Chapter 23 #3
She sat there in silence until I stood from the couch. I finally took off my jacket and tossed it over the back of one of the folding chairs she had on the other side of the room.
“Kass, what are you doing?” she asked as I walked over to the first stack of boxes.
“Shit, tryna get you settled back in.”
I pulled at the ends of one side of the box until the tape popped open. A shit load of lingerie was inside the box, so I quickly shut it.
“What’s in there?” I heard her ask as she walked in my direction.
“Some personal shit.” I picked up the box, and it felt light. “What you want me to do with this one?”
She twisted her face like she was thinking.
“Just set it over there.” She pointed to the closet door that stood beside the front door. “I guess I will go through that one later.”
I placed the box on the floor in front of the closet while she opened the next box.
“Awwhhh, man, I miss these babies.” She pulled out a pair of YSL heels. “Where’s the bag to match?” she said excitedly.
I could tell by the look on her face that she was thinking back to times when she had it like that. She had a glimmer in her orbs that had me smiling. She was happy over a pair of fucking shoes because I was sure a story came along with them.
“Dig deeper. It's gotta be in there somewhere. Let me see you strut ya shit,” I said as I snapped my fingers like how muthafuckas that model be doing.
She smiled brightly as she dug deeper into that big ass box. When she finally pulled her hands out of it, she turned around with the bag dangling from her forearm.
“Toss the shoes on. Let me see something.”
She kicked off her slippers and then slipped her feet into the stylish heels.
Her stature rose five and a half inches off the floor, but still, I looked down on her.
Suddenly, a boost of confidence was displayed on her face as she strutted back and forth across her worn-down carpet.
I had to give it to her; she had the walk of a model, and the way her arched eyebrows bent in determination let me know that even on her worst day, half the bitches that I had encountered in my life didn’t have shit on her.
What was even sexier was that she was carrying some weight on those heels, and she did it effortlessly.
“Man, I miss going out and whatnot,” she said in sort of a sigh.
“What’s stopping you?”
Growing up, Cayla’s family was big and really close-knit, so it shouldn’t have been that hard for her to get a sitter to take a night to enjoy herself.
“Well, besides me not having the funds to do a damn thing but pay bills, I don’t have anyone to watch Oriana.”
“Ya family wouldn’t watch her?”
She took the shoes off and tossed them back into the box along with the bag.
“Na, ever since my mom died, it’s like none of us speak. I guess my lady was the glue that held us all together.”
She picked up the box and then put it up against the adjacent wall before popping open the next one.
The only family that I gave a shit about was my grandmother.
All of us came together for family functions, but that was about as far as it went.
I couldn’t imagine anything happening to her.
When that day came, I knew I would lose my shit for sure.
My grandmother was the gorilla glue that held us Crawfords together.
When I saw Cayla struggling with the next box, I walked over and took it from her. Some appliances were in there, so I walked to the kitchen and placed that box on the counter. She was engrossed in her phone, and when I heard the next song play, I started smiling to myself.
I don't need me a basketball player
All I need is somebody that's down for me
And he don't have to have money
His love is just like honey
It's so sweet to me
This was another one of her favorites when we were in school.
She used to hum this shit all through the halls.
She didn’t even know I took a liking to Ciara's music just because of her.
She had a good little playlist going, and as the sun started to rise outside, we had gotten her about ninety percent unpacked.
I nuzzled my face into the crease of my arm as I let a yawn escape my mouth.
Her doe-shaped eyes looked over in my direction.
“You should go, Kass. You’ve been here since last night. You don’t work today?”
“No, I’m off. You?”
I offered to help, and I didn’t even take into account her having to work the next day. I just assumed she was off because she would have kicked a nigga out if she wasn’t.
“I’m off too.”
There was a moment of silence between us, and my goofy ass had to ruin it by yawning again.
“Shitttt,” I dragged at the end of that one.
I had worked a ten-hour shift the day before, and then made it my business to purposely bump into her to drive her home. Not to mention, I worked that shift off five hours of sleep. A nigga was honestly beat, but I’d rather help her with what she had going on.
“Go home and get some rest, Kass.”
She started for the door, and my ass walked over to that ripped-up ass leather couch and had a seat. I knew her daughter would probably wake up at any minute, and just as I was working the day prior and was up all night unpacking, so was she.
“Oriana, right? She’s gonna be up soon. How will you get any sleep if she’s about to be up and active?”
“I’ll manage.”
The bags under her eyes told me otherwise.
Again, my mother raised me on her own, just as my grandmother had raised my mother on her own.
I vowed to myself that whenever I had children, there was no damn way I would allow my children’s mother to be subject to the same generational curse that the women in my family had been through.
“There’s nothing wrong with needing help.”
Standing in front of me, I could see that Cayla was a strong ass soldier, and it sucked that she had to be.
She stood there for a bit longer, and when she opened the closet beside the front door and pulled a folded blanket from the top shelf, I knew I had worn her down.
She tossed me the blanket, and I caught it mid-air.
“I don’t have any extra pillows.”
“That’s cool. I’ll manage,” I said, stealing a line from her book.
She walked into her bedroom, leaving me alone in the living room.
I opened the blanket and then tossed it over me.
I took some of it and bunched it on the arm of the chair to make myself my own pillow.
When I inhaled, the comforter smelled like a closet.
I nudged my head around until I found my comfortable spot.
With each blink, my eyes got heavier, and I welcomed the sleep as it invaded.