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She rolled her eyes. “Whatisyour problem?”
“No problem.” I shrugged. “He’s here. Probably visiting his parents or something. I’m not gonna think about it because he will be gone just as soon as he got here. I’ll be at the hospital in a couple of days, so I’ll just steer clear of the club.”
“Wait, why? Don’t tell me a little part of you doesn’t want to catch up with him. You always said you guys ended on good terms, just young and in different directions. So why not grab a drink or a meal? I’m sure he’d love to catch up with you. At least for old times’ sake.”
I sipped my coffee, trying to keep my demeanor from giving away my nerves. “It’s pointless. He’ll be gone soon. I have to worry about school, he’ll be back on a plane to California, I don’t know how hectic it’ll be at the hospital, and I only would have tomorrow. I need to be resting and getting my stuff in order. It just wasn’t meant to be.”
She stood up with an overly dramatic faux whip of her hair and one last eye roll. “Well, I need to get ready to go to work. If you plan to relax and get your things in order, does that mean we aren’t going to see Mom and Dad tomorrow?”
Cornered. I needed a hug from Mom before I started the internship and Dad was going to cook out. “Of course, we are. It’s Sunday dinner, just another reason I wouldn’t have time to grab a meal with Mike. Have fun at work.”
Onyx owned a high-end salon. She got her degree in business management but also went to Cosmetology school at the same time. She said she’d leave the medicine to me and Mom. She was sharp, and researched locations, got grants, and fully vetted all the stylists and aestheticians who work from her salon. It’s one of the best rated salons that’s not directlyinAtlanta. But with that, she worked until at least seven most nights and had to work Saturdays. At least that's what she kept telling us. She had a full and very capable staff, but she preferred to be there all the time to be sure everything was perfect.
The noise was still going on outside so after topping off my coffee, I turned on the TV to try to drown it out with some trashy reality shows. I made it through one episode when Onyx came out looking like she was ready for a huge meeting. She always dressed to the nines for work, but she did wear flats with special insoles to keep her feet and back from hurting so bad.
“Alright, I’m off. But since this is the first Saturday you’ve been off for years, why don’t you let me take you out since you won’t track down Mike.”
I dropped my head back onto the back of the sofa. This would blow over soon. “Okay, but not the club.”
“No. Listen, I’m still young but I’m tired and it’s too loud there. I’m used to the soft ambience of the salon. We’ll go grab a bite somewhere. I’ll need to shower when I get home, but I should be here around six today. Sound good?”
I nodded and watched as she grabbed her keys and her bag. Our apartment wasn’t close to the square like everyone else’s, so we drove everywhere. In this July heat, I’d rather be in the air conditioning anyway.
I stood to get one more cup of coffee and winced at all the noise still coming from outside. When she opened the door, I stopped dead in my tracks. A familiar voice echoed in the corridor.
Chapter 4
Mike
“Well, I’ll be damned! Jason, hold up.” We sat the dresser down we were carrying toward my door.
“Mike? Is that you?” Onyx smiled and jogged toward me before practically jumping into my arms. We squeezed each other tight, and my heart felt lighter. She was like the little sister I never had. I made her mad several times when I had “chats” with her loser boyfriends in high school. But she treated me like an older brother and even though she would get angry, she’d never stay that way.
“Onyx, look at you! You’re all grown up. Where you headed like that?” I asked. She was dressed for a power meeting, from the looks of it.
“Work. I own The Black Orchid Salon on the other side of town. You need a visit from what I can see.” She chuckled and pulled my Dodger’s cap off.
“Hey, I don’t primp. Plus, I use a barber.”
She smacked my arm. “I’ll have you know nearly half of our clients are men and we can clean up and shape that beard, too. But I guess you won’t have much time. Hey Jason, sorry! Didn’t mean to ignore you. Just haven’t seen Mike in ages. So, this was all the racket.” She waved her hand at the dresser. “Are y’all helping someone move in?”
I smiled when Jason nodded toward me. “Well, I’m actually moving in.”
Glass shattered above us, so we all looked up the steps leading to the second floor. There she stood in cream colored pajama pants and a tank, with no bra on, and brown splatter all over the legs of the pants.
“Jaz, are you alright?” Onyx hopped halfway up the stairs then stopped. “Your mug. You don’t have shoes on. Guys, let me go get the broom, don’t let anyone on these steps.” Onyx grabbed some large shards on her way up then told Jaz to stay put.
Jason walked past me and bumped my shoulder hard. I looked back at him, and his mouth was turned up into a half grin. I shook my head and darted up the steps. Onyx came back out with a dustpan and broom, so I reached out. “Let me help, you look like you were in a rush.”
Onyx looked down at her watch. “Shit, I gotta get going. Saturday appointments always show up early. It’s their ‘me time’ so they take a little more than they scheduled ya know.” She squeezed my shoulder once she was on the same step. “Welcome home, bro. Guess I’ll see ya around since we live here, too.” She smiled wide but when she looked over her shoulder then back at me, her eyes dimmed a little.That was weird.
“Yeah, see ya. If you need anything I’m right here,” I said, pointing to the door to my apartment on the bottom floor. The place was much different than Jason’s building. There were several buildings in the complex and each one had stairs instead of elevators, and the corridors were open breezeways. Each building was only three stories high and held twelve units. They were fairly new, though, and had a gym and a pool. I checked out the gym online and saw free-weights, which was really all I needed. No extra trips to an offsite gym and saving that money sounded great to me.
I finished sweeping up the glass but held the dustpan. “I think I got it all. Can I put this in the trash? My small stuff is behind all the furniture on the truck.”
She moved back and waved me to her door that was still open. I walked in and found the kitchen to the left. Her place was above and across so the layout was the same only backwards. After I dumped the glass I turned and asked, “Where do these go?”
She walked over and uncrossed her arms to take the broom and dustpan. It could have been my imagination, but she seemed to take a lot of caution not to touch my hands.
