then she chuckled. “Well, she was in the bathroom, but… oh! Look! Here she is. One sec.”
This entire time, I’d been shaking my head with wide eyes that threatened all the harm I would bring that brunette bombshell if she didn’t hang up the phone. And now, she was holding the phone out to me with her hip popped and eyebrow in her hairline.
“He’s on mute,” she said.
“Just hang up.”
“No! Belle, you’re thirty-two years old. Grow a pair of lady balls and talk to him.”
I groaned, flopping down on the bar stool at my kitchen island.
Gemma put the phone in front of me on the bar, put it on speakerphone, and then took it off mute.
I cringed at the surge of noise that came through the speaker. Wherever Makoa was, it wasn’t his condo. It sounded like a club or bar, and though every ounce of my being wanted to strangle my best friend and chuck my phone off the balcony, I heaved a sigh, squeezing both eyes shut before I muttered, “Hello?”
“Belle Monroe,” Makoa said, slow and melodically. “Is that really you?”
“It is.”
“Wow, so she is alive,” Makoa slurred.
I glared at Gemma, but she just mouthed talk to him and pointed at the phone, ditching me long enough to grab our water bottles and bring them over to the island.
“She is, indeed.”
“You ghosted me.”
I sighed. “Makoa… I’m sorry. I’ve just had a really hellish week.” I shook my head, annoyed with him for being so damn persistent, and annoyed with myself that I didn’t want to just cut him off like I had a dozen guys before him.
“So come over,” he said, his words heated.
I gritted my teeth, remembering his words like a branding iron that seared my skin off.
You’re such a good time.
“Um, no, thanks. Sounds like you’re out having a good time, anyway.”
“I’m miserable.”
His words took me off guard, and I glanced at Gemma, who was giving me a look that said she was going to throttle me.
I gave her an equally dirty look that said something along the lines of what am I supposed to do here?
“Please, Belle. Come over,” Makoa said again, and this time, I couldn’t keep my frustration contained.
“No!” I threw my hands up, letting them hit the counter with a slap. “I know you’re probably tipsy and horny and want someone to fuck, and we both know that’s all I’m good for. You said so yourself Saturday night. But I’m not in the mood, okay? So just… just stop, Makoa. Go home and leave me alone.”
Gemma’s eyes were wide, and she shook her head like I was insane.
“What are you talking about? Belle…” He hiccupped. “I would never… I don’t think that. At all.”
I huffed. “Right. That’s why you called me a good-time girl on Saturday, right? Made it pretty clear what I was to you when you slapped that label on it.”
“What?” There was a pause, a muffle of the speaker and what sounded like him talking to someone else before he said, “I said you were a good time, yes, but I meant that as in I had a fucking blast getting soaked in the rain with you, and eating pierogies, and geeking out over Broadway. I meant it as in I loved cooking dinner for you, even if I botched it. I meant it as in you have completely blown away everything I thought a girl could be,” he said earnestly, pausing for a breath before he continued. “And I want to know everything there is to know about you.”
My esophagus thickened with every word until I couldn’t breathe past the knot in my throat, let alone swallow it down.
I realized distantly what it was that had me strangled.
Hope.
How dangerous it was.
“It’s probably for the best that we stop now,” I said after a long pause, shaking my head. “It’s been fun.”
“Oh, sorry, my mom is calling on the other line, hold on one sec,” Gemma said, faking my voice as best she could before she hit the mute button on my phone.
And as soon as she had, she promptly smacked my arm.
“Ow!” I said, rubbing the spot.
“Well, that’s what you get. Why are you being so dumb right now?”
“She says adoringly,” I mocked.
“I’m serious. Makoa obviously didn’t mean what you thought he meant when he said that last weekend. Do you not hear the guy? He sounds like a lost puppy dog that’s been wandering the streets for days.” Gemma shook her head. “Babe, I know that verbiage