Nisha’s eyes go wide with every confession until I’m finished. “I can’t believe you asked him to go to London with you and he said no.”
“Me either,” I say. It’s all I can offer. I don’t know why things fell apart with us, and I don’t care to find out.
She grumbles. “But then when you saw him years later, you didn’t wanna hear him out?”
“He had a girlfriend, Nish.”
She blows out a raspberry. “I can bet that girlfriend didn’t have shit on fate!”
Fate? Oh brother, maybe I made a mistake telling her everything.
“Alright, well, that’s enough of that.”
“I mean, come on. What are the chances that your friend would marry the friend of the guy you had a passionate tryst with years ago? If that’s not fate, I don’t know what is.”
I sigh. “And now that you’re using words liketryst, I have got to end this conversation.” She raises her finger in the air, but I interrupt before she can speak. “And it’s not fate. It’s Baltimore being too damn small.”
She scowls at me and then shakes her head until her face morphs into a sly grin. “You’re in denial, it’s okay. Imagine knowing who your soulmate is for eleven years and nothing happening. This is like a movie.”
I groan. “Imagine getting hung up on because you say silly things.”
She huffs out a laugh. “You’re lucky I have to go pick up Deux from the groomers. Can’t wait to see you andMicahtomorrow.” She says Micah’s name like it’s made of rainbows and unicorns.
“Goodbye, Nisha. Send me puppy pics when you pick up Deux.”
She waves as she ends the call.
I need a drink after that.
A bottle of Promesa stares at me from the bar cart in my living room, daring me to indulge. Some people might think it’s self-absorbed to have a bottle of my own tequila in my house. Those people are idiots. If I didn’t think Promesa was the best tequila on the market, I wouldn’t make it. I wouldn’t have poured my energy into finding the right partner to make the highest-quality tequila possible. I wouldn’t have poured my soul into making sure the product Promesa puts out not only tastes amazing, but evokes feelings. It’s not just a tequila. It’s passion. It’s euphoria. It’s power.
I don’t drink this shit because I helped make it. I drink it because it’s good.
The sweet aroma of the golden liquid permeates the air when I open the bottle. Holding it to my lips, I close my eyes and allow the bittersweet memories clouding my mind to guide the liquid down my throat to the pit of my stomach.
After two more shots, my apartment starts to feel hollow. Every sound—from the AC flowing through my vents to the icemaker in my fridge—seems filtered through a speaker.
I pick up my phone and text Omari. There’s no reason I should enjoy these drinks alone.
Within moments, he agrees to come over, and thirty minutes later he’s there knocking.
Omari stands at my door with hungry eyes. His standard formal attire is replaced with black sweatpants, a T-shirt, and a flannel. There’s no pretense about what he’s here for.
When I step aside to let him in, he grabs me by the waist and pushes me against the entrance to take my lips in a fiery kiss. He smells like cigars, sin, and warmth.
“Hi,” he murmurs with a heady voice. “You’ve been busy.”
I haven’t really. Not too busy to answer his texts at least; I just haven’t been answering them.
“I’m here now,” I whisper back, pulling him inside and slamming the door shut. I don’t want words. I don’t want to talk about our days or hear about a single fucking investment. I want to be ravished and disrespected.
We fumble our way through the living room and into the kitchen where he pops me onto the counter the way he’s done a million times before. My eyes roll to the back of my head when he starts that delectable exploration of my neck with his tongue that I love so much.
The pads of his hands are so soft as he runs them up my stomach to cup my breasts. I try to ignore the feeling that they’re too soft, not marked by a single callus or blister. The feeling finally gets pushed to the back of my mind when he lifts my shirt over my head and tweaks my right nipple, swirling his tongue down to my chest to find its way to the left one. I moan when he bites down ever so gently.
This is good.
This is what I needed.
