Page 68 of Better Left Unsaid

Before I could respond, Jeff was quick to add, “Six weeks total including post.”

Six weeks? That felt like a long time, definitely longer than I thought it’d be for. Then again, this wasn’t an offer that came in every day.

“The deal’s good,” Jeff continued. “Too good to pass up.” He slipped his hand in his pocket, pulled out his phone, and zoomed into a number on a document, pointing it in my face. “This is everything we’ve been waiting for. It takes you to the next level, Dom. Tell me you’re still in.”

How could I answer that? There was so much on the line. I wanted to say yes, but, on the other hand, it would mess with my life for six weeks. Maria. . . . We had such a good thing going, did I really want to mess it up? Six weeks was a long fucking time.

Not that it’d matter one way or the other for her.

Unless she took that time to date Paolo.

Damn it. My stomach rolled over just thinking about him.

“I—”

“Dom.” The photographer’s assistant knocked on my door. “We’re ready for you again.”

“I have to get changed,” I told Jeff. “I’ll get back to you.”

“I’ll be here. I’m sticking around for the afternoon.”

Great.Not that I should’ve expected anything less from him. Too much money was on the table for him to let me fuck this one up.

Chapter Twenty-One

Maria

I had takenDom’s advice and invited Jade to go shopping with me. Again, note, no real arm-twisting had been necessary.

The task: find Isabella’s birthday gift—an Italian horn necklace. Or an Italian horn pendant I could put on a chain, but either way the result was the same. I had discussed the idea of getting her one before with both my dad and Dom, and they both thought it would make for a great gift.

My sisters and I all had pendants—courtesy of our mom—so it was a tradition I wanted to pass down to Isabella and get her one of her own. Which was my exact intention when I’d come to the mall, but Jade had other ideas.

Her stomach growled as though on cue, and she pointed to the food court sign, pushing me to see things her way. “It’s lunchtime, we’re right here, and I’m starving. The necklace can wait. My stomach, not so much.”

I rubbed my temples and sighed, rolling my eyes as I caught sight of the menu.Orange chicken and veggie spring rolls.I bit my lower lip and decided screw it. “Fine!” I conceded. “We can eat first and then start the hunt for the necklace.” But only because I could never say no to orange chicken. It was my ultimate weakness. Okay, that and cheesecake. And onion rings. And mozzarella sticks. And lasagna. Oooh, and fettuccini alfredo. Mmm. All right, so I had a lot of weaknesses, and those were only in the food category. Well, unless you counted Dom as food. Because then we could add him to that list.

Giddy, she clapped her hands and jumped up and down. “Awesome.”

We got in line, and she turned to me, her eyes wide. “I think I’m in the mood for rice and walnut shrimp. You?”

I told her my answer, and she gasped. “You’re saying no to rice?” she asked, shock coloring her expression. “Do you have an aversion to delicious things?”

I laughed, shaking my head. “I like it just fine, but it’s not my go-to.”

She bumped her shoulder into me. “Let’s switch things up. I’ll have your order, and you have mine because I almost never order what you’re getting.”

I cringed, swaying my head back and forth as I debated it. I wasn’t a huge fan of surprises, and this felt like a surprise for my mouth. “No. I like to stick with what I know.”

Her head tipped and then bobbed as she let a snore escape from her lips. Then she jolted, her eyes snapping open. “Oh, I’m sorry. I think I just fell asleep.”

I raised a brow. Jade and I were very different. She moved to the beat of her own drum, and I preferred consistency. The most spontaneous thing I’d ever done was come up with the idea of being friends with benefits with Dom. And had I known his benefits were so good (read: delicious), I might have forgone the whole friends thing and jumped his bones when we’d first met. And that would have been a huge—ginormous, really—regret because being friends with him meant a lot to me.

“Come on,” Jade whined. “You need to take the pole out of your ass, Maria. It makes you less approachable.”

I cleared my throat and pursed my lips. “I’m approachable.”

“You’re still single. When’s the last time you dated?”

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