Chapter 6 #2
Just like that, my anger dissolved into something else entirely. Fear. Concern. Confusion.
I pressed my hand against the door.
“Tania, talk to me. Did something happen with you and Proctor?”
“No, it’s nothing. I just need a minute in here, alright. I’ll be out in a minute.”
I stood outside the bathroom door for nearly five full minutes, listening to Tania throw up like she was trying to reject something from her body that was much deeper than food.
The sound of her throwing up echoed through the door, followed by the sink turning on and off, and the toilet constantly flushing.
No matter how many times I knocked and softly called her name, she refused to answer me.
“Tania, talk to me,” I begged, trying to keep the worry out of my voice, but all I got back was silence and running water.
Whatever happened while she was with Proctor must’ve been bad, and just the thoughts of what it may have been made my chest tighten.
After another long pause, I muttered “fuck it” under my breath because hovering over her clearly wasn’t helping, and if something was truly wrong, she wasn’t going to open up right now anyway.
I know Tania, she runs her mouth every day, all day, but when she was silent, that's when things are really bothering her.
I grabbed my purse and phone from the couch nearby and stepped out into the hallway, dialing Proctor’s number as I walked toward the elevator. Proctor answered on the second ring, breathing heavy like he had either been running or doing something else he didn’t want interrupted.
“Yeah?”
“Where are you at?” I asked without greeting him.
“I’m in bed. What do you need?” he replied, his voice steady despite the slight edge in his breathing.
“I need to know what happened with my friend. Why did she come home throwing up?”
“Throwing up? How the fuck am I supposed to know? I’m not a doctor. She pregnant?”
“No! She wasn’t throwing up before she left with you, so what happened while y’all were gone?’
He let out a long exhale before responding.
“Look, meet me at my place in about twenty minutes so that we can talk.”
“Why can’t you just tell me what happened over the phone, Proctor?”
“Look, nothing happened, but if you want to talk, come to my place. All that attitude shit over the phone isn’t going to get us anywhere. That’s for damn sure.”
“Proctor, I don’t even remember where you stay. I’m not from here, remember?”
“Alright, I’ll send you the address.” He replied, and before I could respond, he hung up.
I stood there biting my bottom lip in frustration, debating whether I should turn around and check on Tania again, but I already knew how stubborn she could be.
If she wasn’t ready to talk, she wasn’t going to talk and forcing it would only push her further into herself.
So, I left the penthouse without saying bye to her or Cyn because I was ready to kill Proctor’s big ass if he actually harmed my friend.
By the time the elevator doors opened and I stepped inside, his address had come through in a text.
I ordered an Uber on the app and waited nearly fifteen minutes before the silver Honda Odyssey pulled up.
Once I hopped in the back, the driver sped through traffic, weaving between cars as if it were a race.
When the Uber driver pulled me in front of the hotel building, and my feet barely touched the concrete before he was driving off to his next ride.
I took a couple of steps when I heard a loud whistle cut through the air, and I turned to see Proctor handing his keys to valet.
When we caught eyes, he smiled and then walked toward me with that slow, heavy stride, like something was hanging on him that was heavy as hell.
I said something, but I knew exactly what it was. That pole.
“I hope you haven’t been out here too long, baby girl. Let’s head upstairs.” He tilted his head towards the door.
“Why do we have to go up to your place to talk? Why can’t we stand out here?”
He glanced at the sun and then back at me with a faint smirk.
“Do I look like I want to stand out here in this hot ass sun getting blacker than I already am? Let’s go upstairs.
Stop being so hostile.” He took off walking, and I followed him.
My lips were pressed together tightly, and my fists balled up at my sides, fully aware that if something did happen to Tania, I was mad enough to swing on him.
Or maybe I shouldn’t swing on Proctor and call the cops, saying this man was twice my size and outweighed me by at least a hundred pounds.
The only way I would take on a man like Proctor is if I had a gun, or at least a fuckin two-by-four.
