Page 19 of So This Is Love

I break eye contact and turn to Tristan. “It seems like everything is going well.”

“I told you it would, there was no doubt about it,” he replies.

“That’s not an answer,” Laila interrupts.

I turn my focus back to Laila and take her in. Her hair is loose in natural curls flowing over her shoulders and down her back and at this moment I decide that it’s my favorite way that she’s worn her hair that I’ve seen so far. Her dark brown eyes glare at me waiting for a response, some sort of explanation for why I’ve invited myself to their table.

“Tristan and I opened Oasis together,” I finally reply. “A joint venture if you will. And I thought I’d come say hello.”

“You two know each other?” Tristan asks.

“Something like that,” I reply, my gaze focused on Laila. “Somehow we keep running into each other.”

“Keep?” her friend questions.

“Yeah, keep,” I reply holding my hand out to her. “I’m Sonny by the way.”

She takes my hand and gives it a soft shake. “Zara.”

“I ran into Bryce when I went to that bar downtown a few weeks ago,” Laila says pointedly towards Zara.

Zara’s eyes go wide. “Wait is that when you were -”

“Yep.” Laila cuts her off.

Bryce.

I like the way my name sounds coming from her lips. There are very few people in my life who call me Bryce and that number of people goes down drastically if you subtract my family from the picture. It’s not often that I introduce myself because people usually already know who I am, but even when I do I use ‘Sonny’ and not ‘Bryce’. But with Laila all those years ago I offered my government name freely.

Tristan reaches into the inside pocket of his suit jacket and pulls out his phone, checking the name of the caller.

“Excuse me I have to take this,” Tristan says, bringing the phone to his ear and standing from the booth.

As Tristan leaves, one of the VIP servers stops at our booth and asks if she can get us anything. I decline, happy with the half full drink that I still have but Zara and Laila order another round for themselves.

“Soooo Sonny, or is it Bryce,” Zara says with a mischievous grin in Laila’s direction.

“Sonny is fine,” I reply smiling, catching on to the emphasis that Zara is putting on to the fact that Laila calls me Bryce.

“Right, Sonny, I didn’t realize you and my dear friend knew each other so well,” Zara says.

“I wouldn’t say that we know each other well. Maybe just the beginning. But your friend here tends to be busy and isn’t the best at returning texts so I thought I would come over and say hello.”

“Oh really,” Zara replies, intrigued.

Our server stops by our table, dropping off the drinks they ordered and then disappearing again.

“Yeah but I guess I should have anticipated that. She didn’t really want to take my number in the first place.”

“She is stubborn as hell.”

“I can tell,” I say, chuckling.

“Y’all do know I’m sitting right here, right?” Laila says, looking between Zara and me.

“Yes, but you like to keep all the juicy details to yourself.”

“Juicy details?! There is nothing juicy to tell,” Laila argues.

---