“Is he okay?” She nodded at Amethyst.
“Needed to sleep.” I set my iPad on the bed and leaned back against the headboard. “He has bad insomnia.” My hands went to his hair, and I twirled pieces of his curls.
“I know, he told me,” she said, smiling.
“When?”
“One of the times I came here to work a deal for Pyrite,” she answered, and I nodded. “We sat down and had a conversation about you and him.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“Nope,” she said, shaking her head. “What Amethyst and I discussed was for us and us only. If you needed to know, I would’ve told you.”
“Okay,” I laughed. “Are you about to go to bed?”
“Not yet, I’m going to shower and work for a little. Berkeley is cooking,” she said, looking over her shoulder towards the steps that lead to the kitchen.
“Is she okay?”
“I’m not sure.” She turned around. We all had our own ways of dealing with things, and for Berkeley, she cooked. When she went into the kitchen and stepped behind the stove, we knew that she was trying to figure something out. “I have a meeting tomorrow with Vine Carter and KO.”
“You signing them both?”
“Lord willing,” she said, nodding. She pushed off the door frame and grabbed the handle. “Good night. Love you.”
“Love you more,” I said, then she closed the door.
I wasn’t hungry, but I knew I needed to eat, and I wanted to put eyes on Berkeley. I slowly unwrapped Amethyst’s arms from my waist and slid out of bed and snuck out of the room.
“I figured you’d be down here eventually,” Berkeley said when I walked into the kitchen. “You and Amethyst plates are in the warmer. Give me a second, I’ll be right back.” She grabbed the tray from the counter and walked to the sliding glass door that led to the backyard. Even though Berkeley loved fish, she hated the smell of grease, so she used the deep fryer outside. I watched as she put the fish in the grease and came back into the house.
“You only cook this late when you’re overthinking something,” I said as I leaned back in my seat. “What’s up?”
“Nothing,” she denied, shaking her head. I knew she was lying because she wouldn’t look at me.
“Berkeley,” I called her name softly and waited until she looked at me. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She gave me a sad smile. “I just have something on my mind, and I have to work through it, that’s all.” She set the empty tray in the sink and started cleaning it. “When I get my thoughts together, I’ll find you.”
“You sure?” I asked, and she nodded.
“Yeah, now take that food and go eat.”
I didn’t move right away. Something was telling me that Berkeley needed to talk, but I wouldn’t push her if she wasn’t ready. She didn’t rush me when I was trying to figure things out, so I had to give her the same respect.
“I’m here if you want to talk,” I said as I stood. I approached her, kissed her cheek, then stepped back. Berkeley nodded as she continued washing the dishes in the sink. I grabbed our plates from the warmer and went back upstairs. Clarke was coming out of her room just as I made it to the top of the stairs. “You going downstairs?”
“Yeah, Berkeley is cooking, so you know that means she’s thinking too hard about something,” she answered. “I’m going to sit with her until she’s done.”
“Spelman mentioned it, so I went to check on her,” I replied, and she nodded. “Come get me if she wants to talk.”
I walked into the bedroom to see Amethyst sitting on the edge of the bed with his head down.
“Berkeley cooked,” I said, closing the door behind me. He lifted his head, and when he saw the plates, he got up and approached me, his hands out to take them. “I got it.”
“Sunshine,” he sighed and shook his head. His voice was deeper than normal because he’d just woken up, and I had to squeeze my legs together. My pussy started to pulsate, and I bit into my bottom lip to keep from telling him I needed him. “Give me the plates.”
“Nope,” I said, moving out of his way so he couldn’t take the plates.“Let’s go on the balcony and eat. I don’t want the room to smell like fish all night.”
