Page 110 of Tender Offer
“That you do.”
“You’re in Brazil next month?”
I nod. “For Noura’s premiere in São Paulo.”
“You two aretheHollywood duo.”
Every collaboration with Noura Sky has turned to gold. She’s a sweetheart and now my priority client, booking films and guest appearances left and right. Outside of Justice and my work with Kojo, which is now an advisory role, I only keep a handful of clients now, and most of them are celebrities.
With all the best-dressed lists Noura is on, the demand for my services has been nonstop. But I won’t compromise my life at home trying to be everything to everybody.
Preston and I slowed down our travel schedules to be present with each other and Alessandro. We still see the world, but we don’t let it rule our lives.
“Jewel will be down there,” I add, “learning about climate initiatives and how to safeguard the rights of Indigenous people.”
Justice whistles. “I’m scared of your niece. She’s a force.”
“That she is. A year left in law school and already orchestrating lawsuits,” I laugh. The baby whose dirty diapers I once changed is now changing the world. “Parishes across Louisiana aresuing oil companies, to hold them accountable for decades of damages. My grandmother’s old parish is taking legal action for the polluting plants being disproportionately placed in Black neighborhoods.”
Jewel is our pride and joy. Spending the summer in Breaux Bridge inspired her to go straight to law school after graduating from Brooklyn University. Our family will have its first attorney, who will no doubt fight in the streets and inside courtrooms for climate justice.
The whine of an engine cracks through the air. A scooter pulls up next to the curb, kicking up gravel. Emma hops off with a dismount that would score ten out of ten for not flashing all of Paris. The driver’s tongue plummets to the ground and unfurls like a red carpet for her deep V-neckline halter minidress.
“Thank you,” Emma says to the man who’s still glitching. She leaves him with his drool and steps over the curb in single-strap stilettos the same chartreuse as her backless dress that’s causing heart attacks.
The color is gorgeous on her amber skin. With her mahogany hair in an updo, Em looks like a model on a magazine cover.
“Why are you on somebody’s scooter?” Justice asks.
The answer speeds down the street with cocoa-buttered legs kicked in the air. Kojo lets out aWhoo!and jumps off the scooter once it comes to a stop. He passes his helmet to a brunette man with a wink and seasons his sashay for his audience of one.
“He’s cute, right?” Kojo fans his fingers over his shoulder. “Is the Moms Gone Wild walking tour over?”
“You missed gelato.” I stick my tongue out at his pout. “Where are your bags?”
“Being delivered to the hotel,” Emma says.
Justice’s face scrunches. “I can’t believe you sat on that seat with that hemline. Miles would flip.”
“Blame this one.” Emma thumbs at Kojo. “He had the bright idea of asking for a ride. Trust me when I say I don’t want or need to hear Miles’s mouth.”
“But you will.”
Manicured hedges rattle next to a private home. Miles appears, scaling over a wrought iron fence. His white sneakers hit the pavement first, flexing the muscles stretching his white shorts and the gray button down rolled up to his elbows.
“So we’re riding around Paris with strangers and pussy out?” Miles approaches his wife.
Emma’s moss-green eyes stretch two sizes. “How did you get into someone’s yard?”
He shrugs. “They weren’t home, and I didn’t feel like walking this long-ass block to get to you. I cut off the security cameras. We’re straight.”
“Where is Terrence?” Justice frowns at the hedges.
“He’s bringing our rental car around. Back to the matter at hand, Mrs. Walker,” he says to Emma, who’s now half a foot below his eyeline. “You trying to see me onLocked Up Abroad? You and our pussy better not play with me. Aye, my guy. Lemme smell the back of your shirt real quick.”
Miles inches closer to the man on the scooter. Whatever trance he was in dissolves. The scooter roars to life, and he defies speed limits in order to escape Miles’s hulking frame.
Kojo shakes his head and laughs. “Here they go.” He retreats back to the scooter with the handsome brunette, who’s oddly relaxed and unbothered by the drama. “I’ll see y’all tonight for dinner…if I’m not tied up.”
