Page 26 of The Prez

Shane: Yes. I’d love to hang out. I’ll be off by three. You can come over at any time after.

I smile, sliding my phone in my pocket and putting on Little Raf’s shoes. I really need to sit with an adult today. The only friend I had was Kit and he’s no longer talking to me. I need to talk to someone that can expression themselves in words, not raspberries. And I need help untangling what happened with Big Raf.

The way he touched me the other night, how his fingers ghosted over my skin. How those dark eyes bored into me, fiery with need as he stared down at me. That can’t be right though. Big Raf is so fucking hot, and I’m this chubby guy that someone like him doesn’t usually look at twice. I’m just … I’m so confused. I need to talk to someone about it or I’ll go fucking crazy.

But first, I have to go pay Brock his money. As soon as Big Raf gave me the money, I sent Brock a text, telling him I had his money and would meet him to pay him back. He didn’t reply. I blew his phone up with calls and texts but got nothing. I even drove past Kit’s house, thinking if I saw Brocks’s car, I’d march up to the door and give him the cash so he could leave me the fuck alone. But there was no sign of him. The day that I was to repay him came and went with no word from him. I was hoping he let me off the hook and wouldn’t want the money back.

My luck isn’t that good, apparently.

Today is the first day he’s messaged me back, saying I can come over to Kit’s and give him the money. Even though the three days passed, it’s his fault he didn’t get paid on time. I called and texted and he blew me off. That’s on him. Once he has this money, we’re fucking done.

I get Little Raf’s bag packed after I feed him some carrots—which he loves—and we head out to get our day started.

This is probably one of the best gigs I’ve ever had. Notonly is there a cute baby, but I get to sit around and play with him for most of the day. He’s so chill, only crying or whining when he’s hungry or overly tired. Two weeks in and we already have a schedule, one that’s reasonable and easy to follow. Little Raf wakes up at eight, we hang out for a few hours after I feed him, have lunch at noon where he goes down for a nap right after until around two, then I do whatever needs doing while he plays with any of the toys I have for him. Or he sits in his highchair and watches me move around. Then we hang out until dinner time and he goes down for the night.

Super cushy job.

And I’ve grown to love him. He’s such a joy to be around. He makes me happy every time he laughs and when he falls asleep in my arms.

Like now, he’s blowing spit bubbles, laughing when they pop across his lips. “You’re a jokester, aren’t you?” I ask him rhetorically. “Having all kinds of fun.”

He meets my eyes, as if he knows what I just said and blows another bubble. “That would be gross if you weren’t so cute,” I tell him as I boop him on the nose.

After I strap him into his car seat, I climb into the driver’s seat and blow out a long breath. I wish I could have waited until someone could sit with Little Raf while I went to repay Brock. Brock is really fucking unpredictable. I’m not sure if he’ll try to hurt Little Raf just to hurt me. I’ll just drop the money and leave, not putting the baby in any danger.

If Shane were off, I’d ask him to keep the baby, but Brock told me to come now, and I don’t want to prolong any of this.

“Won’t take long,” I tell Little Raf as we head to Kit’s place. “We’ll be in and out. Then we can go shopping and see Shane. How does that sound?”

Of course, Little Raf doesn’t answer. Not like I expect him to. I sigh long and hard as I turn onto Kit’s street. This iswhy I need to talk to an adult. I’ve grown used to conversing with an infant.

When I pull up to the townhouse, I steel myself and get out, grabbing the baby and making sure the money is still in my pocket.

I march to the house and knock on the door, adjusting the baby on my hip. Brock pulls the door open, smiling lecherously when he sees me. A disgusted shudder runs down my spine as I eye him.

“Hey, Omari. You’re looking good.”

“Spare me, Brock. Here’s your money,” I say, reaching into my pocket and forcing the wad of bills into his hand. “We’re square.”

He looks down at the cash in his hand. “You left a bag here. Kit told me to make sure you take it with you.”

“Bring it to me,” I say, not wanting to step foot into the house.

Brock has other plans. He lashes his hand out and wraps it around my bicep, pulling me inside before I can dig my heels in. If I didn’t have Little Raf in my arms, I would have tried to fight against him, but I don’t want to jostle the baby.

When the door is closed behind me, I pull away from him, moving further into the room to put space between us. I search quickly with my eyes for a bag I left, but I see nothing.

“Where is it?” I ask, pulling Little Raf closer to me. He wraps his little arms around my neck and I take comfort from his small touch. “Where’s the bag?”

“Aw, come on now,” Brock purrs, making my skin crawl. “Put that baby down and get on your knees. Then I’ll forgive that thousand dollars you owe me.”

“Thousand dollars? Brock, you have two grand in your hand right now. I don’t owe you anything else.”

“You do. You owe me interest,” he says, backing me into the wall. I turn my body so I’m shielding Little Raf, but don’ttake my eyes off Brock. “I gave you three days. Today is day five. Every day you were late a five-hundred-dollar fee.”

I glare at him, putting my hand on the baby’s back when he starts to whimper and fuss. “You son of a bitch. You crooked son of a bitch. I tried to pay you, Brock! I called and texted the past few days and you were nowhere to be found!” It hits me quickly why he didn’t answer when I tried to reach out. “You did this on purpose, didn’t you? You wanted to add some bullshit interest that you knew I couldn’t pay off.”

He smiles like a cat that caught the canary and reaches for me. I shrink against the wall, curling my shoulders around the baby. Fuck, I wish I had waited and asked Big Raf to come with me. It was stupid to put the baby in this position. He could get hurt because of my bullshit.

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