Page 54 of Don Caselli

Alex was expecting me for lunch with his parents in an hour, so I figured I could come speak with Don and find out if Stevie had the baby. I tried calling her and never heard back. Zoya was damn near impossible to get in touch with, and I never even bothered when it came to Kora.

The elevator took me up to the top floor, and flashes of Don kissing my neck one night after dinner flashed through my mind. I had to put one leg in front of the other and squeeze. Sex had always been work for me. I’ve never experienced sex for pleasure and I hated that for me. I didn’t need to have sex with Don to know that he would have taken care of me. The elevator chimed, and I could hear Wale blaring through the speakers.

“One second,” I heard a female voice over the speakers, and then she ran rounding the corner. “Oh hey,” she greeted.

It was Greene’s cousin that she insisted on inviting to my birthday dinner. She arrived with Greene, greeted everyone, and then proceeded to keep her head stuck in her kindle. She made no conversations with us and acted like she was better than us.

My blood boiled seeing her wearing Don’s Lora Piana shirt. It was an almost three-thousand-dollar shirt, and she was standing here with a spatula in her hand like it was normal.

“Hey, is Landon here?” I asked, not even knowing what to say because her appearance was throwing me off.

She wore his shirt, and it fell right before her thighs, and she wore a pair of brief boxers. Her braids were half taken out, some in a bun, and some of her actual hair hanging out of the bun. Sis’ was real comfortable for somebody that didn’t know Landon Caselli like that. He didn’t even allow people to get comfortable in his space like that, and she seemed at ease.

“He is. He’s on a business call. Want to see if he has wrapped it up?”

As I walked further into the condo, she had her laptop, TV on Netflix, and a bunch of snacks. In the kitchen, she was cooking something sweet, like a cake or something. I watched as she walked across the massive living area and down the hall where Don’s office was.

I stood there clutching my purse and feeling angry that he was doing this. He was trying to make me jealous with her, and it was working. All we needed to do was talk, and he was making it difficult.

She came around the corner laughing and did a slight jump, letting me know he was behind her, and he had slapped her ass. “He’s coming.”

Don rounded the corner wearing a pair of basketball shorts and no shirt on. His favorite Ralph Lauren house slippers glided across the wooden floors as he looked at me, confused.

“What up, Ken?”

“Hey. Can we talk really quick? I won’t keep you long.”

He looked over at Greene’s cousin, as she mixed whatever in a bowl. She wasn’t even paying us attention. Instead, she boppedher head to the music as he watched her, then turned back toward me.

Don nodded his head to follow me into the study that was toward the foyer. It had a few books, but mostly it had his different collectible sneakers that were worth money. They were all displayed with jerseys.

He closed the sliding doors and then sat down in one of the leather chairs. “What’s going on, Ken?”

“Making me jealous? Is this what it has resulted to?”

Landon stared at me like he didn’t know what the hell I was talking about. With the way he stared at me, I was starting to question ifIeven knew what the hell I was over here talking about.

“What you mean?”

“You have Greene’s cousin in here with your shirt on and cooking in the kitchen. Why make me jealous?”

“Did you call and tell me you were coming over?”

“No, I figured I would po?—”

“Did the front desk speak to me when they called up here?”

“I don’t know, he never?—”

He leaned forward. “I’ll answer that… nah. Navy answered the call ‘cause I was on an important business call that I needed to handle for Menace because he’s a father now. I didn’t know you were coming over, and honestly, don’t do the shit again. Fuck I gotta make you jealous for? You are getting married, Ken… that’s where your focus should be.”

I felt stupid as hell standing here as he casually sat there staring at me like a dumb bitch. It was dumb to holler out that he was trying to make me jealous when he didn’t know I was coming.

“I miss my friend.”

He snorted. “Friend.”

“What do you want to be called? Were we not friends?” I folded my arms and stared down at him.

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