Page 24 of See No Evil

“Nah, I don’t agree with that.”

“You don’t have to agree. The truth isn’t disputable. I can only be deeply in love with one woman at a time, but I can have sex with multiple women and not feel a thing about it. Now, that’s just me, but I know it to be true for many others, too. We’re wild animals that have only recently, from a historical timeline perspective, been tamed. We eat, conquer, fight, shit, fuck for pleasure and for reproduction. Period. As a higher-rank elevated animal, we try to do things that will better us and society, so havin’ kids’, for instance, with a bunch of different fathers and mothers usually isn’t ideal. It can cause confusion. When I wanted to step out and cheat, I did that, too. When confronted about cheating, if I had, I never lied about it. Sometimes I was sorry about it after the fact. Most times I wasn’t. Honestly, it seemed the more I gave my heart to someone, the worse I got treated, so I stopped doing that.

“Now that I’m a little older, I think relationships sometimes, unfortunately, are about people wanting to control one another. It’s about dominance. ‘He’s mine, she’s mine,’ type shit. Yeah, I get that way too, wanting to own the woman I love, but at the same time, I understand that really, I don’t own anyone who doesn’t want to be owned, and I can’t keep a lady who doesn’t want to be kept. Church. We gotta stop makin’ everything about how you want that other person to make you feel, focusing on what they aren’t doing, versus doing what I need to do, or you need to do, to make sure you’re holding up your endof the bargain. Everybody wants to blame each other for why relationships are screwed up nowadays.”

“I’m S.I.N.G.L.E., again! I’m F.N.F.!” She cackled. “Fuck nigga free.’

“Yeah… like that bullshit song you like to listen to. Like all men are fuckboys.”

She burst out laughing and turned away.

“Yeah, keep laughing. I heard that shit you keep playing in your car. It’s brainwashing you. I could say all bi… I mean, women aren’t worth a rusty nickel, and I’d have plenty of personal examples of me being done wrong, but I know deep down that there’s good women out in this world who wouldn’t do me that way. It’s just some of the ones I was with. Or maybe, it was my karma for screwing over a few good women in my life. Me being childish. I’ve been a perpetrator of that, too.”

“You ever been in love?”

“Yeah. Twice.”

“You’re thirty-six, never been married, no children, and only been in love twice. Yeah… no red flags here to see,” she stated sarcastically.

“I don’t fall in love easily. That’s silly. I choose wisely who I hand over the keys to my feelings like that. I’m not an emotional person, but I am when I’m in love, and so that makes it uncomfortable for me. It’s a tight fit.”

“You know what, Legend?”

“What?”

“I could talk to you all day and night. I can’t believe we keep vibing like this. This is yet another really deep conversation! You’re an interesting guy.”

“Yeah, so I’ve been told.” He yawned.That meal I made was far too heavy. Put me in a coma.“I understand why I do what I do, so these things are never a mystery or surprising to me. I’m a messed-up person who holds grudges, but I know rightfrom wrong, and I understand expectations. I’m my own best therapist. Nobody knows me better than me. Not even someone whoclaimsthey can read me and tell me about myself—like you.”

She snatched his cigarette from his hand and took a long draw, then handed it back.

“You’re afraid of love. I’m not. I just don’t have time for it.”

He shook his head, took a puff of the cigarette, and handed it back to her before slipping off his shoes. He put his legs on the couch, matching her stance—feet flat, knees up towards his chest. She handed him back the cigarette as smoke eddied from her mouth.

“I’m not afraid of love, baby. Love is afraid ofme…”

Chapter Eight

Legend looked overthe paperwork, rolled the money in between the pages, rubber-banded them, and placed them in his leather-bound folder. He did the same thing, took the same steps, each and every time.I’m nearly there… almost met my goal.Putting on his hat, he drove over to the small office building in Lexington, and sat in his truck for a spell listening to, ‘Shotz to the Double Glock,’ by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. Classic. After a few minutes, he got out, entered the place, and asked to speak to Ortiz, as he always did.

No questions were asked. He was led into another smaller office in the far back, where he handed over the information, along with the money.

“Dos pagos más después de esto.” He specified only two payments were left.

“Sí. Solo te quedan dos pagos. Entonces se le pagará en su totalidad,” Ortiz agreed, adding that the invoice would soon be paid in full. This wasn’t a pleasure visit. There was nothing further to discuss. He came in person with the proper documents and funds. End of story. He headed back out of the office, got into his truck, and drove away.

The following week

“So, what doyou think? You’re the real estate man.”

“Well, go ’head and park, and I’ll take a looksee.”

“Do you think it would be a good investment?” Legend drove a little farther in, parked, and turned the engine off in his truck.

It was morning, a rather gray day with wimpy, shapeless clouds, and he was excited to show his best friend what he’d discovered. He felt a bit like Christopher Columbus. The dogs started barking as soon as the sound of Tela James’, ‘Sho Nuff’ was turned off. Axel looked curiously through the windshield. “It’s a five-acre lot. It ain’t too far from I-265 and downtown Louisville. Good location, I think.”

They looked at one another, and both got out of the truck. Legend’s passenger’s side door opened and closed. The dogs got even louder. Legend went around the back of his black Tahoe he’d just purchased, with white skull graphics on the side, opened the back door, and all three of his furry monsters came tumbling out. It was a matter of seconds before his fur family was racing around the land as if it were a forestry playground built just for them, chock full of adventure. The open field housed a multitude of scratchy weeds, small vermin and scavengers, surrounded by beautiful, mature trees. A creek wound through it, bits of trash and debris floating in it, and large, dead branches lying here and there. It needed work, but the potential was there.

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