19. Alisha #2
The jeans fit exactly how they were supposed to with my ass sitting right, waist snatched enough.
I turned sideways. “Okay, then.” I added some gold hoops, my watch and a couple bracelets.
Then I fixed my hair, laid my edges and did light makeup.
By the time I was done, I looked like somebody who had somewhere to be.
Which technically, I did. Gardner White had given me one of those delivery windows that basically meant they could pull up whenever the hell they felt like it, so I wasn’t planning on being gone long.
I checked my phone and there wasn’t any delivery update yet, good, I grabbed my purse and keys.
I needed coffee first and Starbucks wasn’t far from the condo.
I pulled in, parked and checked my phone one more time before getting out.
Still nothing from the delivery driver, perfect.
Inside, it wasn’t too crowded so I got in line and looked over the menu even though I already knew what I wanted.
When it was my turn, I stepped up. “Can I get a venti iced white chocolate mocha, extra shot, light ice, vanilla sweet cream cold foam?”
The barista nodded. “Anything else?”
“Bacon gouda sandwich.” I paused. “And a cheese danish warmed.” Because why not? I’d earned a damn pastry. I tapped my card and moved toward the pickup area. I was checking an email when I heard a familiar voice.
“Well, damn.”
I looked up and it was Malik. He stood a few feet away looking at me with that little half smile he always seemed to have.
He had on Gray sweats, a Black T-shirt with a Detroit Lions Jacket with a fresh cut and beard lined to perfection.
Fine as hell for absolutely no reason this early in the morning.
“Are you following me now?” he asked.
I rolled my eyes. “Boy, please.”
He smiled. “First my car wash, now Starbucks.”
“I did not come looking for you.” I laughed.
“That’s what they all say.” He smirked.
“Please don’t flatter yourself.” I let him know.
“Too late.”
The memory of the car wash hit me and I sighed. “Speaking of that…”
Malik’s smile grew. “Here we go.”
“No, I mean it.” He looked at me. “I still feel bad about how I came down there.”
“You already apologized.” He let me know.
“I know but I still want to say it again.”
“And that shit was weeks ago.”
“Still.” I shifted my purse on my shoulder. “I came into your business loud, accusing you of cheating, based on something Shante told me. I embarrassed you in front of your customers.”
Malik shrugged. “I forgot about it.”
“Well, I didn’t.”
“You were defending your friend.”
“My friend was lying.”
“That ain’t on you.” He smirked.
“It still wasn’t right.”
He studied me for a second then nodded. “Apology accepted again.”
“Thank you.” I smiled.
“Now you can stop apologizing.”
“I probably will.”
“Probably?”
I smiled. “I said what I said.”
He laughed, and the barista called my name. I grabbed my drink and bag. Malik stepped up to order. “Large black coffee.”
I looked at him. “That is the most boring order ever.”
He glanced over. “It’s coffee.”
“No cream?”
“No.”
“Sugar?”
“No.”
I made a face. “That explains a lot.”
He turned toward me. “Explains what?”
“Your personality.”
Malik laughed. “You got jokes this morning.”
“I’m in a good mood.”
“Is that so?” He asked.
“Actually, yeah.”
When the cashier told him his total, I pulled my card out.
“I got it.”
Malik looked at me like I’d said something disrespectful. “Put that away.”
“It’s coffee.”
“I know what it is.”
“I’m buying it.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Malik..”
“Alisha.” The way he said my name made me stop. He tapped his own card then looked at me. “You insulting me.”
I laughed. “How am I insulting you by buying you coffee?”
“Trying to pay for my shit.”
“It was supposed to be an apology.”
“I don’t need you paying for nothing for me.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Okay.”
“Unlike Deuce, I’m a real nigga.”
My mouth dropped slightly. “You just had to throw that in there.”
“I did.”
“That was unnecessary.”
“But was I lying?”
I took a sip of my drink. “No comment.”
“Exactly.” He grabbed his coffee when it came and moved off to the side with me.
For a few seconds, we just stood there then Malik asked, “You good, though?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “I’m divorcing Deuce.”
His eyebrows lifted. “For real?”
“Filed.” I answered.
He looked genuinely surprised. “Damn.”
“Yep.”
“And you good with that?”
“Very.”
He nodded slowly. “I respect that.”
I looked at him. “I moved too.”
“You did?”
“Got a condo.”
