“Will you show me around LA a little so that I can, I don’t know, check it out?”
Samara kept her smile reserved, but only because she didn’t want to scare Dana.
“I’d love to,” she replied.
CHAPTER 32
Dana woke in Samara’s bed in LA and couldn’t believe she was there. She hadn’t even told Lainey that she was leaving until after they’d arrived, and she’d sent her a quick text letting her know that she had gone to LA. Lainey had replied with a surprised emoji, followed by a heart emoji, and lastly, a smiling wide emoji. That had been it. Dana had expected questions or a ‘what the fuck’ kind of text, but nothing had come after the emojis, so she had put her phone on silent and let Samara show her around her massive house, which was five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a den that she sometimes used as an office, a movie theater, a small at-home gym, and more. The kitchen alone was larger than Dana’s entire apartment in New Orleans. There was also a hot tub pool combo in the yard, off a nice deck made of dark wood, and an attached screened-in porch with plexiglass windows that opened and closed, so Samara had an air-conditioner installed there so that she could sit outside for long periods of time but also have the room be at seventy degrees. They hadn’t gone swimming or used the hot tub. Instead, they had snuggled up on the small patio sofa and talked while they stared out at the view of the hills. They’d both been very tired, so after a few hours of that, as well as eating dinner that they had ordered and taking their shower together, they’d decided to get a good night’s sleep to have enough energy to explore today.
“Babe?” she asked when she got back out of the bathroom and noticed that Samara wasn’t in bed.
The house was too big for her to yell and have Samara hear her, so she threw a pair of sweats from her bag on over the panties she’d slept in and headed out to find her.
“You need an intercom or something,” she said when she found Samara in the kitchen, standing over the stove.
“Why?” Samara asked. “And good morning.”
Dana kissed her and looked down at the skillet.
“You’re cooking?”
“Vegan eggs for me. Real eggs for you,” Samara said.
“You’re cooking real eggs?”
“For you, yeah. I’m not a fan of eating animal byproducts, but the main reason I’m vegan is that it’s healthier for me. I can cook you eggs.”
“Where did you even get them?”
“Kyla sent someone shopping for us yesterday.”
“God, it must be nice to have an assistant,” Dana said. “And you need an intercom because this place is so huge, I couldn’t yell for you and find you.”
“Oh,” Samara said and plated the eggs from one pan before she turned to the other skillet Dana hadn’t noticed at first. “I guess I’ve never needed anyone to find me here. It’s usually just me.”
“What about your previous relationships?”
“There aren’t a ton of those. I think you forget sometimes that I’m younger than you,” Samara replied and plated the eggs from the second skillet. “I don’t date all that often. When I have, yeah, they’ve been here, I guess, but an intercom just wasn’t needed.”
Dana watched as Samara carried the plate to the round kitchen table that stood in front of a nook with a cushioned bench seat that looked like the perfect spot for her to sit and read a book or a script.
“Can you get the coffee?” Samara asked, and minutes later, they were sitting at the table, eating their breakfast.
“Kyla ordered the fully cooked kind from the store because she was afraid I wouldn’t know how to cook it,” Samara shared, shaking her head as she glanced down at Dana’s plate, where there were three strips of bacon. “She was right: I’ve never just cooked bacon before.”
“It’s good,” Dana said. “And you cooked it right.”
“The microwave did most of the work,” Samara replied and took a drink of her coffee before adding, “This is weird.”
“What is?”
“I’ve never sat here with someone I’m dating and shared a breakfastIcooked.”
“No?”
“I never really wanted to cook for someone else.”
Dana smiled and said, “I know this coffee is way too hot for me, but the one sip I managedbeforeit burned my tongue tasted really good.”
