Page 15 of Arris, Jayme & Dyani
Arris freed his gun from his waistband. Reena snatched up her phone, slid her feet into her shoes, grabbed her keys, and damn near stormed out.
Arris slammed the door behind her and locked it in place.
He sighed and walked over to me. He sat on the couch and tapped the space beside him. I walked over and sat beside him. We existed in silence for a few long moments before I sniffed automatically, my anger morphing into sadness right before our very eyes.
He threw an arm over my shoulder and yanked me in.
“It’ll be alright, Jaybird.” He kissed the side of my head. “In the future though, don’t be doing none of this ghetto ass shit while my son in here.”
A laugh slipped out and Arris smiled. I elbowed him.
“Shut up, stupid.”
Chapter 4
Dyani
I tooka step back and nodded as the mover set my new couch down. I tilted my head one way then the other.
“Can you move it a little bit more to the right?”
“Yeah. Sure.”
I watched them shift it and nodded.
“It looks great. Thank you!” I clapped and bounced on the balls of my feet.
I was getting more excited with each piece of furniture and box being moved into my place. I couldn’t wait to officially be on my own. As much as I enjoyed the time I was spending with Darryl, being in my own apartment for the first time in my entire life was exciting and I was looking forward to having my own space and decorating.
I moved boxes to their respective rooms while the movers headed back downstairs to get the other couch and the rest of my bedroom set.
I let them get all the large furniture inside while I grabbed the little things like lamps and storage sets. Then I gave them water and a nice tip when they finished.
As soon as they left, I got to work unpacking boxes in the bathroom and kitchen before collapsing onto my new couch to check my phone.
I hadn’t gotten connected to an art agency in the area just yet but I’d been able to find independent work for a few people looking for specific art pieces. Thankfully, my old connections in the art space still fucked with me so I wasn’t really struggling to find what I was looking for, or at least leads that could get me to what I was looking for.
Illiana was one of the people I’d linked up with through business and she had actually relocated to Diamond Falls only two years prior. I reached out to her the night I decided I would be staying and she’d gotten back to me the same night.
We’d been texting back and forth sporadically ever since.
I checked my emails first, responded to the few I had, then went to my text messages. I danced slightly in my seat when I saw that she had, in fact, responded to me and let me know she had a client trying to sell a piece on my wish list.
I responded to her text and she called me almost immediately.
“Hello?”
“Hey! Sorry to just call you randomly but they’re somewhat in a rush, so let me know what price they’re looking for and the timeline they’re hoping to have everything taken care of by.”
“Alright. Let me call you right back.”
“Thank you.”
I hung up with Illiana and quickly called my client to set everything up and lock in a date, time, and price for money to swap hands and art to be validated and handed over.
When Illiana and I finished calling each other and our clients back and forth, I felt like a weight had been lifted off of me.
I let out a long exhale.
