by Eden Butler
“Hey, Miss Lady!” a small, cracking voice said, and Gia jerked her attention away from Kai, and to the kid standing beside them.
“Donovan,” she said, already reaching inside that small tan bag of hers for some cash. “How you doing today?”
“Working, you know how that goes.” He gave Kai a once over, his mouth turning down like he wasn’t impressed with what he saw before he returned his attention to Gia. “Who’s this guy?”
“My…friend. One…of my…he’s just a friend,” she finally told him, folding a bill between her fingers. She held it there, looking the kid over. “I’m not giving you a dime until I see you drink some water.”
The kid lowered his shoulders, pulling a full bottle from one of the pockets of his cargo shorts. “Knew you’d say that. I was ready for you.” He downed the water, releasing a loud “ah” once he was done and bowed to Gia, exaggerating a wave like he’d just completed three flips in a row solely for her benefit.
“Good,” she said, stepping away from her spot on the concrete stairs. She handed over the money, curling her arms around her waist. “You keep hydrated and get something to eat with that. Good job today.”
“Thank you, Miss Lady.” Donovan spared one final look at Kai, twisting his mouth down again before he muttered, “bye” to the man and was gone.
“You’re too nice,” he told her, scanning the crowd as she looked after the boy. He knew Gia was smart. She’d have to be to land the job she had, and he knew growing up in New York, with all the brothers Reese had told Kai Gia had, probably made her savvy, but New Orleans was different. This city required a different level of street smarts.
“I have enough to be generous when I can.” She shook her head, turning away from the crowd, moving her bags from one shoulder to the other.
They came to a larger throng of people and Kai stepped in front of her, using his size to clear some of the crowd from their path, stopping short when an old man to his right spotted Gia and took off the pageboy hat he wore, holding it to his chest as he gave her a bow and waved her in front of him.
This motherfucker…Kai thought, quickly catching on to the old man’s game.
“Oh, how sweet,” Gia muttered, moving in front of the man, ignoring Kai when he shook his head. She glanced at him, laughing.
“What?”
“You think I don’t know what he was doing?” Kai blinked at her, arching his eyebrows and Gia’s laughter doubled. “You think I’m new or something? I’m…ah…old enough to know when a man, even an old man wants a good look at my ass.”
Kai glanced over his shoulder, glaring at the old pervert who stood in the middle of the sidewalk watching Gia walk away, biting his bottom lip like he wished it was Gia’s ass.
“Son of a…” Kai started to turn, meaning to have a few words with old asshole but Gia gripped his arm, waving him off.
“Not worth it,” she told him. “My God, you really need to work on your impulse control.”
“I have impulse control,” he told her, popping his neck as they moved away from the old man. “You have no idea how much control I have.”
She ignored the glance he threw her way, likely choosing to disregard the subtle meaning of who Kai had to control himself around. Gia didn’t seem eager to open any doors that led to them kissing or elsewhere that made Kai’s impulse control necessary.
“You know, it’s not like you don’t get attention,” she admitted, smiling when they came to a group of young girls moving in the opposite direction on the sidewalk.
Kai thought he heard his name, definitely heard teenage squeals of excitement and then a bunch of muted arguing of those voices debating who would approach him.
“This never gets old,” Gia told him, leaning in to whisper in his ear. Kai closed his eyes, enjoying that sweet smelling scent for the half second it was there before she moved back to his side and they had to stop at another intersection.
“Um…Mr. Pukui?” he heard, turning to see a young blond girl, her eyes small, her skin tan. Like her companions behind her, the girl wore a school uniform—plaid red and gray skirt, and red polo shirt with a giant red bow in her hair. “Can I…get a selfie with you?”
“He’d love that,” Gia said, pushing Kai and the girl away from the intersection, posing them at a corner of the street that lined up with an azalea bush blooming bright pink flowers. “Why don’t you all get in the picture?