He smiled. “Okay then.”
“My bedroom furniture is actually being delivered today. That’s why I look like I slept in a shopping cart.”
Malik looked at me over. “You don’t look like that.”
“Trust me I feel like it, I slept in Brittany’s twin bed last night.”
He laughed. “Your ass knew better.”
“I definitely know now.”
He shook his head. “That’s what you get.”
“Shut up.” I laughed.
He took another sip of coffee. “What about Shante?”
There was no weirdness when he asked. “I haven’t talked to her.”
“At all?”
“Not really.”
I looked down at my cup.
“I can’t.”
Malik nodded. “I don’t blame you.”
“She was my best friend.”
“I know and that was some fucked up ass shit.”
“That shit hurt worse than Deuce in a different way.”
He didn’t rush to fill the silence, I liked that. Most people wanted to explain the pain away. Malik nodded his approval. “You ain’t wrong for walking away, that's some real grown woman shit.”
“What is?” I asked.
“Choosing yourself instead of staying somewhere just because you’ve been there a long time. Some people will keep letting somebody fuck over them because they scared to start over.” He shrugged. “You handled your shit and moved.”
“Had to.” I let him know.
“Nah.” He shook his head. “You chose to.”
There was a difference and I knew exactly what he meant. “I guess you’re right.”
“I know I’m right.”
“There goes that ego.”
“Ain’t ego if it’s true.”
I laughed, he glanced at his watch. “I gotta get to one of the car washes.”
“West side?”
“Of course.”
“Figures.”
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing.”
“You always have something smart to say.”
“Maybe.”
He started backing toward the door. “Take care of yourself, Alisha.”
“You too.”
“And stop trying to buy grown men’s coffee.”
I rolled my eyes. “Bye, Malik.”
He laughed and headed out. I watched him walk toward his truck for a second before looking away.
Shante was stupid, there was no nicer way to put it.
That woman had a good nigga. And yes, Malik was fine.
Fine-fine. Tall, beard, body right, always clean, but looks weren’t even the main thing.
He handled his business, owned three car washes and had his own money.
He wasn’t looking for a woman to carry him.
Didn’t seem like the type who needed everybody in Detroit knowing his business.
And when he thought those babies were his, he’d been all in.
Shante had thrown away a good man helping her brother betray a good woman.
And for what? Deuce was sitting in the county and Kim still didn’t have him.
She lost Malik and now she has lost me too.
Everybody had sacrificed something except the muthafucka who started the messy shit. Not my problem anymore. I grabbed my food and headed outside. My phone buzzed as I reached the car.
Gardner White: Your delivery team is on the way.
“Oh shit.” I unlocked my car, I guess my coffee run was over.
I had a bedroom to put together. And that sounded a hell of a lot better than worrying about what Shante had thrown away.
By the time I pulled back into my condo complex, the Gardner White truck was already turning in behind me.
“Perfect timing.” I parked, grabbed my coffee and food, then hurried inside so I could unlock the door before they made it up.
A few minutes later, two delivery guys were standing in my entryway asking where everything was going. “My room.” I let them know.
One of them glanced down the hallway. “First door on the left?”
“Yep.”
They started bringing everything in piece by piece the bedframe, mattress, dresser, nightstands, chest, and mirror.
I stood out of the way with my Starbucks cup, watching my empty bedroom slowly turn into an actual bedroom.
That did something to me, it wasn’t just furniture.
It was mine picked out and paid for by me.
Going into a place I chose because I was building something new.
I hadn’t realized how much I needed that until I watched them putting the bed together.
At the house with Deuce, almost everything had a memory attached to it.
We picked our couch together. Bought that bedroom set after our anniversary.
It was always ours this was different, this was Alisha’s.
I didn’t have to ask anybody if they liked it.
Didn’t have to compromise or have to hear Deuce talking about how something cost too much and then turn around and spend money on whatever the fuck he wanted.
I walked into the room once they had the bedframe up.
“Can you move it over just a little bit?”
The guy looked back. “This way?”
“Yeah a little more.”
He shifted it.
“Right there, perfect.” The headboard sat centered against the wall exactly how I pictured it.
The dresser went across from the bed with a nightstand on each side.
The chest was near the closet. When they attached the mirror to the dresser, I smiled.
One of the guys peeled the plastic away from the mattress.
“You want the mattress protector put on too?”
“Please.”