Page 60 of One Good Reason

Of course, I couldn’t afford to make these things come true, so I reached out to Poppa. And let’s just say he came through in a major way. All of this stuff was a donation from his sport agency. I was grateful and knew my students would be as well.

The person who I knew would have an issue with me reaching out to Poppa wasn’t really considered when I decided to do this. The day after me and Law made it home, we met up as planned and toured the old Brown Mackie College. We equally fell in love with the building and from there an offer was placed.

Things were going good until Law up and disappeared. No matter how many times I called, I couldn’t get him on the phone for anything. Hell, I’d spoken with his assistant more in the last three weeks than I had anyone.

If it wasn’t for the fact that I’d apologized and made shit right between us, I could accept him going cold on me, but the last time we were in each other’s presence everything was good. I don’t know the cause for the switch up but that didn’t stop me from handling my business.

After the school was purchased, I met with the contractors responsible for doing minor renovations to the college. I told him what I wanted and when it was time for money to be discussed, I directed him to Law.

Seeing that the ball was rolling and shit was getting done, I could deduce that him and Law kept in touch regularly. The renovations had to be complete before I submitted the application in the event that it made it pass the first round. While I waited on everything to be done, I was going to pour everything else I had into the youth center.

“Did Mrs. Jessie say if she could spend the night?” Marsha asked.

That’s another thing that I’d done. I heard Gema and everyone else loud and clear, and I decided to give myself one night a week to unwind. After Marsha and Rossi found out, the two of them didn’t hesitate to pack my free night up with bullshit.

The first night we went out as a trio, I’d gotten so drunk I ended up sleeping on Rossi’s couch and calling into work the next day. That was the first and last time I let their asses get me that drunk.

Tonight, instead of hitting up a bar, we were going to downtown to Wine Down Wednesday’s. I had heard tons about it before and never got the chance to go so when I saw a flyer for it this morning, it was me deciding where the night would lead us.

“She did,” I finally released. “And I couldn’t be happier. I’m ready for some adult fun.”

“Don’t act like watching Matlock with Gema ain’t adult fun.”

“Child!” I laughed. “It’s not when she quotes the show word for word.”

“That Bertha Mae is my girl,” Rossi tittered.

“Ummhmm. I’m going back to my office. I’ll be back out right before the kids show up. I got a few calls to make,” I let them know before exiting the gym and trekking down the hall to my office.

“What the hell?” I mumbled when I stepped into my office and noticed a figure sitting behind my desk.

Peeking his head up from the file in his hand, Law muttered, “I’m sorry for intruding. My iMac is doing some kind of update and I needed to hop on this Zoom really quick.”

Folding my arms, I tilted my head and stared at his lying face. “All the computers in this building and this is where you chose to come?”

“Your door was open.” He shrugged.

“Well, I’ll be in the conference room. How about you let me know when it’s safe to return to my office?”

“You don’t have to leave, it just ended.”

“Ummhmm.” Standing there with my arms still folded, I tapped my foot on the floor repeatedly and waited for him to grab his shit and get out. After shoving papers into his briefcase, he stood and ambled past me, making my eyes roll instantly out of irritation.

Plopping down in the chair Law had just gotten out of, I logged back into my computer and pulled up my emails. My office door being shut had me momentarily peering away from the screen.

“I thought you were leaving?” I asked. Law was standing by the closed door with his briefcase still in his hand.

“I get the feeling that there’s some hostility between us.”

“You get the feeling, huh?”

“Talitha, I’m sorry.”

Tossing my head back, I laughed. “How are you sorry when you don’t even know what the issue is?”

“I don’t have to know in order to realize that I need to apologize.”

“Okay Lawton,” I huffed.

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