I got out the tub, dried off, and stepped into the bedroom. She was sitting cross-legged on the bed in one of my T-shirts, hair still damp, scrolling on her phone, and my dumb ass couldn’t stop staring at her pretty ass. She didn’t even look up when she spoke.
“You hungry?” She asked like feeding me was something natural.I hated how natural that felt.
“Yeah,” I said, grabbing my sweats off the chair. “Order whatever.”
She hummed a soft “okay,” scrolling through the menu. I sat on the edge of the bed next to her, watching her face while she focused on the screen. She glanced up after a few seconds, like she felt me staring.
Her lips curled into that pretty ass smile that had me hooked.
“What?”
I shook my head. “Nothing.”
Everything. That’s what.I thought but I knew better than to kill the mood going down that road. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want her ass bad as fuck.
Room service came, we ate, vibed a little and then fucked again. I had to be on some other shit because condoms had beennonexistent this whole damn week but she ain't say shit, neither did I. We were basically making it on a wing and prayer. After I ate her to sleep, we slept tangled up like two people who had no business caring this much.
The next afternoon, she was packing her bag while I watched her from the balcony, pretending that shit didn’t bother me. Her flight was earlier than mine. Yeah, We agreed that is was no strings, no attachments, and no keeping in touch. What happened at the resort stayed at the resort. But watching her zip that bag up had a nigga chest tight as fuck. This was a curve ball I wasn’t expecting on this trip, still here I was, wanting and feigning for a woman I couldn’t have. She looked up at me, eyes soft for the first time since I met her.
“Well,” she said quietly. “Guess this is it.”
“Yeah.”
She walked toward me, hands sliding up my chest before she leaned in and kissed me, slow, full, final. When she pulled back, she rested her forehead on mine for a second.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “For… all of it.”
I swallowed hard, holding back all the shit I wanted to say.
“You’re welcome.”
Lie number two: I didn’t want to say goodbye.Lie number three: She didn’t either.
When she walked out that door, I felt conflicted and fucked up about it but I let her go anyway because that was the deal. That was the rule. As soon as the door clicked shut, I exhaled a breath I didn’t know I was holding. I stared at the door for what felt like forever and all I could think was:What the fuck did she just do to me?
Chapter 9
Noelle
TWO MONTHS LATER…
Two months. Eight full weeks. Sixty damn days. Long enough for Christmas to come and go… and for me to pretend the decorations around the city weren’t reminding me of Winter Haven. I had thrown myself back into work the moment I got home in an attempt keep my mind busy. Bills didn’t wait, neither did my clients. My calendar was stacked with corporate events, a celebrity birthday, two weddings, and a charity gala I’d been planning for six months. My event planning business was thriving, keeping me too busy, but I’d rather drown in work than admit out loud that I missed a man I wasn’t supposed to remember. Hell, I didn’t even want to admit it to myself, but the truth was simple:I thought about him every day.
The way he moved… the way he touched me… the way my body reacted to him, and the worst part was that I didn’t even know his real damn name. JustCaleb.A lie that felt more personal now than it ever did then. So yeah… I buried myself in work. Today was no different. I was on day three of prepping a massive engagement party with floral layouts, seating charts, catering confirmations, and custom lighting. I had barely eaten, and my head had been pounding all morning, but I brushed it off as dehydration, or stress. Or the fact that I hadn’t slept intwo nights. I was reviewing linen samples with a client when the room tilted. I started feeling dizzy and my stomach felt like it was knotting. Sweat prickled up my spine. And then… everything went black.
I came to in a bright room, the soft beep of machines somewhere behind me.
“Welcome back, Ms. Sterling?” a nurse said gently. “You were brought in by one of your staff members after fainting. We ran some standard tests.”
I sat up, rubbing my forehead. “Yeah… I’ve been pushing myself a little too hard, that’s all. Low blood sugar, right?”
The nurse exchanged a look with the doctor.
“Not exactly,” she said.
My stomach clenched. “Okay… then what?”
She pulled the chart closer and smiled carefully.
