Under The Influence: N 2 Deep

33. Troubled Waters

Shawnie's POV

The next morning, I woke up, took a shower and got dressed. When I came out of the bathroom, I saw Joe was still sleeping. I walked over to the sofa and sat down on the end, where his feet were. I watched him sleep for a minute or two, I tapped his leg.

He moved around a little as he woke up. When he popped his eyes open, he looked down at me.

"Wake up top flight security, we're heading south!" I say with a smile.

"South?" He says stretching.

"San Diego. I've been up for a while preparing for our visit. I rented this beautiful beach house. It's right on mission beach."

"Hold up." He pauses for a few seconds. I could tell he was trying to process. "What?"

"We're going down to San Diego. I'm taking a much needed break from everything. I've been planning this for a while now, I just didn't know when I could go. So since Aubrey has Atlas and Chris has Genesis, I figured now is the time. So I got a beach house. I also have a few meetings set up. I need to take care of some business too."

"Business?"

"My business..." I say, jokingly.

"Aight." He laughs, while laying there for a minute, then he sits up.

"Does this have anything to do with last night?" He asks

"Maybe..."

"Just let me know what to do and when to do it. I'll be ready in 30." He gets up and walks out of the bedroom.

Joe just might be a trained killer. I laugh to myself at the thought.

******

About an hour later, we were on the 5, on our way to San Diego, and eating In-N-Out.

"Random night, what do you do in your free time?" Joe says

I looked up from my phone at him. "Huh?" I kind a look at him like he was crazy. I was in my own little world enjoying my little cheeseburger, with extra onions, and pickles with thousand island dressing.

"On a random night, what do you do? Like when you have absolutely nothing to do and you're by yourself."

"Before, or after Chris? Because I'm never by myself nowadays." I say

"When it was just you." He says

"I wasn't a person who liked to go out often, I was a homebody. So on most Friday and Saturday nights I would just sit in front of TV with a glass or bottle of wine."

"What did you watch?"

"Lifetime. I used to sit there for hours doing absolutely nothing on Saturday's. I ordered in and just relaxed on the sofa or in bed. Those were the best nights." I smile.

"You didn't have company."

"My friends would come around every now and then but I loved to be by myself. I'm an only child. I was by myself my whole lift. It wasn't until after I got out of the bad relationship I was in, that I started to fear being alone. After him, I just always wanted people around. But when I had to physically be alone. I would lock all the doors and windows and turn on the alarm and try to enjoy the quiet. Honestly, I was my happiest by myself. Doing nothing and being alone was all I wanted back then."

"Nothing wrong with that. You stay out of trouble that way."

"Ain't that the truth. When I finally did leave the house to go out, I met Chris." I laugh. "After that, I wasn't alone much at all."