In unison, the girls screamed, jumping up and down as they surrounded Kai and he clenched his jaw, shooting Gia a quick glare he had to recover the second she held up the blond girl’s phone as they posed for the image.
“On three,” Gia said, shifting her gaze from the screen to Kai’s face, her smile wicked and obnoxiously amused. “One…two…three!”
Several…million selfies later, Gia was hysterical, Kai was irritated, and six sophomores from St. John the Baptist all girls’ school from lakeside each had a selfie, group selfies and bragging rights that they’d med the Steamers’ lineman.
“So good for fan morale,” Gia teased, her laughter increasing when Kai ignored her.
“Shut up,” he said, still trying to wipe the bright pink lipstick from his cheek. “That little girl had a death grip. I was scared she wasn’t going to let me go.”
“Hmm, maybe I should recruit her. We can always use second string running backs.”
The laughter bubbled from Kai’s chest and his irritation at the small Catholic school girl attack left him. He liked being with Gia. He liked there being nothing between them—no excuses for them not to talk freely, no reason for anyone to question why they were together. She wasn’t telling him to forget what happened at Summerland’s or that nothing would ever come of the obvious spark that buzzed between them anytime they were together.
Gia had walls and Kai did his best to break them down.
They came to the last intersection before their building, some four blocks from home and he, again, stepped in front of her, keeping Gia from the swarm of students, all decked out in khaki shorts and navy blue shirts, that descended from a yellow school bus when it stopped at the corner of the street.
“Everyone in a line. Find your partner!” a heavy-set man called, waving his arms to grab the attention of what looked like at least a hundred children.
“Shit,” Gia said, hanging onto Kai’s arm when several kids in one line brushed against her.
“Here,” he told her, hoisting her off the street by her hips and onto the window ledge of a Gucci outlet before he joined her, taking her hand as she helped him up. “Best to get out of their way than try to move around them.”
“Are you Kai Pukui?” he heard, glancing at the small, older woman, her arms loaded down with several bouquets of white and pink roses.
“Guilty,” he told her. The woman looked tired, her face a little gaunt, her hair dry and fraying in the loose braid she wore. Something in her face, how dull her eyes were, how sallow her skin tone seemed did something to him and Kai knelt down, putting himself eyelevel with the woman as she approached the window ledge. “Whatcha got there?” He pointed at the flowers, seeing that some of them had begun to wilt in the hot August temperatures despite the small circular tubes of water attached at the bottom to the stems.
The woman smiled, her yellow teeth peeking behind her chapped lips as she glanced between Kai and Gia. “They’re two for ten or five for fifteen.”
“And how many do you have left?”
“Um…” She glanced down at the bundles in her arms, those dull eyes moving as she seemed to calculate the numbers. “Um…looks like maybe five dozen.”
“Good. I’ll take them all. Will three hundred be enough?”
“Will it be enough?” They woman opened her mouth, but no sound came out for several seconds. Not until Kai took out his wallet and slipped out three large bills. At first, she only stared at the money, eyes wide and gleaming, but then Kai waved the money toward her and it seemed to wake her up. She glanced at him, sniffling. “Are
you serious?”
“Of course I am,” he told her, hopping down to take the flowers from her arms. They were heavier than he expected and when she exhaled, freed from the weight, Kai wished he had more cash on him. He’d bet she could use it.
She stuffed the money into her bra, wiping her nose with a black bandana she pulled from the front pocket of her jeans and then reached up to kiss Kai on the cheek. “Thank you, Mr. Pukui. You got no idea…my kids…I can buy groceries.” She glanced at Gia, her smile transforming her face, making her seem younger. “You’re a lucky lady. Enjoy the flowers.”
And then, she was gone, turning only once to wave at Kai before she weaved through the crowd.
“That was very sweet,” Gia told him, her feet dangling over the window ledge as Kai leaned against it.
“It’s nothing.”
“I hope you don’t think I’m going to accept sixty roses. I can’t even begin to image where I’d put sixty damn roses.”
