”
“I’m getting fired!”
“What?! What the fuck happened?”
“Somebody reported me anonymously.”
“Reported what ?”
“That I’m dating you.”
“I’m not your client anym—“
“It doesn’t matter! You’re still in our system. It’s against the rules. I…I knew better.” The crying stopped, but her sniffles pricked at me.
“Fuck. I’m so sorry, baby.”
Her silence unnerved me.
“Let me handle this, Zay. All I need is a name.”
“And I just might give it to you if I knew for sure. But I don’t.”
There was more silence, then the sound of her sighing. “Well, my sister said they talked about it at the barbecue, and my ex was there, but—“
“What’s his last name?” I gritted, already connecting the dots.
“No.”
“You know I can find it on my own. It’s just quicker to get it from you.”
“No, Isaac. You’re doing so well.”
“I’ll be doing even better if you let me handle this.”
“I’m on leave until they finish investigating,” she said, powering through my demands. “There’s nothing to handle at this point. It’s done.”
“Fuck. Baby, I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. It’s mine.” She started crying again, which set me off.
I did my best to keep my tone even when I said, “What do you need from me?”
“Nothing.” She cleared her throat. “It’ll be okay. I’m not even gonna worry about it. These things always work themselves out.”
I closed my eyes. I could see her in my head, squaring her shoulders, lifting her chin toward the sky, and painting on a smile.
“Hang in there, Zay. I’ll call you later.”
The crack in her voice when she said, “Okay,” made my chest hurt, but I didn’t dwell on it. I couldn’t. I had business to take care of.
I pulled up to that nice ass house for the second time. This wasn’t a social call, though. Not even close.
Don’t Touch My Hair opened the door with a scowl. “What do you want?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“About what, leaving my sister the other day? Because that was foul.”
She flipped her braids over her shoulder and put a hand on her stomach, which still looked flat to my eyes.
“Kind of,” I said. “Can I come in?”
Big swole ass Patrick walked up behind her with a wary look on his face. I didn’t blame him for that. That was his wife.
“How you doin’, bruh?”
He gave me an upwards nod. “What’s the problem?”
“It’s Azalea.”
He opened the door all the way. “She okay? Come in.”
Once we were settled in the living room, I took a deep breath.
“Alright, look. I’m only coming to y’all because Zay is trying to keep this quiet to keep the peace. Personally, I wanna handle it.”
“What are you talking about?” Amina demanded.
“Your boy reported her to her job. She got put on administrative leave. And y’all know her better than me, so obviously you know how much her job means to her.”
“It must not mean too much if she was willing to jeopardize it for you.”
“Come on,” Patrick said, putting an arm around her. “You’re being petty.”
She shrugged. “Because I was right. I knew something would happen.”
“Something happened because her ex is a petty ass nigga who hates the fact that she moved on.”
Her forehead wrinkled in concentration. “What exactly did she say?”
“Not much, other than hoping it’ll be okay.”
Amina rolled her eyes knowingly.
“But that ain’t how I operate, so that’s why I’m here.”
“Why would he do that?” Patrick said, seemingly to himself. “I mean, yeah, he took the breakup hard, but he ain’t that kinda dude.”
“You sure about that?”
Patrick’s eyes narrowed. “You know something?”
I nodded. “But it ain’t my story to tell. All I can say is that he don’t have her best interest at heart with this.”
“What do you know?” Mina said.
“Ask Zay.”
They looked at each other.
“What are you asking from us?”
“I’m asking you, man-to-man, to talk to your boy and get him to leave her the fuck alone. Because if I say it—“
“Yep, I got you,” he cut in. “But what about her job?”
“She said they’re doing an investigation. I have an idea how to handle that on my end, but…” I looked at her sister. “It would be nice if you could support her. I know you don’t approve of me. Maybe you never will. That ain’t my problem or my concern. I care about your sister. When she’s happy, I’m happy. When she’s not, I get like this, and then everybody has a bad fucking day.”
She crossed her arms and her legs, leaning on her husband for support. “It’s nothing personal against you. You could be the nicest man in the world, but I can only go on facts. The jail thing put me off. Just being honest.”
“I get it. That’s how most people react. It is what it is.”
Patrick nodded. “I’ll talk to Roman.”
“’Preciate that.”
We both stood and shook hands.
“By the way, as long as he’s sniffing around, she won’t be here. ”
“What did he do ?”
As I walked to the door, I reminded her.
“Talk to your sister.”