Page 13 of Love Next Door
“Don’t know who fucked over you, li’l mama, but one day you’ll recognize that I’m the real deal. How long has it been?” I asked after I took a sip of my gin and juice the bartender had just placed at our table.
“One year and three weeks.”
“He did a number on you, I’m guessing.”
“Let’s say that he showed up at the altar, but I wasn’t the bride.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah.” She rolled her eyes and sucked down her apricot Bellini.
“Slow down, ma. Promise that I’ll spend the rest of tonight, and any other time in your presence, making you forget about that lame ass nigga. You don’t need a drink to do that.”
She smirked and pushed her drink away. With a shy tilt of her head, she replied, “You’re well on your way, Mr. Maxwell.”
The server placed our meals before us, and we spent the rest of the night enjoying our meal and our view.
“Whatcha staring at?”
“The way you sucking that damn bone, baby girl,” I answered, shifting in my seat. My shit was rock hard, and the slurping noises she made wasn’t helping. But when she narrowed her gaze at me and slowly pulled that bone from between those fat lips, I knew she was teasing a nigga.
“A’ight. One day you gon’ regret these games.”
She laughed and threw her head back. Abril wouldn’t be easy to crack, but I felt like she would definitely be worth it.
I enjoyedthe date that July and I went on, but I honestly had been ducking him as much as possible the last few days. There was too much of a vibe between us, and it scared the hell out of me. He was cool, good people, but I wasn’t looking for anything.
It had been a year and four months since I had been in a relationship. But that didn’t mean that I wanted to jump right into another relationship or that I was even ready for all of that. I often thought about finding someone who could take the edge off, and July would have worked perfectly had it not been for him living right next door.
He was a great guy—smart, funny, a bit of a rough edge to him, not too thuggish but enough to let me know he couldhandle his shit. Then there was that fine ass body, and he had the nerve to be cute on top of that.
His body was tatted all over, from what I could see that day when the girls and I woke him up. I wasn’t sure what the backside looked like, but I was certain that he had tattoos on his back too.
I looked over the meal plan that I had created for my newest patient and made a few modifications. I could hear the low thump of the bass coming from July’s apartment. It baffled me that none of the other residents had ever complained about his music.
It could have been because we were the only two apartments at our end of the hall, and the other one closer to us was empty. Either way, I kept trying to ignore the sound as I worked on my patient’s meal plan.
The night of our date, I learned over dinner that deejaying wasn’t July’s only source of income. He was also a concert promoter and had a MixTube channel. He had a large following on there where people tuned in to listen to him play his music. Apparently, most of the time when I heard him next door playing music, he was streaming for his viewers.
People tuned in to listen to him when they were working, chilling, studying, writing, and whatever else they needed musical accompaniment for. I struggled to keep my focus. I had to be at work early in the morning, and this meal plan needed to be completed.
I sighed and pushed back my chair. I really didn’t want to go over there, especially considering I had avoided him all week. He had knocked at my door several times. Most of the time, I ignored him as if I weren’t home. All he would have had to do was go downstairs and see my red Jeep in the garage, and he would have known.
I answered the door once and told him that I was in training for work, and I wouldn’t be free any time soon. I slipped my ass out of the house as soon as possible and headed to Yamika’s place. She entertained me for the next four hours until I finally headed home.
That had been two days ago, and he had not knocked since. I knew there was no way that I could keep avoiding him. Hell, I didn’t want to keep avoiding him.
Our date night had been a lot of fun, but it scared me. I was a girl who loved being in a relationship, adored by a man, and made to feel as if I were the most important thing in the world to him. In return, I gave him the same and my undying allegiance.
Although we had our differences, I thought that I had that with Devon. I still struggled with the fact that our relationship was a lie all that time. For the last year, I thought I had gotten over it. But being around July again made me recall the hurt.
Some days I wanted to hop on social media, post all our conversations on there, including the final one, and tag Devon’s ass in it just so that Sasha could see. But I wanted to be better than that. I didn’t want to be that petty, bitter bitch. But she did live in me. I just had to keep her on a leash.
I headed next door, and I rang the doorbell a couple of times but got no response. After a minute, I banged on the door but was surprised when it opened. Although we lived in a safe neighborhood, he couldn’t leave his door unlocked for anyone to enter.
“July?” I called out as I stepped inside of the apartment. His living room and kitchen were empty.
“July?” I called again as I headed toward the hallway. The music was coming from one of the rooms back there. Our floor plans were different from each other, and I noticed that his apartment was a bit more spacious than mine.
