Page 10 of Brassy Bigwig

CHAPTER FOUR

DIMITRIOS

Ican’t remember the last time I was this nervous, and I hate it. This is barely a date. It’s one night, and then I’ll never see this girl again.

I ignore the tightness in my chest as those words bounce around in my head.

These feelings are as irksome as they are a relief. I’m glad I’m not so jaded I can’t feel emotion for another woman anymore, but feeling something this soon after Emilia is unwelcome. I need a break from it all. I don’t want to want someone else right now. I need to spend some time alone.

“Here’s to our last night in paradise, my friend.”

Dex breaks me from my thoughts as he walks out onto the balcony of the suite where he and Bianca are staying. He hands me a highball glass with a couple of fingers of whiskey in it.At the last minute, they decided they were going to stay at the resort tonight.

To spy on me, I’m sure.

“Oh, I don’t know. I’m thinking about sticking around for a while,” I joke.

Kind of.

I finger the smooth surface of the glass, and it reminds me of Genevieve’s silky, tanned legs.

Stop it, D.

“I know you would stay if you could.”

“There isn’t anything for me to return to, Dex. I can work from anywhere. Emilia’s gone, finally.” I ponder the possibilities for a moment. “I would miss my yacht, though. Someone would have to sail it out here for me.”

We clink our glasses together, and I take a sizeable gulp of the warm amber liquid. I relish the burn as it coats my throat. A brief period of silence follows before Dex speaks again.

“I know you were thinking of making the move from the West Coast to the Big Apple. Now that you’re no longer tethered, have you given it any more thought?”

Dex and Bianca have been trying to get me to move to New York City for the past few years. We have a blast when I’m out there, and I know I would enjoy it. But I haven’t been able to take the leap yet. I blamed it on Emilia a lot of the time, but the truth is, I don’t know if I’m ready. I love my house on the Strand in Hermosa. It’s beachfront, serene both inside and out, and the marina is so close, I could walk if I wanted to.

However, hearing the words I just uttered to Dex out loud, that I have nothing to return home to, does make me a little sad. I’ve dreamt about the day Emilia would finally be out of there, that she would stop sucking the air out of every room she walked into. By no means would I want to go back to that life, and I never would, but...

I don’t want to go home to nothing.

The vision of Genevieve sitting on the chaise lounge by the pool earlier flashes through my mind. She had on a cream-colored bathing suit today, the outline of which was covered in turquoise stones. Her perfectly tanned skin seemed to glow beneath it. Then the image shifts to her sitting on the sundeck at my house in Hermosa. Sprawled out on a bed of cushions, topless, laying on her stomach with a thin piece of gauzy fabric covering her bottom half.

I can picture myself going home to her. To théa.

“I’m still not sure I’m ready to make that move just yet,” I finally answer.

“Fair enough,” he nods.

I down the rest of my drink in one swallow, and within five minutes, we’re entering the elevator from the hallway outside of our door. When we step inside, I realize I need to ask them for a favor.

“I have to ask something before we get downstairs. Genevieve lives in New York, too. I don’t know if she’s in the city or upstate or what, but I’d prefer it if she didn’t find out you guys live there or that I have ties there.”

“You got it,” Dex agrees easily.

“I’m assuming she knows you as Trey.” Bianca states rather than asks as she shoots me some serious side-eye.

It’s my go-to fake name when I don’t want to give out my real one. My parents used to call me Trey when I was a young boy, and Everett is my middle name, so it’s not exactly a lie. Before I’m able to admit or attempt to deny it, the elevator doors open, and we step from the car into the lobby.

“Saved by the bell,” I joke as I walk.

Dex and Bianca are eating at the main restaurant this evening, while I’ve made plans for Genevieve and me to dine privately in a more intimate setting. But when we get to the lobby, I realize I’m a little early.

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