When I returned to the kitchen, Navy looked up from her phone and let her brown eyes flit over me like she was reading through my browser history. “I can’t stay for long because I have to re-work Senator Freeman’s schedule for this coming week. A few new meetings popped up and I have to move some appointments around.”
“Oh…is he going to be busy this week?” I asked, tugging on a springy lock of curls.
“Yeah. Lots of late nights.” My stomach clenched. Would I be able to see him in the evenings like I’d grown accustomed to doing? I’d miss eating dinner with him and Frankie. I bit my bottom lip and tried to figure out dinner ideas that traveled well. Maybe Frankie and I could take him dinner on the nights he worked late.
“You okay, Xari?” Navy waved her hand in front of my face and I blinked away the haze.
“Yeah. I’m good. Did you bring weed?”
“Oh my god, girl. No. Let’s look through your DM’s and see if Damon reached out to you yet. Everyone has been tagging you like crazy.”
“I know.” I checked my phone and in just that little bit of time I’d been away from it, my notifications piled sky-high again.
“Xari, are you okay? You look different.” She narrowed her eyes and I tried to turn away from her so she couldn’t see the burgundy bruise on my neck.
“Cuter?” I smiled.
“No. You do look…relaxed though.” Navy lifted her eyebrow and walked around me in a circle.
“Stop doing that,” I fussed, bunching my brows together. “We’re supposed to be combing through these DM’s.”
“Uh-huh…what have you been doing?”
“Nothing.”
“Liar. Let me rephrase it. Who have you been doing? I’ve seen you come home after fucking god knows who enough to know when you’ve been throwing your vagina around.”
“Oh my god. You make me sound like such a ho. Throwing my vagina around?” I laughed a little and shook my head while I looked through my messages on Instagram.
“Does Senator Freeman know you have men coming in his house?”
“I don’t have men coming into his house. I’d never bring men in and out of here knowing Frankie could see.”
Navy regarded me for a moment then said, “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Yeah. I adore that little girl. I don’t want her to see random men coming and going. She looks up to me. If she saw that she might think it was okay to…” My words trailed off and I realized in that space of silence that I wanted Frankie to be better than me.
I was fine with casual sex and hookups when I needed to fuck away my stress but I didn’t want her to do the same thing. I wanted her to be selective.
“Be like you?” Navy asked, knowingly. I shrugged my shoulders and nodded. “There’s nothing wrong with being sexually liberated, Xari but you gotta examine the root of it. If you’re like that because you’re trying to fill a void, then there’s a problem.”
“I’m not trying to fill a void.”
“But you are fucking someone, aren’t you? I heard how nervous and jittery you were on the phone before I came over. Now you’re relaxed and glowing.” She laughed a little then honed in on my hickey.
Dammit.
“And if you haven’t had any men running through here then you must be fucking Senator Freeman because he’s the only other man…in…here. Xari!” She slapped my shoulder repeatedly while she screamed at me at a rate much faster than I could decipher.
Goddammit, Navy. Always figuring shit out when nobody asked you!
“Stop hitting me or I’m calling Mom!” I shouted over her incessant nagging. I pushed her away from me but it didn’t stop her evil glare. “What is your problem, Navy? You act like you cracked a code to something.”
“I did. You’re fucking Senator Freeman. Aren’t there enough men out there willing to give you what you want without you having to go after your boss? Our boss. I recommended you for this nanny position and you’re screwing the boss?”
“I never said I was fucking Freeman.” After the way he made me come, calling him Freeman felt too stiff. I wanted to call him Daddy. “You assumed. Like I’d be willing to put my job on the line.” I tried to sound convincing. Hopefully, she couldn’t tell I was full of shit.
“You have a hickey on your neck. Senator Freeman was ten minutes late getting out of the house, which is not normal for him. When he walked out, you were right there beside him, grinning like you’d just been fucked. You’re relaxed and happy. You have a hickey on your neck, and you rushed to the bathroom as soon as I got in here.
You’re fucking him and I have no idea how you even worked your way into that one because Senator Freeman is not an easy nut to crack.” For the first time since my sister started ranting at me, I heard something that piqued my interest.
“Wait…how do you know he’s not an easy nut to crack?” I snickered inwardly at the term nut to crack…because naturally, I have the humor of a middle school kid. “Have you tried to crack him, Navy?” I lifted my eyebrow and tried to control the anger flickering inside. Was I prepared to be jealous of my sister over a man I’d just started fucking?
See? Evander hit the crazy button when he fucked me. Or maybe it was when he sucked my clit into his mouth. Or when he choked me until I couldn’t breathe.
“What? Have I tried to get with my boss? No. Absolutely not. You know that’s not me. I do have access to his work and personal schedule though and he’s never scheduled a date or time with a woman besides when he has to go to court with Alexis,” she said. “Xari do you know how many women throw themselves at him? He’s had expensive gifts sent to him from celebrities and been asked out so many times I can’t count. The point is…he never entertains any of that. He doesn’t date. He doesn’t let the attention go to his head. He’s focused on his work as a senator.” I knew that was a lie. Well, at least the part about him being focused on his job as a senator. Evander’s focus was on writing. He went along with being a senator.
“He doesn’t date?” I quizzed.
“No. I’m sure he has ways of…releasing tension but it’s never important enough to be on his schedule.”
“So that should be enough for you to know nothing is going on with us. I’m not on his schedule.” I forced a smile but inside I wondered what it took to be important enough to get penciled in on the senator’s schedule.
“I’m sure he doesn’t schedule late-night hookups though, Xari so what the hell is going on?” Before I could open my mouth and lie to her again, her phone chimed. She pulled it from her Louis bag, which I approved of, and checked the notification. “Speak of the devil. See? This is what I mean. I get his schedule updates in real-time, so I know if I need to rearrange things for him.” I came to peer over her shoulder.
The block for today was littered with meetings, phone calls, and blocks of time for him to sign and review papers. After 4:00 PM, it read:
Clear all appointments after four. I need to be home for personal reasons.
-E.F.
I blinked a few times and tried not to smile too hard. Navy’s lips dropped into a frown. “I wonder why he wants me to clear his schedule. Frankie doesn’t get dropped off until seven tonight and I already reworked his time slots not to go past then.” She tucked a chunk of hair behind her ear and blew out a frustrated breath.