Page 39 of Laws of Love
“That was the first time I got injured. I chose to retire after the second time. I could have played a few more years, but the potential damage it would have done down the line may have been irreversible.” He took her hand and placed one quarter in it. “So, make a wish.”
Aiva hummed, thinking of what she wanted to wish for. When she had, she kissed the quarter before tossing it into the stream.
“You want to kiss mine, too?” he asked. She laughed lightly but did so before he threw it in. “What did you wish for?”
“If I tell you, it may not come true,” she told him, and Knox thought that was fair enough.
They stayed there for several minutes, a firefly coming up and landing on her hand briefly before flitting away from them.
“I’m going to take that as a sign that my wish will come true,” she said.
They returned to the car after that, and Knox drove back to her place. When he pulled into her driveway, he got out and walked her to her front door. She unlocked it before turning to him.
“I had fun tonight.”
“Enough fun to do it again?”
“Definitely,” she responded. “This was not only the best first date I’ve been on, but the best one in general.”
“And the next one will be just as good,” he assured her. Aiva smiled at him, and Knox leaned down to taste her lips briefly. “Sleep tight, gorgeous.”
“Goodnight, Knox.”
With that, he watched her enter her house before he returned to his car. He already knew what they’d do next weekend.
20
Aiva sat at the table, looking over her menu as they waited for the server to bring their drinks. She was having brunch with her sisters to catch up. Eva was the first to put her menu down, but Aiva wasn’t surprised. As soon as her younger sister came to something that sounded good, she never needed to continue looking, even if that had not always worked out in her favor. Once the rest had decided and placed their menus to the side, Marreigh, the youngest at the table, sparked up the conversation.
“So, what have you ladies been up to recently? It feels like we haven’t sat down like this in a while.”
“Yeah,” Eva agreed. “But that’s Lila’s fault,” she accused.
“It’s not my fault med school is kicking my ass, and I don’t stop you, heffas, from getting together without me,” Lila countered with an eye roll.
It wasn’t brunch if Eva and Lila didn’t argue. Hell, it wasn’t a get-together if they didn’t argue. Aiva was sure it was because they both had similar combative personalities. Or maybe it was because they were Irish twins, born nine months apart. However, she wasn’t sure if that was still the case when they were born from two different women, and Lila had an actual fraternal twin.
“It’s too early for the two of you to argue,” Meila stated as their server returned with their glasses and two pitchers of mimosas to start. They placed their orders, and when he was gone, the conversation picked back up as they filled their glasses.
“Are you still enjoying the job, Eva?” Marreigh asked, taking a sip of her mimosa.
“I am. I still get a lot of the older men trying to give me attitude or get smart with me, but I shut that shit down pretty quickly. It’s the twenty-first fucking century. If you have an issue with a woman being your project manager, then you were born in the wrong time.”
“You’re more than qualified. They can get over that shit,” Meila stated.
Eva had graduated at the top of her class with her degree in Engineering Management, and the company she worked for scouted her before she’d even graduated. With her field being predominantly men, they weren’t used to seeing a woman in their spaces. Let alone overseeing them. But that was the case in several job markets, and it still baffled Aiva that some men couldn’t understand that women could do the same jobs and have the same careers as them.
“I really don’t care if they get over it or not. As long as the job gets done correctly and timely,” Eva supplied. She took a drink. “What about you, Marreigh? How’s school?”
“See, listen; I almost said fuck it and dropped out last week. They had us treat snakes, and I don’t do those. That’s going to be a hard no for me when I graduate and open my practice. Then I’m going to need all of you to get animals, so I’ll have some patients.”
“I have a goldfish,” Lila reminded.
“I won’t be treating fish, and no, you don’t have one.”
“Yes, I do.”
Marreigh furrowed her brow at Lila. “No, you don’t. When you asked me to go by your house and pick up the lunch you left, I found that fish floating. It was dead, so I flushed it. I told you that when I brought you the food, remember?”
