A Familiar Ring

CHAPTER 15: What's Meant to be Will be

Prosper couldn't sleep. He stayed up late finalizing his report and communicating over Slack with his management team, so he should've been exhausted. But he couldn't rest because his mind was still on Cadence. After he had gotten off the phone with Nola, Cadence divulged everything about Duke's letter, the money he left her, where she stashed it, the gun, and also the details about their relationship she kept ruminating over in hopes that she would find a clue or something she missed along the way. She was questioning herself and her worth, he hated to see that. What he hated more was seeing her be scared.

Prosper consoled her as best as he could and told her that he would never let anything happen to her. Those are words he meant but he'd been up for the past hour wondering how he could protect her, exactly. Since discovering that Duke was in law enforcement he knew he couldn't handle this the street way. He had made a mental note to check-in with his colleagues at City Hall to possibly learn more about him. Then there was the issue of Anya and Mark. The girl he knew back in Macon would never turn her back on her best friend, that much he was certain of. But he knew nothing about her husband or the woman she's become since being married. Could she have unknowingly set up her best friend? He didn't want to believe it but he wasn't going to throw that conspiracy out the window just yet either.

As they talked yesterday, Prosper was able to convince Cadence to move out of her apartment immediately. He'd help her and pay for anything she needed. What he really wanted was for her to move into his home in Decatur. The home that Nola had heard of in passing but had never visited. The home no woman had ever been to. Of course, Cadence was being stubborn and refused. But she did agree to his moving help and promised to find a place within the week. Apartments in Atlanta were so easy to come by, so she was too concerned. In the interim, she would stay with her mother.

He turned on his back and grabbed his phone. It was 5:00am. I really should be sleep, he thought to himself. Instead, he got up and brushed his teeth, grabbed a hoodie, put on his sneakers, and went for a run to try and clear his mind.

***

Cadence had just woken up determined to work out this routine she had in her head for some of the girls to perform at Player's Ball. She was distracted yesterday by Prosper's visit and let her emotions get the best of her so she'd gone to bed much earlier than usual. She allowed the music to play through the speakers lowly while she made herself some tea. Once she'd had her tea and a small bite she got ready to work out the routine. Her phone was propped up in front of her recording as she gave it a sultry performance. The lights were a dim shade of purple-red and the curtains were closed but if you were outside of the house, you could see faint remnants of the lighting and could tell that it wasn't just a TV left on.

Prosper was rounding the corner to their block just as Cadence was getting started. He was expecting Cadence to still be asleep but the faint light show coming from the main window suggested otherwise. Slowing his pace as he got closer, he checked the time and saw it was only 5:45am. He heard the low hum of the speaker's bass and decided to go inside and see what was going on.

"It's me," Prosper tried to announce over the music. Cadence didn't hear him at all and was so focused on her own movements that she didn't even register him standing in the corridor admiring her. Prosper eyed her intently as she gracefully sauntered around the pole in the piano room before launching herself to the top of it. She was elegant and beautiful. His heart began to beat faster while his eyes got lower as he narrowed in on her body. Though she didn't quite have on an itty bitty stripper uniform, her sports bra and biker shorts still led him to arousal. She looked like sex, personified.

Prosper waited for a low moment in the song to clear his throat—which caught Cadence off guard.

"What the—," Cadence got cut off as she lost her grip on the pole almost falling.