That statement knocked the wind out of me and had my face drawn up immediately.
“Damn Unc, you asked me to take a ride with you, not come in here with you while you drop a fucking bomb.” Aroyal spoke as he leaned back against the empty bar.
“Excuse me?”
“Perhaps my nephew is right and this is not the place or time to discuss this. I want to give you my card. I would really like to speak to you in private.” He then extended a card I was hesitant to accept but did.
“I really hope that you call.” He then turned on his feet. He and his nephew left just as fast as they came. I was left fucking stuck because as far as I knew my father was that rotten ass Memphis who was now rotting in a grave my brother had a hand in putting him into. What the fuck? If Memphis wasn’t my father, then…fuck all of that. At thirty-three years old I wasn’t out here looking for a father. I’d gone through all the crucial moments without the nigga, so what the fuck did I need him for now?I hated that I was still curious.
“That was extremely heavy, and for the life of me, I wouldn’t know what to say at that moment. You took it well. Would you like to push back going to th—” Lois’s voice interrupted my overprocessing. At that moment I remembered she was standing next to me.
“Nah. We can leave. You’re driving.” I shook that shit off and moved toward the exit, making a mental note to talk to my brother. Because something told me Kinga had some idea of this Maury moment, which was why he told me it was nothing to worry about.
“Uh, yeah.” We exited the restaurant and moved toward the parking lot where her navy-blue VW Atlas was parked. It took her all of forty-five seconds to speak on the moment that had just taken place. As a matter of fact, we hadn’t even pulled out of the parking lot when she started speaking. “Look, I pride myself in being the friend who allows you to come to me with things, but I can’t sit back and act like I didn’t just hear that. Besides my wife, you’re my best friend, Oden. Shit I need you more than you know, so when you go missing, I feel like something in my life is missing. Even when you came back, you weren’t whole, you were existing in a routine that made sure you showed face and scheduled disappearances.”
“Loi—” I started, but she put her hand up.
“Let me finish.” She took me not saying anything else as her cue to finish speaking. “Recently, very recently, I’ve seen you stray away from that routine. You haven't just existed in a while. You’ve been happy and more fulfilled, in love. I say all of that to say, don’t let momentary situations send you into a life of isolation that was slowly killing you.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I nodded. For the rest of the ride the only thing that could be heard was her GPS telling her what turns to make. That was only another ten minutes even though we were clearly across the damn city. That was because Loisdrove like life wasn’t precious. She drove like she should’ve been drafted by NASCAR.
“Yo, I heard what you said about me being happy and all that shit about living but how can you give a speech like that, then proceed to drive like you trying to knock us both off?” I asked as we were climbing out of the car.
“But did you die?” She laughed.
“Nah, because that lil Nissan you challenged at the light conceded.”
“This is a nice ass building.” Lois looked around as we entered through the garage lobby and went straight to the elevator. Neither security nor the desk receptionist stopped us either, further proving my point that the security in here was trash as fuck.
“Yeah, but you see how we just walked up here. That’s a problem.”
Lois nodded. “Yeah, it is. You said she’s only getting stalked here?”
We stepped off the elevator. “Yeah, that’s what it seems like. A few flower deliveries to her store, but nothing as in depth as this.” When we reached the door to her apartment, I used her key to get in and pulled my piece from my back. There was no way I was stepping in here without checking every room. When everything was clear, I met Lois at the door and nodded for her to do what she needed.
While she set her computer on the island and got to work, I moved through the space, taking in all that had been done. For the most part Ava did have it cleaned, but the spray paint had seeped through the paint and her lilac couch was also spray painted.
“You said her Wi-Fi and shit has been acting wonky, right?”
“Yeah. The lil internet nigga comes through and fixes it a lot. She hates that shit.”
“What’s his name?” she asked, typing extremely fast on her computer, not looking up at me.
“Shit, I don’t know. Antonio, I don’t know, let me ask her.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and requested a FaceTime. She answered on the first ring, smiling into the camera.
“Hello, handsome,” she greeted, her whole demeanor bringing a smile to my face and light to my whole day. Just looking at her had me forgetting everything that threatened to fuck up my day, shit I momentarily forgot why I called.
“What’s up, love? Tell me something. What’s the lil dude who comes in here to fix your internet’s name?”
“Ant, shoot I don’t know. Wait, I have his card in my purse. Let me see.” She shuffled around for a minute before she was speaking again. “Anthony White. Why? Do you think it’s him?”
“Nah, we don't know that yet. Lo is looking through everything. I’ll call you when I’m on my way.”
“Okay.” She hung up a few seconds later.
As soon as I assured her and got her off the phone, Lois was looking up at me. Her eyes told me what my mind had already put together. My full attention was on Lois as I approached.
“There is no problem with her internet. It’s controlled by that name you just said. According to the mainframe, every time it has ever gone down it’s been command controlled. This Anthony character is doing a lot more than fixing Wi-Fi. Shit, he’s tethering, editing video security footage, and doing a lot more. I’m willing to bet you he’s the stalker. I’ve even looked through all the other digital wiring of every other apartment and none of them are hardwired like hers. It’s like it’s set up for viewing and control.”
