"I have a guest bedroom," Sema informed Dave. He furrowed his eyebrows, now fully focusing his attention on her.
"You deadass right now?" He questioned her. She just nodded her head.
"I have a bunch of clothes in there right now. But I can clear them out for you. It's no problem." He just stared at her for a moment wondering why she was helping him out. She doing this for kicks? He wondered. She probably just wanna help a nigga out so she can brag about it to all her coworkers, and get her name plastered on the walls at her job.
"I'm straight."
"This," she started, motioning to the surroundings, "isn't 'straight'."
"Look, I ain't nobody charity case. I been making it on my own." Sema furrowed her eyebrows. For him to think she was just offering him a place to stay just to make herself look good offended her. She was ready to go off on him at this point.
"I didn't say you were. I'm standing out here in the cold, genuinely concerned about you. Out of the goodness of my heart, I'm offering you a place to stay. But you men and your damn pride," she scoffed. "Stay out here and try to continue making it on your own. You're gonna make it on your own alright; make it to your grave on your own." Sema turned on her heels heading to her car.
Unlocking her door, she climbed in and slammed it shut. Blowing out a breath, she started up her car and backed out of the parking garage.
Dave wasn't even about to call her back to try to retract what he had said. His pride wouldn't let him. Instead, he just laid his head back down on the blanket, and tried to focus on something else besides how much he was freezing. After a while he drifted off to sleep again.
- - -
Sema didn't work for the next two days, and all that was on her mind was Dave. She couldn't believe that even though she was angry with him, she actually just left him there. If something were to happen to him, she'd definitely feel guilty. She promised herself that if she saw him again, that she wasn't taking no for an answer.
Pulling into her usual parking spot, she began looking around the parking garage for Dave. Killing her car, she got out going to the spot where she had last seen him. He wasn't there and neither was his blanket and bag that accompanied him. Where is he? Frowning, she made her way inside before she was late for her shift.
She greeted everybody on her way in, like usual, before stopping at the nurses' station.
Melanie looked up from her computer, greeting Sema. "Good afternoon, Dr. Cotton. Can I help you with something?"
"Um, I don't know. There was a man in the parking garage. He was sleeping there. Do you know what happened?"
"Oh! That must've been what Gwen was talking about . She said there was a man in the parking lot giving her the creeps, so she called Richard to escort him off the premises." Melanie explained to her. Sema frowned.
"Thanks Melanie," she gave her a half smile before walking off. She was pretty sure Dave wasn't bothering anybody. Gwen just liked to act uppity.
Sema headed off in the direction of the security office. Knocking on the door, she heard someone say come in. Twisting the knob, she walked in the room.
"Hey, how are you Sema?" Richard greeted.
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"I'm good Richard. How about you?"
"Making it. But yo, what you doing down here? I don't never see you round this area."
"Just had a question that's all."
"Oh alright. Well, shoot."
"Um the man you escorted out of the parking lot..do you know where he went?"
"My mans told me he live a whole piece from here and didn't have no bus fare . I slid buddy $10 dollars and sent him on his way. He was goin to um..." he snapped his fingers, trying to remember. "East Harlem, yeah. That's ya mans or somethin'?"
"I was kind of mean to him the other day. I was looking for him to apologize."
"Oh, well yeah. He somewhere over in east Harlem. Buddy wasn't lookin too hot. He'll probably be back here soon."
"Well, thanks Richard. See you later."
"Later mamas."
Sema exited the room and made her way down the hall in search of Aja. She had to go try to find Dave and she needed to see if Aja could cover her shift. Aja was in the time-clock room getting ready to swipe out.
"Aja! I need a favor." Aja jumped, caught offfuard by Sema's shouting.
"Whew Sem. Don't scare me like that. What you need though honey?"
"I need to go somewhere and I wondering if you could take my shift, or half my shift. I know this is last minute and if you can-"
"Girl, its fine." Aja interrupted, giving her a smile. "I was just gone go home and have a few drinks anyways."
"Thank you, thank you so much Aj. I'll make it up to you," Sema told her, rushing out.
"Dinner will do nicely!"
Sema chuckled to herself as she made her way out of the building. Here it was 7:15 and she had no idea how long it was gonna take to fine Dave, but if she had to be out looking the rest of the night, she was gonna do just that.
12:34...
Hours had passed, and there still was no sign of Dave. Sema has been roaming around the east side for 5+ hours now, and she was becoming discouraged. I'll look again tomorrow. She was just gonna get some food and head home. She spotted a Mexican restaurant and pulled over to park on the street.
She'd never been to this side of town, much less the restaurant, but it was the first restaurant that she saw was open and she was starving. She was taken aback when she walked in and saw all the customers inside. To be that late, business sure was booming. She took a paper menu from the stand by the door, reading over it before deciding on pollo and al pastor tacos. After deciding, she slid in line.
It took about 30 minutes for her food, but after getting it she determined it was well worth the wait. She had yet to taste, but her mouth was watering at the sight. Grabbing her bag of food and some napkins she made her way back to her car. On her way out the door, out of the corner of her eye she spotted something familiar and immediately turned her attention to the left of her.
