30 Day Notice

By Kai Mann

Kori Maitland leaves behind everything that matters to find herself. In her search she travels from the east coast to the Midwest to find the love of her life. At least, that’s what she believes. After moving across the country and a five year relationship with Layla Bradford, Kori is given a 30 day notice. Although Kori didn’t believe that Layla would leave, she does and Kori is left with the challenges of dealing with a broken heart and permanent employment. As Kori struggles to get her life back together she realizes that Layla’s 30 day notice was not the first one she had ever received. Kori deals with all the notices as she looks back over the past five years of the relationship. As she tries to mend her broken heart she travels back to the Midwest to find a job and to hopefully start a business. It isn’t until Kori gets back to the Midwest that the betrayal from old friends turns her world upside down. Kori finds herself faced with eviction, an accident, a cheating lover, and her past.
Can Kori find who she is without losing herself along the way? Or will she succumb to the trials in life without reaching her intended goal?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kai Mann
• Release date: Dec 10, 2011
• ISBN: 9780984828111

Kai Mann

Her writing is both positive and purposeful. Her keen ability to provoke thought, trigger change and enlighten the lives of others has catapulted her to a literary success. Whether it’s in the form of a blog post or article, Facebook status or tweet, Kai Mann strives to empower and educate followers around the world about the nature of love, the importance of relationships and how these two play a vital role in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) community. While her passion for writing was birthed at a young age, her literary experience did not fully blossom until 2009, when she started writing her first novel. In addition, Mann also became a writer for Examiner.com, holding the title of Detroit’s Best Friend Examiner. Through her articles for the Examiner, she offers an innovative perspective on the topic on friendship. In 2011, she published her debut novel, 30 Day Notice under her own publishing company, Scriblical Vibez Publishing, LLC. Through Scriblical Vibez, she not only scribes biblically while creating a powerful message with a unique vibe, but she helps publish and market other authors’ content that creates vibrational change across the nation and even the world. Her sophomore literary project, Abandoned Property, released in 2013, the same year that Mann helped produce a document series, Out Loud in the D. The documentary highlights the daily lives of African-Americans in the LGBT community. As a proud member of the Motown Writers Network, she currently serves as Media Content Publisher, often assisting with conferences, monthly meetings and web content updates. Mann also hosts her own internet talk radio show, LGBT Radio Nation, where she educates listeners on the LGBT community and those who are making great strides and contributions toward change in and around it. Although the weekly topics may change, the message does not—the LGBT community is no different than any other community. Her literary works are best described as colorful, insightful and concise. Provoking deeper thought and greater understanding of individuality across racial and social barriers, Mann leaves readers pondering her words long after the final page has been turned. As part of the Pen to Paper series, her third project, Pen to Paper: A Walk Into Destiny is set to release in October of 2014. The two previous books in the series were published in March and June of 2014. Living on Lafayette Street, a collection of poetic prose, will be released in the spring of 2015. All of the pieces speak to spiritual transformation into a higher level of self. For more information, please visit www.kai-mann.com or email [e-mail].

Book preview

30 Day Notice

The Eviction Chronicles

By

Kai Mann

*****

30 Day Notice

Published By:

Kai Mann at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 Kai Mann

Editing by Shonell Bacon

Cover design by Harry ‘Enigma Graphics’ Lawson

Smashwords Edition, License Notes.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is available in print at most online retailers

Kai Mann

Visit my website at http://kai-mann.com

30 Day Notice is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any re-semblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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30 Day Notice

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Author’s Note

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter 1-The Beginning of the End

