Page 98 of Delilah In Discretion

“Eh... where’s the fun in that? Now go before she breaks something. You have tomorrow off, by the way.”

I rolled my eyes at him and placed a kiss on his cheek before pointing to Sterling. “Behave,” I ordered, and he sighed.

“I’ll try.”

Archer gave him a look before looking back at me. “No, he won’t.”

I shook my head at the two of them, and as I went to go, Archer stopped me one last time. He grabbed my hand softly, and I gazed up at him.

“I’m taking you to dinner. Friday, seven PM.”

I hummed as I pulled away from him and walked to the door to find Kimi. “I’ll think about it...” I responded stubbornly, and he sent me a wink, and I smiled as I descended the elevator with a moody Kimiko folding her arms, pouting as if she was a ticking time bomb.

We exited the building, and it was quiet on the street for the most part, which made me question why it looked like I saw someone familiar leaving the building’s garage.

My heart raced as I grabbed Kimi’s arm, and before she could protest, we sat inside the car, and I looked into the rearview mirror.

“What’s wrong?” she asked with worry on her face.

I shook my head as I continued to stare. “Nothing... just thought I saw someone...”

She nodded, and I started the engine.

My eyes glanced back to the mirror once again, and I bit my lip nervously.

Was that… Uncle Eugene?

I sat with my little sister and brother as Kimiko paced the floor back and forth. It was the next day, and yes, I had the day off, but my mother stuck me to watch the kids, and apparently Uncle Blaine saw that as a reason to drop his off, too. I did sort of promise to watch them all at one point, but I was regretting my decision as Kimiko, who was supposed to be helping, was simply ranting about her “feelings” about Sterling. Only Kimi didn’t regard them as feelings: just thoughts that were, in her words, “vile and foul.”

“Where’s Avery? He usually calms me down when I’m this upset,” she asked, and I sighed.

“Avery is getting you coffee like you asked him three minutes ago… You know he has a life, right? He’s your assistant, yes, but you need to let him breathe, Kim-Kim...”

She shook her head. “He signed a contract. He’s the other half of my brain for the next year.”

I sighed;Of course he is.

She stopped in the middle of her walk, and even the twins were confused by her movements.

“Am I missing something?” she asked, confused, and I tilted my head at her. “I mean, the guy makes my life a living hell, but he continually finds ways to gesture that he finds me attractive or alluring... which, by the way, I am not touched by in any manner.”

Gosh, do I know the feeling.

I set the twins down, and they followed Marshmallow out the door as he trotted over to their rooms down the hall. I patted the seat beside me, and Kimi sat in an unsettled way.

I sighed as I looked at her. “Kimi, Sterling is teasing you,” I said as a matter of fact, and she looked at me as if I’d grown two heads.

“I’m not following,” she said, and I sighed.

“The reason why he bothers you so much is that he has a crush on you.”

She blushed once again, and I leaned over to her and whispered in her ear, “And the reason why you blush most of the time is because you—”

She stopped me mid-sentence as she stood and screamed, “I do not!”

I watched Avery cautiously enter my room as he handed her the coffee. She practically gulped down the burning liquid, and we stared at her in shock.

Placing the cup down, she cleared her throat.

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