Grace sighed, pressing her lips together before responding. “OK, damn.”
“But what if you find something?” Hope asked.
“What do you mean? That’s the reason that I’m going. Iexpectto find something.”
“I mean something bad, Faith. What if you find something serious?”
“I’m going there to do a job, and that’s what I’ll do. If I find something, I’m exposing it.”
“And what if you don’t find anything?” Grace wondered.
That question threw me off. I never considered that I might not find anything at all. The things that Darius was caught doing with his operation seemed to still be in place. There was no need for me to consider the possibility of that being a mere coincidence.
“It doesn’t matter because I will. I’m letting him know today.”
“Just be careful,” Grace advised.
Her warning was unnecessary, but I answered her anyway as I picked my phone up off the coffee table.
“I got it.”
Opening my social media app, I went to my blocked list, unblocking Reed’s account before sending him a message to let him know that we could do lunch. Once the words were out there, there was no turning back. Like I said, I was doing it.
My second ever visit to Cashville Resort and Casino came just a couple of days after the first. In spite of my disdain for its owners, I had to admit that the place was gorgeous. Low, seductive lighting matched well with the dark blue decor. Gold accents reflected off glass surfaces making the whole vibe feel expensive.
Reed fit into the environment naturally. Everything about the place had his name written all over it. When I made it to the restaurant, someone sent me upstairs. I quickly spotted him near the back of the room, dressed in a charcoal-gray suit with a white button-up and no tie. He was always so effortlessly put together that it was unnerving. Reed made youfeel underdressed, even when he was in sweats. It was his fault that I loved men who could dress their asses off.
He’d left it up to me to decide where we would have lunch. Since I had been dying to eat at the steakhouse inside the casino, anyway, I thought it was my perfect chance to finally get in there. There was no more use in dodging Reed. He was front and center now. It was crazy the things you had to do to dodge somebody after a bad breakup.After years of running and hiding, I was finally ready to face him. Well, hopefully I was anyway.
The diamonds in his watch glistened as he lifted the glass in front of him to his lips, taking the brown liquid down in one quick gulp. The door to the private room closed behind me, causing his eyes to snap in my direction. He was on his feet in seconds, crossing the room to meet me.
“I was worried you wouldn’t come,” he said, wrapping his arms around me once he was in arm’s reach.
His clean scent was hypnotic. It disarmed me long enough for me to let him get close enough to touch me. My posture stiffened under his oddly familiar embrace.
“Uh-uh, this is not a date,” I reminded him as I shrugged out of his hold.
Reed’s lazy smile turned into a smirk as he studied my face. “I apologize. I’m just glad to see you. I wasn’t sure you would show up.”
“Not Mr. Popularity being insecure.”
“Wow, Mr. Popularity, huh?”
“Didn’t you win that in one of your fraternity pageants?” I asked.
“It wasn’t a pageant,” he said, shaking his head.
“I’m pretty sure it was a pageant. There were sashes and everything. If my memory serves me correctly, they even called it a pageant. You wore that white tuxedo with the red trim, and allthe girls in the room went crazy when you came out on stage. It was a pageant.”
“So, you remember that?”
“How could I forget? You convinced me to come to that stupid thing saying it would be a laid-back fraternity thing, but half the campus was there.”
“I just wanted you to see your man shine. We had a good time after, right?”
I could see where this was going if I didn’t take control. So I held up a hand to stop him. “This is not a date.”
“Who said it was a date? It’s just old friends remembering good times.”
