“You don’t have to be nice to me.” Her whole body shuddered with the effort to suck back her tears.
“Is it more than the lawsuit? Is there something else?” Sullivan asked, still holding Kia.
“Isn’t that enough?”
“It’s absolutely enough. It’s too much.” Sullivan released Kia but kept one arm around her shoulder. “Butisthere anything else?”
“My cousin used to be my best friend, and she still is, but she’s in a relationship, and I feel like she doesn’t have time for me, which is selfish. And my dad’s out of cell range. And Gretchen’s a great businessperson, but she never loved me when we were dating.” A litany of woes poured out of Kia. “And that’s the only relationship I’ve had. And I shouldn’t be upset. People love me, and not everyone has that, but I’m always traveling. I used to think it was an adventure, but I started to think of Taste the Love as a home base. I’d travel but I’d have a home here. But it’s just a business. You can buy a business. You can’t buy home. And now I’ve ruined your home too. And you have to live with me, and you hate it. And you have to be on social media, and you hate it. Oh god, and now I’ve laid all this on you and got snot on your shirt.”
Please, let her not actually have snotted on Sullivan.
Kia scooted to the end of the bed and stood up. She took a deep breath. Oddly, she felt a little better. She walked over to themirror and assessed how much concealer she’d need to do a live stream. More than LYS Beauty made last year.
“Fuck me,” she said to her reflection. “I didn’t accidentally tell you you were the hottest woman in our class, did I?”
She heard Sullivan chuckle behind her. “And that you had a massive crush on me. I was very flattered.”
Thank god; the way Sullivan said it told Kia she hadn’t taken Kia seriously.
“I just didn’t want you to think I said you were off-brand because you weren’t…”
“Massively hot?”
“Right. That. And Opal said you hated social media.”
“So you were going to fight Nina on the social media bit?”
“Yeah.”
A pause.
“Thanks.”
“We could plan a whole bunch of social media things and do them all in one day. Then you wouldn’t have to think about it,” Kia offered. “I could make a list, and you could see what you hated least.”
“And you could bring some stuff in from your RV. Make this place yours. Hang up some of your sexy flower art.”
“You’ve got life-sized nudes!”
“Then it’ll all match,” Sullivan said. “Hell, you’ve already shook up everything. Get us a rescue dog. Isn’t that what queer women do?”
“I don’t think I should get us a rescue dog.” Kia laughed. It felt like sunshine after a storm.
Sullivan was smiling.
“Not even if it has emotional issues? I was hoping for something that would eat the sofa.” Sullivan shook her head, but hersmile widened, revealing a cute dimple that hadn’t made an appearance when they were in school, perhaps because Sullivan’s smile had always been a little guarded. Kia hadn’t noticed that until she saw this unguarded smile. As though she’d felt Kia’s admiring gaze, Sullivan touched her index finger to her lips for a second. “But, seriously, Kia, I don’t hate living with you. Make this feel like your home. You don’t have to live here like a ghost.”
chapter 16
Sullivan felt bothrelieved and nervous that Kia was taking the initiative with the social media campaign. They sat down at a table by the window of Mirepoix, like a couple on a date at a quiet café. Sullivan rarely experienced her restaurant from this angle. It was peaceful. A white gravel path lined with low boxwood hedges led from the parking lot to the front door. In a few weeks, she’d set up the outdoor seating area and turn on the string lights that lit the forest like fairies. And next year… it was hard to transpose Kia, perfectly coiffed with dark purple glitter sparkling in a halo around her Afro, onto the image of Kia in a hard hat bulldozing the Bois. It felt like Sullivan should be able to say,Let me help you find another property. Kia would say,Thank god. I hoped you’d say that.Then they’d drive around the industrial neighborhoods looking for attractive vacant lots. In the evening, they’d cuddle on the sofa, with Zillow open on Sullivan’s laptop, and Kia reading off the specs because the concentration it took Sullivan to read the screen made her eyes tired.
Sullivan must have been lonely like Opal said. Images of Kia floated in and out of her mind all day. If she’d just been noticing Kia’s attractive body or gorgeous hair, that’d be one thing. Having dirty thoughts about Kia would be inappropriate, but it was natural to notice a woman as striking as Kia. But Sullivan hadn’t been ogling Kia’s ass. Well, okay, she had once or twice. But mostlyshe thought about Kia reading on the sofa, Kia cooking in her pajamas, Kia standing in the bathroom doing whatever it was she did to style her hair in a perfect sphere. Sullivan pictured sitting beside Kia in Kia’s truck watching the ocean on a rainy day at the coast (which really meant there was something wrong with Sullivan, because using a truck that size for all-purpose transportation—over the Coast Range at that—was unconscionable). Sullivan pictured falling asleep next to Kia, and her own bed felt emptier than it had before.
“Are you ready?”
Sullivan jumped.
“I’m sorry. Yes. What?” She’d been staring at Kia’s purple nail polish and the collection of glittery bracelets on Kia’s wrists. There was something very personal and very crush-like about pondering a woman’s wrists.