Chapter 2- Back to the Very Beginning

Chapter 3- Playing House

Chapter 4- No More Drama

Chapter 5- Dream Killer

Chapter 6- Sometimes the Creator Has to Sit You Down

Chapter 7- The Chickens Come Home to Roost

Chapter 8- A New Lease on Life

Chapter 9- Twelve All Over Again

Chapter 10- Loose Ends

Chapter 11 A Day of Reckoning

Chapter 12- On My Own Again

*****

Acknowledgments

I give thanks to the spirit who has carried me throughout my journey; the spirit that remains to be there regardless of who I am or what I do. I thank you for speaking to me in whispers when I am still and speaking in volume when I am not. To my mother who is no longer with me in the physical but shares her spirit with me daily, I say Thank you. Mom, I honor you for being the vessel that carried me while lending your spirit of dance to me. I still feel you every time I dance. To my children, hopefully I didn’t drive you all too crazy with my texts on life. Those texts were all the things that I wanted you to know and since I wasn’t right in front of you, I did it the best way I could. Roxie, I thank you for sharing your life with me. Mostly I thank you for listening to my rants, reading countless poems, articles, pages, and Bible passages. I praise you for holding on while I wrote, went to meetings, tweeted and posted statuses and everything else in between. Nikia, my little sister, the one who always seemed to be so proud of her big sister and praise everything I do. Thank you for putting your stamp of approval on my life, your kind spirit is much needed and so appreciated. Andrea Latimore, my lifelong friend, the one who told me I could do this. You gave me guidance and always spoke in truth. Your honesty is what I love most about you. To Phette Ogburn, my mentor, and now my friend; thanks for reading this book in its beginning stages and for giving it a great review. And another thank you for all of the support, emails, phone calls, and just being the best mentor anyone could have. Your love and support is highly treasured. To Sylvia Hubbard and the Motown Writers Network; you were a school for unquenched learning. I still cannot get enough. I give you the highest honor for sharing your energy and your lifelong passion of writing and networking. I am forever a student. To my editor, Shonell Bacon, thank you for helping me with my baby. Your time and energy to assist me while in labor goes beyond grammar to pushing me to write as the reader would think. You are well worth more than you know. To my favorite niece Crystal Herring, thank you for putting my book flyers on the desks of all your co-workers. I’ve got much love for you Queen. To the rest of my family, thank you for allowing me to be me and celebrating me while I am here. To everyone else who has supported me by either reading my quotes, articles, poetry, posts, answering my questions, and indulging me in my dream, Thank you.

The journey is well worth the ride. Until next time . . .

*****

I wore her like a label across my neck

Symbolizing the highest plateau that one could get

Like oil strategically placed upon my skin

Like the very heart of her my soul could win

I wrapped my love inside of her heart

Like raging hormones a fire could start

Her love was placed high above many

No circular rotation it was definitely semi

Covered scars that represented all of her

Supplication secretly made with incense of myrrh

Plucking out roots from the tree of love

I found something more symbolic when I chose to rise above

Tattooed Heart ~Kai Mann

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Author’s Note

This book has been three decades in the making. The journey has been worthwhile in spite of the difficulties that came along with it. Even said, I still wouldn’t trade the journey for anything in this world. In the end, all I can say is everything has truly been for the greater good. I ask you to open your mind in order to understand the full scope of where the character was during this period so that you get the full picture. Some of this may be graphic, but I promise that you will get something equally enlightening from it as well. My hope is that after reading this book you’ll have a different outlook on life or an understanding of some-one else’s. If so, then I have fulfilled my purpose. My hope is that you’ll be challenged to look at the notices that you receive on a daily basis in your own life and decide to listen to those notices the first time that they are heard.

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Dedication

I’d like to thank the Creator who birthed an idea in me long ago and gave me the courage to ride this journey. I dedicate this book to my mother who is no longer with me in the natural but who dances with me in the spirit on a daily basis; here’s to you, Queen, for giving me the freedom to dance my heart and spirit into an overwhelming sense of peace without any condem-nation. To those who have loved me up close and from afar, peace be unto you and may your dreams also come true.

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Prologue

Leaving Florida was sad and invigorating at the same time. I can still feel every emotion of that time as if it just happened yesterday. As the plane was landing, my heart was pounding with fear and excitement at the mere thought of embarking on someplace new. It was a beautiful clear night. The city of Chicago was beautiful. It was the most beautiful place that I had ever seen. Coming from a small city in Florida and even living for three years outside of a military base, my world was small and almost non-existent. The lights on the buildings gave the city an indescribable spirit. It made me feel tingly. I smiled on the inside because I felt Chicago was going to be good for me.

While there I met good people who would define for me what it really means to live in Chicago. I was like a baby breathing air into its lungs for the first time. My lungs were so full that when I finally breathed out I felt like I could let go of everything that had me bound. Life had always taken some sort of twist or turn for me in the past, but I suppose it did for everyone though. At times the journey would seem as if it was taking me down a path for the worst. If I didn’t believe in God and knew better, now of course, I would’ve given up a long time ago. At a time when you’re just coming into your own and you’re trying to figure out who you are, I al-most gave up. I can remember the big picture window in the living room and wanting to run through it at a young age. I kept thinking to myself that I’d probably just end up cut up really bad and the glass wouldn’t cut any major veins. I thought that I would probably live through it and would just have scars as remnants of my failed attempt to end my short life.

