Page 42 of Honey Bun
My muscles tensed. I wasn’t usually the one who was grilled, as I was the oldest. “No. I don’t want to push her.”
“Well, there’s potential for drama there too. A lot of my patients have years of stress, and it absolutely affects the body. I often recommend seeing a therapist. You should get her story before you commit.”
If I pushed Maddie, she would leave. I had to hold on and hope she trusted me with her secrets. I sat up straighter. “I’m not going to push her.”
“Don’t pin your hopes and dreams on someone who might never love you back.”
His words stung. He’d found my weakness and exploited it. I flinched. “Then why are you pursuing Leah? Only because she had your child?”
I regretted my words. Cyrus was generally a great brother. He laughed, and the sound helped my shoulders relax.
He said, “So you’re saying I shouldn’t give out heart advice these days.”
I nodded, though I knew he couldn’t see me. “Yeah, you might specialize in that muscle, but there is a lot about the heart that neither of us knows.”
“Fair enough,” he said. Maddie had hung up her phone, and my muscles twitched to get up and take her to lunch. My brother continued. “Well, Mom will always swoop in for you to fix it all if you fuck up too much with Maddie.”
He was stressed. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be swearing.
I stood to go. “I don’t need that either. Talk to you later.”
“You too. Thanks for listening.”
At the door, I saw Maddie closing her computer, but I stayed in my office. “Listening is easy. It’s figuring out what to do and waiting for the right time that’s hard.”
“Agreed,” Cyrus said.
The truth was, I wasn’t sure about Maddie, because she was closed off, but I wouldn’t tackle that issue just then. We’d have to see if she ever opened up.
Arman
The air smelled sweeter outside my office than in, despite the expensive air-conditioning system. Of course, I knew it wasn’t the purified air that had the delicious smell. It was all Maddie. My body grew harder near her as I remembered how glorious she’d been, writhing on top of me as her hair flew in every direction.
I blinked. She stood in front of me, pointing to the door. “My daughter called. She and Roxanne want to know if we’ll be there for lunch.”
Real life had struck back. I checked for my wallet and phone and then headed to the door to hold it for her. “Sure. I finished. Thanks for coming with me.”
She passed me. “Monday morning, I’ll be late, as I’m meeting Kendal to tour five potential spaces for the wedding.”
The elevator came, and we were alone. We’d sworn no one in the office would ever know about us, so I didn’t try to hold her hand in case security was watching, but I probably smiled too big. “Sounds like you’re enjoying the project too.”
She gazed up at me, and her goodness beamed out of her skin in an ethereal glow. “I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed party planning. Isn’t that funny, how you can forget something you were good at if you don’t ever get to do it? I remember when I was young and thought I’d have an event-planning business. Isn’t that silly, how things work out?”
She said it with a wry smile, and I could tell she didn’t really think it was funny. He life had not turned out the way she had hoped it would… yet.
The doors opened, and I said, “I’d support you if you followed your dreams.”
No one was near us except the security guards behind a desk we passed. She stayed in step with me. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I’m going to see how I do with Kendal’s big day first.”
I held the door for her as we headed out. ““Well, you know I would back you if you asked me to.”
Her face went white. We made it to the street corner, and she stared ahead and not at me. “I already ask too much.”
I took her hand and squeezed it. When the light turned for pedestrians, we continued. “No. When I was eighteen, I wanted to prove myself and not be treated as a trillionaire Norouzi. I tried to work under a fake name…”
Her eyebrow quirked up. “Yeah?”
I would tell her this story that I hardly told anyone. “No one wanted to do business with Arman Nolty.”
