Page 159 of I Think They Love You

He says, “I’m putting in my notice, Kam.”

“I figured.” She leans back. “There’s no way you were showing up in my new office, in clothes Auntie Eva wouldn’t approve of, just to chat.”

“I came to apologize,” Denz whines.

“Congratulations, you could’ve done that over text,” she says, smirking. “Does this mean you’ve figured your shit out?”

“Maybe?”

Nora responded empathically to his email with a date and time. It’s just a meeting for now. But hehopesit develops into something more.

“How long do I have?” Kami asks, plucking M&M’s from the bowl.

“A month? Whatever it takes to train Jordan.”

Kami levels him with a skeptical look. “Train him to do what?”

“Be the next me, asshole!” He dodges the candy thrown at him. “Come on. You can’t have a Kami Carter without her wingman. Her right-hand guy. Her rock.”

“Denz…” She offers him sincere eyes. “You’ll always be my rock. Whether you’re here or somewhere else. It’s mandatory, got it?”

He nods, overwhelmed by the warmth in his chest.

“And what about Braylon?”

“What about him?”

“I saw him leaving the party. It’s pretty obvious things aren’t great between you two.”

“Yeah,” Denz draws out, lowering his chin, “about that—”

“It was fake.”

“It was fake,” he agrees. His head snaps up, mouth agape. “Wait,you knew?”

“I knew from day one. You’re an awful liar.” She cackles. “You have a serious tendency to run from things that, if you just saw them through, might change your world.”

Denz blinks. “I don’t see how a fake relationship is gonna change my world.”

“Maybe it’s not as fake as you think.”

“It’s over,” he says, aggressively crunching on M&M’s. “He’s leaving. It’s London all over again.”

“Stop being so stuck on the past,” Kami growls, looking ready to toss the whole bowl of candy at him. “What happened in college. What the aunties said. How weddings changed the company—”

“They did!”

“Exactly.Did,” Kami emphasizes. “People change. Things change. That’s not bad. It’s different, but not bad.”

Denz sniffs. “What does this have to do with me and Braylon?”

“This isn’t UGA or London. Tell him how youfeelthis time.”

“It’s too late.”

“Denzel Kevin Carter,” Kami says in that firm mom-tone he heard growing up, the one he still hears when Mikah’s done something wrong, “it’s only too late if you keep going about this the old Denz way. By running. Or lying. Or not doing a damn thing about it.”

“Maybe Idon’tknow what to do.”

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