“Yeah, he did.” It was sleek and easy to navigate. It reflected what she wanted the studio to reflect. The studio was easy to design, she could see it tangibly. Her website was not easy, but AJ had killed it.
“You did all this?” She looked at Niko in disbelief.
Niko lifted up his hands in mock surrender. “No, I didn’t. It was Frankie, AJ, Shayne, and Zion. I was here with you.”
“Yeah, but you…” She felt herself tearing up. Even if she didn’t pull in the numbers that Shayne Fox did for classes, just having online classes would help her pay for Pops’ surgery. She sniffed, “You didthis,and you just took care of me all those days. I can’t believe I don’t remember anything. I feel like I was just asleep for a day.”
“You had a super flu, that’s what Liam said. You didn’t really know what was going on. Your fever kept spiking to 102.”
Tiana didn’t really know how to handle the information she was getting. She was trying to take it all in, but it was a lot. Niko was a lot. Why was he doing this? The only other time a man had done things like this was Brock, and that had been love bombing. Not that he’d done anything close to as special as this. He’d just taken her on trips and bought her expensive gifts, it wasn’t the same. It wasn’t personal, like this was. She’d never heard of love bombing then.
But that wasn’t Niko’s style. He sponsored foster kids and was a decent human being. So why did this feel likewaytoo much?
Niko’s phone rang, and he stood up to go grab it from the kitchen. He answered it and walked farther into the kitchen.
Five days. She’d been out of commission for five days. Shit. She needed to call Pops. He’d be worried. She was sure that Niko had kept him updated, but…
She set the computer down and realized her phone was on the kitchen table. Her head was still a little hazy, so she figured she better wait for Niko to get off the phone.
“Great. Thanks, Lauren. I will. Okay, bye.”
Lauren.Tiana remembered Niko mentioning something about flipping houses when he first arrived. Her head was sort of cloudy, but she vaguely remembered that.
Niko’s smile was bright enough to illuminate Times Square.
“Did you get a house?” she asked.
“No.” He shook his head. “Not a house.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Do you remember when I said I was looking at your building?”
Had he said that? She tried to think back, but her head was hurting. “Oh, wait, yeah, maybe.”
“Well, I’m the new owner.”
“Of the studio?”
“Not just the studio. All four units, the empty space next door, so if you wanted to expand.”
“I can’t afford to…wait, why did you… what is goingon?”
She was so confused. She felt like she was gettingPunk’dor something.
“I never got to tell you why I was late on Tuesday.”
“Oh, okay.”
“I found out there was another offer on your building, and it was Bartlett.”
Tiana’s body instantly went into fight or flight as adrenaline shot through it.
“Brock?” His name came out as a whisper of horror.
Niko nodded. “Lauren couldn’t tell me who the owner was, so I had to go to the county clerk’s office in Pine Ridge. When I was there, I ran into AJ and Poppy, who were eloping.”
“AJ and Poppy got married?!”
