I waved him off. “My mind ain’t even on a woman right now.”
“You mean any other woman.”
I took a sip of my drink. “I see what you did there. I won’t lie, she’s been heavy on my mind. But I’m gonna take your advice…well, I’ll try.”
Kadeem shook his head. “I know you. I know when you’re passionate about something, you can’t let it go. Just be careful. Sometimes when we wanna do good, we unintentionally cause more problems.”
“I hear you.”
I changed the subject so Alayah didn’t consume my thoughts. I’d been praying for her. I prayed for peace, healing, and her happiness. After all she’d been through, she deserved that.
Chapter 9
Alayah
A week had gone by, and I was settling in at Uncle Clive’s shop pretty well.
Charlene was a great teacher. She’d not only shown me step-by-step instructions for daily duties, but she wrote me a little manual in case I forgot something. I had another week to learn all I needed to know because she would be going on maternity leave very soon. She was already walking around groaning and rubbing her belly like she was having contractions. The last thing I wanted was for her to go into labor in the office.
Currently, I was walking around the shop taking inventory while Charlene was on lunch. It had been a pretty quiet day. After Uncle Clive threatened Theo, he didn’t even look in my direction, and the others followed suit. I didn’t come here to make trouble. I just wanted my space respected.
“You working hard or hardly working?” Londyn asked, rolling from beneath a car.
“I’m just appearing to look busy,” I jested. “I’m doing inventory. Just trying to keep busy. An idle mind is the devil’s playground.”
“Chile, you said a mouthful. I think about all kinds of shit when I’m bored. Like, dumb shit. For instance, how do our brains remember that we forgot something, but we can’t remember what that thing was? Or the fact that nothing is really on fire, more like fire is on things—”
I laughed. She was so random.
“Londyn, do you smoke when you’re alone?”
She grinned. “Sometimes. These are not my high thoughts, though. Those are much deeper. You smoke?”
“No.”
“Edibles?”
“Nope.”
“Damn, girl. What do you do for fun?”
I shrugged. “I like to read.”
“Oh! You read smut, don’t you? You know those quiet, innocent-looking girls always like stuff like that.”
I shook my head. “I like romance books.”
“But you aren’t trying to have your own romance story.” She shook her head. “My friend, my friend.”
The sound of the door alarm alerted me to a customer. Since Charlene wasn’t back, I had to take care of them.
“I’ll talk to you later, Londyn.”
“Okay, boo.”
She slid back under the car while I headed back through the back door to the office that led to the front entrance.
“Welcome to Clive’s. How can I help—”
