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“Fourteen years of marriage and she tried to take my family’s house in the Hamptons,” he said, shaking his head. “Can you believe that? The house my grandfather built? I’m supposed to just give it to her?”

“That’s tough,” I said sympathetically. If this was how the night was going to go, I was gonna have to cut him loose. I could deal with a boring man, but one who was gonna talk about his ex-wife all night? I’d rather watch paint dry.

I let him order for me, since it was clear he liked being in control. I half-listened to him go on about work and the custody battle he was going through over their dog.

“You ok?” he asked, catching me zone out. “You seem a little distracted.”

“I’m good. Sorry. It’s been a long week.”

I gave him more of my attention after that. Flirted a little more, touched his hand when he said something that was supposed to be funny and that seemed to appease him.

We were halfway through our entree when he excused himself to go to the restroom. “Be right back. Don’t finish the wine without me.” He winked.

Perfect.

I pulled my phone out and opened the voice memo app, setting it face down on the table next to my napkin where it’d be able to pick up his voice. All I needed was a good thirty seconds of him prattling on about whatever he wanted to run his mouth about to give the app enough to build his voice from.

I sipped my wine and waited.

After a few minutes, I looked in the direction of the restrooms, and there was no Ian. I frowned. Surely this man wasn’t taking a dump in the middle of our date.

Another seven minutes went by and I texted him.

Everything okay?

Nothing.

Fifteen minutes. The server stopped by. “Can I bring you anything else while you wait?”

“I’m fine.” I smiled at her tightly.

I was anything but. This nigga had been begging to take me out for weeks and had gone to the restroom and just…disappeared. Was he trying to dine and dash on me?

The chair across from me scraped back and my heart nearly fell out my ass when I looked up.

Cardez sat across from me like he’d been there all night. He smiled, showing off his beautiful white teeth.

“Hey, stranger,” he said.

I scrunched up my face, even though my chest was tight and my pulse was thundering in my ears. Cardez looked good, dressed in a perfectly tailored charcoal suit like he’d just stepped out of a board meeting.

“Where’s Ian?” I asked.

He cocked his head. “Who?”

“My date, Dez. Where is he?”

“Oh.” He adjusted his cuff. “He had somewhere to be.”

“Did you run that man off?”

“You have a habit of talking to corny niggas, you know that, right?”

I sucked my teeth and reached for my glass of wine. “Why do you care? It’s not like I’ve heard from you.”

“You haven’t called me either.”

“‘Cause I don’t⁠—”