I’ve Got You

Aleshia scrolled through two months of exchanged communications before she had enough. Nothing remained there of the love she thought they once shared. The words scattered across the back lit mobile screen were attempts at extortion, stamping down on any notion of respect, caring and love, in favor of the pervading desire to control. All this combined with Aleshia’s weak kicks of argument, reminiscent of a fish flopping on land. She couldn’t argue against Peter. Her words were sucked away, diminished, made unimportant under the weight of the accusations.

Emptiness scratched at her, when considering if she loved him or not. There was nothing more for her to give.

Stopping the thoughts from spiraling further, she browsed for Miami Summers Properties, clicked on the site, and checked for the number. The time showed as eight-thirty. Her heart leapt again when her phone rang, and she saw the caller was Cameron Lovell.

“For fu*ks sake,” she whispered, staring at the phone as if it was a dangerous animal. Should she answer? Ignore?

Unwillingly, her hands reached over, and tapped the answer button. At the end of the day, Cameron Lovell was still an estate agent. “Hello?”

“Good morning, Aleshia. Are you busy today?”

“In the afternoon, yes.”

“If you’re ready in an hour, I can introduce you to a property. I think you’ll like this one.”

Aleshia bit her lip. If Cameron Lovell had a property lined up for her, it would seem silly to reject it. She debated obtaining the address and then phoning the agency for a different agent, then resigned herself to the idea of meeting up with Cameron Lovell once more. “Alright. I’d like to see it. I can be ready.”

“Good. Do you want to make your way over or do you want me to pick you up? It’s on South Beach. If I’m picking you up, I’ll be there in an hour and ten.”

Again, Aleshia reminded herself she seriously needed to buy a new car. She didn’t want to live on rentals – but so far, she hadn’t found desperate need to drive. She furiously clacked on her keyboard, typing the words MUST GET CAR. “If it’s not a problem, I wouldn’t mind being picked up. Thanks again for this.”

“No problem. Dijon and his wife will have my head if I don’t put you in a suitably perfect property. See you soon.”

“See you.” The call ended.

Aleshia glared in deep suspicion at her screen. She could almost picture Vaneese contacting Cameron Lovell on the side, probably as soon as their impromptu conversation had ended. She would definitely have words with Vaneese later, to sort facts out. She didn’t want Vaneese arbitrarily interfering with her life, although there was always the slim chance that this call happened of its own accord, uninfluenced by her sister. Maybe Cameron had always intended to contact her once he found a suitable place – though it also suggested he spent time in the evening and morning searching exclusively for her. Aleshia honestly didn’t know what to think.

Best not to dwell on it too much. She finished off the chapter she was editing, leaving just three chapters to go, which she planned to complete tonight. Showering and digging into her wardrobe proved simple – the weather here never seemed to vary from anything other than hot, with humidity in the air. She found with the humid climate, the heat became uncomfortable at times.

Rain thumped on the windows, interspersed by periods of sun. Glancing outside showed a street full of people who still wore their summer clothes, but used an umbrella to shelter them from the pelting rain. It made a dreary kind of sense – wearing full waterproofs would likely boil them from the insides like a lobster thrown on the pan, though the rain appeared murderous in nature.

Aleshia settled for her jogger pants, as they dried fast when wet, ankle high boots, along with a vest top and her lighter brown hiking jacket, once her best companion for the average Minnesotan day. At least I have a valid excuse for bringing it to a hot country. All that damn rain.

Lastly, she dabbed on as much makeup as she dared, keeping it light so she wouldn’t resemble a circus clown or look like she was wearing a mask. She spent time on her eyelashes, coating them with mascara so they stood out on her face, thick and long. When she smiled, dimples appeared on her cheeks. Dark eyes stared at her from the mirror, huge and expressive. Her mother used to describe them as windows to the soul. As a child, they gave her a fresh innocence, as an adult, they made her look younger than she was, not always a good thing, especially if she forgot her I.D when going out to a bar or club.

Cameron Lovell picked her up outside the apartment at ten minutes to ten, watching her step out of the apartment in her jogging pants and brown rain jacket, shrugging off the pounding of the heavens above as she sidled into his car. Aside from polite greetings, and a brief explanation of the address they were going to, the journey conducted itself in silence. The quiet bit into Aleshia. Some of the rain slid from her coat to the seat, and the waterproof quality of the leather meant it either clung to the outside, or formed snail lines to the rubbery bottom. More people chose to drive their cars because of the weather, causing long trails of traffic by the lights, and revealing some slightly illegal responses by the more irritable drivers, who didn’t want to sit in a line waiting, beeping their horns in anger.

“On seconds thought,” Aleshia said. “Maybe I shouldn’t bother with getting a car just yet.”

Cameron glanced over at her. Dark eyes coolly avoided hers. “I suppose if your work is online based, you don’t need to bother so much with traveling. Only if you want to make trips. Though you can likely get away with just using the local services.”

“Yeah. I’m just used to owning a car.”

He examined her, mouth twisting slightly. “How come you don’t have one here?”

Aleshia returned a recalcitrant stare of her own. “Slight issue that occurred from joint operating a car. Wouldn’t let me use it or take it when he knew I was considering breaking up. Hid the keys. I got my mom to shuffle me away when he was at work one day.”

The realtor blinked at her. “That doesn’t sound nice.”

“It wasn’t.” She smiled. “Though I’m fairly sure you’re not interested in hearing some of the horror tales of my ex.”

The traffic inched forward. Eventually, Cameron said, “You should have just found that bas*ard’s keys and sped off with the car.”

“Probably. Except it would likely break down with any journey longer than fifty miles. I’m better off with a new one that’s not falling apart.”

They passed the time with small, polite forays into some topics, with nothing touching or hinting of the disastrous proposal the night before. When they finally crossed the MacArthur Causeway and headed into South Beach, Cameron Lovell pulled his dark blue Chevrolet Impala into a spot that showed the skyline of Miami in the distance, across the waters.

Cameron Lovell pointed at a small house with a balcony that jutted out, with all that separated it from the water being a road. The house itself seemed small compared to the others on either side of it. It looked rather unassuming from the outside.