Page 59 of One Good Reason

“Poppa!” Law groused.

“Boy…” I drawled. “I was not flirting with Poppa.”

“You were but it’s cool. You’ll pay for it one day.” He winked.

Rolling my eyes at him, I turned and walked away. Now that I had spilled my business and apologized for acting like a spoiled brat, I hoped the two of us can get back on the same page. We had a lot of shit we needed to accomplish in the next few weeks. Shit that was going to take both of us working side by side to get done.

“My baby didn’t show out too bad, did she?” Gema asked Law. We had made it back to Atlanta and instead of him having Baker drop me off, he took it upon himself to helpme with my bags. Now he was standing in the foyer engaging in back-and-forth banter with Gema.

“Your baby cut up so bad on me, Gema. I mean, she showed out. I’m surprised we made it back to Atlanta unscathed.”

“Tali, tell me you ain’t go up there around that man friends being a brat.”

“She surely did, Gema.” Law spoke up before I had the chance to deny it. I knew he was kidding with me by telling on me to Gema.

“He’s standing there ratting on me. Did he tell you how he tried to pimp me out to his rich friends?”

“I know he ain’t do no such thing!” Gema laughed. “Don’t be telling no lies now, Tali.” She turned and fussed at me, making Law laugh.

“I see I have no wins with either of you. Mr. Harvey you have yourself a good night.” I frowned and pointed at the front door.

“See what I mean Gema? Now she’s kicking me out.”

“Tali ain’t running nothing but that mouth of hers, baby. Jessie cooked dinner if you wanna stay and have a plate.”

“Thank you, Gema, I appreciate the offer but I’ve gotta get a move on. Me and Talitha have to be up early for a showing.”

“Well, raincheck?”

“Yes ma’am.” He nodded. “Talitha, do you want me to have you picked up or will you be driving?”

“I’ll drive so I can go right into work.”

“Okay. I’ll see you first thing in the morning.”

Leaning down, Law kissed Gema on the cheek and let her know he would see her the next time. Being a gracious person, I walked him to the door. After saying our goodbyes, I shut the door, looped my arm through Gema’s, and talked to her about my weekend in New York. I purposely left out the parts where Law and I had argued. Now that I think about it, he and I had started arguing before we had even landed in New York.

Lawton wasn’t a bad person, and I was wrong for treating him as such. I couldn’t help those parts of him reminded me on my childhood. That had nothing to do with him, and it was wrong of me to take it out on him. Going forward, I promised myself that I wouldn’t be rude to him or turn my nose up at his wealth.

“You think it’s good enough?” Rossi asked.

Looking around the room, I smiled. “I think we made something out of nothing.”

On my first day back at work, I came brandishing new ideas. Nothing like the shit that I’d done with Law but something that would give our students the experience of a lifetime. My team and myself had worked around the clock the past three weeks to make it happen and today would be the day we unveiled it to the students.

“I’m still trying to figure out how you were able to get Mr. Harvey to agree to this.”

“Mr. Harvey didn’t agree to anything. I called in a favor,” I laughed.

“Oh really? And who did this favor come from?” Rossi queried.

“That’s for me to know and you to wonder about. Just know it’s a new friend.”

“I sure hope it’s a man. Lord knows you need to get laid.” He tucked an imaginary strand of hair behind his hear and pursed his lips.

“He’s a man but not one that I’m interested in.”

I was getting ready to place all of my time and attention on the technical college and didn’t want my students to feel like Iwas abandoning them. I came up with the idea of adding new playground equipment to the back of the youth center and I had one of the gyms that we used for basketball transformed into a trampoline park.

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