Page 10 of Imperial: The Corvidae Family
Rachelle was beside me and sighed just as satisfied, stretching her legs as a technician massaged her calves. “Girl, I don’t know why we don’t come here more often. This place is heaven.”
I glanced at her over the rim of my mimosa. “Because you always cancel at the last minute.”
“First of all, rude. Second of all, my job is a disaster zone half the time. I can’t help that people don’t know how to function without me. I am the holy grail boo.”
This was exactly what I needed. Somethingnormal. Rachelle looked at me, arching a brow. “So, tell me about last night, friend! Any rich men propose to you? Did they demand gold-dipped strawberries?”
“No proposals, but one of the guests did try to file a complaint because his filet mignon wasn’t medium rare enough.”
“Of course he did.” She rolled her eyes.
“And then his wife, who was wearing a diamond necklace that could probably pay off my student loans, told me she wanted a separate entrée, because, and I quote, I simply can’t eat what he eats. It’s bad for my digestion and my peace.”
She sucked her teeth. “I swear, rich people just wake up every day and find new ways to be exhausting.”
I laughed but really wanted to tell her about the man who was firing off shots and then somehow ended up at the Brewed Bean near my job. I sure as hell couldn’t tell her about the body even though I trusted her with my life. At the moment I just didn’t know how I felt about any of this yet, other than I was lusting after a killer.
Rachelle stretched her arms out in front of her, releasing a soft moan as her technician began painting her toes. “Well, my day was boring compared to yours. The highlight was my coworker almost setting the office microwave on fire. Oh, and the fact that my boss tried to gaslight us into believing our paychecks weren’t supposed to hit until next week.”
“Girl, not the delayed paycheck trick.”
“Exactly that.” She lifted her mimosa dramatically. “But you know HR had the receipts.”
I smiled smugly. “I don’t know how you’re still working there.”
“Because I enjoy the chaos and it pays well,whenshe actually pays.” I rolled my eyes and she grabbed her phone off the armrest. “But wait, did you see this on the news?”
“No, what’s that?”
She turned the screen toward me showing Deven’s face and I kept my expression neutral.
Rachelle scrolled. “Apparently, he was some big real estate developer? Anyway, they found him dead last night in the building where you were. They said he was at that Kingston thing. Do you remember him?”
“Nah, I don’t. There were so many people there it was hard to keep up. That’s crazy though and scary as shit that it happened so close.”
No friend, what’s crazy is I’m crushing on the man that did it…
“It’s kinda fucked up too. Some of the attendees they reached out to were talking about how he was creepy. They overheard one of the servers saying he was handsy all over the staff last night. He fucked around and found out. If he was really like that, I doubt anybody cares.”
“Yeah.” Was all I said and she frowned at me. “You good?”
“Yep, just thinking how crazy that was a man died at my event last night.”
“That is hella crazy but I’m glad you’re good though.”
She got distracted with her phone so I picked up mine and saw a new notification that had me fighting a smile.
@BLKVOIDliked a photo.
I clicked on it to see which picture they had liked.
A selfie from weeks ago which was deep on my page. This man was on me bad and that was a problem because I was smiling instead of panicking.
I tapped his profile, scrolling through the same images I had seen earlier. Nothing new. I locked my phone and glanced at Rachelle. She was laughing at something on her own screen, completely unaware that I was in a state of delusion. I smiled, pretending this man didn’t have me acting insane and stalking just as much as he was.
By the time we left the shop, I was completely rejuvenated. I flexed my fingers, admiring the glossy white color I had chosen, feeling brand new. I glanced at Rachelle as we walked toward the parking lot. “You wanna grab dinner?”
She groaned. “I wish. But I have a proposal to finish tonight, and if I don’t get it done, my boss is gonna make me curse her ass out.”
