I get it now that I know who she really is. She didn’t need me, but still, I should have been there. Nico was hurt because I wasn’t there to cover Val’s back. That will forever ride my shoulders. It has felt like failing Natasha all over again.
Val’s laugh pushes through my thoughts. “Shopping again?” she asks, bringing a grin to my face as I push out of the air-conditioned store.
I put my shades on as the sun beams down on me. “The best way to spend my day off,” I sing into the phone.
“Where’s the kid?”
“With John and Noah, training.”
We’ve only been on one real mission since we’ve been here. However, John made Torque hang back. Torque was pissy about it, but Braxton won his attention with some car show or something.
“And how are things going with John?”
I sigh. “Good for us, but weird to everyone else,” I say.
“Uri, no. She’s had ice cream already,” Val says, her voice moving away from the phone.
“Oh, come on, love, do you see the way she’s looking at my bowl?” Uri’s voices comes from the background sounding pained.
“I hope this one is a boy. You spoil Vita,” Val huffs.
I grin. I’m so happy she’s having another baby. Val is a good mother.
She then turns her attention back to me. “Anyway, how so? What do you mean by this, weird for others? Why are we caring about others?”
“We’re not. How can I explain this? We’ve been to his parents for Sunday breakfast every weekend since I’ve been here. He does things like handing over his car for me to have, but still picking me up for work and making sure I get home every night—”
“Wait, you’re not living with him?”
“No, we fought about it. He wanted me to, but in the end, he gave in and helped me find a place with Torque. He’s still not happy about it.”
“Okay, so you guys are dating?”
“We’re… friends. That’s what’s weird to everyone else. They don’t think we are.”
Val snorts. “I’ve seen you together. You want to tell this lie?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You two are like batteries. When you are in a room together you charger the entire space. I don’t believe this friends shit,” she says, sounding more and more like her husband.
My cheeks heat. She’s right, we are somewhere between friends and… I don’t know what. Friends probably don’t go to sex clubs together. I told John I wanted to learn more about the life and now we go every Friday night.
And yet, we’re still not in an intimate relationship. We’re in this awkward, for me, sexually charged place. I say this because John is always comfortable in any situation. I, on the other hand, want to experience all I see at Club Desire, but I don’t want to come off the wrong way to John.
“What aren’t you telling me?” Val says.
“Nothing I’m going to discuss in the middle of the street.”
“Ah. There is more. See, I knew it. I wouldn’t blame you one bit for riding that stallion, bella. Those Blacks are fine as hell.”
“That’s it. Your call is done. I will show you fine as bloody hell,” Uri growls somewhere nearby.
I laugh when the call cuts off without Val having time to say goodbye. The shoe store I’m heading for comes into view. I get ready to reach for the door when a woman steps in front of me.
I go to curse her rude ass out and that’s when I focus on the familiar face. I narrow my eyes behind my shades. It’s that bitch from John’s house.
“He left me for a gold digger,” she snarls looking down at my bags.
I scoff and fold my arms over my chest. I worked for every dime I’ve spent. John still gives me access to credit card accounts and puts money in savings for me and Torque, but we never touch a dime of it. She doesn’t need to know that though.
“Mad I took your place. You look like you could use some coin to get that dye job fixed,” I snap back.
“You bitch. You’re going to leave him alone and go back to wherever you came from. I can still fix things with him. I didn’t know you were what was pulling his attention from me, I do now. You leave and he’ll come back to me,” she says.
I step into her face and tear my shades off. “You have no idea who