A Familiar Ring

CHAPTER 10: Transitions

"I can't believe you thought you was finna Uber and Lyft around Macon. Macon?! Girl, you trippin'," Prosper shook his head as he fussed at Cadence.

Cadence revealed her plan to stay in Macon to Prosper and all he could think about was how she figured she could execute all of her little plans with no car. Macon wasn't exactly a hick town but you definitely needed your own car to get around. The city had some Uber and Lyft cars around but getting one wasn't as easy as Atlanta. Plus, it was still Macon and it was still racist: he didn't trust it. So he made her go to get a rental car and to prove his point, he called an Uber to take them there. They had to go through the app three different times before finding a driver that would take them. Now they were in the rental headed back to the house.

"You know I'm such a city girl now," Cadence said as she laughed.

"I don't see why you just didn't let me drive you back to Atlanta so you could get your own car."

"It's too soon. I'm not ready to go back to Atlanta yet."

"Okay," Prosper conceded. They had talked more about her relationship but he still felt like she wasn't telling him everything. He was trying to be a friend to her but kept getting distracted by the sex. But he knew someone who could get the truth out of her. "You wanna stop by and see Phoenix?"

"Not right now but please text me her number? I'm definitely gonna go see her before this week is over."

Phoenix was Prosper's older sister who, by default, was also like an older sister to Cadence and she missed her dearly. When Prosper and Cadence broke up, Cadence cut off communication with her too. She didn't just break up with him, but with his entire family and his close friends too. So she knew she'd have to go by and patch things up with her first. Prosper knew he could count on Phoenix to tell him what was really going on. She had always been Team Cadence and would do anything in her power to see the two of them back together.

Once the two arrived back at Miss Joanne's, Prosper finally walked Cadence through all of the tech upgrades he had made over the years. The front door had a smart lock that was accessible via fingerprints and an app. There were Nest cameras installed and a smart doorbell. Cadence lived in a condominium complex back in Atlanta with a doorman, a glorified luxury apartment. She wasn't used to all of this.

"Damn, is this Fort Knox?" she asked earnestly.

"Nah but the neighborhood switched up. Can't trust everybody around here no more. We don't know these people like that."

"Yeah, I noticed."

Prosper finished installing the necessary apps and setting Cadence up. Then he walked her through how to monitor everything. Cadence still hadn't told him about Duke's letter so she couldn't let him know how comforting the amount of security they had was for her. She knew she was safe. When they were done going through the necessary tutorials, Prosper went to pack and prepare to go back to Atlanta.

While Prosper was packing, Cadence considered having sex with him again just one last time before he left. But she knew that it probably wouldn't be best; she could feel herself using sex with Prosper as an escape from her problems and he didn't deserve to be used as a prop like this in her life. Plus, she wasn't even sure if she wouldn't regret the sex they already had later. It was amazing in the moment and better than what she remembered sex with him to be like, but she wasn't so confident in his new polyamorous lifestyle. Despite everything, she was still leaning towards monogamy and marriage one day.

"I can come back this weekend—"

"You don't have to. I'm good," she paused as she was nervous to continue "I kinda want to be alone right now, if that's okay? I'm not going to hurt myself."