Page 19 of Token

“You know you’re strictly pastels in the summer.”

“I wear black sometimes,” she protested.

“Pants, and only when it’s that time of the month.” It was criminal how much he knew about her.

“TMI, Jonathan. TMI.”

He smirked. “Then you should never have told me.” After a moment of silence, his expression sobered. “I repeat, what is wrong?”

Kennedy released a heavy sigh and leaned back in her chair. “Aidan and I broke up last night.”

His hands dropped abruptly to his sides. “No!” It was a forceful denial filled with rightful indignation.

“It’s true.”

Jonathan’s mouth opened and closed several times before sound finally emerged in the form of a question. “Are you telling me Aidan is single?”

A spontaneous burst of laughter sputtered from her lips as she picked up the stress ball she kept on her desk and threw it at his head.

He let out a feigned grunt of injury when it glanced his left temple and landed harmlessly on the carpeted floor behind him. “Ouch, that hurt.”

Lips pressed together, she fought back a smile. “For the last time, Aidan isn’t gay.”

Jonathan appeared to consider her assertion before asking facetiously, “But are you sure he isn’t bi? Leave me with some hope.”

Married to his husband for five years, Jonathan staunchly abided by thelook but don’t touchphilosophy. He would never be unfaithful to Darrell but deemed discreetly ogling her boyfriend totally permissible.

Kennedy shook her head, chuckling helplessly. “You are incorrigible.”

He grinned, flashing his gorgeous smile. “Yet every day you curse the gods that you’ll never be able to have me. Why might that be?” he inquired, eyebrow raised and tongue planted firmly in cheek.

“You also have an ego the size of Texas,” she said with a snort.

No ands or buts, her office manager received his fair share of attention—mostly female, he claimed, because he wasn’t easy to pick up on people’s gaydar. Seriously, he said it as if gaydar was an actual thing.

Personally, he reminded her of a clean-shaven Odell Beckham Jr. without the two-toned hair. And while she wouldn’t say he was a slave to fashion, the man did know how to dress. Business attire, like today, was pressed trousers uncompromisingly creased, a collared light-colored shirt, and a blazer in a coordinating color.

“Still didn’t answer my question,” he teased. A moment later, he pushed the guest chair closer to her desk and sat. “Okay, all jokes aside, what really happened? The guy is nuts about you. There’s no way he wanted to break up. He sent you a dozen roses a month ago, and those puppies cost a pretty penny.”

And it hadn’t been her birthday or Valentine’s Day. Aidan had said it was just because she was the best thing that ever happened to him. She should have known something was up then. Should have known that while she’d been content cruising at the speed limit, he’d wanted to press down on the gas.

Kennedy gave another weighty sigh. “He proposed and—”

“God Almighty, please don’t tell me you turned him down,” he cut in, his feelings on the matter evident in his tone. He sounded appalled and worried about her ability to reason. Or lack thereof.

She, in turn, retorted defensively, “I’m not ready to get married.”

“Have I taught you nothing in the time we’ve known each other? Guys like Aidan Anderson don’t come along every day. Or every week, month, or year. You guys are perfect together. You were the Black super couple I looked up to. Who am I supposed to look up to now?”

“Why on earth do you need anyone to look up to at all? You and Darrell have a wonderful relationship as it is. And you know how it goes—the minuteafteryou’re put on a pedestal is the minute someone else begins to knock you down, inch by brutal inch.”

Jonathan tipped his head back and studied her with narrowed eyes. “So cynical for one so young and beautiful.”

“Try realistic,” she quipped.

Sadness flickered in his eyes. Or perhaps it was pity—probably a combination of both. “So that’s it, it’s over?”

She picked up the pen and idly tapped it on the lined notepad. “At first, we were on a break, but—”

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