Page 62 of Girl, We Go Together
The alarm on my phone started going off, letting me know it was my lunch time.
“Duty calls,” Cayla said as she gave a head nod to my phone. “It was nice seeing you, Kass.”
She pushed past me and headed out the door, but I quickly said bye to Sandra and followed Cayla out.
“Cayla, wait up. Uh, can I get your number?”
I nervously rubbed the back of my neck. She smiled at me before giving me her number.
“I'm gonna text you when I get off,” I said with a smile once I looked down and saw that her number was saved in my phone.
The rest of the workday had kicked my ass. I even stayed behind to get myself some overtime. After unloading my truck and putting away the packages I had brought back, I jetted to my car to head home. Thunder roared, and lightning struck as I drove down the block. I pulled out my phone and saw that it was supposed to rain for the next three days. I was glad I was off for the next two.
When I made it home, I made sure to stop in and check on my grandmother, who lived in the house upstairs. I had the entire basement apartment to myself. It was a two-bedroom, two-bathroom open floor layout that we had gotten renovated about two years prior.
“What’s up, old lady?”
She was sitting in her favorite chair. That was the spot I could find her whenever I came in the house.
“Kassidy, you got wet out there, huh?”
Her deep Guyanese accent clung to every letter in the words she was saying. I looked down at my uniform shirt and saw that I had drops of rain all over it.
“It's bad out there, Nana.”
“Thank the Lord for the new gutters we have.”
She was her own special kind of religious, and I loved that. Ever since my mother had passed from a hit and run when I was sixteen, my grandmother had taken me in and had beenmy spine when I wasn’t strong. She was the epitome of a great woman.
“How was your day?” she casually asked as she rocked.
Instantly, I thought about Cayla, and a smile came on my face that I couldn’t even hide.
“Aye, aye… what’s the smile creeping for?” she quickly teased.
“Remember the girl, Cayla, that I used to go to Maxwell with?”
She looked around like she was trying to remember, and then she kissed her teeth before speaking.
“Yessss, aw that is lovely. How could I forget her? Her mother used to come to me for guidance. How is she?”
I gave Nana the quick rundown on Cayla. The thunder outside roared, and the rain hit the top of the house hard. My nana knew my heart and knew that already, just by seeing Cayla again, I instantly had a soft spot for her and her daughter.
“Turning in early?” she asked once I stood from the chair adjacent to her and did a light stretch.
It was only nine and was early for me, especially since I was off the next day, but I wanted to handle some business in the morning and then drive past the daycare to see if I could give Cayla a ride home. I knew it was going to be raining, and earlier, when I made it back to my truck, I was organizing my next set of packages that had to go out, when I saw her waiting for the bus. I didn’t want her to have to wait in the rain for a bus with her daughter. Even if she wouldn’t let me drive them home, at least I would feel better knowing I offered.
Chapter 23
Cayla
The wind blew so damn hard that it had flipped my umbrella inside out.
“FUCK!” I practically yelled in the middle of the street.
Oriana was tucked away in her stroller, sound asleep. I was glad I had paid attention to the forecast and brought the plastic cover for the stroller. I knew I had an umbrella tucked in the bottom of her stroller, but I didn’t realize it would be useless. It made no sense to try to reassemble the umbrella because it was already broken. I looked down the block and saw that the B25 was driving at full speed in the distance. I had decided to get some overtime today. Instead of picking her up by noon as I usually would, I came right at closing.
When we finally made it home the evening before, I waited a bit for Kassidy to text me, but he never did. I figured he was honestly too good for me. He had a good federal job, and I was barely making it. I tried to shrug it off, but something deep down felt like shit because I had let that nigga Orion knock me so far off my square. I was sure I wouldn’t have missed a slot to be a veterinarian at one of these clinics if I weren’t too wrapped up in his lifestyle. When the bus got closer, I sighed in relief.
