Riches To Rags

Chapter 14: Papa Bear

"Coo."

Levi stood and looked around his bedroom for nothing in particular. It was going on three weeks and his apartment was looking more like the two had been living together for years. Giving her half his drawer space for her clothes, her makeup and toiletries scatter on the sink of the bathroom, Rae definitely felt like she was at home.

It took everything in him to not continue to stare at Rae while she was practically naked.

"I'll fix us something to eat. In the meantime, get dress."

Rae frowned. "Why am I getting dress?"

He felt tension in the back of his neck as he tried to massage it out. Quickly rubbing his nose, he took a peek at her.

"Rae you ain't gotta put a dress on, but you're naked," he said. "Unless you plan on coming to dinner like that. Food is not the only thing I'm gonna eat then."

Before she could utter another word, he strolled out of the room and into he kitchen. Without turning around, he felt her presence disappear rapidly. His bedroom door slamming shut behind her.

Levi smiled to himself. It was part of him taking their relationship to another level. They haven't discussed sex and although Rae was a different woman that he was use to, he wanted to respect her. The women he meet everyday on the streets of LA didn't care about respect. Sex was easy to get on a normal day for him. They laid it high and spread them wide.

Giving her the notion that he wanted her was all Levi wanted to do.

For dinner, Levi made a simple meal. The conversation wasn't a distraction to Levi. Rae had came out of his bedroom dressed in short denim shorts and a white beater. No bra.

Looking at her face as they talked was becoming impossible. So he decided to just keep his eyes on his food. They got to know each other a little better eventually as it became easier to focus on his words.

"I wanna go to school to do Real Estate," he told her. 

It was something that he always thought he wanted to do, but never spoke it out loud or told anyone. The apartment complex was his personal project. At first, when the opportunity came to own the building, he was hesitant. Owning a building in the heart of LA was something he never imagine he would have. The people around didn't take care of the property and the people living in them didn't care. Levi never saw it as an investment, but used his savings to purchase it. 

Six years ago, he thought he made a mistake when tenants wouldn't take care of the very property that they were living in. As soon as he came to what he thought was his final decision to put the building up for lease, he thought against it. Taking matters into his own hands, he made sure his people cleaned up after themselves. When something needed fixing, he wouldn't hesitate to if he could. 

His block, was always up to par.

He did preliminary background checks on everyone who applied for an apartment. Levi wanted to be serious about who he let in his space.

Case in point, he knew Easy E wasn't a good guy, but his son Lil B was the only reason why he continued to deal with him. 

He never considered going to school until recently. Children was always on his mind and he thought that it was time to now think about the future and set a good example for his kids. College degrees wasn't never a goal in his household, but he now wished that he had had his act together and went. Time wouldn't have been wasted.

"Wow," she said in between bites. "That's great! I think you should. It's never to late to get a degree."

He nodded his head in agreement. Just when he was about to ask her if she could help him apply to some Community Colleges, a knock on his door stopped him. He got up from his seat and walked the short distance to the door. He opened the door and wished he hand looked through the peephole first.