Chapter 5: The "How" of things

The drive over to Rae's place was relatively quiet, just the soft sounds of the radio filling the space between the two girls. Rae was lost in her thoughts about the woman she'd just met. "How am I going to make her mine?", she thought to herself. She wasn't worried whether she could pull it off. After all, making magic happen was her thing. She worried about the how of it all. When would she see her again? What could she possibly say that would make this woman want to go out with a teenager? Her mind was going a million miles a minute. She almost missed the entrance to the parking lot of her apartment building. "Don't worry Rae" she said to herself, "you'll figure it out". She parked in her designated space, turned off the car, and she and Maureen gathered their things and headed inside.

Araeyah was a bit of mystery to most people. They knew the basics about her but only a few people, a few meaning her family and Maureen, really knew her story. There were just some things about herself she didn't share. She wanted to make sure that people wanted to know her for her and not what she could offer them. They walked up the three flights of stairs and stopped outside the door to Rae's loft. She hadn't been completely dishonest with Maureen's father. She gave him her parent's correct address and she and Maureen would be going to her parent's house that weekend. She had just decided to omit the fact that she didn't actually live with them. Rae had turned eighteen two months ago and her parents didn't hesitate to give their approval when she said she wanted to move out on her own. Even though she was still a high school student, they knew that their daughter was mature and responsible enough to handle having her own place. All they wanted was a say in where she would live. So with her parents go ahead, she chose this apartment building not too far from their house. She had been on the fast track to adulthood since she was fifteen years old. She might still be a teenager but Rae hadn't been a kid for years. She pulled out her keys to unlock the door when she heard her neighbor's door open behind her. She rolled her eyes and braced herself for the "conversation" she was about to have.

"Hey Rae. How ya doin'?"

"Hey Paul" she said turning around putting on a fake smile, "I'm good. How are you?"

Paul was one of those nosey neighbors who had absolutely no social life. So he always made it his business to make Rae's business his business because he didn't actually have any business of his own. He was in his forties, kind of overweight, and slightly balding. If he were a woman, he'd probably be a cat lady. It was like he had a sixth sense about when she'd be coming home because every time she would come up to her door he'd pop his head out of his own.

"I'm good. You brought company." he said eyeing Maureen.

"Yeah, I did."

"Hi, I'm Paul, Rae's neighbor."

"Hi" Maureen said shifting uncomfortably from side to side waiting for Rae to get the door open. The lock finally clicked and Rae pushed the door open. She stepped to the side letting Maureen go in before her. She stepped through the threshold before turning around and giving the same fake smile as before. "Good night Paul."

"Good night" Rae quickly closed and locked the door barely hearing her neighbor add "You girls have fun." The tone in his voice made her shudder.

"I'm definitely gonna call my landlord tomorrow about getting that lock fixed" she said walking over to where Maureen was sitting on the couch.

"Your neighbor's a creep" Maureen said kicking off her shoes and pulling her legs up to sit indian style.

"I know. I thought I talked to you about him before. He's like a crazy stalker. He always knows when I'm home. It's super weird. The other day he came over to ask me to borrow sugar." Rae had taken her shoes off and sat on the couch opposite Maureen with one leg underneath her and the other on the floor. "First of all, how do you borrow sugar? I mean, you're not gonna return it when your done" she said getting a chuckle from her friend. "And second, who does that anymore? Asks their neighbor to borrow sugar?"

"He just wanted an excuse to come and talk to you" Maureen said laughing. "I feel for you. Really, I do and I agree you should definitely talk to your landlord about fixing the lock. I mean, if your lock didn't stick so bad you'd probably be able to get into your apartment before he could bother you."

"I know. I've actually already talked to him about it. Twice. He keeps saying he's gonna stop by and fix it but he never does. He doesn't take me seriously. He thinks I'm just a stuck up rich kid complaining because my place isn't perfect" Just then a brilliant idea popped into Rae's head. "Hey, do you think I could get Olivia to come talk to him. I mean, there's no way that a detective coming to visit him on my behalf wouldn't lite a fire under his ass, right?" Rae got the biggest smile on her face when she said Olivia's name, which reminded Maureen that she needed to talk to her about what happened earlier. "Olivia, huh?" Maureen said with a smirk. "Yeah, do you think she'd do it?" Rae said in a hopeful tone. "I don't see why she wouldn't." Araeyah's smile got bigger as thoughts about the brunette detective about coming to her apartment ran through her mind.

"What is up with you?" Maureen said interrupting Rae's thoughts.

"What do you mean?"

"Something happened earlier...with you and Olivia" Maureen added noticing the confused look on Rae's face. "I don't know what you mean. Nothing happened" Rae was playing it completely cool. She wasn't giving Maureen any indication of what she was actually feeling. Her stomach was clenched in knots and her palms had started to sweat. She was mortified at the idea that Maureen would figure out how she really felt about her dad's partner. That would be really awkward, especially considering that Rae sometimes thought that Maureen had some "more than friends" feelings for her. She always dismissed those suspicions right away though. If there was one thing she knew it was that Maureen WAS NOT gay. "Why do you think anything happened?" Rae said hoping she could get rid of Maureen's suspicions. "I don't know. You were just acting a bit out of character in front of her is all. I just thought maybe something had happened between the two of you."

