Page 46 of Keyoni & Sage
They were doing some serious crackdowns at the building. Jami told me about the letter she received about her dogs. She was given a grace period to get rid of at least two because they weren’t eight weeks yet. After that, she’d be required to adhere to the same rule as everyone else—two pets or less and fifty dollars a month pet rent for each one. Those fees were in addition to thetwo hundred fifty dollar fine added to her next rent payment due to having an unauthorized pet in the first place.
“Where’s the apartment you’re looking at?”
“Hillman Heights.”
“Damn! That’s out the way.”
“It’s a bit of a drive,” she agreed. “They have some nice floor plans though and decent pricing for the area.”
The area was expensive as hell, one step down from high ass Diamond Estates.
But I couldn’t tell her what to do withhermoney.
“You couldn’t find anything closer?”
“I’m still looking. I sent a couple inquiries to a few places. They haven’t gotten back with me though?—”
“You can move in with me,” I blurted out, stunning us both.
“What?” Sage asked uneasily.
I regretted saying it after seeing the shock on her face but repeated myself anyway. “You can move in with me. I got two extra rooms, plenty of space, and?—”
“You’re serious?”
“Yeah, I am.”
“What about Keturah?”
“What about her? She knows what we got going on.” Keturah caught Sage sneaking out of my room wearing my T-shirt. After she was called out, Sage said fuck it and came right back into my room. “She likes you.”
Sage smiled. “That’s my girl.”
“She said the same thing about you.”
Sage sat quiet for a moment, looking out at the small lake with swimming ducks. A couple walking by stopped and threw bread in the water, watching the ducks scurry over to devour the food. I wondered where her head was at and if I’d stepped out of pocket by asking her to move in.
“I don’t want to live off anyone, Keyoni,” she began. “I want to pay my own way. I don’t want to feel like I owe anyone anything.”
“I wasn’t trying to imply?—“
“Let me finish,” she said, cutting me off. “If you’re just asking me to move in, the answer is no.” I nodded, resuming my stare out the window. “But…” she hinted, regaining my attention, “If you’ve got a room to rent, I’m willing to consider it.”
“We might be able to work something out.”
I leaned over the center console, connecting my lips to hers. They were soft as usual and parted to accept my tongue.
“I’ve wanted to do that since you got in my car,” I told her, continuing with small kisses on her lips. “I always want to kiss you.”
“You can’t be kissing on me all the time if I move in,” she countered. “That’s kinda creepy…a landlord and a tenant.”
“Call me a creep then because we gonna be doing more than just kissing.”
She placed a noisy kiss on my lips. “Let’s talk about this arrangement… If I decide to take you up on the offer, how much is rent?”
“How much can you afford?”
“Nothing,” she said with a straight face.
