Chapter 27
Ajori
The moment we got back to the room, Lainey kicked her shoes off and flopped across the bed like she had been waiting all night to say something.
“Okaaay…” she dragged out. “What was going on between you andMr. Mean & Mysteriousdown there?”
I frowned slightly. “Who?”
She sat up. “Don’t play with me! I’m talkin’ about your lil’ breakfast buddy.”
I let out a small laugh, shaking my head as I walked past her. “Lainey, nothing was going on.”
“Nothing? Girl, I thought y’all had coffee, conversation, and aconnection. Don’t tell me it expired before dessert.”
I laughed a little harder at that, grabbing a pillow and tossing it at her. “You are so extra.”
“And you are so not answering my question,” she fired back, catching the pillow and pointing at me. “Because I saw it! That tension? That silence? That man was acting like he was allergic to you all of a sudden!”
I sighed, dropping onto the chair across from her. “I don’t know what happened,” I admitted.
And that part was true. But in my mind… I kinda did.
I wasn’t stupid. That same energy I’d felt between us at breakfast was still there… but hidden behind distance and wrapped in avoidance. Domino was fighting something; I saw it in the way he wouldn’t look at me, in the way he shut me down too quickly, and in the way he kept pulling himself back. Whether it was lust, guilt, boundaries, or all three, I wasn’t sure.
I waved my hand at Lainey like I was done with the whole topic.
“Honestly, he’s probably just like every other man,” I said, shrugging it off. “Interested one minute, distant the next. It’s nothing new. And it’s not like I want him or anything,” I lied.
Lainey’s eyes narrowed skeptically. “Mmm,” she hummed. “That didn’t sound convincing at all, sis.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m serious.”
“Girl, please! You don’t stare at a man like that unless there’s at least athought.”
“There was no thought,” I let it be known, fibbing.
“Not even a little one?”
“No.”
Lainey squinted her eyes at me. “Okay. So we’re just lying in here now?”
I grabbed the pillow as if I was about to throw it again. “Lainey—”
She held her hands up, laughing. “Alright, alright. I’ma let you have it… for now.”
Then her expression shifted, eyes lighting up again.
“Well, since you clearly don’t wanthim, I need you to redirect your attention to somebody else who can be useful.”
I frowned in confusion. “Useful?”
“Yessssssss,” she dragged. “As in… beneficial. As in…rich. As in… somebody that can changemylife too.”
I giggled. “Girrrrrrrrrrrl.”
Then a person came to mind.