by Mia Faye
I followed her, still grinning.
“Hi, I’m Yvette, his neighbor from the slum across the street,” she said, offering her hand. “And, incidentally, his employee.”
Gabriel shot me a look and said, “I’m Gabriel, his best friend.”
“I don’t know about best friend, buddy,” I said.
Yvette turned back to me. “I wanted to borrow your cake mixer. I’m making brownies.”
“It’s in the top cabinet in the kitchen,” I told her. “Save us some, will you?”
“We’ll see,” Yvette said, padding away. She grabbed the cake mixer and practically fled to the door, behind which she disappeared after a hurried ‘Bye!’
“Well, that was interesting,” Gabriel commented.
“What was?” I asked.
“You didn’t tell me about this hot neighbor who also happens to work for you.”
“There’s nothing to tell, really. Can we get back to the case?”
“Hubby, huh?”
“It’s considered rude to eavesdrop, you know?”
Gabriel shook his head. “Why do you even have baking equipment? It’s not like you can actually cook.”
I held up a hand, struck by a sudden idea. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before.
“Brownies,” I said. I’m sure my eyes were large and wide.
“What?”
“Nothing says ‘happy home’ like the smell of baking, right?”
“Okay…?”
“I just got the craziest idea.”
“Are we still talking about hot Yvette, or is this about the case?”
A smile spread out across my face. I clapped Gabriel on the shoulder and couldn’t resist letting a little mystery creep into my voice.
“Both, my friend. Both.”
Chapter 13
Yvette
“You’re a terrible best friend,” Tyler declared, rolling his eyes for good measure.
I re-entered the living room with a tray full of brownies and laid them out on the table. Tyler reached out to grab one, but I slapped his hand away.
“Take that back first,” I said, smiling sweetly at him.
“But it’s true!” Tyler protested, reaching once more for a brownie, and getting his hand slapped away again.
“How have I been a terrible best friend?” I asked him, sitting down and crossing my arms.
“How about the fact that I haven’t heard from you in over a month?”
“That goes both ways, you know. You haven’t called me either.”
“Okay, okay. What’s your excuse?”
“It’s not an excuse. I’ve been busy. I have a new job, and I just moved to a new town.”
“Sounds like an excuse.”
“Seriously? I got assigned this mountain load of work on my first day there. And then it’s been one situation after another since then.”
“Oh, you mean the situation with the hot neighbor?”
“You remember that?” I asked. It seemed like such a long time ago when Tyler and I were ogling Cam as he carried those boxes into the apartment.
“Of course, I remember. That man was too gorgeous to forget just like that.”
I bit my lip and looked down. He had no idea how right he was.
“What’s that?” Tyler asked leaning in and looking me right in the eye.
“Hmm?”
“You just blushed and looked away. There’s definitely a story there.”
“I have no idea what you mean,” I said, but my cheeks were definitely hotter. I leaned forward, grabbed the tray, and passed it under Tyler's nose. “Brownie?”
“Oh, now I know there’s a story there. Come on, bitch. Spill.”
I grabbed a brownie and stuffed it whole into my mouth. Tyler always said I had the most open face of anyone he knew. I couldn’t hide what I was thinking to save my life. It was a real problem.
“You slept with him, didn’t you?” Tyler deduced, his face breaking out into a satisfied smirk.
I started to choke on the brownie, sputtering and coughing loudly until Tyler leaned forward and clapped me on the back.
“I see you still have that excellent poker face,” Tyler said.
He got up and disappeared into the kitchen, returning moments later with a glass of water. I grabbed it from him and took several quick gulps, coughing to try and clear my airway.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said when I finally regained my breath.
“Okay,” Tyler said, lifting his hands to imply surrender. “I guess it’s been so long I can no longer read my best friend.”But his eyes were twinkling, and I knew exactly what he was doing. He was betting I would volunteer the information of my own accord eventually, that the need to share would be too much for me to remain silent. It was a smart strategy.
“How’s the restaurant?” I asked him. Stalling. Desperate to change the subject.
Tyler sighed, and for the first time since he arrived, a dark shadow flitted across his face. It was fleeting, but I caught it.
“What?” I asked, suddenly worried.
“Eh. I don’t want to worry you with my shit. It’s nothing.”
“I demand that you worry me with your shit, Tyler.”
He laughed, then his face turned serious once more.“The restaurant’s not doing too good, to be honest,” he said. “In fact, Gale is thinking of selling.”
“What?”
Gale was Tyler’s aunt. She had been running the restaurant with him for as long as I had known him. It was practically a family business.
“Yeah. Been a tough couple of weeks. There’s a new fast food joint right across from us… opened soon after you left… they’ve been running us ragged. Taking customers right out of the restaurant.”
“I thought the biggest pull was regulars?”
“It is, but that’s no longer enough. Not with the flashier place right across from us. We’ve tried everything: promos, social media marketing, daily events, live bands… none of it has worked. The fact is, people seem to prefer the new restaurant.”
“Have you thought of upgrading?”
