I averted my eyes, pushing my hands deeper into my pockets. “So….”
“She looked good man. She’s fine,” he said, recognizing exactly what I wanted to know. Dual feelings of relief and disappointment hit me in the chest. I had been a little concerned when I found out from Des she had closed her business, but I couldn’t ask Des too much without her getting suspicious. I was glad to hear Tori appeared to be doing well, but damn… she hadn’t reached out at all. As if he were reading my mind, Nick smirked, and said, “Maybe you should try to call her again.”
I was shaking my head before the words were completely out of his mouth. “Nah, man. I haven’t seen or talked to her for like a month. It’s probably safe to say we’ve both… moved on.”
“Is that right?”
“It is. I wish Tori the best, but I’m focused, man.”
He drew his eyebrows together, but nodded. “You seemed… different about Tori, but if you’re good, I’m good.”
I seemed different about Tori because I was different about Tori. I’d been with Maya for nearly three months, and didn’t yet feel for her what I’d felt from day one with Tori. I liked her. I enjoyed her. We were getting there. “I’m focused.”
“Focused on what?”
Nick and I both jerked our heads in the direction of the door, where Maya’s voice had suddenly come from. She raised an eyebrow, looking between us like we were nuts. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you guys, but the office is locked, so I just… came back.”
Pushing myself away from the car, I approached her to slip an arm around her waist. “You’re good, babe. Just talking about some business stuff. Ready to go?” She lifted an eyebrow at me, as if she didn’t quite buy it, but she nodded, allowing me to lead her out to the car. I was a little alarmed by how easily the lie rolled off my tongue, but was I really supposed to tell her that even though I was with her, I was battling lingering feelings for the woman who we paid to hook us up? Hell no. I wasn’t about to set off that bomb.
Anyway… I was focused.
— Tori —
“What about this one? Does this look okay?”
“Umm…” I examined the skintight, fluorescent pink mini-dress my sister wore with open disdain, especially after I saw the price tag. “If you’re going for booty model, I guess…”
Melanie sucked her teeth at my response, then stomped back to the dressing room to change back into her clothes. Shaking my head, I headed back to the racks containing the dresses a little more my speed. A few minutes later, Mel joined me to help me shop for my solo trip to California to visit Renee, which was coming up fast.
“So,” I said, not looking at her as I held up a tribal printed sundress. “I changed my mind about California.”
Mel’s mouth dropped open, eyes wide as she grabbed my arm. “Tori, don’t play with my emotions, now. Are you for real?”
“Yes, I’m serious Mel, you can come to Cali with me.”
The grin that spread across her face was contagious, and the next moment, I was smiling just as hard as she was as she began rattling off the celebrities she wanted to see, and restaurants she wanted to visit while we were there. Mel had been begging me for years to come with me to San Diego, and it occurred to me last night… why the hell not?
She was still smiling when she glanced past me toward the front of the store, but something made it drop, and she turned around, then looped her arm through mine to pull me in another direction.
“Come on before she sees us,” Mel said, keeping her voice low.
She was pulling on me, but I hesitated anyway when I heard someone call out to us. “Tori! Mel? Is that you guys?”
“Ugh. We got caught.” Melanie muttered under her breath as I turned to see Maya approaching us from across the store. “You see what you’ve done? Now we have to talk to this girl.”
“And why is that a problem?”