Page 18 of A Smooth Operator

We returned to the trail, which now looped back to our parking spot.

"Thank you for a wonderful hike." Remi held my car door open as I got in. He was the epitome of Southern gentlemanly etiquette. I wondered how he was during sex. Not a gentleman, I reckoned.

"Ditto," I replied.

That night, when I lay in bed still euphoric about what a wonderful day it had been, my phone beeped.

Remi: I really liked our talk today. Dinner tomorrow at De La Mer?

My heart started to bang against my ribs very loudly. I replied with shaky fingers: If you're sure.

Remi: I wouldn't ask if I was not. I promise the best table in the restaurant and a meal on the house.

I felt my heart soar. This was a date, right?

Me: I'd love that.

Remi: Uber. That way, you can have a couple of glasses of wine.

A tiny part of me had hoped that he'd pick me up like a date would—but the sensible part of me who looked at my reflection in a mirror without flinching knew it was a pipe dream. It seemed unfair, though, that Remi finally noticed and was immediately friend-zoning me.

Chapter 7

Remi

"Remi, are you sure about this?" Mama asked me again.

She and Lani had come to my loft apartment, which was above Paint the Town Red, on Sunday, right after church. Apparently, everyone was talking about how Marina and I had broken up. No one seemed to know why. Just that I had ended it and Marina, who had been in church, was all sad and bawling her eyes out.

"Yes, Mama, I'm sure." I leaned against my kitchen counter and drank more coffee. I'd gotten home from the club around four in the morning, so I was just waking up now at noon.

"I don't get it." Lani picked up a strawberry from my breakfast bowl of yogurt, muesli, and strawberries, which I had prepared just before the women in my family arrived for what I suspected was an intervention.

"Get what?" I asked, setting my coffee down. I opened the fridge and brought out a basket of strawberries for Lani to nibble on.

"Why you'd break up with her all of a sudden," Lani explained.

I washed the berries and set them in a bowl lined with a paper towel. Lani picked up another and popped it into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully.

My mother drank her coffee and looked at me expectantly, waiting for an explanation. Now, what was I supposed to say? "Mama, I saw Marina get nailed by my friend Alex in a storage room at Paint the Town Red." Or should I go with, "It wasn't working; we just grew apart?"

"It wasn't working; we just grew apart." I stuffed my mouth with yogurt and muesli so I wouldn't blurt out the truth. I didn't want to disparage Marina. If her parents found out she was fucking around on me, there would be hell to pay, which was why it confused me that she was playing the victim. She knew better than to do that.

"Son, Kiki is very upset, and you know the Sims are good friends of ours. When you and Marina started dating, well, your father and Andy made plans to work together; and now you're—"

"Dad and Andy were talking about a partnership long before Marina and I dated."

Andy Sims had inherited his father's spinal implant company. He and Dad had been discussing a project that combined biotechnology with spinal hardware long before Marina and I were an item.

"Well, it hurts business, Remi. You know how these things—"

"Mama, I'm not getting back with her." And if you had seen her getting fucked in the ass by Alex, you wouldn't be asking me to, either.

"She's good-looking, popular, fun. What else do you want?" Lani protested. "We could have a double wedding…in Italy. What do you say, Remi?"

"First, I wouldn't have ever wanted to get married with all that hoopla. If, which is a big supposition, I ever want to get married, I'll probably do it in a courthouse."

My mother put a hand on her mouth and gasped. "You're a Drake."

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