A World Of Their Own

Chapter 6. The Neighbor

"Who the fuck is that?" Kale asked when he and Aidan pulled up into the driveway in time to see Mia talking to another man on the sidewalk, a very handsome Black man who was looking at Mia with a spark in his eyes that they didn't like.

Mia saw them and waved at them. "Kale, Aidan, come here, I want to introduce you to our new neighbor, Gerald. He moved in today."

Kale and Aidan glanced at each other with their eyebrow raised and walked up to them.

"Hi, I'm Gerald," he grinned at them and reached out to shake their hands.

"He saw me walking with the twins and wanted to introduce himself," Mia said.

"Nice to meet you, Gerald," Aidan lied. "Are you a native of San Francisco?"

"No, I'm from Louisiana. My job brought me here. I work for a Tech company in the Financial District."

"He's from the south too, isn't that great?" Mia said excitedly.

Kale glared at her.

"Oh, I see, what a coincidence," Aidan said politely. "Your family must be excited to live in such a great house. It's been on the market for a while."

"Kale and Aidan run their own real estate company, too bad this house wasn't one of theirs. Maybe they could have given you a discount!"

Kale and Aidan both turned to stare at her. Mia wasn't picking up the signs, she was too excited that someone else from the south had moved in next door.

"I don't have family, yet," Gerald turned to Mia with a grin on his face.

"So, it's just you that's going to be living here?" Kale asked.

"Yes," Gerald nodded.

"You're going to get lonely in such a big house," Mia said thoughtfully.

"Not our problem," Kale told her.

Mia stared at him for a moment. She couldn't believe he just said that.

"Are you friends of Mia?" Gerald wanted to know.

Aidan frowned slightly. "I'm her husband," he told him. "You didn't tell him you were married, Mia?"

"Well I saw the ring on her finger..." Gerald said. "I just didn't know she was married to you..." He paused and let out an embarrassed laugh. "I mean of course she would be, this is Sea Cliff after all."

Mia frowned. "What does that mean?"

"Well come on, as far as I know, I'm the only Black man in the neighborhood. Not trying to be stereotypical, but there's mostly rich White people here, I wouldn't expect you to be married to a Black man..."

"I'm her husband too," Kale smirked. He wasn't going to say anything at first, but Gerald was getting on his nerves.

Gerald's mouth fell open.

"And these two adorable babies are our children," Aidan said smiling down at the twins who were kicking and making happy baby sounds.

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Mia shook her head at Kale and Aidan who were still laughing among themselves ten minutes later as they sat at the table eating dinner. "It was not THAT funny," she told them.

"The look on his face was priceless," Aidan said.

"Serves him right making such an asshole remark in front of you," Kale told her. "Mia, I want you to stay away from that man."