I finally said to her, “While I appreciate you being worried, you don’t have to be. There isn’t anything Travis could do to me. And, hell, if he went so far as to touch you; well…” I left that in the air.
We heard someone clear their throat, and I looked up as Max shyly stepped back from me.
“Uhhh … Hello, Reap,” Michelle said to me.
I rolled my eyes at what she called me and the fact she interrupted what was sure to end with her lips on mine.
“Hey, Michelle,” I said simply.
She smiled at both of us, as if she knew exactly what she interrupted.
“Hey, girl. Your chariot awaits.”
I frowned.
“You should have told me you needed a ride home. I would’ve taken you.”
I was a little hurt and didn’t have a problem showing it.
Max nodded, and then looked up at me and smiled, “I know you would have. She was already almost here when I finally saw you…I guess I’ll see you on Monday?”
“Okay, I’ll see you then,” I told her, and I watched her leave out the back door.
When I got home, I did my usual: took a cold shower and tried my best not to dream of her. Sunday came, and I lounged around my apartment. I live on Walnut Street in these new apartments close to Penn’s Landing. I bought one of the penthouses as an investment opportunity. I didn’t have plans on living here forever, but when I saw the place I fell in love. Too bad I couldn’t get anything like this in Dallas. When you walked into my apartment, it’s a complete open floor plan with a 270-degree panoramic view of the Delaware River. You first get to a seating area that welcomes you. On the right, there’s an open kitchen with black cabinets, stainless steel appliances, and white granite counter tops. An island separates the dining room from the kitchen, and an open fireplace separates the living area from the dining room. Each corner of the floor plan on the first floor has an outside lounging area. The upstairs is what sold me completely. I know this place will be great in the summer. First there’s an elevator that takes you upstairs. A wet bar and both bedrooms are upstairs. The master bedroom is the best I had seen in a long time. The room has an entire wall of windows that slides open up to a terrace, heated pool, outdoor kitchen, patio, and flat screen TV.
I know it sounds like too much, and it probably is, but I couldn’t resist. Alex shook his head when he first saw it. But now that he’s used to it, I can’t get him to leave sometimes. The place cost me an arm and leg and other body parts. But, as I said before, it’s an investment. I’m sure when I’m gone Alex will try and claim this place as his own in order to impress every chick he’s banging.
I went for a run in the building’s gym for about an hour before I started my day, which consisted of shit. Marc called me in the afternoon, giving me the shit for not making it home yet.
“Bro, what the fuck are you doing?” he asked me.
He was staring at me through my 60-inch smart TV hanging on my living room wall. I slouched on my cream leather couch with just a pair of basketball shorts and sleeveless tee and stared up at the mirror image of me.
“What does it look like I’m doing? Why are you giving me shit?”
“You know why. We have a business to run, and you’ve been gone for what? Almost ten fucking years? It’s time to face life, little bro.”
He was sitting in his “man cave,” as he called it, watching me on the same type of TV. He also wore the same clothes, which meant he just finished working out too.
“So are you saying I’ve been slacking this whole time?”
We always have this argument every time we talk on the phone. I saw him sigh.
“No, you dickwad. I’m just saying you’ve been in the states for what? Two months? When are you coming home?”
I shrugged. “I’m just not ready to come home, Marc. I don’t know how else to explain that to you any more than I already have. I have some shit to work through, or I won’t be the loving, caring brother you know and love.”
I heard a feminine laugh in the distance.
“Shut up, Marie. You know it’s true.”
Marie appeared on the screen and sat next to her husband. Marie and my brother have been married for eight years now. He got married two years after I enlisted. They spawned three adorable kids that I love and miss terribly.
“Your nieces and nephew miss you,” she told me.
One weakness I have that people could exploit would be my nieces—Alexis and Alicia, twin girls who are seven years old and are beautiful—and my man—Marcus Jr., who is five years old. They have hair like my brother and me—thick, blonde locks—but they have their mom’s beautiful green eyes.