Page 42 of 10,000 Hours With A Rich Menace

Plum’s cheeks turned red as she looked at me. “I promise I didn’t mean anything. Before coming in, I worked out and didn’t have time to go home to change, so I came right to work… Jeffie is out for a few days.”

I watched as she shifted her weight on each foot, and stood there looking awkward. “Bottom drawer… take a pair of sweats and put them on. Don’t ever come in this house with shorts that fucking little on. You see Jeffie walking around like that?”

“No, Mr. Caselli.”

“Fucking Menace!” I roared, tossing myself back onto the bed, and whipping the covers from my body.

She grabbed a pair of sweats, picked my shirt up from the floor and got ghost. I hit the button on my night table to turn the heat on the floors up more and then went to shower. Grabbing a fresh washcloth, I climbed into the shower and grabbed my body wash.

One.

Two.

Three…

I counted the amount of times I squeezed the shower gel onto the washcloth. The waterproof clock on the wall told me the time, and I spent the time washing my entire body four times.

If I didn’t wash my body four times, then I wasn’t clean and then I couldn’t function for the day. As a child, I remember my father forced me out the shower because we were running late. A nigga broke out in hives because I felt like I was dirty.

My mother had to pick me up from school because the shit was so bad. It wasn’t easy having my brain wired like this. The shit became exhausting to myself and the people around me, but I couldn’t function if I didn’t do the things that I had to do.

As I wrapped the towel around my waist, I looked in the mirror and grabbed my pill bottle. Popping two pills, I swallowed them without water while looking in the mirror atmyself. I was so much to so many, and nobody really even knew the real me.

It was hard letting someone in and never knowing their intentions. My uncle fucked over my father, so how the fuck was I supposed to trust people? Trust was something that had to be earned, and even then, you had a few years of me really watching you to see if you were as solid as you portrayed.

When I came out the bathroom, housekeeping was already making my bed. She smiled at me as she continued with the same routine while I entered the closet to get dressed to head down to work out.

Everything in my life had a schedule. If you worked in my house, then you knew the schedule and moved accordingly. I liked things to move how they were supposed to.

How it moved in my mind.

Tossing on a shirt and shorts, I grabbed my sneakers and carried them downstairs before slipping them on and heading to the bottom level to work out for the morning. Hitting the buttons on the wall on my way into my state-of-the-art gym toggled on my song of choice.

Viva La Vida played through the gym’s speakers as I nodded my head and started to stretch. I started on the treadmill, running six miles before moving to each machine while the song played on a loop.

I sang that shit in my head every morning while working out, even when I was out the country. The song had no use for me once I completed my workout. It was like fucking a bitch and once you got that nut, everything disgusted you.

Including her.

Alone in my own world, I completed my workout, snatching a water out the fridge and then heading upstairs. My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I saw my sister’s name and quickly answered.

“Kora, you good?”

“I am always good,” I could picture her smile, even over the phone, as I leaned in the kitchen and accepted the smoothie from Lupita.

“Tacos, Menace,” she stressed, wanting me to try anything but what I had her ass making. We had a rotation of meals I liked, and she was always trying to get me to try something new.

“Pasta… sauce on the side.”

She groaned and then smiled at me before going into the pantry. “I’m almost certain Jefferey Dahmer ate his pasta the same way. Mav, when are you going to try it mixed together… you’ve been doing this since a child.”

“Why am I getting a call from you?” I switched the subject because I wasn’t having fucking tacos, and I wasn’t mixing my damn pasta.

She sighed. “I’m off today and figured we could do something. It’s been a while since we’ve done anything together and I miss you, Mav.”

I smiled. “Miss you, too, K.”

“I have a few online meetings this morning. Text me and let me know what we’re doing, and I will meet you there.”

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