“How do you mean?”
“You know… renovating the place, sprucing it up a bit. I know the family room aesthetic is a staple of the restaurant, but maybe you could do a little makeover, modernize the place some. Aren’t you always talking about these grand plans you have for running the place if you were in charge?”
Tyler shrugged noncommittally. “Those were just ideas, Vee. Dreams, more like. I wouldn’t know the first thing about that. And I don’t think Gale would go for that right now. She seems set on selling.”
“Come on, Tyler. I know how you feel about that restaurant. You don’t like to admit it, but I know you care about it too much to let it go like that.”
Tyler shrugged again. “I don’t see anything that can be done about this particular situation, though, to be honest.”
I fell silent if only to let him figure it out on his own. Tyler was incredibly smart, but he could be very tentative, never taking any risks unless he had no choice. I wasn’t about to let him off that easy on this one.
“I mean, I get what you’re saying,” he said after a while. “And there’s obviously merit to the idea of starting fresh. But…”
“But what?”
“It’s a lot of work, Vee. And it would cost more than Gale and I have between us.”
“Excuses,” I told him. He grinned at the callback.
“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing,” he said.
“Besides talking some sense into my best friend?”
“You’re trying to distract me from the elephant in the room.”
I looked around theatrically, then back at him with a puzzled expression. “No elephants here.”
“Right.”
“So? What are you going to do about the restaurant?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t want to think about it just yet, which is why I came all the way ov
er here; to get my mind off things. You’re not doing me any favors with your relentless questioning.”
“Well, we’ll figure it out. I’ll help you.”
“I know you will.”
“Great!”I reached over and grabbed another brownie. I was just about to pop it into my mouth when Tyler reached over and put a hand on my forearm.
“Might want to slow down on those,” he said with a wry smile.
“Why? Because they go right to my hips?”
Tyler laughed. “Please. We both know you couldn’t put on weight if you tried. Just… maybe one is enough?”
I turned to him with narrowed eyes. Tyler had an expression of guilt and mischief, and it only took me a second to figure out what was happening.
“What? You did not!”
I lifted the brownie up to my nose and took a deep sniff. I didn’t know why I hadn’t smelled it before, but it was right there.
“Dude! You laced my brownies!”
“I’m sorry!” Tyler said. “I meant to mention it, and then it slipped my mind.”
“When did you even…?”
“While you were out getting the thing from your neighbor.”
“Not cool. How much did you put in?”
“Not much. I told you, I just want to chill and have fun with my best friend. Like old times.”
I stood up, walked to the window, and back to the couch. I brought my hand to my face and flexed my fingers. I didn’t feel any different.
“It hasn’t hit yet,” Tyler said with a smile. “Give it a couple more minutes.”
I suddenly felt naked and very self-conscious. It had been a while since I did weed with Tyler. If my previous reactions were anything to go by, I was about to get very animated and very paranoid.
“How come you haven’t had any?” I said, sitting back down. I grabbed a brownie and pushed it into Tyler’s face. He took it from me and wolfed it down, his eyes lighting up.
“That’s more like it,” he said. “Now, come on and tell me about the hot neighbor.”
I shook my head, still not believing what Tyler had done. It was typical if I was being honest, I should have seen it coming. A month apart and no hijinks? Of course, he would want to blow things up. In the back of my mind, I realized my self-control was slipping. I suddenly wanted very much to tell him all about Cam.
Oh my God, Cam. That beautiful, frustrating man. Why was I suddenly visualizing his tall, athletic frame? The way his skin glistened after he broke a sweat. The sharp V of his torso as that soft tuft of hair disappeared down his pants. The cords of muscle in his thighs, powerful and thick, just like his arms, and every inch of him. I drew my legs together and squeezed my thighs against each other. It felt like my pants were soaked through, just like that.
My skin felt tingly and incredibly sensitive. I was definitely high.
Right on cue, I heard a knock on the front door, which seemed overly loud and intrusive. I glanced over at Tyler, who shrugged and went back to his brownie.
I had a feeling it was him. Who else would it be? I hadn’t made any other friends in the building. Holy shit, I hadn’t made any friends at all. I needed to do something about that. I was fully unpacked, and I was starting to really think of this place as home. It would be a good idea to familiarize myself with the people. Put down roots, as it were.
The knock came again. It may have been louder, more urgent, or I could have been imagining it. I got up, so very slowly, and marched to the door.
Cam beamed down at me as I swung it open. Ever so beautiful. Always grinning like he found everything funny. Or perhaps it was me he found funny. I reached for the nearest wall to keep myself steady; the combination of Cam in that tiny white tee and the world suddenly decided to spin was playing games with my balance.
“Smells good in there,” Cam commented brightly.
“No!” I said without thinking. And then I realized that the conversation I was responding to had only happened in my head. The one where he asked if he could have a brownie.
“What?” Cam said, frowning.
“Nothing. How can I help you?” It came out cold and curt, which wasn’t at all what I was going for.
“Uh, I need to speak to you. I have a huge favor to ask.”
