𝐃𝐄𝐏𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐃

15

HER PREDATOR

Tuesday morning, I don't even want to go to work. I like to say that when I dropped Casei off this morning that things between us were at least cordial, but after really sleeping on the whole messing around with Dyl situation, I'm fucking pissed.

I wake up and shower, running on only a few hours of sleep. I get dressed and pass by my dad in the hallway. Maybe he can see the hangover in my eyes or maybe he doesn't, but he only greets me and scoots out of the way.

I take my Jeep to work, keeping my burning eyes glued to the road like it might disappear or some shit if I'm not staring at it. My car smells like Dyl and Casei. Like perfume and cologne. Like trust and mistrust. I turn up the radio, connect it to my phone, and play my playlist for when I'm angry.

Let Dylandra show up at my work today.

I want her to.

And Casei better keep it cute and classy with me because I just might lose my job.

I park near the firm and lock my vehicle, taking my time to get to the door. Casei's already there, sitting in her little rolling chair and typing away on her laptop. I pull out my tie, running its fabric across my skin as I sit down at my side of the counter, and stare down at it.

"Lowen, that's you? Good mornin' cuzzo," Brian greets me. I only nod at him and Andrew.

"Today's another slow day. Catch up on anything you guys didn't get to finish yesterday, please," Andrew announced. Me and Casei said 'Okay', and the guys disappeared to the back.

"Lowen?"

I ignored her quiet voice, shoving my tie away and picking up my bubbles.

"Lowen, say sumin, man," she pleaded.

"I kind of...don't want to," I admitted sourly. "I'm still a little pissed and you might make my Greenspoint side come out."

"What's the tie for?" she switched tactics. "Why do you always carry it on you? Well, I mean, I don't remember it on you last night, but still..."

"It's one of my dad's ties," I told her quietly, leaving it at that.

"Is he dead?" she inquired.

I scoffed, "I wish."

She hesitated for a moment and I looked up. "I sometimes want my dad dead too," she told me.

"Why?" I asked her.

She only shook her head, going back to her typing.

I swallowed some spit, focusing back on my bubbles and blowing them. I didn't have shit else to do, why not?

The firm door opened and my eyes flew up.

It was only a middle aged lady with a younger kid, a different race from her, coming in for business. I had her check in, and sent her over to the cute seats that rarely got used around here. I went to the back and informed the guys that we had a client and my cousin came to the front and collected her to talk business.

I went and sat back down at my stool, finding my bubbles gone.

"Where the fu-

Casei held the wand, blowing a large bubble my way in her rolling chair.

"That's the biggest one I've ever blown."

We both stared at each other for a second then collapsed into muffled laughter; a sorry attempt from both of us so that the client wouldn't hear us.

Hand over her mouth, Casei was bent over in laughter in the seat. I couldn't even sit down, on the ground and trying to hold it in.

"I'm sorry, Lowen," Casei repeated, sobering up the moment. "And, this is genuine because I barely made it in an hour before my parents came back home. And I'm still a little drunk. And, I really do mean it."

"Dyl's dead to me now," I shook my head, my back pressed against the back of the counter area, my butt on the carpet. "I don't even care what she does."

"But you do. She told me you were overprotective," Casei said.

"Yeah, when I wanted her. I just think we're both too fucked up for one another."

"That Chocolate girl. That whole situation. You really think that Maeve caused the accident?" she asked me.

"I wouldn't put it past Maeve. But I'm still not sure," I admitted.

The office area was quiet for a moment up front.

"Go ahead and get up before Brian sees you and throws a fit," Casei laughed. I got up and sat back on my stool just as two new clients came in.

Casei sat her laptop back down and I put up my bubbles. Surprisingly, she jumped into the arms of the girls coming in. "Naryna," she cried, "Channin!"

I awkwardly stood up behind the counter, watching the three of them. "Yeah, we back and we better. Why you didn't come and visit us hoe?" the lighter one out of the two asked.

"I couldn't. My parents bullshittin'. Work. I couldn't make the visitin' hours for the hospital and allat," Casei explained.

"When do you go on lunch?" the darker one asked.

"Hollon, lemme introduce y'all to Lowen," Casei said quickly, "She's my coworker."

They both gave me awkward waves.

"This is Channin and Naryna," Casei told me.

"We were in the big accident," Naryna added, flipping her hair over her shoulder, "The one almost everybody's talkin' about."

Andrew came from the back, sipping water out of a small paper cup. "Big accident? Whew. Y'all here to have a consultation?" he asked.

"No thank you," Channin said before the other girl could speak. "What time does Casei go on break?"

"Around twelve something," Andrew supplied, he looked across the office at me, "Everything all good Lowen?"

I nodded.

"I got a lot to catch y'all up on. Some of it...has to do with Maeve," Casei added.

"Hm. Maeve always seemed cool to me, hopefully she didn't do anything too outlandish all of a sudden," Naryna stated.

"If you think Maeve was cool then something's wrong in your head, Naryna," I half joked.

"Might be," the girl only shrugged, sliding some sunglasses down over her eyes before looping arms with Channin and waving goodbye to Casei.

"Just please don't tell them that Arah knew anything. When she told me what she suspected, I promised to...keep a lot of things in confidence that day," I asked Casei.

"Don't worry 'bout me. Ion run my mouth love," she assured me.