Their Perfect Match

6

Leon

He’s completely lost his f*****g mind. We know nothing about this woman, he’s letting his d**k control him, once again. Just because she’s pretty to look at he’s going to lose his s**t and do something stupid. Sure I hit her with my truck, but it was an accident, it’s not like I did it on purpose. Besides, what was she doing outside my place to begin with? Is she a spy?

I need to figure out who she is and what she’s doing here before Blake does something stupid like fall in love with her.

I finish at the pharmacy and get all her medications and head back home, I find uncle Lenny out behind the property by the utility shed. There’s an old beat up car parked beside the shed, I don’t recognise it.

Lenny looks worried, “What’s going on?” I ask

“Cleaning lady has gone missing… you wouldn't know anything about that would you?” He eyes me suspiciously”

“Talk to Blake” I say, turning on my heel and walk over to the beat up car, “this her car?” He nods,

“She came this morning, I left her to work, When I came to check on her she was gone. I’ve looked everywhere. I can’t find her. What did Blake do?”

“What he always does” I try the driver’s door and am unsurprised that it is unlocked. Her purse is tucked under the seat. Her wallet has a fake ID with the name Layla Harris with an address for an apartment in the shittiest part of town I’ve ever been to.

I jump into my truck and head to her apartment. It takes forty minutes to get there. I park out front of her building. It’s worse than I could have imagined. People openly doing drugs on the corner, there is a lack of police presence so they don’t give a s**t about being seen by anyone. This is the kind of place you see on the news, people getting stabbed in broad daylight, rappings happening every other night. I open the lobby door expecting to have to try to get buzzed in but the door is broken so I let myself in. I look at the resident list and see her listed as 'L. Harris' in unit 26, second floor. I take the stairs, there’s a putrid smell throughout the building, making my stomach turn over. Her door has a large padlock on it and an eviction notice taped over the door.

Must have been late on her rent. The lock doesn’t look too strong, I look around to see if anyone is around before I kick the door open. It breaks off the hinge easily, splintering into several pieces. Hopefully nobody heard it, I step into the small apartment. It's surprisingly nice compared to the rest of the building.

There’s a single bed in the middle of the room, a few bookshelves circle the room, her taste in books doesn’t surprise me. Mostly romance, but the bottom shelf is filled with classic literature. Considering the circumstances, I figure the least I can do is gather her things and bring them back to Blake’s place. I find a duffle bag and pack up some clothes, trying not to be creepy about going through her drawers as I shove everything into the bag. I find her toiletries and toss those inside too. I see a few prescriptions and allergy medications as well as an epi-pen in the cabinet and make sure those get tucked into the bag before I make a quick text.

I make arrangements to have the rest of her things packed up and sent to Blake’s place by the end of the day, as I’m about to leave the apartment, a tall skinny crackhead-looking guy comes up to the door.

“Who the hell are you?” He crosses his arms as he stands in front of the door.

“Layla sent me to gather her things” I say

“That s**t belongs to me until she pays her rent. You’re not going anywhere with any of her junk”

“You’re really not in a position to stop me. I’m taking her things, you’d be wise to get out of my way” I warn him

“I- I’ll call the cops. I know my rights you know”

“Do you? Do you also know that your building is breaching about 30 health and safety laws? I could have this place shut down. Then what would you do?”

“Ugh. I knew this chick was going to be nothing but trouble. Fine, take her s**t. But tell her she’s not welcome here again. I don’t want to see her face around here anymore” He throws his hands up in defeat.

“Trust me, coming back to this dump will be the last thing she will be doing”

I get back to Blake’s place and he’s on me right away, “Where the hell have you been?”

“I found out where she lives.. Or lived” I say as I pull her duffle bag from the passenger seat of the truck and toss it to him.

“What do you mean?”

“She was evicted. I sent the guys to go get the rest of her stuff”

“Good, you’ve done something useful for once” He turns and heads inside

Okay, that’s the last straw. I storm in after him, anger taking over me.

“Blake! Stop!” I grab him by the shoulder.

He drops the bag on the floor and turns on me. I can see the rage in his eyes, there’s no backing down now. I can’t provoke him and then shy away, I learned that over the years.

He takes a threatening step towards me, “Listen, I know. I f****d up. Okay I get it. But it’s not like I did it on purpose. Okay. I didn’t do this on purpose”

Something shifts in his body language and he backs away for a moment, “I feel something when I look at her man, I can’t explain it”

“I don’t get it man.. She’s just a girl.. You can have any woman you want. Why this one?”

“I don’t know” He leans down and picks up her bag again.

“Oh, she has some allergy medication and an epi-pen. So as soon as she wakes up I’d find out what she is allergic to, just to be safe.”

“Good call” He sets her bag down and unzips it and begins to rifle through it. If I felt creepy putting everything into the bag earlier, then watching him digging through it now was down right predatory. My stomach knots and I have to look away,

“Where is she?” I ask as I look around the living room, expecting to see her on the couch.

“My bed”

I make my way to Blake’s room and there she is, sleeping soundly, her brow is knotted like she’s having a bad dream. A strand of hair has fallen in her face, I reach forward and tuck it behind her ear. Her skin is soft and warm against the pad of my finger, her facial expression softens under my slight touch. My fingers linger on her cheek, grazing down her smooth skin, down her jawline.

“What are you doing?” Blake says from behind me, making me jump

“N-nothing” I pull my hand away quickly.

“She is beautiful isn’t she?” He comes to stand beside me, reaching down to pet the top of her head.

“She is, but she is still just a woman”

“She’s not. She’s special. You’ll see..”