I lived in a house where there were no guns that I could see, how quick and easy that would’ve been. I remember feeling so alone. I couldn’t tell my friends about what was going on inside of me; I couldn’t even explain it to myself. All I knew was that I had been feeling like this ever since I could remember. My mother always made sure that I had the best of everything. That was never the problem. The problem was that I was never talked to. Talked at, but never talked to. Even the people who called themselves trying to help couldn’t even rescue me. They too would help to create deep skeletons in my closet. Things that happened in the family had a way of staying in the family. My aunt would always wonder what would become of me. She could see through me, she knew that I was a child that would always seem to look for love. I would be that same child who would grow into an adult to continue to search for the same. She would not make it to assist me in my journey. I had to go at it alone. As time grew I tried everything that society would have me to be, including what they would call walking the straight and narrow path. Got married, had children, went to church three times a week, and even prayed about it, but that didn’t take away what was inside of me. It wasn’t until I decided to be happy with the person that I was that I became my most happiest. Even so, that happiness would come at a high cost.

It’s funny how you start out in one place to end up in another. I was raised in Florida and ended up in Detroit by way of Chicago. In search of self, I stopped along the way to pick up passengers who would fill in the empty spaces on the canvas of my life. I remember my first girlfriend and the first time we made love. As I lay there afterwards, I couldn’t help but say over and over in my head This is it, this is what was missing! Something that day just clicked for me. That time in my life would affirm for me who I really was. Since that day, the only choice that I had made was to be me and to happily be comfortable in my own skin. That very same girlfriend would teach me everything that I thought I needed to know about the lesbian life but when the time came, I had to fill in the rest. That relationship was over just as quick as it got started. Then, I met Layla. Layla would be the one I’d come to realize was my first real love. She was everything to me. I loved this woman like she was the very apple of my eye. The sun would rise and set with her. Layla would define for me something more than just physical; it was a mental and spiritual kind of love. Thoughts of her even now send the scent of Juniper Breeze rushing through my mind. Her Juniper Breeze would float through the air, tantalizing me right down to the core. Yes, Layla was the be all and end all of my existence. My whole world felt as though it started and stopped because of her.

The day she left, it almost did.

*****

The Beginning of the End

April 4th I woke up uneasy. I had been scrapping the side of my tongue with my teeth all night long and it was sore. Layla and I woke up on Aundrea’s couch feeling like we had been beaten with a bag of rocks. Well, I did if she didn’t. I dreaded this day and I became not mean or nasty, just pissy. I wouldn’t dare talk to Layla about it. She was walking around here like the day was the best day of her life because it was. It marked the first day of the rest of her life. Today began a new chapter for her and was the ending of one for me. I couldn’t blame her though; I knew what that was like. I’d felt that feeling before. I just guessed that now it was my turn to feel the sting of someone I love leaving me be-hind.

Even though it was a beautiful day, I didn’t notice it. I felt like I was driving to my doom. My quietness filled the empty spaces of the car; today was the last day and our time was up. As I was driving down the 405 to the L.A. airport, I couldn’t help but think Man, it’s over. So many emotions began to well up inside of me and I felt like I couldn’t do this, but I had to be strong and put on my big girl boxers. I pulled into the short term parking lot, helped her with her bags, and walked her inside. I knew I couldn’t stay there and watch her leave so I said, Goodbye and walked away without so much as a kiss or a hug. I’d never told anyone goodbye before. Goodbye always felt like forever, that’s it, no more, adios; I’ll never see you again. I knew that I probably would see her again, but I knew it would never mean the same ever again.

As I walked back to the parking lot, I began to feel numb. I got into my truck and made it a point to not look back. I headed back on the 405 in the other direction toward North Hollyhood, affectionately called that because it is the hood of Hollywood. I pushed play and Mary J’s No More Drama began to play. My feelings began to spread all over me like hot butter on third degree burns. I found myself crumbling and the composure that I was trying to keep lost its battle as tears strolled down my face. My phone rang and it was my sister. My sister’s timing was always right. As I got older, it was always like she could feel when something wasn’t right. Of course when I answered the phone she would have to ask me how I was doing and that made me cry even harder as she listened like the mother in her always did.

I could feel the life seeping from my body. I laid out for my sister the feelings that I had been trying to keep inside for thirty days as they spilled over and I could no longer talk and had to get off of the phone. I tried to convince myself as well as my sister that I would be all right. I didn’t even know how long the ride took or even how I got home, but somehow when I pulled up to Aundrea’s apartment complex, I knew it was time to get out. I took the elevator up to the fourth floor, placed my key in the lock, and began to thank God when I noticed no one else was home. I sat myself down and the pain of hurt overtook me once again. I cried like a baby as I lay balled up on the floor holding my knees to my chest. I couldn’t believe that the woman I had loved so dearly for the past five years could leave me. The woman whom I thought the sun rose and set because of her left me. My heart ached so badly. I could physically feel it breaking into a million pieces, so I held my chest as I swallowed hard, trying to take in air. I had never felt like this before. It wasn’t like I hadn’t ever broken up with anyone before because I had. This was different.

