Chapter 27
—Mila—
One month later
“We’re going out tonight, Mi.”
I handed Cain his lunch.
“Thanks, darlin’.”
Smiling, I held out my hand. “You’re welcome.”
He chuckled, grabbing some cash from his wallet. “No tomatoes?”
“I’ve been making your lunch every day since your plane landed. I know how you like it.”
“Why don't you let me show you how I like it in the bedroom?”
I ignored his smartass mouth. “Extra jalapenos. No tomatoes.”
“Good girl.” He handed me a ten-dollar bill.
“Where are we going tonight?”
Cain and I were spending a lot of our free time together.
Who was I kidding?
We spent a lot of time together in general. We both lived at the marina, and I worked for him so to speak. Cain used his employer status over me to his benefit. I made him breakfast, lunch, and dinner, on top of helping him with his catamaran whenever he needed it. We’d gotten close. On my days off, we were drinking buddies, sightseeing homies, or we were on the couch or in my bed, binge watching series after series like television junkies.
His catamaran wasn’t exactly ready to live on, but since he had all the amenities like a shower on the property of the marina, the only thing he used his sailboat for was to sleep. Although, he did crash on my couch more than he was actually sleeping on his catamaran. I didn’t mind, I enjoyed having him around. It felt like I had a piece of Leo with me and his presence in my daily life was comforting, to say the least.
Leo and I had only spoken twice in the last month. Both times were brief and on Facebook messenger. I ended up changing my settings to not show when I was online or else, he’d message me as soon as he logged on. To my complete and utter surprise, Leo spent a lot of time on Facebook. Stalking my page. Except he didn’t interact with my posts and the only reason I knew he was seeing them was because he’d call me out on whatever I recently posted when he’d randomly pm me.
The most recent…
Remember when I used to make you smile like that?
Leo was referring to the photo that the marina took of me and Cain on his boat. They tagged both of us in it. His arms were around my waist, about to toss me in the water. We had huge smiles on our faces and from an outsider looking in, it probably appeared as if we were a couple.
We weren’t.
However, I ignored that message from Leo too.
“You are off tomorrow, let’s hit up the bars tonight.”
“Awe,” I sarcastically stated. “You remember my schedule.”
“I pay attention to detail. It’s why I’m so smart.”
“You’re smart?”
He grinned before taking a bite of his chicken sandwich. “I convinced you moving here was a good idea.”
“It’s not like you had to twist my arm.”
Last weekend, we went to the carnival that was in town. We rode roller coasters the entire day, screaming and laughing with each other. He literally threw my body over his shoulder for a few rides, only the ones I refused to go on with him. We stayed there till the park closed and then went dancing until the sun came up.
The next day was mostly spent on my couch, we were both hungover as fuck.
“You can wear that little baby blue panty set you have.”
“You Peeping Tom!”
He chuckled, “You leave your clean laundry on your bed and I’m just trying to help you get laid. You know, like Leo used to.”
I stopped smiling.
“Something I said?”
“I don’t want to talk about Leo.”
“You never want to talk about Leo.”
I didn’t.
“You know he misses the shit out of you, right?”
“Mmm hmm.”
“Why are you torturing him?”
“I’m not.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Mi…”
“It’s a long story.”
“I have time.”
“Well I don’t, I have to get back to work.” I turned to leave.
“Sex always complicated things for me, Mila. It’s why I made the pact.”
I snapped back around. “Leo told you?”
“His exact words were, ‘We made love.’”
“He said that to you? When?”
“The last time I saw him. It was the week before I flew here.”
“And you’re just now telling me this?”
“You never want to talk about him.”
“What else did he say?”
“I thought you didn’t want to talk about him?”
“Cain—”
“Mila!” Captain Jack shouted from his yacht, breaking up our intense conversation. “Could you help me with my rope?”
“Of course!”
I didn’t go back to Cain’s catamaran for the rest of the day. At ten-thirty he was knocking on my door ready to go. We strolled down to the bars that were within walking distance of the marina. Neither one of us brought up the conversation from this afternoon. We found a little dive bar that served food and had live music with karaoke. Sitting at dinner for the next few hours, we talked about nothing in particular, enjoying one another’s company.
“Is that the love of your life who keeps texting you, Cain?”
“No, Mi.” He winked. “She’s sitting right in front of me.”
I giggled, “Who keeps texting you?”
All it took was one word to damper my buzz.
“Leo.”
“Does he know you’re with me?”
He nodded.
“Is he asking about me?”
He nodded again.
“Is it bad?”
“He’s not happy.”
“About?”
“Us.”
“What about us?”
“I’m not going to lie to him, Mila. He knows we’re together all the time.”
“So what? We’re just friends.”
“Are we?”
I jerked back. “Are we not?”
“I think we could be more than just friends.”
I smiled. “You’re totally fucking with me right now.”
He leaned into the table, displaying those irresistible dimples of his. “What if I’m not? You’re gorgeous, fun, have a killer body, I could do worse. Actually, I have.”
“Cain, are you drunk?”
“Maybe, but you know what they say, a drunk never tells lies. I like you, Mila. I know you like me. We should see where this can go.” Cain slowly slid his fingers into my hand and started stroking my palm.
“As in you and me?”
“Do you need me to spell it out for you, Mi? I want you to ride my dick.”
“Oh…” I nodded. “This is about sex?”
“No, sleeping with me is just an added bonus.”
“You’re messing with me.” I stood, laughing. Not believing a word he said. “I’m going to the bathroom, be right back.”
I took two steps and out of nowhere, Cain grabbed onto my wrist, yanking me onto his lap.