“He wasn’t happy that I had managed to get it in the first place.” She turned and leaned against the sink. Her shoulders slumped, and her eyes red from crying.
I frowned. “Did you tell him I got it for you?”
She shook her head and sniffled. “I didn’t think you wanted him to know where you worked. I told him I went to The Den myself.” She rubbed her face and let out a bemused huff as she shook her head again. “He accused me of flirting with Ro—Dean to get it.” Another sigh as she dropped her arms to her sides and looked at me tiredly. “I just want to go to bed.”
As she walked around the kitchen counter, passing me, I turned toward her and asked softly, “You don’t want to talk about it? We have ice cream.”
Kira smiled weakly but shook her head. “Maybe another time.”
I nodded in understanding, though my chest began to ache. With guilt or frustration, I wasn’t sure, but all this was my fault. Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything about working at The Den to begin with. At least Kira wouldn’t be on the receiving end of Aiden’s jealousy. I wanted to rip Aiden to shreds via text for being an ungrateful pig.
I feigned a smile. “Yeah, of course.”
“Night.” Another weak smile, and then she slipped into the darkness of her bedroom, closing the door quietly behind her.
I turned back to face the TV and noticed the Boston Fern on the TV stand was beginning to wilt.
Chapter 21
Lily
There was a solemn kind of silence the following morning as Kira and I got ready for work. She was already dressed in her green polo top, jeans, and an apron. Her hair was pulled back in two long braids, one of which was being twirled around her hand as she nervously scrolled through her phone, waiting for a text from Aiden.
I was eating toast in the kitchen, dressed for work in a dark red blouse with puffed short sleeves and a pair of black slacks. Like Kira, I was also anticipating that text from Aiden. Waiting to see if he apologized for treating her the way he did yesterday or decided he no longer wanted to be with her. I sincerely hoped that if the latter was the case, it wouldn’t be done over text.
Kira gasped. It was difficult to tell if it was out of joy or sadness as she raced from the apartment so fast, I hadn’t had time to ask. I waited in place by the counter, my hand frozen mid-air with the half-eaten toast between my fingers as I listened for any sign of her coming back.
The front door opened, followed by the sound of rustling plastic and paper and her hurried footsteps as the door closed behind her again and eventually she walked into view. Or rather, an enormous bouquet of brightly colored flowers bobbed into view, wrapped in yellow and orange paper and tied off with a green ribbon.
“Oh, wow,” I gaped.
Kira’s bright smile peeked out from behind the bouquet before she inhaled their scent and sighed blissfully. “They’re beautiful.”
I nodded to the flowers. “There’s a card too.”
Kira plucked the little green card from the bunch and read it to herself. Her smile became a pout of endearment. “Aiden wants to take me to dinner tonight to apologize for how he acted yesterday,” she said, pressing the card to her chest.
“And you’re okay with that?” I asked a little hesitantly.
She walked around into the kitchen, passing me with her nose buried blissfully in the bouquet again. I had to duck slightly to dodge being knocked over the head by one of the oversized glossy leaves tucked amongst the flowers.
“Everyone gets a little jealous sometimes,” she shrugged, searching for a big enough vase as she opened and closed cupboards. “I’ll get the chance to explain to him properly what happened. You don’t mind if he knows about where you work, do you?”
“It’s fine,” I smiled, despite the idea of forgiving Aiden making me want to do otherwise.
Another body was found over the weekend, identified as a man named Robert Bernardi. His body was pulled from the Hudson River with a bullet hole right between his eyes. Execution style, according to what the morning news report said. Detectives revealed he had a history of tax fraud, money laundering, and connections to very bad people. People he owed a lot of money to.
“You’ve organized a second date with him, yes?”
I had zoned out after reading the subtitles on the foyer television but quickly pivoted in my seat to face Mom. Blinking out of my worried daze.
“Kind of,” I said, twisting the lid of the pen in my hands.
“Kind of? Lily, boys like Oliver don’t come by often,” Mom tutted, licking her thumb and leafing through the pages of a property folder.
“We talked about meeting later this week. He said he would text me about it.” I shrugged a little as I turned back to the computer, scrolling through inspection appointments in our calendar but not really reading anything.
“Maybe I should speak with his mother,” Mom pondered.