I finally got myself off of the floor and took a shower thinking that would help soothe me but it didn’t. I kept thinking How in the hell did I get here? I had always thought Debra Cox’s song How Did You Get Here was stupid, but now I knew exactly what she meant. Thirty days ago I was living in a three-bedroom, two-bath, two-car garage home, with a pool in Orange County and thirty days later, I was sleeping on Aundrea’s couch. What the hell happened? The sad part was I knew what had happened. Thirty days ago, Layla told me she was leaving and even though I knew it, something in me still did nothing about it. I was given thirty days and still wasn’t prepared. I guess somewhere in the back of my mind I thought she wouldn’t really leave me.

While I was still contemplating, Aundrea walked in and said, Hey! How did everything go? When I turned turn to look at her, I guess she could see how everything went. Oh, not so good, huh?

I pulled the covers up over my head and tried to act like I was going to sleep. All night long I could feel my-self tossing and turning. After five years of sleeping with someone and they were no longer there to nuzzle up under and spoon with, how the heck were you sup-posed to sleep? What was I supposed to do now with this left hand that always seemed to creep under her right breast as we lay asleep like two spoons in the silverware drawer? I could feel my tongue being scraped so hard that I thought my mouth was bleeding. The stress of what to do next even in my sleep haunted me. I woke up the next morning to go to a temp job I had lined up making half the money I was making after leaving my cushy job in Orange County because this time in my life had been carefully thought out by Layla for me. After returning from a trip back home to Detroit, she stated that she could no longer live on the West Coast anymore. She said that her children were unhappy and she felt like she was on the other side of the world. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing because this was the place that she chose to live over three years ago when she said she no longer cared to live in Detroit and wanted a new start. Me being me, I would’ve moved to Timbuktu if she had wanted to and would’ve been happy doing it. I wouldn’t have even cared if I had to wear a bone in my nose and put leaves on all of my private parts.

Trying to get myself ready for work, I ironed my clothes and I got into the shower. I tried to use the noise from the shower to drown my sobs and the water to rinse away my tears. I didn’t want Aundrea to hear me. The bathroom was literally in her room. I stood there lifeless for about twenty minutes before soaping up.

I couldn’t help but feel like this was the worst time to start a new temp job, but I still tried to seem pleasantly happy. The manager of the title agency came over and greeted me and gave me a quick tour of the office. I remember her giving me instructions on what I needed to do but for the life of me I couldn’t remember exactly what they were. Even though my mind drifted in and out on Layla, somehow I seemed to go through the motions exactly as I was told. I was on auto-pilot. At the copier, I thought of Layla. While entering in all of the loan documentation, I thought of Layla. I went over in my head every single day and every single moment that I could remember which all seemed good. When it was time to go to lunch, I walked over to Mickey D’s and grabbed a fish filet combo without cheese like normal but when I sat down to eat I took one bite and stared out the window. Forty-five minutes had passed and I had not taken another bite. I got up, threw away everything except the drink and headed back to the office. On my way I thought of the same things all over again until it was time to go home. When I pulled up to Aundrea’s, I realized once again that I had no idea of how I had gotten there. I was just glad the day was over and that I hadn’t killed myself or anyone else for that matter. I had an urge to write. Like always when things in my life weren’t going right, I needed to put my feelings on paper. This whole situation felt like it was burning a hole on the inside of me and if I didn’t get it out soon, I was going to go down in flames. I grabbed a journal from the back seat and began to write.

Right now I feel broken, like a person who was stripped down to nothing. The one person who I probably loved more than life itself is gone. Where do I go from here? How do I go on from here? My heart aches so badly. It’s all because I didn’t listen. I heard but I didn’t want to listen. Those subtle hints that people tell you without really saying the words . . . I heard them long time ago in my spirit but didn’t want to believe them. I didn’t want to hear the words even when they were spoken to me. I felt like all I needed to do was show more love, be more patient, let things just go, and now look how far it took me. I’m down to nothing once again. At least the first time I stripped myself bare to find myself, I had a bed, a room, something to retreat to. Listening to R. Kelley’s "I Believe I