“Thank God you’re here,” Maliki comments when he answers the door.
It’s late. I’ve been up, working on my game, and then Sierra texted me, reminding me about her computer. She instructed me to text Maliki when I was here and not to knock since Molly would most likely be sleeping.
Their house was recently remodeled and looks awesome. Sierra is an interior designer, so she had the most say in the changes. Maliki stepped to the side, letting her create her dream home for them.
“She’s been whining about her computer nonstop,” he adds as I follow him into the living room.
Sierra is on the couch, and next to her is a sleeping Molly, her head resting on Sierra’s lap.
“Oh, shut it,” Sierra chimes in. “I have not.”
Maliki nods toward Molly. “I’ll put her to bed.”
Sierra nods and plants a kiss on Molly’s forehead before Maliki scoops his daughter up in his arms and carries her down the long hallway.
“Let me grab my laptop,” Sierra says, pulling herself up and plodding barefoot to the kitchen while I relax on the couch.
Maliki returns at the same time she hands it over to me. He’s cool as shit, and he owns the only bar in our town—Down Home Pub. He took it over years back when his father nearly went bankrupt and then moved to Florida. My sister works with him, bartending a few nights a week, but now that her interior design company has taken off, she’s cut down on her hours.
“How was your lovers’ trip?” Sierra asks, her and Maliki sitting next to each other. She turns, resting her back to his side, and he tucks his arm around her waist.
It’s time like these when I wonder in the back of my mind if I’m capable of having that. Sure, Carolina and I snuggle sometimes, but this is more than snuggling. There’s a certain intimacy, and the love they have for each other bleeds off them. Briefly, I wonder what it looks like when Carolina lies against me like that. Does our … friendship … our love bleed off us?
“It wasn’t a lovers’ trip,” I scold, opening her laptop and powering it on.
Sierra tilts her back and smiles up at Maliki. “Aw, babe, do you remember when we were friends and tried to hide that we were in love with each other?”
Maliki’s arm tightens around her, and he brushes his thumb against her cheek with his free hand. “Yep, and what a waste. Imagine all the extra time we could’ve had if we had stopped pussyfooting around.”
Sierra lifts her head while they look at me with expectation.
I switch my attention to the laptop, hitting keys. “No pussyfooting around. I don’t get what no one understands about us being only friends.”
Fuck. Why is this all I’ve been hearing about lately?
Maliki chuckles, shaking his head. “Quit giving him shit, babe. He’ll figure it out eventually.”
Sierra groans. “Hopefully, it doesn’t take him too long. Remember what happened when you didn’t step up?”
He frowns. “Don’t remind me.”
“I got married.” She stresses every syllable as the words leave her mouth before focusing on me. “Do you want Carolina to marry someone else, Rex?”
I rub at the sudden tension in my neck, the thought hitting me like a headache. “Carolina isn’t getting married.”
I fucking hope not.
“How do you know?” Sierra continues, as if her mission tonight is to piss me off. “I got married.”
“She won’t,” I grind out, contemplating whether to change her password and the language to Chinese in revenge for her taunting.
I love my sister, and I know she means well. We’ve always been the closest, but she’s a pain in the ass.
“Are you saying that because you don’t want her to get married?”
“Jesus, babe,” Maliki cuts in, shooting me a sympathetic stare while giving her a gentle squeeze. “You’re going to make his head explode.”
She sighs. “I want to see my baby bro happy, and he needs to stop being dumb.”
I hold up her computer, arching a brow. “The one who can’t figure out her computer is calling me dumb?”
“Learn from my mistakes, little bro.” She skims her fingers along Maliki’s arm. “Don’t you think they’d be cute, babe?”
“So cute,” Maliki says, mocking her voice. “Fucking adorable.”
“Funny,” she deadpans. “Remember who you sleep next to at night.”
