Page 31 of The Lamb and the Llama
Amira drove both Stan and Richard to the airport. She expected Stan to be quiet because it was the afternoon and he was always grumpy without his nap—that was a bear shifter for you. What she didn’t expect was for Richard to be so quiet. He even allowed Stan to sit shotgun, so Amira didn’t even have a chance to look him in the eyes to figure out what was up with him.
She’d hoped he’d be happy for her promotion. After all, it meant the two of them would still work together. Didn’t Stan mention that to Richard? But Richard hadn’t said he wanted to continue to work together. He hadn’t said much of anything, really. And when he took his bags and walked into the airport without a second glance her way, she figured he wanted nothing to do with her.
It’s fine. It’s for the best,she tried to convince herself.He’s a cheater, remember? And probably still hung up on his ex.
But she couldn’t convince herself. Richard had nearly died because he felt so strongly for her that he put himself in danger.
Oh well, it’s over now.She tried to push him out of her mind and focus on the rest of SHIT. She spent the next few days shadowing Treasure, observing the MILFs, and learning how Treasure had trained them. By the end of the SHITs, she was excited at the prospect of working for both FUC and BS.
Amira shook her head as she drove back to the palace’s guest house.He really didn’t have to be so indifferent on the drive,she thought.I guess I really wasn’t anything special to him, after all.
Amira let out a sigh as she kicked off her shoes in the foyer and placed them on the mat. She plopped her keys on the credenza before walking to the kitchen to grab a bottle of wine. Before she could open it, there was a knock at the door.
Once she opened it, Carol greeted her with a bright smile while holding a bottle of bubbles.
“Girl, we need to celebrate!” she said as she walked past Amira and headed for the kitchen. She looked over at the bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon and the single glass on the counter. “Okay, what did Dick do?”
Amira blinked twice before responding. “Why would you assume he’d done something wrong?”
Carol let out a huff before responding. “Because he’s a guy and guys are usually wrong. I mean—not always. After all, Ray is married to me, so he was right about that one thing.”
Carol poured out a glass of fizz and handed it to Amira. “Prosecco always makes a girl happy! Oh—that and strawberries. Let’s see if the staff bought some because they’d go great with this.”
“So, it’s possible you aren’t wrong, but I’m not sure if you’re right either,” Amira said with a sigh and crumpled her body onto a barstool by the kitchen island. The buttery vegan leather made her sink into it even further than her mood did.
“Why don’t you start by telling me what happened, and then we can both make an informed decision about Dick?”
Amira rolled her eyes. “Why do you insist on calling him Dick? His name is Richard.”
Carol choked on her Prosecco before placing the glass on the counter. “I guess I’ve been calling him that for so long that it’s become a habit. Of course, I always side with my besties when a guy they love screws up, but that’s not fair to him or you. I can see he’s different when he’s with you.”
“Is he, though?” Amira threw up her hands in frustration. “Ever since he saw you again, he’s been different toward me. At first, I thought it was because he was still hung up on you, but then I thought how could that be possible if he cheated on you?”
“Amira—” Carol tried to cut in, but Amira wasn’t finished.
“Clearly, being here caused something in him to switch, because he hardly looked at me when he went back to the airport. And you want to know somethingreallyfunny? I keep looking at my phone, hoping he’s going to text, but guess what? We don’t even have each other’s cell numbers!That’show serious this all was to him. So serious that we didn’t even exchange digits.”
Carol looked at her thoughtfully before speaking. “First of all, you need to know that Erika was wrong.”
“What?”
Carol took a deep breath. “I thought Richard had cheated on me. I believed it for a long time. It wasn’t until Quinn came along that I started to see behind the curtain.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that Richard and I were together for the wrong reasons. You see, with Stan’s help, Quinn and I pieced together that Richard’s actions toward us were because of his llama imprinting.”
“He mentioned that, but I don’t get it.” Amira shrugged. “If he imprinted on you, wouldn’t that mean I’m right and that he wants you back?”
“No,” Carol said definitely. “Because here’s the thing. Richard and I didn’t get along very well. He was always overbearing. It was never really right, but we also couldn’t break up because I thought I was in love with him. The imprint did me in and I kept trying to make things work with him whenever he tried to break things off. It wasn’t until I believed he cheated on me that I had the guts to get up and leave, finally.”
Amira started to piece it all together. “He didn’t cheat on you?”
“He only said he did because he knew, as well as I did, that we needed to put an end to us. It wasn’t good for either of us. It wasn’t going to get better. I wasn’t his true mate. And that’s becauseyouare.”
“You really think so?” Amira asked, too hopeful to look at her.
“Yes, I do. I know Richard really well, and I saw it the moment I laid eyes on the two of you together. You make a cute couple, and Stan was right pairing the two of you up because you both work so well together. I saw that at the briefing dinner.”
