“Unh uh,” I said, stepping closer. “Don’t do that quiet shit with me now.” Her eyes flicked up, then back down. “We good, or we not?” I asked. “You regretting last night? You want me to back up, or we actually doing this for real?” It was no point in beating around the bush. We’d been friends long enough to be grown about this. “If you want out, say that. I’ll respect it.”
“No,” she said finally, still watching her hands. “I don’t regret it.” That was it. That was all I needed to hear her say.
“Alright,” I said, nodding. “Say less. I’m holding you to that.”
I’d been bracing for the chase, the “this was a mistake,” the “let’s just go back to being friends,” speech. That’s how this kinda thing usually went, right? Me and Harlowe never followed the script. “So what we doing then?” I asked, leaning back against the doorframe. “We making this official?”
“Can we . . .” She chewed her bottom lip. “Can we just let it be a vacation thing for now? No labels. Just enjoy this while we’re here and keep our friendship intact when we get back home.”
Her words stung a little, but I got it. If I pushed too hard, she’d run.
“Yeah,” I said slowly. “We can call it that if it makes you feel better.”Vacation only. Yeah right.My mouth agreed, but in my heart, I knew she was mine. Nothing about our friendship had been the norm. I wanted her. She wanted me. Now all that was left was just to figure it out.
“What all you got on the schedule today?” I asked.
“Nothing. They gave us the day. Just that dinner thing tonight, and even that’s optional. I told them I’d still send some content in since we skipped the mixer, but we don’t have to be anywhere ’til like seven.”
“So we off the clock.”
“Technically.” She shrugged. “I was gonna vlog some batch content, and maybe go live?—”
“Or,” I cut in, pulling her up from the chair. “You can let me steal you.”
She eyed me. “Steal me where?”
“Off this resort,” I said. “Real food. Real streets. Real date.”
“A date?”
“Yeah,” I said simply. “You think this relationship only about fucking?”
“Hasheem.” She laughed.
“Nah, I’m serious,” I said. “I know we kinda fell into this thing. We got a lot to figure out when we get back to Azalea, but you my girl, we on vacation, and I’ma treat it as such.”
She went quiet again, looking out at the water.
“Okay,” she said. “Can I blog it?”
“You can blog a little, but I want you relaxed, enjoying not working.”
“Okay.”
“Go get dressed.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You don’t even know where we’re going.”
“I got a plan.”
“You got a Google search,” she said.
“Yeah, a plan,” I said, smacking her on the ass as she walked past.
“Hasheem!” she yelped, shaking her head. But that shy little smile told me she liked that shit. Soon as she was out of sight, Ipulled my phone out and started planning my first date with my best friend.
By the time we climbed out of the cab, the sun was high and the streets were buzzing with cars and people walking. We’d been all over Zanzibar sightseeing doing the tourist thing—breakfast by the ocean, boat ride to the sandbank, snorkeling with fishes, the whole nine. Now we were in Stone Town at a local bookstore I’d found on my socials.
“This is so cute,” Harlowe said, taking it all in. She had on a little sundress and sandals, big shades, lip gloss shining, looking radiant. “Where we at?”
