Marcus made it to work by 8:15.
That was a miracle in itself considering he laid back down twice and almost called in.
But the rent don’t care about your mood and neither did his supervisor, so here he was — badge swiped, safety vest on, steel toes laced up, walking the floor like everything was normal.
Except it wasn’t.
He couldn’t stop thinking about that picture.
Not even in a nasty way — well, not only in a nasty way.
The uncut and boldness.
Most women he knew would’ve sent a good morning text.
Maybe a meme.
Kristie sent that picture like she was just checking him in on current conditions.
Current conditions: clear skies, 100% with a chance of her thinking about me all day.
She was right.
He was on the line doing inventory counts and kept losing track.
He has to start over three times before his coworker Darnell walked up beside him with a clipboard and didn’t even say nothing.
Just looked at him sideways.
“What,” Marcus said.
“You been counting that same rack for twenty minutes.”
“I’m being thorough just like you said in the meeting.”
“You grinning while you do it.”
Marcus cleared his throat and looked back at the rack. “Mind your business, D.”
Darnell laughed and walked off shaking his head.
By lunch Marcus was sitting outside at one of the picnic tables under the tree, phone in his hand, the sun already cooking everything and everyone in sight.
He pulled up the conversation again.
Her last message was still sitting there.
Don’t act like you mad tho 😂
He hadn’t responded since the first reply.
He didn’t know what to text.
Normally his response would be automatic but something made him slow down.
Kristie was a lot of things — funny, beautiful, fine as hell but she was also complicated in the way certain people are complicated when they know exactly what they’re doing and do it anyway.
He typed: So what’s the occasion?
Three dots popped up fast.
No occasion. Just thought about you.
You thought about me or about how to make my morning difficult.
😂😂😂 Same thing
He set the phone face down on the table and leaned back, squinting his eyes looking up towards the sky.
He could feel his phone buzzing in his pocket.
He flipped it over.
You coming to Niecy’s thing Saturday?
There it was.
There was always a thing.
A cookout, a birthday, a “come through” that wasn’t really just a come through.
Kristie didn’t do nothing without a reason and she didn’t send out invitations for nothing without a plan behind it.
He smiled at the screen for a second before he typed back.
Maybe
Maybe means yes in my book.
Maybe means maybe
🙄 Whatever Marcus
He laughed and put the phone in his pocket.
Lunch was almost over.
The sun wasn’t letting up.
And now he had something to think about between now and Saturday.
She knew exactly what she was doing.
So did he.
To be continued…