He turned, smirking at her, then quickly pushing a mock offended frown over his mouth. “And who said I bought these for you, Miss Jilani?”
“Oh, we’re back to surnames.” She nodded, jumping from the ledge when the last of the school kid swarm cleared the sidewalk. “Cool.”
Kai followed behind her, not rushing, but keeping close enough to her that she could hear him as he stopped one person after another as they moved closer to their building.
“You have a great day, miss,” he said to the homeless woman, pushing a rusted shopping cart filled with empty soda cans. She offered Kai a nearly toothless grin in exchange for the four roses he handed her.
Gia turned, stopping to watching him as he continued down the street, only bothering with a few glances in her direction between his random acts of flora giving—two pink roses to the clerk from the Gucci store screaming into her cell at a bill collector, one white rose stuffed into the rim of a traffic cop’s hat as he directed cars around an old Chevy with a flat and nearly two dozen to the woman sitting on a bench with tears all over her face, telling the woman she leaned against that her test had been negative.
By the time they reached their building, Kai’s hand was nearly empty except for the four white roses he gripped between his fingers. Gia shook her head, laughing at him when he held onto them, not bothering to offer them to her or explain himself and the spontaneous altruistic acts of his.
The building was frigid coming in from the ridiculous August heat and Gia curled her arms, tightening them around her middle as Kai waved her inside, nodding to the security guard.
“Nice day,” he said, pushing the button to call the elevator as he leaned a shoulder against the wall. She nodded and slipped a glance to his face, a twitching smile working over her mouth. “You want to say something?” he asked when she looked down at his flowers.
“Not a thing.”
Still calm. Still controlled, Gia Jilani wasn’t a woman that would give a single inch and Kai loved that about her. They rode the elevator up in silence, Kai humming something low and out of tune, Gia, brushing back the curling wisps of hair from her face before the doors opened and she left the car first.
Her apartment was farther down the hall than his, but Kai wouldn’t stop at his door, a fact Gia seemed to notice when he followed behind her, turning as they passed his apartment.
“Going somewhere?”
“Just seeing you to your door, Gia.” He moved his chin, motioning for her to keep moving and, surprisingly, she did. But the woman stopped short of turning her key and opening it door. “So,” Kai said, moving the flowers from one hand to his other. “This could, technically, be considered our first date.”
Gia made a noise that was part laugh, mostly sound of disbelief before she shook her head. “No, it couldn’t, young man.”
“We spent a long time together,” he said, ignoring the small dig about his age. “We had a bite to eat.”
“Strawberries aren’t a meal,” she corrected.
“And took in a show,” he continued.
Her laugh was louder now. “The street performers? Then I’m a cheap date.”
“And,” he went on, twirling the flowers toward his face to smell them, “you took part in my random acts of kindness.”
“I didn’t actually. I only watched…” Gia went quiet when he offered her the flowers, her gaze moving slowly from those soft, white petals to his face before she took them.
“There. You accepted them. You just participated.” He grinned, hoping she thought he was as smooth as he thought he was. “See? Date.”
Gia ignored his assertion, smelling the flowers like he hadn’t said anything at all. “White roses…are my favorite,” she admitted, though she said that barely above a whisper.
“I’ll have to remember that for our next date.”
“No,” Gia said, the wistful expression on her face gone now. “There won’t be a date, Kai. I’ve told you. I’m your boss and I’m too…”
“Old for me…blah, blah…yeah, I heard it all before.” He leaned forward, caging her with one arm until she leaned back against the door. Gia opened her mouth and he became a little mesmerized by the glint of light that reflected along her bottom lip. But then Kai pulled the strap to her canvas bag farther up her shoulder, grinning when he saw the tight coil of worry visibly leave her face.
