I’m the worst cohost, and friend, for not texting you back this morning. Got pulled into an awful job first thing.
Forgive me?
I don’t expecta message back, but it doesn’t stop me from hoping.
I stretch and move my desk to the standing position, opening up the D’Medicis’ penthouse cameras on my second computer’s monitors.
The facial recognition software I use starts flicking through cameras to find her when my phone buzzes.
Leticia:
You’re forgiven. But seriously... It’s driving me crazy. Family secret?
Smiling to myself,I send her a message back.
Royal:
How crazy?
She’s noton any of the main camera feeds. I hesitate for a minute.Invasion of privacy. The reason you locked this camera was so people wouldn’t be able to watch her.
My own logic doesn’t stop me from throwing the password into the locked channel and instantly pulling up her bedroom’s feed.
Seeing her safe in her room warms my insides and awakens the parts of myself I’ve deadened to get work done. After a few seconds of watching her, I’m already feeling lighter.
I take in her room and try to find changes. The most obvious is the ugly Christmas dress in plastic, hung up on the back of her bedroom door.
Leticia is flopped down on the bed, like she walked over and threw herself butt first onto it. Her feet hang off over the side, her phone held up above her face.
I look back down at my phone and find what she must have sent.
Leticia:
I mean, not enough that it’s distracting me from getting stuff done, but I’m definitely not not thinking about it.
Royal:
I don’t know, are you ready to handle the truth?
What if we’re a secret cult and there’s some naked moon dancing involved? Are you ready for that kind of truth?
I don’t love lyingto her, but it’s not my place to tell her the family secret, and it’s not something Valor mentioned to me directly. For all I know, he’ll manufacture a fake secret to get her off his case. Thus, the two-week comment.
Leticia:
Bahaha, fine. You win. Don’t tell me. What did you do today?
Royal:
Working on some dark web shit. I really don’t want to talk aboutit. Distract me?
Makeme forget there’s anything bad in the world.The thought unsettles me in a new way.What if there’s more than simply keeping an eye on the newly minted family ‘friend’ and more to do with...
I look at the phone screen and see an indicator of typing. The bubbles show up, and I expect a message to come through, but the dancing dots stop. On the monitor, Leticia has rolled to her stomach and is shuffling forward on to the bed.
It’s not a sexy maneuver by any means, but her, in bed, has my blood pumping, and now, with her skirt flat at her sides, it’s clear her ass doesn’t need a big bow to draw attention to it.
When did I get to be such a horndog?