The elevator ride up to his place was silent, tension thick enough to cut, and when we reached his floor, we got out and walked up to his door, where he unlocked it and stepped aside to let me walk in first.
The cool air in his place wrapped around me, but it didn’t ease the heat in my chest. It smelled so fuckin good in here. Like a subtle cologne had been sprayed right at the door, because that's where it first hit you.
“What the hell is going on with my friend?” I demanded the moment the door shut behind us.
“Your friend?” he repeated, chewing his gum slowly as if he had all the time in the world. “I let Shorty out at a gas station because I had some shit to do. She went home.”
“You let her out at a gas station to get a ride home after you took her with you?”
“Yeah,” he replied casually. “I had shit to do.”
He walked past me toward his bathroom like the conversation wasn’t urgent, as if I hadn’t rushed over here, worried sick. I followed him, my heels clicking against the floor as frustration simmered in my veins.
“Proctor, she came back crying and throwing up. So I’m trying to figure out what happened. Do you think the Uber driver did something to her?”
He shrugged without looking concerned.
“I don’t know, but if he did, she should call the police.”
The shower turned on, and steam began to rise almost immediately. He grabbed a toothbrush and toothpaste from a cup near his sink and started to brush his teeth.
“Proctor, I came here for answers about my friend, and if you don’t have any, then I can leave.”
“Leave already?” he asked, eyes meeting mine through the mirror.
“We just got here. We still have to talk about other things.”
“Other things like what?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.
He lifted one long finger, silently telling me to wait while he finished brushing, and the gesture alone irritated me more than it should have. After rinsing his mouth, he spit into the sink and wiped his lips before turning toward me.
“How is our baby girl? " Did she get the medicine she needed?” he asked, his tone softer now.
“She’s fine,” my attention shifted the moment he grabbed the bottom hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head with one arm.
It wasn’t dramatic or exaggerated, but natural and fluid, and that somehow made it even more attractive.
His chest was broad and defined, tattoos stretching across his smooth brown skin that glistened slightly from the steam already filling the bathroom.
My eyes drifted down before I could stop, tracing the lines of his torso, then Proctor stepped out of his pants like I wasn’t even standing there.
Heat crept up my neck as I tried to remind myself why I came here in the first place. It damn sure wasn’t to lust over the man I promised myself I would never touch again.
Proctor noticed my stare and let out a low laugh.
“My eyes up here, baby girl.”
I forced myself to look at his face, but my body betrayed me with the way my pulse started pounding, my breath turning shallow against my will.
“How do you expect me to talk to you when you’re naked?” I asked, trying to steady my voice, but my blood pressure was through the roof.
“It shouldn’t distract you, because you don’t want me, remember?”
“Of course I remember. How can I forget?”
He shrugged his shoulders and then swung the glass door open.
A thick cloud of steam flowed out into the shower like there was a fire inside, and once he stepped inside, the water landed against his shoulders, sliding over skin that was so chocolate it looked like it was melting.
Proctor was at least 6’4, so he had to dip his head slightly to get under the shower head, and when he did, that small movement made the muscles in his back flex and shift so damn sexy.
The bathroom light caught the outline of him when the steam started to fog the glass, but I could still see the water trailing down his chest in slow paths, cutting over the ridges of his abs, down his dick that hung heavy beneath him.
I told myself I wasn’t going to stare, but my eyes refused to cooperate. Right now, I was focused like he was a professor giving a lecture on anatomy, and this next test would determine if I passed the class.
The scent from his soap reached me, and that clean, masculine, and expensive aroma was just as alluring as he was.
There was a sharp bite of eucalyptus from the body wash mixed with something darker and woodsy, just like that cologne he swore wasn’t cologne.
It blended with the room's heat until the air itself was intoxicating.
It wrapped around my lungs the same way the steam wrapped around him.
He ran his hands over his chest, slow and deliberate, like he was fully aware of the audience he had.
Soap slid across his skin in white streaks before the water rinsed it away.
His head tipped back slightly, throat exposed, water streaming down the strong line of his neck.
Even blurred by glass and steam, his silhouette was dangerous.