Treading The Waters [on hold]

Chapter Ten

I slide my feet into my brown suede boots, lacing them up before placing the hem of my jeans over the top.

It's date night for Nikki and me. Once a month, we choose to go into the nearest city and eat at a nice restaurant because she 'gets tired of the same old food in Stonelake.' Tonight, she chose an Italian place for us to eat at. I own a restaurant and can cook almost anything under the sun, yet she never lets me cook for her.

It's more about the appearance of eating out than the actual act of eating out.

Paired with my jeans and boots is a dark green button up, my hair gelled up so that the front appears more voluminous. If people tell you that guys don't put anything into their appearance, they're lying.

We do. Anyone that disagrees is simply denying it.

Nikki steps out of the bathroom in a mint green dress that dips down in the front. Women say that the dress style has its own fancy name. I just know that I can see the top curves of her tits. Who cares about the fucking name of the dress when you have a distraction to keep yourself busy?

Her dark hair is braided to one side, face completely masked in layers upon layers of makeup. She's hot, no doubt. I just think she could do with being a bit more...herself.

"You look pretty," I tell her.

"Thanks, babe," she smiles, turning to face the mirror so that she can slip the dangly jewelry into her ear. "Hey, it must be really good for your sister that one of her best friends is back in town. I'm sure she's missed her."

"Yeah, it's good for Lorraine." Not good for me, though.

"Were you close with her?" She asks.

"Close with who?" Play dumb, J. Play dumb.

"With Baya. Were you two close?"

Lie, J. "I mean, to an extent, yeah. She was friends with my sister, and she was around a lot." Okay, technically not a lie, just not the truth.

As if she's not even paying attention anymore, she grabs her phone and then hurries to place it in her purse—one that seems too big to carry daily, but you know... women and their fashion.

"Shit, is that the time? Our reservation is at 8 and I don't want to be late. We should get going."

Nikki comes over and places a sensual kiss on my lips before walking down the hallway and out to my truck.

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We have to park a bit down from the restaurant we're headed to because it's an unusually busy Wednesday night and both the parking lot and street parking were full.

Nikki's talking to me about something work-related but it's like a foreign language to my ears. I don't understand anything about her job. I keep my gaze trained in front of us so that we don't bump into anyone and as I'm looking down the street, I notice a blonde in dressed-down clothes, a messy bun, and a big Slurpee heading our direction.