“Now?” I asked, looking back at Tyler on the couch. Cam followed my gaze, looking over my shoulder.
“Oh, I didn’t realize you had company. I could come back another time…”
Yes, please do.
I thought I said it out loud. I was sure I did. But I realized when Cam turned to walk away, that it had only happened in my head again.
“No, no,” I said out loud. I reached out and grabbed his arm, turning him around and pulling him back.
“Give me a minute,” I said.
I ducked back into the apartment and mumbled something to Tyler about being back in a bit. Then I skipped back out, closed the door behind me, and signaled for Cam to follow me.
I don’t know when the idea popped into my head, but I knew right away it was a great one. I wasn’t sure what he wanted to ask me, but there was only one place I felt was private enough, and that’s where I led him to.
We took the stairs all the way to the top floor. I felt Cam’s hand hover over my lower back as we went like he was thinking about sliding it around my waist. He seemed to decide against it. We were mostly silent as we walked, and my mind kept churning out increasingly bad ideas for small-talk topics. Eventually, we got to the very top of the building, where a small, rectangular trap door was hidden away in the ceiling, almost indistinguishable. I reached down and felt around for the nook I knew was there. My fingers closed around it, and as the door opened, a tiny step ladder came down all the way to where we were standing.
Cam paused at the foot of the step ladder, a curious expression on his face.
“The roof?” he asked.
“Yeah. It’s really cozy, actually. I discovered it a few days ago.”
He nodded, apparently impressed. He stepped aside, indicating that I should go first, and I obliged. It was quite similar to the first time we met; me in front, feeling increasingly conscious of my ass and his eyes behind me. Not unlike the first time, I didn’t mind it too much.
I stepped out into the brightly lit rooftop, squinting as my eyes got used to the abrupt change. Cam followed me out, his face scrunched up too.
“Wow,” he said, looking around us.
“I know, right?”
The rooftop was easily the coolest thing about my apartment building. It seemed like a part that was never meant to exist; an extension of the building the owner probably had no idea was even there. It was a large, open space, stretching all the way around to the low walls overlooking the city. The brick finishing on the walls was different from any other part of the building, which sort of confirmed my theory about the rooftop being from a different era.
You could tell, though, that people had been there before. There were signs of life all over; cigarette stubs, empty cans of beer, a lone shoe here and there… The first time I was up there, there had even been a few items of clothing, enough to suggest someone had held a party.
Most notably, though, there was a small, two-seater couch pushed away to one side of the rooftop.
I had examined it thoroughly last time. It was a faded shade of grey-black, and its cushions were thin enough to imply long use. Its legs were all gone, so it was resting somewhat unevenly on the concrete surface. But it was, for all intents and purposes, perfectly sound. Whoever left it here had done everyone in the building a huge favor.
“This view is ridiculous,” Cam said, walking up to the edge and peering over it. I drifted over to him and followed his gaze. The city was laid out in front of us in all its glory, miles and miles of buildings and roads and tiny people milling about.
“It is,” I agreed.
The wind was whipping around us fiercely, and I had to grab Cam’s arm to stop myself from being blown away.
“Careful,” he s
aid unnecessarily.
“What did you want to ask me?”I turned my face up to him. It felt wonderful, the warm sun forcing my eyes shut, the wind swirling over and around us, the heat from his fingers burning through my skin.
“Right. Well, I don’t… Are you okay?”
“What?”
“You seem… different,” Cam said, staring at me intently as if hoping to figure out just what was different.
“Different how?” I asked.
“I don’t know if I can explain it. Just different, I guess.”
“Because you know me so well, huh?”
“I know you well enough, Yvette.”
I expected to hear the drop in tone and volume of his voice, the telltale sign that he was making a subtle pass at me. But he looked serious, anxious, even.
“What’s going on, Cam?” I asked.
Cam looked once more over the city skyline, then he turned and nodded to the couch in the corner. We walked over to it and sat down.
“Look,” Cam said. “I do know you fairly well. At least I think I do. It’s only been a couple of weeks, but I feel like we’ve gotten close, have we not?”
I nodded nervously. Why did this feel like a break-up speech?
“In that spirit, I have a little confession to make. I haven’t shared with you the biggest part of my life. And that’s on me. I should have, and I’m sorry I haven’t. But I’m going to rectify that right now.”
I suddenly wished he wouldn’t. I wasn’t in the right frame of mind. It felt like he was about to confide something serious to me, and I didn’t think I was ready for it.
“I have a daughter,” he said after a pregnant pause.
“Oh,” I said. I had not seen that coming.
“I know. I know. It’s a long story, most of it incredibly complicated. I’ll tell you all about it, I promise. But I need a favor from you. It’s a huge favor, so I’d understand if your answer is no. I really hope it’s not, though.”
“Okay…” My mind was reeling as I tried to imagine what he could possibly want with me that also involved his daughter. I had been right; this wasn’t a conversation I was ready for.
“You remember the dinner with Wyatt and Mrs. Flores? During the company retreat?”