Page 8 of Fight

“Hey boss, didn’t think you were going to be here today?” one of the dancers says as she fills her glass with water. The dance floor is now converted into their practice space for the day, and I nod to her in greeting.

“I wanted to check in real quick with Cerenity to see if she needed anything before I ran my errands, and I was just around the corner,” I explain.

The dancer nods because I tend to do this, before draining her cup and going back to practice. If anyone bothered to look closely enough, they’d see that I’m head over heels for Cerenity, but thankfully no one does.

Walking to her office, because that’s where she tends to hide while she curses out our financials, I smirk at the sight in my head. She’s damn good with numbers, she just dislikes doing it. The club is also doing really well.

Her office door is closed as I approach, so I knock patiently.

“I hate interruptions,” Cerenity groans through the door, making me laugh. “Is that you, Augustine?”

Twisting the knob, I smirk as it opens. She typically keeps it locked, which means she unlocked it from her desk. Sauntering in, I nod, opening my arms.

“‘Tis I,” I boom out, making her giggle. “You lit out pretty fast this morning.”

A shadow crosses over her face before she shrugs. “Were you on the phone last night? It sounded like you were talking to someone.”

Dropping my arms to my sides, I realize she may be misunderstanding what happened last night.

“Nope, I was not on the phone, Cere,” I tell her. “I was masturbating all by myself.”

Her eyes widen at my words, a beautiful blush coloring her cheeks. I meant it when I said I would be more truthful with her, and this is an easy truth to give her, though a little embarrassing.

“You were?” she asks, taking a breath. “You sounded like you were enjoying yourself.”

“Came like a geyser, thanks for asking,” I tease her, enjoying myself. “I’m not dating, and I told you I wasn’t interested.”

“I know, I just don’t understand why,” she says. “Don’t you want to find your scent match?”

Fuck me hard. Ugh.

“I do, but I don’t need to fuck my way through a bunch of omegas to do it with while waiting,” I tell her. “I’m happy with my life, it’s low stress, and I have my own outlets when I need them.”

“Like your hand,” Cere teases me.

“My hand is the outlet I have and it is well used,” I tell her, barking out a laugh. “I wanted to swing by and see how you were before I head out to Chicago for the day. I was planning to be back earlier, but I may not be by the time you’re done here. Gabriel has a fight soon, so I wanted to give him some support.”

“I love that you two are still friends,” she says, relaxing a bit. “Can we go to his next fight?”

“It’s next week,” I mention, wincing. I hate bringing up her heat because it’s such intimate knowledge that I clock it like it’s my job. “However, he’s fighting more often, so we can go to the one after that.”

“It still feels so odd to me that you track my heats,” she grumbles. “Where do you stay when I kick you out? Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you’ve started restocking the mini fridge in my nest.”

“I usually stay with Gabriel,” I admit. “I don’t mind the drive, and the club is only open three days of the week during your heats. It’s not a big deal.”

“I still feel bad,” she mumbles.

“If I minded, I wouldn’t do it,” I remind her. “Now, how many times have you cursed out the club’s books?”

Cere rolls her eyes as she shakes her head. “Only twice. I’ve been blasting music to keep myself occupied, but I was just finishing a phone call when you knocked.”

“Anyone interesting?” I ask.

“The Omega’s Haven founders, Wren and Aisling called to talk about how well the fundraiser went,” she explains. “They raised enough money to get a few programs started. They need a building to lease for omegas who need services, so they were asking for safe areas to rent.”

“I have a few places in mind,” I muse. “They’ll want good foot traffic for it, somewhere the bus routes can get to, while still being safe.”

“Exactly. Let me get the addresses you’re thinking of so I can send them to them if I missed something,” Cere mutters, grabbing an electric blue post it note. My girl has a thing for blue and teal.

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