Page 31 of Love Next Door
I wasn’t trying to get in the way of her ho activities.
“Thanks,” Briana stated, taking her baby and kissing all over her face.
“I’ll be back to holler at you. I need answers, Bri,” I declared firmly.
She bobbed her head as she kept kissing her baby. I saw fear in her eyes, and it struck me as odd because I wasn’t certain what she was scared of. I jogged down the steps and headed down the walkway to the driveway.
Then it hit me. All kinds of shit started falling into place, and I could see the missing pieces of the puzzle. I turned back around and mugged the nigga standing there talking to her just as he was getting ready to go into the house. I turned back and jogged up the steps.
“Aye, Keith.”
“Yeah?”
“You work over at ViewPoint?”
“Yeah. I’m one of the maintenance men over there.”
“How long have you been hollering at Bri?”
“About four months.”
My gaze slid to Briana as she backed into the doorway. I never took my gaze off her as I asked him the next question. “Any chance you let her into one of the apartments?”
“Yeah. Three-sixteen. Her brother’s apartment.”
“You make it a habit of letting people into other folks’ apartments?”
“Nah. What’s this about?”
“That was my apartment, nigga. And she ain’t my sister.”
He frowned and looked back at her for an explanation. She shook her head, and tears started pouring. That was the manipulative shit she always pulled when she found her ass in trouble.
“She said she had to get some important documents out because her granddad had died, and her brother forgot them at home. She said they were related to the funeral expenses,” Keith tried explaining.
I wanted to go in that nigga’s mouth and bust her in the head, but she was holding that damn baby. The last thing I wanted was to be the reason an innocent kid got traumatized.
“Bri, stay the fuck out my life. Don’t make me get a fucking restraining order. I know ya ass was in my place. Couldn’t figure out why some shit was out of place, and it wasn’t till I came back here that I recognized the scent that’s been in my apartment the last few days, your perfume. Nigga, that’s your job,” I stated, pointing at the maintenance worker.
“Hey, let’s talk!” he called out as I jogged to my car.
I ignored both of their begging asses as I jumped into my car and burned rubber out of there.
“Hello,Ms. Severs. How can I help you today?” Loya Green, one of the leasing agents, asked as she sat down at her desk across from me.
“I know that it’s time for me to renew my lease, but I was wondering, rather than signing another one-year lease, is it possible for me to sign a month-to-month lease?”
“Oh, sure. We do have those options available. Usually, they are for the residents who are just staying with us on a temporary basis, to see if we are a good fit for them and vice versa. But we can definitely accommodate you.”
“Thank you.”
“Let me pull up your records here. Your lease is due to renew when, . . . next week?”
“No. It’s scheduled to renew at the end of the month, so I still have three and a half weeks remaining on this current one.”
She nodded as she typed rapidly on her computer. I ran my fingers over the screen of my phone. It had been difficult to come to this decision, but there was no way that I could remain in my current predicament.
The easy part about losing Devon to Sasha was that Devon and I hadn’t lived in the same parts of town, so it wasn’t likely that I would run into him often anyway. Not only did July and I live in the same part of town, but we were next-door neighbors. There was no way that I could avoid him for long. If we didn’t run into each other in the hallway, elevator, garage, or another part of the building, we were sure to do it at the gas station or local grocery store.
