Page 11 of Imperial: The Corvidae Family
“The same boss who tried to gaslight y’all into thinking your paychecks were late on purpose?”
“Exactly,” she said dryly. “I need to stay ahead of the bullshit.”
I wasn’t ready to go home yet so that meant I was eating alone. Rachelle unlocked her car and tossed her bag onto the passenger seat before turning to me. “I’ll make it up to you. You free Friday?”
I did a quick mental scan of the rest of my week before answering.
“That works, just let me know.”
“And get some sleep boo. You look like shit,” she said pointing at my face.
I burst out laughing. “Girl fuck you.”
She stuck her tongue out and I grinned, as I headed to my own car, trying to decide what I wanted to eat. As soon as I thought about Rockin’ Ramen my stomach growled so the decision was made.
After I walkedin the building, I slid into a corner booth, setting my bag beside me before I reached for a menu. While I was doing a deep dive a waitress approached me. “Hey, welcome back! The usual? Spicy beef, extra noodles?”
I frowned because I didn’t eat here enough for them to know my order but she smiled big as hell. “I’ve waited on you three times and it’s always the same. I have a really good memory.”
“Oh, okay cool. Yeah, that works and sake please.”
“Got it, be right back.”
She headed toward the counter and I pulled out my phone, scrolling absently through my notifications. I had a couple emails from Tae about an upcoming venue walkthrough and a few random texts in a group chat from work I barely kept up with.
And then…
@BLKVOID liked your post.
Another one.
I clicked on it to see which photo. He liked a second selfie but this one was from today at Tranquil Breeze followed by another one buried deeper in my page. I stared at the notifications with my fingers hovering over the screen. But instead of going to hispage, I locked my phone. I needed to get over this weird ass obsession and fast.
Because what the hell am I doing…
Chapter
Four
Emir.
Baylyn’s sexy ass was in her own world, not paying attention. She walked right in here and didn’t even realize I was watching her. She damn sure didn’t know I followed her from her job to the spa. After I figured out where she worked, I put a tracker on her vehicle which was easy to do since she put her entire life online. I knew her every move from social media which gave me access to her car. I didn’t have to work for it and that made this shit easy as hell.
I planned on pulling up on her at Tranquil Breeze when I tracked her there, but she was with her girl, so I followed her here. She needed to do better because I parked a few cars overfrom her ride and walked in right after her. She didn’t notice a damn thing. I sat at the bar watching as she placed her order and then was locked in on her phone.
So damn unaware…
A smile spread onto her pretty face as the waitress set her bowl down and that shit had me smiling too. She lifted the small dish next to the bowl and dumped in the extra noodles and I almost fucking laughed because she had my exact order. When she reached for her spoon to blend them my patience no longer existed and I was on my way to her needing to feel her presence up close again.
I slid into the booth and she stilled with her fingers hovering over her food. She frowned and looked up, annoyed and surprised, but just like when I pulled up on her at Brewed Bean she kept her shit together. It was almost like she had been expecting to see me.
Or wanted to…
“What’s good, beautiful?”
“Is there a reason you’re here?”
I rested one arm on the table and dropped the other in my lap, letting my body slouch deeper into the seat. “Plenty.”
