There is a bump on Monique’s forehead that is raised right between her brows. By tomorrow, she might have two black eyes too.
“When you want to impress someone, you go all out, don’t you?” I ask, sitting in the chair in front of her desk.
“I didn’t call you to come get me so you could sit there and tease me,” she says, lowering the bag of ice she’s been pressing to her face.
“Are you sure? I thought that was protocol.”
She shakes her head and winces. “I look like an idiot.”
“You look like someone pushed open a door and hit you in the face.”
“Well, it sounds better than I remember it. I thought I did this to myself,” Monique says, adjusting the ice and putting it back on her nose. “I thought I clocked myself.”
“If it’s any consolation, Val feels really bad about knocking you out.”
Monique finally smiles, taking the ice off her face again. “She’s going to be making up for that one for a long time,” she threatens. “Especially if I end up with two black eyes.”
“Can I take you home now?” I ask. “I mean, I can’t be seen in public with you looking like this. It’ll ruin my image.”
Monique dismisses my diss with a shake of her head. “Thank you for coming to get me.”
“I love you. I would never leave you to look like that alone,” I tease again.
“Careful, Mr. Maxwell, or I’ll tell people you did this to me.”
“No one would ever believe you. I’m much too kind a person to inflict harm on anyone.”
She puckers her lips. “You need a woman who understands that.”
“Don’t I have one?”
She raises a brow. “Do you mean Brandy? Because no. I don’t think she knows that.”
“Well, I have you,” I say, and I notice a flash of something in her eyes before she narrows them at me.
“You’ll always have me, but you deserve better at home,” she says, standing, gaining her balance, and then picking up her purse from the top of her desk. “Will you feed me?”
I laugh. “Are we going in public or ordering in?”
“Do I look like I’m ready for public display?”
I walk around the desk and take the bag she carries all of her extra items in, and then I lean in and kiss her on the cheek. “You always look ready for public display, no matter what.”
“Yep,” she sighs. “You’re too good for her. You’re too good for anyone.”
* * *
It’s nearly ten o’clock when I walk into my apartment after staying with Monique after work. She’s going to have two black eyes in the morning and said she wasn’t going into the office, but she’s too much of a team player not to.
As soon as I open the door, I hear the TV, and then hear it click off.
I have to assume that Brandy was waiting up.
I close and lock the door. I hang up my coat and messenger bag, and when I turn, she’s standing near her bedroom door.
Having lived together for months without seeing her, I don’t know if I’m startled by her presence or genuinely thrilled that she hadn’t run out of the room completely.
“You’re home late,” she says softly.
I take a moment to take in the sight of her. She has her blonde hair pulled up into a messy bun on top of her head with tendrils that have escaped framing her face, and she’s wearing her flannel pajamas. The woman is always cold.
“Yeah. I didn’t mean to interrupt your TV watching,” I say, surprised that she was watching TV in our shared space, and not adding anything of value to her question in the way of an answer.
“Oh, I was done,” she says as she yawns, but she doesn’t go into her room. “Were you working late?”
She’s still fishing. “No. Just helping out a friend.”
Brandy’s lips twist to the side before she asks, “With your secret admirer?”
And how do I play that one off? Yes, my secret admirer, I humor myself.
“Monique. She got hit in the face and needed a ride.”
Her eyes go wide, and I swear that she’s holding back a smile. I’m going to assume that I’m not seeing it correctly, though. Surely she’d be concerned.
“Is she okay?” she asks.
“She’ll be fine. She’ll probably have two black eyes in the morning.”
Now her face appears to show some shock. “Did she wreck her car? Did a man do that to her?”
I keep my expression as blank as I possibly can. Her concern humors me. “Val, in her office, walked through a door just as Monique was getting ready to open it. It was an accident, and Monique was the victim.”
Brandy’s mouth twitches until she does smile. “Oh. Well, I hope she’s okay.”
“She’ll be fine. She has an enormous pair of black Chanel sunglasses that she could wear for the next week.”
A small chuckle escapes from Brandy as she sets her hand on the knob of her bedroom door. “Tell her I hope she heals soon.”
Interesting.
“I will.”
She lingers there for another moment before opening her door. “Goodnight,” she says.
“Goodnight.”
I wait until she disappears into her room and then I scrub my hands over my face. I cannot believe that Monique’s little secret admirer game has Brandy talking to me.
Pulling my phone from my pocket, I walk to my bedroom and shut the door.
Me: OMG she was waiting up for me!
Monique: That’s nice
Okay, so she’s not as excited by the prospect as I am. I get that. Still, I owe her for this moment.
Me: How’s your face?
Monique: Still better than yours
Harsh, but I’ll take it.
Monique: I’m just kidding. You’re nice to look at.
That has me grinning down at my phone. My mom Sheila always said that Monique and I would have the most beautiful kids together. My mom Anna would then comment that maybe with my eyes and Monique’s everything else, our kids would be models at birth.
We always laughed that off. My mothers are romantics, even though they’ve always known that Monique and I are more like brother and sister.
As I sit down on my bed, I rethink that. No, we are definitely just best friends, and not sibling-esque at all. If we were, that kiss she planted on me the other night wouldn’t have affected me as much as it had. I understood the need for it. I just hadn’t expected to lean into it, to take it deeper, to feel it.
I press my hand to my stomach and close my eyes. I’m actually kinda dizzy just thinking about it.
Her mouth was warm and soft on mine, and when she opened up to me, I couldn’t help but taste her, and she reciprocated.
I blow out a breath. Maybe we need to make sure that never happens again. I mean, I’m all for being the assumed boyfriend when she needs an out. I’ve done it before. But kissing her, that seems to have only confused my body.
No, the only woman I want to be kissing is Brandy, and maybe that’ll happen in the near future.
I look back down at my phone.
Me: Sweet dreams. I love you
Monique: Yeah, I love you, too