Thy Neighbor

Chapter Fifteen

"I'm super excited about this event tonight!" This uncontained excitement from Emily, Ciara's intern, is a welcomed addition to Ciara's day. Stewing in her office all day, texts back and forth from Mahalia got too dark for her to handle. She feels ready to get over what happened, a night surrounded by a bunch of Christians should do it.

"I'm happy you're excited. It'll be a great relationship building exercise for you. I'm happy you took the opportunity to come with me. We look better showing up in numbers."

Speaking of numbers, Ciara deleted Trevante's number as she sat in her office, Beyonce's "Lemonade" album loud enough for her ears to hear and her heart to be moved. Girl was mad. Not surprised but mad.

She starts to feel as if she took things too far in her mind with Trevante. Nothing about his behavior said that he wants to date her. She realizes that for her, that type of attention from a man is so missed that it feels easy to elevate their relationship beyond neighbor. But that late night phone call was so sweet, that dinner was so perfect. She didn't want to let her dream become deferred but it felt necessary. She needed to move on.

Emily and Ciara walk into Proverbs. They marvel at the diverse staff and even more diverse program. Ciara's Black and Emily's Latina selves feel right at home.

"Emily Polanco? How are you?!" Hampton Scott, Proverbs' director, barrels over to Emily for a hug. Ciara instantly realizes that Emily will not need her help tonight.

"Mr. Scott ran our mission ministry at my church for years. This is Ciara, our director of placement services at Protestant Placements." Ciara shakes Hampton's hand. As Emily talks with Hampton, Ciara excuses herself to take a walk around Proverbs' space in hopes of talking to all the staff she can. Walking into the gym, she notices four Black girls trying to double dutch. Ciara can't help herself as she runs to stand behind one of the girls to help her turn the ropes at the right beat. She cheers them on, encouraging them to jump into the dueling ropes. Their brightly colored barrettes and grins full of baby teeth light up Ciara's spirit. There's the joy she is looking for.

Trevante desperately wants to secure some joy tonight at Ngosi, his friend Michael in tow.

"Where's Yahya?" Michael asks, the grip on his drink growing tighter by the second.

"He's coming back from a family trip, I think. His wife's family lives in California."

"Bet. That dude Y'lan coming?"

"No, he had to work an event tonight. He's mad cool though."

"You doing aight though? You look spaced out, fam."

Trevante is happy that it's only Michael with him tonight at Ngosi. Michael, or Bakari, is the "good guy" of the crew. His public policy degree from Penn led him into a career of city planning and finance and into meeting his fiancee. Trevante often realizes that he's the only single guy of their crew. Michael shakes his head at Trevante's stories and Yahya vicariously lives through them. That's why Y'lan's induction into the crew was spearheaded by Trevante. He knows that once Michael marries and Yahya starts to act like he is married, the Friday night crew would probably be no more. He'd need a new running mate.

After yesterday's episode with Ciara, Trevante is in need of some good guy advice. After Ciara bolted from his car, he felt sick. "Am I that bad?" he thought, piecing together moments where he may have sent mixed messages to Ciara. Trevante, indeed, is a walking mixed message. He wants to be around her yet was mad he couldn't get in her. It feels super shallow, he reasons with himself. But Trevante is an 100 percent, all or nothing,  type of guy. He did the right thing even if it was painful.

"Yeah... there's this girl..."

"Penicillin, bruh."

"Don't do me like that, fam." Trevante cuts a look at Michael whose laughs bristle throughout his butter pecan-hued frame.