“Let me guess. You know her?”
“Yeah. I know her.”
I scoffed at that. Of course he did.
“How you know her?” I asked even though I already knew the answer.
“We fuck occasionally,” Rob said simply.
I exhaled.
“Stop bringing yo’ motha’fuckin’ problems to my doorstep, Rob.”
“Yes sir.” He snickered and gave me a fake ass salute as he backed up toward the door. “I’m sorry about all that, Novi.” He winked at her. “We’re not always like this.”
“Nah. I’m not always like this. That nigga is usually worse,” I said.
My brother laughed. I walked over and held the door open for him and locked it behind him.
“I’m sorry about that. For real.” I walked over, collapsed back in my seat and gestured for her to sit back down too. “So, uh, where were we?”
2NOVEMBER “NOVI”
I did my best not to stare at Kaleo for too long. He was sitting in the chair across from me, leaning comfortably back and typing away on his phone. He had some of the clearest dark skin I’d ever seen with beautiful white teeth. He was fine as hell.
He peeked up at me. I looked off and toward the front window. Kaleo chuckled.
“So,” I turned back toward him. “How long have you worked at the shop?”
“As long as I’ve been able to sweep up hair.” He smiled. “The shop is pretty much a family heirloom. My dad and uncle opened the shop and when they decided they wanted to step back, I just sort of took over.”
I nodded at that.
“So do you like working here or is it more of an obligation?
“I love working here, but yeah, it’s a lot of obligation too.” He exhaled. “Do you plan on working this summer while Allur is working or just running around and exploring?”
“I’m not too sure yet,” I confessed. “I haven’t thought that far ahead. I didn’t think of much honestly. I just packed up and came.”
“Must be nice.” He chuckled.
“Not having a plan?”
“Having the freedom to not have a plan and be able to just get up and do whatever you want.”
“Maybe you should hire a really good manager that you trust to keep things afloat.”
“Yeah. Maybe.” Kaleo gave me a small smile.
“So, is it safe to assume your brother isn’t interested in helping out with the family business?”
“He does what he can when he can, but he’s not really dedicated to the family business the way I am to be honest. He’s too busy running around and fucking people’s girls.” He chuckled and shook his head. “I love him,” Kaleo clarified. “But, I wouldn’t exactly hand him the keys to the shop unsupervised.”
“I get that. It’s probably really hard to trust someone with your entire livelihood.”
“Yeah. I’m not scared of a lot of shit, but I’m terrified of the idea of this place failing and getting shut down.”
“I can see that.”