“I’m gonna keep asking,” he promised, adjusting the strap so that it was secure on her shoulder. “Because even you don’t buy your excuses anymore.” He stepped back, nodding to the flowers. “Put them in water.” And then Kai walked to his apartment wishing like hell he wasn’t going inside alone.
8.
GIA
THE SKY outside of her building was nearly black. That hadn’t been the case a half hour before when Gia found she couldn’t take how confining everything felt or how close she’d come to knocking on Kai’s door just to have someone to distract her from the demands of her life.
But that would have been irresponsible. It would have been inappropriate.
Nine years and a professional line separated them.
She could not cross it. No matter that Joe had caught her when Gia dropped her guard and forgot to screen her calls.
“Gia…pet, I’m happy to hear your voice” had morphed into something rude and accusing. “I’m surprised, actually, that you’ve answered my call at all.” Then came the insults she thought the man would never make against her simply because she hadn’t returned his calls.
She’d hung up on him and did what Gia always did when she needed a reprieve—she pulled off her designer suit and wiggled into her workout gear. Within fifteen minutes, she’d been on the running trail, earbuds pumping Bikini Kill on repeat because she was angry and wanted to hear good ragey Punk, as she killed her body trying to drive away the sound of Joe’s biting tone.
“You owe me. I deserve a little fucking time.”
But he didn’t. No one did. Not anymore.
The first raindrops fell when Gia was a solid mile and a half from her building. She could make out the arched rooftop and the rainclouds above it as she cleared an empty curve of the trail. The lounging tourists resting on blankets in the grassy areas across from the river’s edge automatically jumped up at the first crack of thunder and whip of lightning that brightened the sky and then, Gia was alone out there.
By the time she was half a mile from the building and could make out the back balconies, Kai’s among them, she was drenched and gave serious thought to hanging a left and trying to hail a cab just to keep out of the weather for the last small leg of her run. But the cabbies in New Orleans were notorious assholes and tended to ignore anyone hailing them that could mess up their interiors. Soaking as she was, Gia would qualify. Getting anyone to stop for her would be a miracle.
She pushed back the internal complaining and powered through, trying not to notice the thickening clouds and how dark the sky had grown as the trail dipped and she moved closer and closer toward her building. The sky was nearly pitch dar
k now, and the flood lights around the trail and at the back of the building came on as the path curved to the left and another incline brought her closer. The rain cut against her face, and Gia moved her head down, her vision obscured as she watched the pavement under her feet, trying to avoid the pelting rain as it fell right into her eyes. Then, she blinked, grabbing for her cell as she spotted the back entrance of the building, eager to retrieve her security pass, but her vision was obscured by the water collecting in her lashes and the hair that had slipped free from her loosening bun and Gia didn’t see the loosened paver right in front of her until she tripped on it.
She flew forward, dropping her phone to catch herself on the muddy grass next to the trail, crawling on her hands and knees when the cell slid down the incline and tumbled into the drain pooling the gushing water that ran from the street.
“Motherfucker!” Gia yelled, reaching for the cell, slipping herself then wincing when her ankle gave out. “Seriously?” She lay back, arms wide, welcoming the downpour, eyes opened to the black sky above her, wondering if her life really could be this ridiculous. “What else you got?” she said to whoever was listening above her, convinced that the universe or whoever controlled it was having the greatest laugh at her expense. But Gia knew better than to tempt fate. She knew laying down a challenge, however flippantly, was courting drama.
It came to her in a thunder of running steps. It came to her in the slowly shifting smile that moved over her head as she blinked at the pouring black clouds.
“Are you alive?” Kai said, his smile shifting, as though he really wanted to laugh, but was still unsure if she was only irritated and not hurt. When she nodded but didn’t speak, he knelt down, holding out his hand for her to take. “You hurt?” His voice was loud as he spoke over the cracking thunder around them. Gia nodded again and that threatening smile left his face. He reached for her head, rubbing the back, the sides and Gia allowed herself the smallest moment to inhale his scent and enjoy the warmth of his body so close to her.