Even a few small boats.
“I hope that’s not too corny for you, is it?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No. Not at all.”
We found a small bench and sat down together – closer than necessary. Despite Nya and her interruption, we’d made it right on time.
And it was… beautiful.
“I come out here when I can’t get back to sleep. It feels peaceful, you know?”
“Yeah, it is,” I agreed. “That’s what happened to you this morning? You couldn’t sleep?”
He nodded. “I was on my way here, stopped at UG, looked across the street… thought it would be nice to have some company.”
“So you thought since you couldn’t sleep, I shouldn’t either?”
Tristan pulled his gaze away from the view to grin at me. “Yes. Exactly. Thank you for understanding.”
“Asshole,” I laughed, nudging his shoulder with mine until he gave in and laughed too. After a moment, he put his arm around my shoulders again, pulling me into him, and… I couldn’t help it.
I dropped my head against him, and let myself be comfortable with being so damned comfortable.
“Thank you for walking with me,” he said, planting a kiss on top of my head that made me smile.
“You’re welcome. Thanks for inviting me.”
I still might kill this bitch.
Just for simply daring to exist in the same space as me.
This time, Nya wasn’t doing anything particularly wrong – she hadn’t said anything to me at all, in fact, offering nothing more than a slight sneer of acknowledgement. But the fact that, on a day I’d decided to venture to the coffeehouse for my regular people watching, she’d decided to make herself one of the people… it grated at me.
I’d chosen big, dark shades from my stash today, since we were having bright, sunny weather. Not that my eyes needed the sun protection, no. The shades were for camouflage – the weather made them not stand out as much.
Which was good.
Because the daggers I was staring into Nya and her equally shitty friend were vicious enough to earn me a restraining order, probably. Did I actually know anything about the woman she was sitting on a couch, cackling with? Of course not. But a wise person had taught me early on, bitches like that ran in packs.
I kept my expression stony, my gaze locked as they both, one by one, looked in my direction. Nya said something, and they both laughed as they openly stared.
Classic bullying tactic that I had to compel myself not to react to.
If I reacted, it would be with a level of force that landed me in jail.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody grip a mug that tight.”
A feminine voice drew my attention upward, to where a familiar face was standing near my chair.
“Jules, in case you don’t remember,” she said, her pretty face spreading into a smile as she took it upon herself to sink into the overstuffed chair beside me. “Tristan introduced you to a bunch of us at once, so I wouldn’t be surprised.”
I had been gripping my latte extra tight, channeling my anger through my fist, I guess. Putting it down on the table beside me, I returned Jules’ smile and shook my head. “No, I wouldn’t have been able to place your name, but I remember you. That beautiful haircut,” I said, gesturing to where the flowers I recalled had already been replaced with a sunburst design.
“Perks of being booed up with the best barber in town,” she laughed. “I see you know a little about that,” she continued, pointing to where my tattoo was exposed due to my slouchy one-shoulder top. “Your ink is gorgeous. That’s Tristan’s work, right?”
“It is.” My fingers went reflexively to the place where my rose was covered, even though it no longer evoked anything more than passing emotion. No matter how hard I stared, how long I looked, I couldn’t see it in the mirror anymore. Apparently, the last of the memory was embedded in my fingertips.
“Eddie’s protégé,” Jules said. “I could be biased, but they’re really the best in the business.”
Whatever response I may have had to that was lost to annoyance over another loud burst of laughter from Nya and her friend. I took in a deep breath, letting it out in a sharp exhale through my nose as I pressed my lips together to avoid yelling something ugly in their direction.
“Ah,” Jules smirked. “I see we have a little something else in common too.”
I raised an eyebrow at her, waiting for her answer.
“Nya and Mia over there,” she said, openly gesturing, not caring if they saw her. “Or, like I prefer to refer to them – dumb and dumber.”
I pulled my sunnies up, propping them on my head. “You don’t like them either?”
“More like, they don’t like me, so I’m giving them the same damn energy.
“Why don’t they like you?”
Jules rolled her eyes. “Well, Mia used to fuck with Troy, casually, until he decided to stop… fucking with people casually. He wanted something serious… with me. But she felt like it should’ve been her, so she tried to mess with me, on some mean girl shit that I wasn’t having.”
“Yeah. Sounds familiar.”
“Nya and Tristan used to kick it, so… I can imagine. It was before I moved back, so I don’t really know much about it. I do know she beefed with Von.”
“Von?”
“Tristan’s other ex. High-school sweetheart, Kiara’s mom…”
“Oh, right.”
He’d mentioned her to me before.
“Maybe I should say used to beef with Von. Von beat her ass a couple years ago, and I don’t think she’s had a problem out of Nya since then.”
“Damn, really?” I asked, eyes wide.
“Mmmhmm,” Jules confirmed, with a wicked smile. “I don’t know the whole story, but Tris and Nya were dating at the time. I guess Nya got particularly flagrant or something, I don’t know. But what I do know is that Von went to the salon and dog walked her in front of everybody. And then…” she broke off from her story to snicker. “Legend has it, Von climbed off her, straightened her clothes, looked at Nya and said… I think your client’s dryer went off.”
“Shut up!” I yelped, letting out a loud burst of laughter I couldn’t keep back. “Did she really?!”
Giggling, Jules shrugged. “If it’s a lie, Nik is the one who told it. This was like a year before I came back, so I missed it.”
“Came back?”
“Yeah,” she nodded. “I was born here, then moved and lived in Cali for a while. Moved back, opened my business… found the love of my life,” she grinned. “So… I’m pretty settled now. What about you? Has the rumor mill correctly spread that you bought that little candle shop across the street?”
Ugh.
I’d forgotten, kinda, about that element of staying in one place for an extended period. People remembered your face, then your name, then caught on to your routines, and started retaining details of your life.
Dangerous, for the life I used to live.
Now… it was part of blending into the neighborhood.
Deep cover, like Alicia said.