“I don’t know why you keep saying that.” Honey snorted. “If you could see yourself right now, you would say the same thing. Look at your eyes, and your voice is off too. You’re definitely more than tipsy, and you came over so you could get me drunk too.”
Nikos walked around the island and passed her the glass of champagne, and Honey eyed it apprehensively, and Nikos hadn’t expected any less.
“No. I came over because tonight, at the celebration for my achievement, all I could think about was celebrating with you,” Nikos admitted. Honey stared into his eyes, searching them for the truth. But he was being honest.
He had been at Belleville for an entire hour, drinking, partying, and being surrounded by many beautiful women who had made suggestions for him to take them home. Still, for some reason, after achieving what he had tonight, he wanted to share this happiness with Honey—his friend.
“Do I want to know what we’re celebrating?” Honey asked, relenting as she held up her glass, and Nikos clinked his glass against her own. He watched as she drank the champagne while he drank some too.
“I can’t go into the details, and I know you don’t want to know, but I did something that’s going to change everything,” Nikos said. “I did something that even my father is proud of.”
After finally cornering Ricardo and killing him, Nikos called his father, who, for once in his life, told him that he was proud of him. Aris was also proud of him, and even Pierce had praised him reluctantly.
“I took care of my uncle’s enemy, even something that he couldn’t do,” Nikos said, and though Nikos knew he shouldn’t have been proud of this, and a few years ago, he had judged Pierce for celebrating when he had achieved things like this, Nikos couldn’t help but be proud of himself. Besides, Ricardo Rodriquez wasn’t a good man. If anything, he had done the community a favor by taking him down. He wouldn’t lose a wink of sleep with Ricardo’s blood on his hands. If anything, his blood made him feel powerful.
Honey stared at him with those brown eyes that he could not read before she downed the rest of her champagne.
“Though I don’t know the details, congratulations, Nikos,” she said, and the pleasure he felt from her words made him down his own glass, place it on the counter, and pick Honey up, pulling her into a hug.
“Put me down,” Honey said as he swung her around in a circle, but he could hear the smile in her voice, and he wasn’t ready to come down off this high yet. He wanted to celebrate more, and so he did.
***
“I couldn’t stand… you,” Honey confessed drunkenly, slurring her words.
For the past two hours, they had been drinking champagne until the bottle was nearly empty, and even Honey had brought out her favorite tequila, and they had both taken a couple of shots. With liquor in their system, it was making their tongues loose and their hearts honest.
“What did I do?” Nikos asked, laughing. Honey cut him a look that only made him laugh more.
“Really. What did I do, though?” Nikos asked.
“You were just…you were just…so annoying,” Honey confessed to Nikos’s amusement. “You were constantly causing problems with the girls, making chaos around the club, and you thought you were so handsome.”
“I am handsome,” Nikos said cheekily, and Honey pinched his arm.
Nikos laughed, feeling the joy he always felt around Honey, and this was exactly why he had wanted to come here. Even though it had been nice to celebrate with his men, nothing compared to the fun he had being around Honey, who always managed to amuse and entertain him.
“See! That’s what I’m talking…about. So arrogant,” Honey hiccupped.
“You want to know what I first thought when I met you?” Nikos asked, his eyes bright with amusement. Honey gulped down the shot glass before giving him a knowing glare.
“What? That I was so beautiful?” Honey asked sarcastically. “I already know all of your lines.”
Nikos laughed.
“I definitely thought you were beautiful. I could never deny that,” Nikos said, thinking about the first time he laid eyes on her beautiful brown skin and eyes and her shapely body. “But… I also thought you were arrogant too.”
Honey gasped, and Nikos laughed.
“You…you asshole,” Honey said as she smacked his arm repeatedly, and it turned into a tussle until Nikos captured both of her hands while Honey practically sat on top of him, trying to reach him in her attack.
“Wait. Let me explain,” Nikos drawled, chuckling as he held her arms prisoner. Honey continued to glare at him, her eyes low-lidded in a way that made him want to forget the conversation and kiss her, but he carried on. “You were Honey, the best dancer in the club, and you would barely look at me or speak to me.”
“That’s because I didn’t like you.”
Nikos chuckled.
“But you like me now, right?” Nikos slurred, looking into her brown eyes.
