Lonely Together

14

MARIAH

With one hand, I lathered my lip gloss on my lips while with the other I slipped on my heels as I rushed around my house looking for my phone.

Finally, when I found it in my freezer—no explanation—I grabbed my purse and then rushed downstairs to where Ashti and Amber were waiting for me.

"Hey!" I exclaimed as I climbed into the backseat of Amber's car. They both looked absolutely gorgeous.

"You look so good!" Ashti exclaimed, a smirk growing on her face as she turned around to face me. "Did you send a picture to Valentino?"

"No, I didn't Ashti. But...maybe I will," I replied, making them both chuckle.

We listened to the music that Amber was blasting over the radio as we cruised down the street towards whatever restaurant we were going to. Amber chose, so Ashti and I had absolutely no clue.

"Amber...you are an amazing person!" Ashti exclaimed as our sights landed on the yacht docked in front of us.

Instead of the party yachts I was used to seeing up and down the river, this one was elegant and was converted completely into a restaurant.

"It's about time you learned," Amber replied, flipping her braids over her shoulder as we approached the restaurant.

While we waited to reach the hostess, we took a bunch of pictures together and separately, chatting about how gorgeous we looked. I even sent some of the pictures Ashti took of me to Valentino just as we were taken to our table.

After ordering martinis for each of us, we delved into a conversation that I knew would be inevitable.

"So...how have things been with Valentino recently?" Amber inquired, wiggling her eyebrows as she took a bite of the bread placed in the middle of our table.

"Really good. We've been spending a good amount of time together and things seem to be going well," I said honestly, even though I definitely left some things out.

It was quite obvious that we were both falling for each other, as we both made it abundantly obvious to each other even though we never discussed it. Since I hadn't discussed it with him, I didn't think it was the best to completely vent to Amber and Ashti.

"Okay...and how far have you two gone?" Ashti added, wiggling her eyebrows at me as Amber leaned over the table in anticipation of what I had to say.

My face flushed as I let out a laugh before saying, "We've done some things...we've pleasured each other."

My words made them squeal in excitement as the people at the table beside us furrowed their eyebrows in annoyance. They couldn't be mad at us for having a good time.

"What about his job?" Ashti asked suddenly, brining an air of seriousness to the table. "How do you feel about it?"

At first, I was confused as to what she meant. His job had never interfered with anything other than his business trips, but I also did know that he was quite busy most days.

"I think that the business trips are okay. I like to have alone time, so him being away sometimes shouldn't be that bad."

Amber nodded in understanding, grabbing yet another piece of bread. Ashti however, still had a confused expression on her face, but dropped the conversation nonetheless.

Just after we ordered our meals, I went off to the bathroom. Just as I finished, my phone vibrated with a notification, my eyes immediately landing on Valentino's name.