Page 2 of Dr. Bell

Standing from my desk, I met Laney in front of her office door. Before I could say anything, she ushered me inside and shut the door. Her hands found her hips as she glared at me.

“Not only did you leave unannounced, but you didn’t answer any of my calls.”

“I apologize, Laney. Quilo—”

Laney threw her hands up. “Quilo? I should’ve known. Your brother is going to get you fired, Coco. I’ve covered for you twice already. I can’t do it again.”

“I know, Laney. And I appreciate you.” Truly, I did. There was only so much she could do.

“One more write up and I’m going to be forced to let you go. It’s not me. It’s upper management.”

I really wanted to go into the nearest restroom and bawl my eyes out. That wouldn’t do me any good, though. Crying over the duties bestowed upon me by my deceased mama andnonexistent father was too close to complaining. If I wanted a way out of this, complaining wasn’t going to get me anywhere.

As soon as I was done with my rounds, I sat at my desk and pulled up job opportunities in another city, far enough away from this place that Quilo would have no choice but to let go of the people here. Once I’d filled out a couple of applications, I prepared my letter of resignation. Once Quilo finished these last couple of weeks of school, we’d get out of here.

If picking up and relocating was going to save my brother, I had to. No matter how much I didn’t want to.

COCO

Two weeks later…

“Let’shavedinnertonight,”I suggested to Quilo. Since leaving Orlando, he’d been quiet and reclusive. His normal brash personality was on vacation, and honestly, I didn’t know how to feel about it.

“Aight,” was his unenthusiastic reply.

Sighing, I nearly allowed my eyes to tear up. Crying right now would have me crying for the rest of the day. I couldn’t do that.

“Okay!” I tried adding some spunk into my tone. “All is on me.”

He half-ass chuckled. “Yeah, aight.”

When he hung up without a goodbye, I allowed my eyes to flood a little. Placing my phone on the tabletop, I willed my brain to relax and tried to convince myself that once Quilo got used to our new home, he’d lighten up. He was going into his senior year of high school, and I needed him to enjoy it regardless of our situation. If I didn’t get through to my brother, the streets were where he’d end up again.

The bell above Smooth Brew sounded, bringing my gaze to a gorgeous woman strutting inside the establishment with a haughty expression on her face. She was brown-skinned, magazine editorial beautiful, and had flowing ginger hair down her back. The waves in her hair were just as stunning as she was. She wore a white lab coat over a blue pants suit that melded to her body to a T. Her ambience screamed money and power. A lot of both.

Once upon a time, that was me moving through life like nothing mattered. My head was always held high, with my confidence not easily shaken. Now, I didn’t know whether I was coming or going. It took everything in me just to keep myself up. Honestly, I was drowning in depression. I had to keep it together, though. If not for myself, for Quilo.

Mid thought, the bell dinged again. In walked a man whose presence was enough to make my mouth slightly part in awe of him. He was dressed in all black scrubs and designer sneakers. The ice on his neck, wrist, and ears could buy this entire block. What drew me most were the tattoos covering most of his dark skin and reaching up into the taper fade cut he wore. His lips were thick, succulent to be exact. Then, there was his perfect bone structure barely disguised under the low-cut beard he wore. He was just marvelous to the eye.

Striking chocolate brown eyes zoned in on my unabashedly assessing eyes. Outside of the television and social media, I’d never actually seen a man with bedroom eyes. However, hepossessed some lethal ones. As if they weren’t already wreaking havoc on my mind, his eyelids lowered further as he stood in the doorway staring at me.

“Adir! Over here!”

Something inside me shriveled up the moment the woman who’d walked in just minutes ago called out to him. For a minute, he didn’t address her, which made his staring at me awkward. I felt her eyes on me then, wondering who I was to have a man as fine as Adir stuck in a trance.

My eyes stretched a bit at him approaching my table. The way he moved was too sure, too confident, and definitely too sexy. His long stride was that of a man who knew what he looked like and what he could do to any woman within arm’s reach.

He stood over my table, staring down at me. It seemed like slow motion when he stuck his large, inked up hand toward me. I noticed everything about his fingers right down to his fingernails. His fingers were long, strong, and moisturized. There wasn’t a piece of excess dead skin on his nail bed. His fingernails were nicely manicured without polish to top it off. He flipped his hand over, revealing his palm.

“You gon’ put ya hand in mine?” he asked.

His smooth, deep voice hit me like a jolt of electricity. So much so that I heated all over, causing my gaze to shoot up from his hand to look back into those lethal eyes he possessed. I was so caught up, I couldn’t stop myself from putting my hand into his. As my body bowed to his subjection, his long fingers encased my smaller hand.

“Adir,” he stated.

On the left side of Adir’s scrub top, his name was stitched in white. So was his title. Inwardly, I groaned.

This can’t be.

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