Koda's voice stays warm underneath the humor when he speaks again. “I love that for you. Seriously.”
“It's not over yet. I still have to deal with my parents and the real confrontation that is coming.”
“And you'll handle it. With that Omega of yours standing right beside you. He's good for you Sai. I've never heard you sound like this. Like an actual person instead of a machine they programmed.”
A beat passes while I consider saying something about Koda himself, about the races and the exhaustion I can hear beneath his charm but tonight isn’t for that conversation. Tonight belongs to Mavi and the quiet I am driving toward.
“Thanks Koda.”
“Go home to your mate, idiot.”
After he hangs up, I pull up to the building and take the stairs two at a time until I reach Mavi's apartment. I open the door to find Mavi sitting on the couch with a book or a painting or something else that no longer matters because the moment the door opens he stands and moves toward me with the energy of someone who has been waiting while pretending he was not.
I pull him into a hug and press my face in his hair as I breathe him in, holding the person I just chose in front of my family and a restaurant full of expensive mistakes.
Mavi lets himself be held for three full seconds before he pulls back to study my face. His eyes search mine checking for the freeze or the spiral or any sign of damage but he won’t find them.
“It's over?”
“Almost. The arrangement is done. Elias didn’t want it either. He has someone. But my parents will come for us. I don’t know what they will do to my work.”
Mavi studies me for another moment. Then he speaks with the matter-of-fact tone of someone stating an obvious truth. “What do you mean? Your name is on everything. Unless they control your money directly everyone comes to Sai Hollis.”
“Because I am a Hollis.”
“Maybe at first.” Mavi's voice warms further. “But now? The other models at my shoots, the editors the gallery, and other people they are always talking about Sai this, Sai that. Never Sai Hollis. Just Sai. You are you, babe. Your family can’t take that from you because they did not build it. You did.”
“I love you,” I say simply because it’s the first time the words have come out this clearly.
Mavi's expression softens into something that sits underneath the sharp grin and the cam confidence. “So, what's on the agenda tonight? Fuck, sorry. Sai...”
A wild grin takes over my face, the kind of grin that Mavi has only seen a handful of times and each one has been a revelation. “You. You are on the agenda. Please?”
Mavi bursts out laughing as the sound bounces off the apartment walls. I pick him up and set him on the kitchen counter while his legs wrap around me still laughing before I drop to my knees right there in front of him. The moment I press my face to his cock through his boxers, the laugh turns to a moan.