Their relationship story is pretty damn entertaining. Maliki used to kick my sister out of his bar whenever she was underage and tried to sneak in. It became a thing to them. They’re so opposite—my sister being the rebellious sorority princess and Maliki being the bartending bad boy who hated commitment. I admire their relationship so damn much.
Maliki smacks a kiss against the top of her head. “The best damn woman in the world is who I sleep next to at night.”
I gag. “Gross. You two save your flirtfest for later.” I drop the laptop onto the couch and stand. “Computer is fixed.”
“Oh, sweet Carolina, ba, ba, ba!” Josh sings when Carolina walks into our apartment.
He does it every damn time.
“Shut up and leave her alone,” I grumble in annoyance, pausing my game.
Josh is cool. We shared a few classes together at Iowa State and were partners on a project. He’s a few years older than me, clean, not that much of a pain in the ass, and he pays rent on time. The only times I consider kicking him out is when it comes to Carolina. He—along with every-fucking-body else—gives me shit about our relationship and has threatened to ask her out one too many times. He won’t. There would be an eviction notice on his bedroom door as soon as the words left his mouth.
He’s your typical hipster who wears beanies over his shoulder-length hair that he pulls into a man bun most of the time, he sports a scruffy beard, and his closet is packed with flannels in every color.
“Damn,” he grumbles, attempting to fight back a smug smile. “Can’t a man say hi?”
“You didn’t say hi.” I divert my attention to Carolina. “You hungry? I ordered a pizza.”
She worked a double today and is always hangry when she gets off work.
She licks her lips. “Yum. You da best.”
I grin. “Well aware of that, babe.”
She looks damn adorable when she strolls into the living room—wearing a loose, flower-patterned dress that isn’t made to look as sexy as it does on her. It shows a hint of cleavage, causing me to gulp as I remember the night in the hotel room.
Fuck. Will I ever forget that night?
She kicks off her white flip-flops on her way to the couch and takes the open seat next to me, tucking her legs underneath her ass. “How many levels do you need to finish? Are you still stuck?”
I love that she asks this. Hardly anyone—except for her, my mother, my sister, and Josh—asks about my game. They’re the only ones who take it seriously and understand how important it is to me, how much I love it. Carolina has been on this game’s journey since nearly day one—hearing me throw out idea after idea, change shit, work on levels, and beg gamers to give it a try.
She listens, understands, and offers advice about my game. Not too many chicks are comfortable with hanging out with a guy who plays video games as much as I do. Either that or they fake being into it, not even knowing the difference between my game and Fortnight.
Carolina does because she genuinely cares.
“I’m slowly getting out of my slump,” I reply, unpausing it and hitting buttons on the controller. “It was too easy, breaking through a few levels. I needed to make it harder.” I’ve been working nonstop for twelve hours, only taking bathroom and food breaks.
Thank fuck Josh isn’t a big TV watcher. I like testing in the living room rather than my bedroom.
“Attaboy! I’m so proud of you!” She gestures to the screen. “How you do all this—create, design, code. It’s so amazing.”
I fasten my free arm around her back and drag her closer to my side. “Thanks, Mom.”
She shoves my shoulder, causing my character to die. “Shut up and take my compliment.”
“Looks like it’s easy to die when a chick is touching you,” Josh says from the chair next to me. “You have that going for you. Include a hot girl to distract them in every game.”
I flip him off.
He laughs. “You fools coming out tonight?”
“No way,” Carolina answers around a yawn. “I’m beat, and I work the morning shift tomorrow.”
“Losers,” he teases, winking at Carolina.
I narrow my eyes at him and hold up the controller—a silent warning that it’ll hit him in the face if he continues his annoying-ass flirting.
I turn my attention to Carolina. “Looks like it’s you and me tonight.”
Josh jumps up from his chair, snaps his fingers, and pings his finger back and forth between me and Carolina. “Good. You two kids do something bad.”
I flip him off again as he walks away, his laughter booming through the apartment.