Page 97 of IRL: In Real Life
The kind that said if she stayed, she would not have to make do.
I took one last look around to make sure the place felt the way I wanted the night to feel.
Grown. Warm. Intentional.
Like I had made space for her on purpose.
By six-thirty, my security app lit up.
Front entry: Elijah Ware requesting access.
I buzzed him in, then called toward the foyer as I came out of my room buttoning my cuff.
“You get through rush hour all right?”
Chef Elijah stepped inside with two insulated cases and the calm expression of a man who had cooked for richer people than me and liked most of them less.
“I’m here, ain’t I?”
That got a laugh out of me.
“Kitchen’s yours,” I said. “Just don’t embarrass me.”
He looked me over once. “That depends. You trying to feed her or seduce her?”
“Yes.”
That pulled the smallest hint of a smile from him before he moved deeper into the condo and started setting up.
After that, the place changed.
Not loudly. Not all at once. But the condo started gathering itself around the night. City dimming outside the windows. A chef moving easy through my kitchen. Candles warming the air. Music waiting its turn. The table set. The bed made. Every part of the room leaning toward her before she even arrived.
And maybe that should have made me feel exposed.
It did, a little.
Because I could have done less. Ordered food. Taken her somewhere. Kept the night easy to explain if I needed to explain it later.
Instead, I had built space for her.
That was the part I kept coming back to. Not just how much I wanted her, though that had not left me alone for one minute since last night. It was wanting her here. In my place. Around my things. Wanting to hear her laugh in my kitchen and watch her sit at my table like she belonged in the room I came home to when the rest of the world had taken enough from me.
Chef Elijah called from the kitchen asking where I kept the serving platters, and I answered automatically, but my mind was already halfway to seven o’clock.
I checked the time again and felt that pull in my chest and gut at once.
Damn, I wanted her.
fifteen
. . .
When I turnedsideways in the mirror and saw what that light-caramel dress was doing to my hips and ass, one thought came clear as day.
Oh, I’mma fuck his head up when he sees me.
The dress looked simple until it was on my body.
