Two minutes of them being off the phone, a text came through with the address. Pulling up his GPS, he copy and pasted, then headed in her direction. She was exactly twenty minutes from the warehouse, but he planned on cutting that time down by at least five minutes. If this was going to be his only chance to talk to Brix, he was going to make damn sure he was on time. Grateful for Carissa giving in to his pleading, he smiled but it quickly dropped once he thought of how he was going to explain himself. He had never saw Brix upset for real and he thought for sure she was going to spazz on him. Little did he know, Brix was going to be cool as a fan. She had no choice but to be. Sure, she was mad about him lying, but could she really stop him from doing that? If he wanted to fuck up a good thing, that was on him.
* * * * *
Shutting his car off, Shemel sat outside Carissa’ apartment complex. He hadn’t been nervous the whole ride here, but as soon as he pulled in, he felt his palms begin to sweat. Rubbing them against his jeans, he hopped out being sure to grab his phone out the cup holder. Jogging up the few flights of stairs, he stopped in front of her door and knocked softly remembering that Brix was sleep. Carissa pulled the door open with a mug on her face and her arms crossed. Even with the thirty minutes that had passed she was still annoyed at the fact that Pierre gave her number out. Standing there with his hands tucked inside his sweats, Shemel spoke up.
“Are you going to invite me in?” he asked.
Without saying a word, she held the door open while he waltzed in. Taking a look around the nice sized living room, he thought to ask where she worked but decided against it. It was not the time for questioning, at least not from his end. Standing in the middle of the room, he peeked down the hall trying to decipher which room Brix could be in. Seeing how anxious he was, Carissa cleared her throat.
“Well that was quick,” she said, with a smirk.
“Yeah. You said be here in thirty minutes, so shit. Here I am.”
“Unfortunately you are,” Carissa said with a roll of her eyes. “So look, she’s still sleep. I would wait with you until she gets up, but I have to be at work. You can wait out here until she wakes up. She’ll probably be hungry, so the kitchen will probably be her first stop.”
Unbeknownst to the two, Brix had been wide awake for the last hour or so. After Carissa peeked in on her, she couldn’t go back to sleep. Her body was still tired so she simply lounged around. Throughout the day, she had woken up to eat and shower, but other than that the bed was her safe haven. Her phone was on Do Not Disturb and she had received some of the best sleep she had in a while.
Hearing the deep baritone of a male’s voice, she grinned thinking of how stubborn Carissa thought she was. She isn’t that upset with Pierre since he is over here, she thought. Grabbing her phone, she checked her missed calls and text messages. Like it had been for the last two weeks, Shemel was about the only name visible through the others. He was standing out like a thumb tack and it was poking her, causing annoyance. Going to her email, she responded back to Nicole about rescheduling their appointment. Brix was going to only give herself one day to be down on the dumps and after that it was back to business as usual.
Thinking of the number of cakes she had to bake this weekend, she sat her phone down. The thought of slaving all day was exciting because it was something she loved, but it could sometimes get hectic inside her mom’s kitchen. It was one of the main reasons she held a tasting. It was time to branch out and get her own spot at least. Even if it was something small to start off with, she wouldn’t have to occupy her mother’s space all of the time. It was no problem for Mrs. Carla, but Brix wanted to do it out of respect. She knew her mama probably wanted to have friends over on weekends instead helping her clean up frosting, food coloring, and more.
Hearing the front door close, she scrunched up her face. Carissa could have at least told me she was leaving, she thought. Deciding to give her a call, she hopped up to go brush her teeth and handle her hygiene. It was already dark outside, so she planned on spending the night and eating up all her junk food. It had been a while since she got the chance to just relax and she was going to soak these hours of freedom up. Grabbing her cell, she saw Carissa had sent her a text.
Carissa: Don’t be mad at me. I love you and I think you should hear him out. See you when I get off!
Furrowing her eyebrows, Brix frowned. Who was the he she was talking about is what confused her. Once Carissa had left out the door, Shemel sat quietly for a few minutes. Once he heard the water running, he made his way down the hallway. As much as he would have liked to obey her “rules” he didn’t. He was planning to wake Brix up if she hadn’t woken on her own. Before Brix could respond to the text, the bedroom door squeaked open. Turning around like the speed of lightening, she grabbed her chest when she heard the intruder. She had been so in tune with her phone, she hadn’t even heard him walk down the hall.