CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The next day, after Maude had a long, sleepless night, knocks were heard on her apartment door. She answered quickly, hoping it was him again, but it wasn’t. It was Don.
“Yes?”
“He wants to see you.”
“Then he should come and see me.”
“That’s not gonna happen.”
“Then have a nice day,” she said as she began closing her door.
But Don stopped her. “He’s not gonna take no for an answer, Maude.
After how you behaved yesterday,” he added, “it’s amazing he wants to see you at all.
Because real talk? That man does not take any shit from anybody okay?
And especially no female. I don’t know what you put on that man, but you put something on him.
He ordered me to come get you and bring you to him, and it wasn’t a casual command.
It was like I’d better do it or lose my job kind of command. ”
Don was exaggerating about the job part, but he felt he was understating the fact that Maude did have some kind of hold on Keating.
It wasn’t as if Maude didn’t want to be bothered with him.
She hated how they parted ways last night, especially after that man had flown her all the way to Dillon on his own dime and on his own plane.
And the fact that she was angry with him because he wanted to help her, not hurt her, didn’t sit right with her either.
But the fact that he insinuated that she was a deadbeat who didn’t pay her bills was the worst offense of all.
That went to her character. And she wasn’t going to allow that.
“If he wants to see me, he needs to come and see me,” she said, and was about to close the door in Don’s face.
But he stopped her again. “I’m gonna say this as a big brother to his little sis,” he said.
“If you care at all about that man, and still wanna try to make something work with him, you’d better come with me.
Because I assure you, this is going to be your one and only chance.
He’s giving you a second chance already. Don’t blow it, sis.”
Don looked so sincere, as if he knew she actually stood a chance and wanted her to grab it. But a chance to be what? Edmund’s mistress like that Teri woman?
But Edmund didn’t treat her like he wanted her that way. Or did he? It was too early to tell.
“Have a safe drive back to Atlanta,” she said and was about to close her door for the third time.
But Don intervened again. “You owe him, Maude,” he said.
“I owe him?” That got her attention. “What do I owe that man?”
“Nineteen hours,” he said. “Because that’s how long it would have taken for you to ride back to Dillon. Not to mention that suite he put you in at the hospital. Not to mention the way he got you that chicken when you wanted it.”
Maude even smiled.
“He saved you that long ride on that bus and saved you from all that hospital food too? The least you can do is give him a couple hours of your time, Maude. At least you can do that.”
Maude exhaled. “You’re full of shit, you know that right?” she said to Don.
Don smiled a mischievously big smile. “Who me?”
But he was right. The least she could do was hear the man out and, hopefully, accept his apology.
“Let me get my phone,” she said and closed the door this time.
Don texted Wyatt, who was waiting outside in the Tahoe. “It’s a go,” he said with a black thumbs up.
Wyatt texted him back with a white thumbs up.
But when Maude came out in her bike shorts and sleeveless blouse and sneakers, looking even younger than she already was, Don smiled. She and his boss were so unalike that it baffled him still. But he learned long ago that a man couldn’t help who he loved.
But when they made it downstairs, it was Maude who was baffled. Because Sam, who was talking with another tenant, hurried over to her.
“I didn’t forget,” he said.
“Don’t start that again, Sam,” she said.
“Start what?” He handed her the receipt.
“What’s this?”
“He told me to give it to you.”
“Give what to me?”
“The receipt. That white man paid your rent for the rest of the year yesterday.”
Maude looked at him. “He what?”
“Eleven thousand five hundred dollars. The includes your late fees. You’re all paid up until January of next year.”
Maude looked at Don. Don was as flabbergasted as she was.
“And tell him I ain’t said nothing bad about you,” Sam said. “I don’t want no trouble.”
Maude didn’t have a clue what he was talking about, and she didn’t care.
All she could see was that receipt showing that she was paid in full until next year.
It was such a big gift that for some strange reason she didn’t feel offended the way she did last night when he wanted to help get her caught up.
Which stunned her. Why wasn’t she offended?
But as they made their way out of the building and into the waiting Tahoe, Maude knew why she wasn’t offended.
Because Edmund helped her even when she had thrown him out of her apartment.
He helped her as if it wasn’t about her sleeping with him or him believing her to be a deadbeat.
He helped her, she felt, because he actually cared about her. Could it be as simple as that?
She got on the backseat and leaned back. She wasn’t at all sure if that was what it meant. But a part of her was elated. Not because some man had taken the burden of paying rent off of her, but because the man she was catching serious feelings for cared about her. There was no other answer for it.
And that action, in a way, was what she was looking for. A sign of something more than just doing something that could benefit him too.
Wyatt glanced in the back seat as they rode to Atlanta, and she was smiling. Which oddly enough, made him smile too.
Maude was the only woman Edmund had ever had that he and Don both actually liked.
They were pulling for her.