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I cup my hand around my mouth again. "He spent the night." I waggle my eyebrows.
Xavier squeezes me harder and pinches my upper arm. Not enough to hurt, just enough to warn me to tone it down. When I look up at his face, there's amusement dancing in his eyes.
"Cherry doesn't do low-key," RJ says. "If you're dating, expect everyone to know every detail." I look over at RJ, ready to defend myself, but there's only fondness in his expression. "There's never any doubt about whose man is Cherry's."
RJ and I share a moment as we smile at each other. This is working already. I can feel it. "Why don't you two join us?"
"We've got a busy—" RJ starts.
"We'd love to." Alice slides into the booth across from us. "I've never met one of Xavier's dates before." She cups her hand around her mouth and leans across the table. "He rarely dates them for more than a night or two."
"Alice." The warning is clear in Xavier's tone.
Alice's grin is practically giddy. "Oh, this is going to be so much fun."
The server hurries over as RJ slides into the seat next to Alice. She takes their orders and moves on.
"What's with the laptop?" RJ looks at Xavier. "You working over breakfast?"
"This is Cherry's laptop." Xavier pushes it a bit closer to me. "She was about to show me her ideas for my website. You want to see?"
My blood goes cold. I'm not sure whether to kiss the man or punch him. He's giving me the chance to prove to RJ how I've changed, but if RJ's not impressed, it could have the total opposite effect. "I'm sure they don't want to see it."
I reach for my laptop, but Xavier grabs it and slides it in front of himself.
"I'd love to see your ideas." Alice leans across the table to get a better look at the screen. "Xavier's website needs a lot of help."
"Hey." Xavier mock glares at his sister. "I'm sitting right here."
Alice shrugs, grinning.
"Take it from me." RJ leans back in his seat like he's not even interested in looking at my ideas. "It's never a good idea to work with someone you're dating. Hard to say no to her ideas when you want her in your bed every night."
Alice gives RJ a hard look and I curl in on myself. This is the worst case scenario but there's no escape cord to pull.
"Cherry's had great ideas so far," Xavier says. "And she's a professional. She's not going to withhold sex just because I don't love her ideas."
RJ snorts. "Sure she won't."
I never withheld sex from RJ for any reason, and his attitude is annoying me. This is not the RJ I remember.
Maybe he's being so rude because he's trying to prove to Alice he's over me.
Xavier squeezes my shoulder and slides the laptop in front of me. "Show them."
I glance around, but don't see our server headed our way with steaming plates of food. No gentle angel of escape is coming to my rescue.
Shifting the laptop so everyone can see the screen, I navigate to the page with pictures I pinned for inspiration. "What customers need to see is how this candy is going to make them feel. So I was thinking, lots of light colors, sugar bursts to grab attention…" I point it out. "Like this here."
"That's really pretty." Alice's expression is soft and intrigued, like she really means what she's saying. I can't get over how genuine and kind she is when she has every reason to hate me.
RJ looks bored and Xavier looks confused.
"This might be too far out there, but maybe we could create a menu for the candy that's mood-based. Like, hard candy is happy. Chocolate is decadent or elegant. The box sets of candy are romantic. The—"
"Those aren't moods, Cherry." RJ's tone is totally condescending. "Moods are happy, sad, and angry."
"Nobody wants to be thinking about negative moods when they're picking candy," Alice says. "I love the idea."
