Page 45 of Justice

“You okay?” I asked her.

“I’m fine.” Her voice was steady. Her eyes weren’t, quite. “You didn’t have to do all that.”

“Yeah I did.”

We looked at each other a second too long.

“Well,” said the woman beside her, fanning herself. “I don’t know what I just watched but I need a drink after it. Hi. I’m Aubrey, her best friend. I’ve heard nothing about you, which we’re gonna fix.”

“Justice. Good to meet you, Aubrey.” I nodded toward the good side of the room. “Y’all come on. I got you a table.”

I walked them up to the VIP section. It had velvet furniture and private service, with a view over the floor. Sat them down like they were the most important people in the building. Because tonight one of them was.

“Order whatever you want,” I told them. “Food, bottles, whatever. It’s handled. And don’t do that thing where you order the cheapest thing on the menu to be polite.” I looked right at Skye when I said it. “Not tonight. Tonight you get what you want.”

“Thank you,” she said quietly.

“Enjoy your night.” I made myself walk away before I sat down at that table and never got up.

I had rounds to make. It was that kind of night, half celebration and half business, and there were hands to shake I couldn’t skip.

I crossed to the far side of the room where the Harlows had set up. Roman stood when he saw me and extended his hand.

“There he is.” He shook my hand and pulled a woman up beside him. She was a pretty mahogany toned woman dressed elegantly, draped in something expensive. “Justice, my wife, Aria. Aria, this is Justice Banks.”

“A pleasure.” She had a warm smile and a firm little handshake.

“Hey Julian,” I greeted his brother who sat in the cut. His brother stood and shook my hand.

“This place is nice. Y’all did your big one with this,” Julian complimented.

“Thanks. It’s only up from here,” I replied.

“Baby.” Roman put his hand on his wife’s back and tipped his head at me, pride in his voice. “This right here is one of the big brains behind what’s about to be the most affluent Black community this country has ever seen. Freetown. When it’s done, they’ll be tryin’ to buy their way in for the next fifty years. And we get to help build it.” He looked at me. “It’s an honor, man. For real.”

“The honor’s mutual.” And I meant it. There was something solid about Roman Harlow, a thing I recognized, a man who’d clearly clawed his way up from somewhere and never planned on going back. “But tonight ain’t about none of that. Tonight you drink up and eat good, all of it on me. Try the oysters before they’re gone, my chef flies ’em in fresh.” I clapped his shoulder. “We got a lot of good years coming. This is just the start.”

Roman lifted his glass to me. “To the start.”

I left them to it and headed back across my room, across the crowded loud beautiful floor, back toward the only table I actually wanted to be at. I never once looked back at the Harlows. Had no reason to. I had a woman in a red dress waiting on the other side of the room. And every step I took toward her carried me further from a truth sitting right there at that table, one I could not have seen coming if I’d stared straight at it.

Aubrey stood up when I got back, grabbing her little purse.

“I’m gonna go be nosy and find a bathroom,” she announced. “Do not let anybody sit in my seat. And you.” She pointed at me. “Be nice to my friend or I’ll fight you.” She sailed off into the crowd. Then it was just the two of us, and the noise of the party dropped away by half.

Skye had a drink in her, I could tell. Not gone, just loosened, the careful edges of her softened, a little more of the real woman showing through the guard she usually kept bolted down.

“You look like you belong here,” I told her, sitting down close, closer than a boss sits. “Out here in the world. Dressed up, laughing. Suits you better than the scrubs.”

“Careful, Mr. Banks.” But she was smiling. “Somebody might think you’re flirting with the help.”

“Somebody might be right.”

That landed. I saw her breath change, saw her decide whether to run from it or sit in it. She sat in it. That was new.

“You’re different tonight,” I said. “Lighter. Like you set something down at the door.” I reached over, slow enough she could have stopped me, and lifted her chin with two fingers, tilting her face up into the light so I could see her eyes. Those careful, guarded, gorgeous eyes that I still couldn’t find the bottom of. “There she is. That’s the one I keep catching glimpses of. The one under all that armor.”

She didn’t pull away. She let me hold her there, her chin in my hand. Close enough that one decision would’ve closed the rest of the distance. And for one long second I watched her want it as bad as I did.