Falling Into Love with You (The Hate-Love Duet #2) - Lauren Rowe Page 0,70
the staircase, looking like she’s just seen a ghost.
“Laila?” I say, my heart in my throat. “What’s wrong?”
Laila’s mouth is hanging open. Her face is pale. For a long moment, she doesn’t reply. “Sasha,” she finally whispers. “It was Sasha.”
“What?” I say.
“Sasha is a massage therapist,” she murmurs.
“Right,” I say. “I told you that.”
“I’d be happy to massage you first,” Sasha says. “Fuck Adrian. He gets enough attention, right?”
“You’ll be in good hands,” I say. “Sasha is the best.”
Laila remains frozen and pale on the staircase, not moving a muscle.
“I know it’s weird,” Sasha says, filling the awkward silence, “but my favorite thing in the world is working out knots.”
Laila blinks a few times in rapid succession, exhales, and slowly begins descending the steps. As she walks, I disengage from Sasha to meet her in the middle, perplexed by the expression of pure shock on her face.
“What is it?” I ask.
Rather than replying to my question, Laila takes my face in her hands, pulls me to her, and kisses me deeply. Passionately. Without holding back. Like she’s kissing her actual fiancé. The great love of her life.
I have no idea what’s prompted this reaction, especially on a day when Laila has barely spoken to me. Was it something Mimi said? Maybe that thing about me tending to fuck up once, but not twice? Or did Mimi’s frail condition remind Laila that life is short—that we’re all mortal and imperfect and flawed—and should therefore not sweat the small stuff, but, instead, grab happiness, wherever we can find it?
There’s no way to know, in this moment, what’s inspired Laila to kiss me like she forgives me. Like she loves me. And, honestly, I don’t need to know. All that matters is I’ve realized I’ve found the great love of my life, exactly as Mimi’s always wanted for me. And this kiss tells me Laila believes she’s found hers. And so, without asking why, or how long it’ll last, I take Laila, the woman I love, into my arms and kiss her in return with everything I’ve got. Everything I am. And everything I can’t wait to become, with her by my side.
Twenty-Five
Laila
Sasha blows out a plume of smoke from the joint she’s sharing with Savage and me and says, “I’m so glad you’re here.”
The three of us are chatting while smoking pot and drinking booze in Mimi’s comfortable family room. I’m sitting next to Savage on a couch, my legs draped across his lap, while Sasha is sprawled across a nearby armchair. And it’s blowing my mind to realize, the whole time I’d been certain Savage was some kind of sex addict player, his cousin was the “groupie” I saw him with that fateful day in Las Vegas. Sasha was the one walking arm-in-arm with Savage, saying she was thrilled to be there with him. Sasha was the girl who wanted to get her hands on his famous body. Because Sasha is a massage therapist. Holy hell. If I hadn’t seen Savage with his cousin that day, and hadn’t misinterpreted their conversation, where would I be right now? Would I be sitting here with Savage and his cousin, feeling swept away by my feelings for Savage? Or would our tour fling have ended when the tour did?
“So, tell me the truth, guys,” Sasha says, putting down her wine glass. “Are you two really engaged or did you tell Mimi a beautiful lie?”
Savage takes the joint from me. “The engagement part was a beautiful lie, but we really are together and totally committed.” He looks at me, his expression saying, Please, let that be a true statement. And when I smile and nod, Savage grins and exhales in relief.
Sasha takes the joint from Savage and sucks on it. “I figured the engagement had to be a lie for Mimi’s sake. If you’d actually proposed to Laila, you would have spammed me beforehand with a thousand texts. ‘Sasha, how should I ask her?’ ‘Sasha, where should I ask her?’ ‘Sasha, what should I wear when I ask her?’”
Savage chuckles. “I was sixteen and had never asked a girl on an actual date before, dude. You always give me hell about that.”
“It was cute the first ten times.”
“It wasn’t ten times. Three or four, tops. And that was back in high school when I had no game. I’m a grown-ass man now. A rock god, if you haven’t heard.”