“Forest doesn’t know how you feel.” It wasn’t a question. It was obvious how confused Forest was before. JJ leaned forward, his elbows on the desk. That calculating gaze reminded me so much of Jordan’s. It didn’t matter that JJ’s eyes weren’t the same color; it was the way he studied me. “Why haven’t you told him?”
“He likes women.” Apparently, I was saying whatever I thought today. Good to know.
“Forest likesyou, Sheldon.”
“You’re not the first to tell me.”
“Okay, I give.” He held his hands up. “I’m not here to convince you to do anything about it. I’m going to preface this by saying, I still don’t fucking like you, but you’re not completely horrible. Don’t waste time overthinking things. Tell him how you feel and see what he says. Then you can move on one way or another. If this life has taught me anything, it’s that nothing’s guaranteed. Don’t let him slip through your fingers because you didn’t bother to dig deeper than surface level.”
There was no point in replying. He didn’t say anything I hadn’t heard before or didn’t think myself. Death surrounded us more than I cared to see. It was part of the world we lived in, the one Jordan created, and I signed on to be a part of.
I remembered the day I met him…
I had no love for Dremest, not for its people or its businesses. I only lived on the eastern side because it was cheaper than the western side, and it wasn’t a bad commute to my work at the restaurant. Not my dream job, but who had those anyway?
My hands were stuffed in my pockets as I walked over the bridge that connected the two sides of the city. It wasn’t big, only spanning a creek, but it was enough to put a division there, a separation.
Cold air rushed around me, biting through my jacket. I should have been on my motorcycle. The icy roads this morning made that impossible. It was bad enough I rode it in the winter when the roads were dry. I almost got frostbite. When the roads were wet or frozen, it was a no-go. Most days, I didn’t want to waste money on a cab, and the bus schedule wasn’t in my favor tonight.
My hands ached by the time I got to a coffee shop and slipped through the door. I had enough money to buy a cup, so I did and sat at a small table to warm up before I walked the rest of the way to my apartment.
Person after person came in. They didn’t pay me any mind. I watched them though. Listened to their conversations, heard their misery or delight depending on what they were discussing. It was an interesting thing to be invisible and see everything at the same time, especially when it came to the East Dremest Police Department and the two officers currently talking about their latest case out in the open like no one could touch them.
I was so caught up in them, I didn’t notice the man who took a seat on the opposite side of my table. In fact, I didn’t see him until the two officers turned our way and stared at the man. That was when my head turned toward him as the officers left, their eyes on us.
“What were they discussing?” Jordan Altair Sr. asked me. Interesting that the mafia boss of the city chose to park his ass at my table.
“Why should I tell you?” After growing up with the father I had, I wasn’t easily intimidated.
“You know who I am, yet you have no fear of me?”
“Should I? Did I do something to personally upset you?” I hadn’t, but it was worth asking to further the conversation.
“Is this what you do for a living? Listen to others’ conversations?”
“It’s a hobby.”
“What were they discussing?” he repeated. I wasn’t surprised. Jordan was here for a reason.
“I’ll tell you, not because I’m intimidated by you or feel the need to spill my secrets. I simply don’t care what they were talking about since it has no bearing on me. They were discussing an unsolved case where they found a woman’s body beside a man’s, both stabbed, both were on drugs at the time of death, per the medical examiner. The drugs didn’t kill them. There wasn’t enough in their systems to do that.”
“Did they say that?”
“No, one was reading the report and listed the amount. It wasn’t deadly.”
“You know this how?” he asked.
I watched his expression, how he stayed calm like I did, not demanding information or trying to bribe it out of me. “I have an odd fascination with medicinal compounds. I’ve studied, read, and done my own analysis to understand more than the average person.”
“Yet you work as a…”
“Server.”
“You’re not being utilized.”
“I have no desire to be a pharmacist.” I’d thought about it once, but then saw the money it would take to go to school, and that was the end of it. I barely had enough to keep the electricity on in my small apartment.
My best friend’s parents told me I could live with them. That wasn’t the life I wanted. I had to go out on my own to prove to myself I could do it. They were the safety net in case I fell. They gave me the courage to try. Not everyone had that in place. If I failed, I’d still have a soft place to land.
