Page 85 of One Good Reason

Flowers for a beautiful soul. I hope you like them. – You know who

Sitting on the corner of the desk, I plucked a white rose from the center of the arrangement I held it up to my nose and sniffed it. I was in la-la land and didn’t hear Rossi when he moseyed into my office.

“Someone has an admirer,” his voice broke through the room, snapping me out of my dazed state.

“Someone needs to knock before entering my office,” I joked and placed the rose back into place.

Standing, I smoothed out my skirt and took a seat at my desk while Rossi sauntered toward my desk. With the card in his hand, he sat in the chair across from me and recited the words.

“Like I thought. Someone has an admirer.” He smirked. “These came about an hour ago.”

“Thank you for bringing them in here.”

“Ummhmm. Care to tell me what man’s attention you’ve garnered?”

“I don’t.” I shrugged.

“Is it Patton? OrPoppa?” he tittered. “I saw the way the two of you looked at each other.”

“I promise it’s not Patton. He and I are… I guess you can say we’re friends.” I was still unclear on what Poppa and I were. I mean I thought we were friends, that was until he went and ran his mouth to Law. Friends didn’t sell each other out like that, and I couldn’t wait until the next time I saw him. I was going to give him a piece of my damn mind.

“Just friends my ass,” Rossi grumbled. “Well, if it’s not him then it’s someone. You’re practically a nun, Tali. Clearly you’ve caught someone’s attention.”

While he was busy rambling about who he thought sent the flowers, I pulled my phone out of my bag and sent Law a text message.

Me: I just received the flowers. Thank you so much. They’re gorgeous.

Lawton Harvey: You’re gorgeous.

Me: Are you flirting with me Mr. Harvey?

Lawton Harvey: Depends… Is it working?

Me: I guess you’ll never know.

Lawton Harvey: Not fair

Instead of responding, I locked my device and placed it in my desk drawer. Turning back to Rossi, I shook my head. “Why are you still sitting here?”

“Bitch!” he scoffed. “I’m trying to figure out who sent those damn flowers.”

“Well, I’ll never tell.” I giggled. “Anyways, did I miss anything today?”

“Yeah.” Rossi sighed. When a solemn expression crossed his face, I braced myself for the bad news. “They found Quan.”

“Where?”

“He was hiding out in Decatur. They picked him up around five this morning.”

Sitting back in my chair, my shoulders slumped. Quan was the kid that almost got my ass tossed outside on the curb. He wasn’t lying when he said he was going to retaliate against his brother’s killer. When he disappeared on us, we figured he had gotten locked up. About a month ago, a detective working the homicide stopped by looking for him. He left his card and made us promise that we would call if we heard from him. I told him I would but in my heart, I knew I couldn’t. I wouldn’t darehandhim over to the authorities. If they wanted him, they would have to do their job.

I met with my staff shortly after he left and told them no, I wouldn’t harbor Quan especially knowing what he’d done. But if he showed up, I wouldn’t turn him in either. Was it wrong of me to do? Maybe so, but I really had a soft spot for this kid.

“His mom said he went willingly so I’m happy. God knows they wouldn’t have hesitated to put a bullet in him if he resisted,” Rossi expressed.

“That breaks my heart Rossi,” I whined. “I tried so hard with him. I wanted so much more for him. Hell, he’s the reason I even had the idea of doing all of this.” I picked up the stack of papers for the tech school. “And clearly it was all for nothing.” Tossing them back on the desk, I dropped my head in my hands. “I feel like I failed him Rossi.” I bit back a cry.

“Aww! Tali… You can’t think like that. We can’t save them all, and yes you tried hard to help Quan. That baby was dealt a bad hand and by the time you came along, he was too far gone. There was nothing you could do for him.”

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