Page 55 of Legend's Legacy
“He kind of kicked me out, Courtland. He doesn’t call or text anymore.”
“From what I heard, neither do you.”
“He doesn’t even take the stairs anymore. I’m not even sure if he’s here most times.”
“He is at times and not at others. The only reason that he took the stairwell in the first place was because of you. Those stairs were kicking my man’s ass.”
I chuckled. “You want to take them with me now?”
“Still scared of the elevator, huh?”
“I’m not fooling with them.”
“All right. I’ll let you get to it. I’m taking the elevators. I’m not built like either one of y’all.”
“Man, please. What are you talking about? You’re in great shape.”
“Don’t let the looks fool ya. Anyway, I’m gonna get back. I hope to see you around at game nights again soon.”
“Yeah, well, take care,” I stated softly and turned to head toward the stairwell.
I climbed the first flight and took my time climbing them, trying to get my emotions together. I kept thinking that I should have given Legend the benefit of the doubt. How could I ever go to him now and ask for forgiveness? I felt like a fool.
I tried to drum up a plan as I walked up the twelve flights of stairs. When I reached my floor, I realized I didn’t need to come up with any plan at all.
He looked so good in his dove gray suit with his light pink button-down shirt underneath. His tie was dove gray with soft pink pinstripes. He was sitting on the top step with his elbows resting on his knees.
Every part of him was beautiful, from his light caramel coloring to those russet brown eyes that flickered with danger. But what I missed the most about his appearance were those tattoos that covered his body.
“Thought you might need this,” Legend stated, holding a water bottle out to me as a peace offering.
Chapter 20
Legend
Nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds. That was how long I had been sitting in that spot before she saw me. When my boy, Courtland, texted me and told me that he’d run into her in the café, I wanted to go down there.
But then I wasn’t sure how she would react with people around. I was tired of the game we were playing and how we were avoiding each other. I texted back and asked if she was on the elevator with him, and he said no. She was taking the stairs as usual.
I grabbed a room-temperature water bottle, the only way she preferred them, and I walked down two floors from the fifteenth to the twelfth floor. I sat and I waited.
“What’s that for?”
“I thought you might want to stay hydrated. You always do whenever you work out.”
“I was getting lunch, not working out.”
“You gon’ take it?” I asked.
She looked pointedly at all the items in her hand. “I would, but . . .”
I stood. “Here, let me help you with that.”
“What’s this all about, Legend?”
“It’s about how we left things.”
“You mean how you left things? You embarrassed the hell out of me. The way you looked at me, the way you talked to me, and how you threw my sister out of that restaurant and carried me out. I’m not some cavewoman, Legend, and you’re no caveman. I had every right to be in that restaurant, the same as you did. Just because you got busted in a lie didn’t mean that you could kick us out.”
