Page 48 of Tender Offer
KD’s fingers squeeze her glass. Her gaze swipes over me in disapproval of the outfit she praised only minutes ago. “How wonderful.” Her eyes snap to mine. “She has great taste.”
After dinner, I walk her back to her place a few blocks away. The food was awful, but at least we rerouted our conversation away from my personal life after I told her to let it be.
I reach my next destination and sit at a small table in the corner. Then I take a selfie and text it to Madison.
I still have a double cheeseburger at the McDonald’s you took me to whenever I’m in Paris.
She hearts the photo of me damn near gnawing off my fingers after that scarce and undercooked dinner.
Madison
Eating among the commoners looks good on you.
We text for over an hour before she’s off to style a photo shoot. I loathe this form of communication, but I would be lying if I said I’m not enjoying our exchange.
This time around, I’m showing Madison all of me.
Chapter 25
Madison
“Icannot believe you didn’t pack me in your carry-on. Look at that view!”
I pan my phone around Westminster from the open living area. Tammi’s eyes grow two sizes at the floor-to-ceiling windows and the panoramic backdrop with Westminster Abbey and Big Ben in the distance. This high up, I’m on top of the world. A giant would have to scale the building to reach me, and he wouldn’t need to duck inside. The height alone in this apartment is wild.
“This is sick.”
Tammi kisses her teeth. “Sick is Smokey Jr., sneezing with an uncovered mouth and snot hanging like an ornament. This is luxury.”
It hasn’t hit me that I’m in London for three months. My common sense is still in customs at JFK, waiting to get over jet lag and tell me I’m making a mistake. I don’t give clients this much of my time, but I folded at Preston’s proposal.
Wonder why.
I got cold feet over the weekend. A month ago, I was cursing his existence when it collided with mine at full force. Now, we text all the time. It was a plot twist I never saw coming, one that frayed my resolution to never speak to him again.
Preston is more than an attractive face with a mouthwatering body to match. Underneath his charm is a calming presence, pulling me to him. Scabs from the hurt I’ve carried fall away with each message we send.
Did I make the wrong choice coming here?
Tammi sits on the other end of the video call, a world away. After Kojo told me to wave my ass at Buckingham Palace like a Union Jack flag, I called her for advice. She was my last line of defense who did the opposite of encourage me to keep my butt at home.
After a lecture longer than a Sunday sermon about why I waited so long to tell her about Preston, I spilled it all—Ravenous included. Tammi asked every question under the sun, for “praying purposes,” while I stared at two empty suitcases.
I expected her to hold a grudge on my behalf. To my surprise, she challenged me to focus on who Preston is today, not who he was fifteen years ago.
His father is a different story. If I never see him again, it would be too soon.
So here I am. A five-hour time difference away from my life, in a penthouse that costs more than a small village, second-guessing for the sixth time whether or not I should be on this continent.
Jewel got so annoyed with my constant texting, she told me she’d respond next month. After I “got myself together” and stopped stressing. Her words.
“Want to talk about it?” Black curls press to Tammi’s chocolate brown cheeks under an ivory winter hat.
“You’ve said enough.” I roll my eyes and continue with the virtual house tour.
“See him with fresh eyes and an open heart” is what she told me after I chickened out. Every excuse I threw popped me in the forehead when Tammi tossed it back in my face. The fact that Preston is spouse-free won her over. So did his obvious attempts to squeeze himself back into my life. She thought the closet dinner was adorable, which had me staring at my phone sideways.
“We all change, Madison. Sometimes for the better,” she made sure to mention.
