I was looking forward to seeing you off.
I would’ve liked that.
I need to handle something in a sec. Make sure you’re by your phone around eight tonight. I’m going to hit you up.
OK. Talk to you then.
Holler at ya.
Just by the conversation and endless funds he seemed to have, I knew his occupation. Although I wanted to block him because of it, the distance between us was enough to keep me from pursuing anything serious with him so it didn’t matter. The most Cedric would ever get out of me was a little conversation. I’d experienced his type, and they weren’t it for me anymore.
8!Cedric reiterated in a final text.
8,I responded, chuckling.
With rosy cheeks, I closed my eyes and tried resting them without inducing sleep. My rest would have to wait. After several seconds, I found myself staring at the road again. That wouldn’t work, either.
The wheels of Lyric’s truck etched away at the distance between us and Channing with Luca at the wheel. Luca. I unlocked my phone and opened the Safari application. In the Google search bar that popped up, I inquired about the man beside me.
What’s the meaning of Luca?I typed.
“Bringer of light,” his voice radiated, drowning out the music with its rasp.
My eyes bulged and breath got caught in my throat. The world must’ve stopped because I felt like time stood still as shame rained down on me from the clouds. My trembling hands hovered over the search results, but I dared to tap one.
Shit.He’d caught me red-handed. Though I felt the need to apologize, I wouldn’t. I genuinely wanted to know a bit more about him and that started with his name. It was a sure way to learn a bit more about a person who left you clueless. For me, Luca was one of them.
Fitting, I concluded, shutting my phone down completely. It was obvious that I wasn’t the only one who had eyes for it. Luca’s perfect vision and curiosity had entered spaces they weren’t invited to.
Three hours,a bag of almonds, and an entire jug of Pedialyte later, and I was still fighting my sleep while staring ahead at the road. I’d fallen into a comfortable silence that allowed me to think about everything that had happened in my life over the last three weeks. They’d been a rollercoaster, but one that I was grateful to be on.
Emorey loved her new school though it was a challenge getting her accustomed to being away from me for so many hours a day. Mrs. Laura, Lyric’s mother, told me every day how much of a joy she was to have around. Since day one, Emorey had become her little helper. Because she had a hard time getting acclimated with the structure of the classroom and being around so many children at once, Mrs. Laura pulled her out of the class as often as she could to help and spend some one-on-one time together.
Essence’s year was drawing to a close, although she’d just started her new school. There were only two weeks left before she would be going to the same school as Emorey. The end of the year had approached and when the new school year rolled around, she’d be a first grader. I wasn’t ready. My little baby was growing too fast. I wanted her to slow down.
“How much longer do we have?” Lyric groaned near my ear, still half-asleep.
“Maybe an hour or less,” I responded.
“Good, because I need to pee.”
I shrieked on the inside as I looked to Luca for a response. He didn’t give one. He simply continued driving, seemingly lost in thought, too.
Lyric reached forward and turned the volume of the music down. She faced Luca, who hadn’t taken his eyes off the road, and smiled. The admiration in her eyes was adorable.
“So, how does it feel to be home?” She yawned.
“I don’t know yet. I’ll tell you when I get there.”
“Such an arrogant asshole.” Lyric scoffed.
Luca didn’t respond, not verbally anyway, but the smirk that peeled his features back was close enough. I drained my lungs of oxygen in an attempt to recover from the lethal blow to the chest.My GOD.
Lyric leaned forward again and pumped the volume up again. I was thankful because if I could hear my heart’s rapid beating, I was almost certain he could. The last thing I wanted was him knowing the effect he was having on me though he’d barely even said a word to me. I could count on one hand how many he had sent in my direction.
My cell vibrated in my lap, the ping replaced with the standard iPhone sound. When I checked the number to see who was calling, I wasn’t surprised to see that it was restricted. For the one hundredth time, I made a mental note to get my number changed. But this time, I went a step further and blocked out thirty minutes of my day on my phone’s calendar to do so once I was settled and had a nap.
Mondays and Wednesdays were the only two days of the week that I had off, and I tried utilizing them to take care of myself and my business. I’d already gotten a mail transfer so there wasn’t any mail going to my old residence. Instead, it had been transferred to a P.O. Box that I had purchased for six months at the post office. The girls and I all had new physicians that we’d seen since being in Channing.
