Deceit

17 - Off Guard

Harlem:

I woke up to sunlight bouncing on the walls of my bedroom bright and early. Having white curtains was Krysta's idea of making my room more feminine and relaxing, whatever that meant. I personally enjoyed the darkness and waking up naturally which was usually around 8 AM. Last night, Krysta and I went to dinner before hitting up a club and getting wasted. It had been a while since I had a night like that and my body was beating me up for it.

My muscles were aching as I rolled over to check my phone. It was 12 PM and I saw a text Krysta sent three hours earlier.

My Headache: Hey, I didn't want you to think I skipped out on you. I'm practicing for my next concert with some other people in the orchestra. I'll see you when it's all done! Love you, baby ❤️ 🙂

I didn't even bother responding to her message. The dehydrated headache I had made it impossible to have a conversation. The only way I was going to get over this was with a strong drink, followed by some water and a massive breakfast. I rolled out of bed and headed straight for the kitchen. I wasted no time taking a swig of Crown from the bottle before grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge. I downed it quickly and grabbed another bottle to take upstairs. The bed was going to be my best friend.

Once I got upstairs, I climbed into bed again and turned the TV to Netflix. I could use some background noise and The Office was perfect for that. The show was one of my favorites and one I had seen at least ten times over. While the intro-played, I grabbed my phone to order some comfort food. Grubhub had a good selection of eateries and I was in the mood for tacos. I ordered eight birria tacos in case my hunger got the best of me and a large side of rice.

I laid back on my pillows as one of my favorite episodes played: Stress Relief. I couldn't think of a better episode to help take my mind off the soreness I felt. Little by little, I began to feel better as I drank my second bottle of water a little slower. Once my food got here, I was going to feel even better. Just as I started to doze off, my phone rang.

I looked at the screen and was greeted with a photo of my mother holding me as a baby. It was my favorite photo of her. She was young, vibrant. Almost without a care in the world and no lines of stress on her smooth tan skin.

"Hey, mama." I answered groggily and rubbed my eyes as I raised the phone to my ear.

"Hello my sweet boy. How are things back home? It must be hard getting back to work after having all that time off." I could hear the smile in her voice and the kids yelling in the background.

"Yeah it's definitely an adjustment but I'm getting back in the swing of things. I actually had something I wanted to talk to you about." I sat up and put the phone on speaker so I could give her my full attention.

"You can talk to me about anything, you know that. What's going on?"

"Well, Ghost decided to give the shop to Rich before he moves to Bluemill. I feel robbed, mama." I sighed and relaxed my shoulders in preparation for her response. Her voice was soothing and she always knew what to say.