“Next weekend actually. We’re going to that festival at the park. We also have a brunch coming up in a few weeks.”
“Oh yeah, the two day joint. I thought about it, but that’s too many people for me.”
“Yeah, I’ve been three years in a row, and each year more and more people seem to come. It’s usually pretty chill and laid back. Nobody acting stupid which is surprising.”
Lucci didn’t respond. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that whoever shot his girlfriend was probably aiming for Lucci. I wasn’t sure what kind of beef he had and suddenly my chest tightened. Why the hell was I riding in this man’s car when he’d just been shot at less than two weeks ago? My heart pounded irately in my chest, and I tried to keep my breathing under control. I was less than five minutes away from my home. Closing my eyes, I said a silent prayer asking God to cover me.
Anytime a car pulled up beside us, I froze. Whenever my anxiety flared up, it made me feel physically ill. All the alcohol that I’d consumed was sloshing around in my belly and attempting to come back up. When Lucci turned onto my street, I pushed out the biggest sigh of relief. All I wanted was to make it safely out of his vehicle. Lucci pulled up in my driveway, and I had to stop myself from jumping out of his car like somebody was after me.
“Thank you for the ride,” I managed to smile. “Be safe.”
“You’re welcome and no doubt.”
Lucci waited while I unlocked my door and walked in the house. Quickly, I punched in the code for my alarm and closed and locked the door behind me. “Thank you, God,” I mumbled.
I wasn’t interested in Lucci because he had a girlfriend but add in the fact that females were getting shot while they were with him, and I was really good on him no matter how fine he was.
For our first tutoring session, Lucci and I met at a coffee shop. I had made some index cards with definitions and terms that he needed to know on them. I also made notes of key points from the first two chapters that he might be tested on. He showed upon time. Lucci didn’t smell like weed, and his eyes weren’t red, prompting me to assume that he hadn’t smoked any marijuana. I could tell he was taking the tutoring session seriously.
“Before I start, was there anything that the teacher went over that you didn’t understand or that you had questions about?”
“Man,” Lucci drawled as he slouched in his seat. “That muhfucka talks in straight slow motion. Listening to him talk for three hours is like watching paint dry. I don’t know how I’m supposed to comprehend what he’s saying when he doesn’t speak with any kind of emotion. I spend all my energy trying to keep from falling asleep.”
Giggling, I unlocked my phone and went to YouTube. “I’m going to turn you on to a great teacher. He has videos posted on YouTube. He owns a real estate school, and he records his lessons. He helped me a lot. He gives really good examples and breaks things down in a way that you can understand. I used to read the chapter on my own, listen to his video on the same chapter, and then read it again. That helped me a great deal and before I took the exam, I watched his video on helping to prepare for the exam. I even listened to it in the car on my way to take the test.”
“Damn that’s what’s up. Thank you. I never even thought to look on YouTube.”
“Since it’s so much information having a person that can really break it down for you in a way that you understand is the key to retaining the information.”
I went over all the index cards with him and the notes I typed up. I also waited while he answered the questions at the end of the chapter and out of twenty questions, he only missed six. That was great in my opinion. Lucci was off to a pretty good start. The hour flew by. We actually went a little over an hour.
“I appreciate you taking the time out to help me,” he stated as he gathered his things.
“No problem. That class is no joke. Everyone thinks becoming a realtor is a quick lick, and it’s anything but. The class is hard, the exam is harder, and selling houses is the hardest part.”
Lucci walked me to my car. Despite the fact that I almost had a panic attack the night he gave me a ride home from the club, I found myself disappointed that our time together had come to an end. I really needed to get my shit together because Lucci was taken. I loved how respectful he was of his relationship. No matter how fine he was, if he tried to make a move on me while he was in a relationship, I’d look at him differently. To know he was faithful, however, gave him cool points.
Since I wasn’t ready to go home, I decided to stop by my aunt’s house. My aunt was in her sixties, but she was still active and in pretty good health. She didn’t smoke or drink. She didn’t have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, a bad heart, or any other kind of ailment aside from gout in her ankle that only bothered her occasionally. My aunt, Jo still loved to cook, clean, and be active. She was the closest person to me on my mother’s side of the family, and she’d been a little down lately, so I made it a point to check on her. She had to let her husband go live with their son because she couldn’t take care of him anymore. She loved her house and didn’t want to leave it to move in with her son.
He was seven years older than her and suffering from dementia. Taking care of him was too much on my aunt especially on the days she was in pain due to her ankle. He’d get in his car and leave and forget his way back home. There were nights when he’d try and leave out of the house super late saying he had to go to work. Sometimes, when Aunt Jo tried to stop him, he’d become combative. She hated the fact that they had to live apart, but she didn’t want him to hurt her whenever he became angry at her for attempting to keep him from doingcertain things. Their son could handle his father better than Aunt Jo could.
My aunt didn’t drive, but it didn’t matter. Between one of her children, siblings, or neighbors, she found a way to her husband every day. She cooked and took him food, still did his laundry, and sat and kept him company for hours. They had a beautiful love story, and I could only pray that I didn’t leave the world having never known my forever person.
The moment my aunt opened the door for me the aroma of food smacked me in the face. “It smells good in here,” I complimented.
“I just got done with a pot roast with carrots and potatoes. You know I have to feed your uncle. You want a plate?”
“I sure do. That pot roast smells delicious.”
One thing my aunt was going to do was dote on people. I wasn’t sure where she got that behavior from because her mother nor her sister who was my mother possessed it. My aunt told me to have a seat while she grabbed a bowl and began to place food in it. “How was your day?” she asked.
“It was pretty good. I’m tutoring someone that’s taking a real estate class. Other than that, I just responded to some emails. Nothing major. What about you?”
“Today was one of those days when I thought that pain in my ankle would take me out. I’ve been on three different medications for this gout, and nothing helps.”
You knooooow,”I drawled.
“What Breezy?” she side eyed me like she knew I was about to say something she didn’t want to hear.
