“Giada! Can I borrow one of your bikes? My shit keep stuttering and not starting,” she said as Giada was now blissfully enjoying a piece of chicken that she shredded into her popcorn.
“What you mean it’s not starting? That’s an $80,000 motorcycle; you better take that shit to the dealership first thing in the morning. But yeah you can borrow a bike. Pick whichever one you want,” Giada said, and when Kiara left the kitchen Anthony looked visibly annoyed as he leaned against the kitchen island. When he started drumming his fingertips against the countertop, I saw they were black, and I rolled my eyes. I suspected he must have done something to her motorcycle when he went outside to stop her “date” with Fred.
“I’ll see y’all later,” he mumbled walking out of the kitchen looking like he was in a foul mood.
“Damn, hold up! You’re my ride!” Dante yelled after him. He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and promised to call me tomorrow before he ran after Anthony.
“Well, we’re going to follow suit, me and Titan are leaving. Thank you so much Giada for allowing me to hide out for a few hours.”
“No problem, call me later,” she said, drinking her root beer float.
I said bye to Devin and Zuri and Titan carried me outside, when he opened the door I was grateful he used the remote startand the temperature inside the car and the seats were perfect. After he buckled me in he slid behind the wheel, and we sped off.
It’s been three weeks since the shit storm Eva caused when she leaked that bullshit about me. Luckily, I didn’t have too much blowback from my own clients who thought the rumors were true. The clients I did lose I figured they didn’t want to be my client anyway if they could leave before I had a chance to clear my name. Titan and his brother Torrence were going to dissolve the grant they were going to award Eva’s husband, Brandon, quietly… but since the shit she did, they were now going to announce it at a press conference along with Giada and her attorney, Malik. She was going to announce a defamation lawsuit. Giada didn’t need the money and knew Eva and her husband had no way of paying but she and Titan wanted to tear them down. Titan was waiting to buy their company for pennies on the dollar once their press conference aired and I had no remorse for the shit she was about to go through, and my brother said he had something for Angelo’s ass. I hoped he didn’t kill him; I didn’t want my brother to go to jail or feel guilty for ending another man’s life.
But other than that, things have been going so good between Titan and I and that bullshit “dick ban” he called himself putting me on, was lifted the moment we came home from Giada’s the night we learned Eva was the snake that leaked my personal information to the blogs.
Right now, I was at work going through my packed schedule before lunch. I saw some of the side glances I was getting from my employees and the stopped whispers when I came into a room. I wanted to cuss everyone out, but instead I decided toschedule a company meeting for tomorrow to address this shit. I was working my ass off and when my phone rang I saw the time and was surprised that it was already time for my lunch.
“Hey, Marlow, what’s up?” I asked while stacking the papers on my desk.
“Hey, boo; you want to get lunch?”
“Hell yeah, you ready now?”
“Yep, I’ll meet you by the elevators,” she said, and we hung up.
We were at a deli a block from our building, and I was tearing into a double decker BLT sandwich with a side of tomato soup. I was surprised my appetite was so ravenous because my stomach felt like I was on a roller coaster. But this soup and sandwich was the best thing I ever tasted. I was practically moaning, especially when I added salt to the sandwich and soup.
“This is so damn good!” I said, adding more salt to the soup.
“I can’t tell with how much salt you been putting on your food,” Marlow said, laughing while eating her chicken Caesar salad. “I never seen you eat so much salt.” She was looking at me with her perfectly arched brow raised.
“My stomach been feeling like Jell-O and this salt seems to be helping,” I said, shrugging. I saw a waitress across the room putting down a slice of cherry pie with whipped cream and I wanted a slice too. I waved our waitress over and asked for two slices with extra whipped cream. I ate the last bite of my sandwich and when I looked up at Marlow she was looking at me strangely.
“Why you looking at me like that?” I asked then thanked the waitress who sat my pie slices in front of me. I did a little dance in my seat and when I took a bite, I closed my eyes in bliss. “This is so good you want a piece?” I asked, just to be polite, but honestly, I didn’t want to share.
“Nah you go head. Quick question, when did you start liking cherries? Especially the canned cherries they use for cherry pie?” She tilted her head to the side causing her long faux locs to fall over her shoulder.
“What’s with the questions? I’m hungry, and I feel like eating.” I snapped and went back to eating my pie.
“Ok, don’t bite my head off,” she said, chuckling as she reached into her Chanel bag for her wallet to pay our bill.
“I want another slice of pie to go,” I said to the waitress and Marlow started laughing.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing. You got any meetings today?”
“No, but I have so much more paperwork to finish when we get back,” I said, feeling drained just thinking about it. We left the deli, and went back to our office. Once we hugged and parted ways, I briefly looked at Marlow as she was still looking at me funny. I shrugged it off because my eccentric friend was always acting strange.
When I got back to my office, I set my pie down on the table in front of my couch and sat down. When I took my heels off, I sighed in relief as I rubbed the balls of my feet. When I was finished, I leaned back on the couch and now that I was full I was sleepy, so, I closed my eyes for a quick nap.
Iwoke to soft kisses on my lips, and I smiled. When my eyes drifted open I saw Titan kneeling next to me on the floor.
“Hey baby, what you doing here?” I asked, yawning, wiping the sleep from my eyes.
“You ok baby? You weren’t answering your phone,” he whispered and I saw the concern in his eyes. His tie was loose, and he was only wearing his white dress shirt and black suit pants.