"Oh no. I just had some stuff on my mind that's all. Being around that much authority was making me kinda loopy" she joked trying to lighten the mood. She relaxed when she received a little laugh from her friend and took the opportunity to change the subject. "Hey, do you want pizza for dinner? I'm starving." she said reaching for her bag to pull out her phone.

"Yeah, pizza sounds good."

"Ok cool. Here" Rae handed Maureen the remote to the tv. "You pick out the line up of movies we're gonna watch while I call in our order. You want anything special?" Rae asked as she continued to dig through her bag looking for her phone. "Cinna sticks?" Maureen asked. Like Rae could say no to that. "Uh, hell yah. And I'm getting cheesy bread because that's just how much I don't care." Maureen laughed as she turned back to the screen to scroll through movie titles.

A couple of seconds later a loud groan came from beside her before the contents of Rae's bag came spilling out all over the couch. "Where the fuck is my phone!" she yelled in frustration.

"I don't know. Maybe you left it in the car" Maureen was slightly surprised by her friend. "I don't think I've ever seen her this mad before" she thought to herself. "It's kinda cute" she added. "Whoa what the what Maureen?" she thought mentally chastising herself. "She's your friend. You can't think like that about your friend." She was pulled from inside her own head when Rae started talking to herself a loud.

"Ok Rae, just think when is the last time you had your phone" she said pacing in front of her coffee table. Then it came to her. "Olivia" she said running her hands through her hair. "This is perfect" she thought to herself, "I have a legitimate reason to talk to her again".

"What about Olivia?" Maureen asked a little harsher than she intended. Rae turned to face her friend. "Uh, I was on my phone when I ran into her waiting for you to come out of the bathroom. I dropped it. I was so caught up..." in checking her out she said in her head, "in trying to help her with her papers that I must have forgotten to pick it up."

"Nice save girl", she thought mentally giving herself a pat on the back. "Do you have her number? Do you think she picked it up? I mean, would she even still be at work? Could I go back and get it tonight?" she said playing it as if she was more concerned about her phone than with her thoughts of Olivia.

"Whoa...slowww dowwnnn" Maureen stood putting her hands on Rae's shoulders to stop her from pacing. "No, I don't have her number. I don't know, she might have picked it up. It's almost seven and it looked like a pretty slow day so she probably already went home. I think someone is always at the front desk so you could try to go back tonight and get it but that's assuming that A. its still where you dropped it or B. that if she did pick it up she gave it to the front desk on the chance that'd you come back for it tonight" Maureen said answering all of Rae's questions in the order she asked them.

"Ugh. Ummm ok. Well, what about your dad? Can you call him and see if he's still there and ask if he could look and see if my phone is there?" Rae was trying to play off bringing Olivia into the conversation by bringing in Maureen's dad.

"Sure" Maureen shrugged "I can call him". She reached into her bag and pulled out her phone sitting down on the couch pulling a very stressed looking Araeyah down with her. "Hey dad!" Maureen said into the phone. "No no, everything is fine" she said rolling her eyes, "listen Rae lost her phone and she thinks it was when we were at the precinct. Are you still there? She was hoping you could take a look around for her and see if you could find it" Maureen sat listening to her father occasionally nodding her head as if he could see her. "Ok. I'll tell her. Yeah thanks dad. Ok. Love you too. Night" she hung up phone before turning to Rae. "He isn't at the precinct anymore. They had a slow day so their Captain let them go home." She noticed the sad change in her friend's demeanor like she'd just found out her puppy died. She continued, "but he said he'd make a call to the desk sergeant and ask if anyone turned in a phone. He's gonna text me when he finds anything out."

Rae let herself fall back on the couch, "What am I gonna do without my phone?" she said through her hands that were covering her face.

"Oh, you'll be fine. Come on, we'll order pizza and pop popcorn and watch movies. You won't need your phone" Maureen said pulling Rae back to her sitting position.

"I need a phone to order pizza" Rae pointed out. Maureen said nothing. She just picked up her cell and held it out to her friend who was on the other end of the couch pouting. Rae took the phone and went into the kitchen to get the number to pizza place that delivered to her building while Maureen returned to picking out movies for them to watch.

About an hour and a half later the pizza had arrived. They'd popped popcorn, gotten bowls of ice cream and were watching the first of many movies of the night. Maureen had heard from her dad that nobody had turned in a phone to the front desk but that he would look around first thing when he arrived in the morning. Maureen had been right though. Once they had gotten their movie night underway, Rae had forgotten all about her phone. There was a certain someone, though, that just wouldn't leave her mind.