Bet on It (50)

“You’ll tell me if you aren’t?” Miri asked. “We can leave whenever and go back to Jade’s or Olivia’s. Hell, we can sit outside in the parking lot. Just let me know if you want to leave, and we’ll go.”

Aja’s throat tightened up. She’d been fully prepared to leave if necessary, but she hadn’t expected Miri and the girls to come with her. Words were lost on her, and all she could do was give Miri a watery smile and a nod.

“Good.” Miri tugged on one of Aja’s braids.

“Thank you for inviting me out tonight,” Aja said once her throat was finally clear. “It … it means a lot to me.” So much. It meant so fucking much. More than she would probably ever be able to properly articulate.

Miri shrugged. “Like Olivia said, we had a good time with you. The three of us have been friends since we were little. We could use some new blood in the group.”

Aja choked up. She got the sudden urge to hug Miri but held back since she didn’t have the wherewithal to ask permission at the moment. One of the bartenders slid up to them seconds later, saving her from making a complete fool of herself. They put in their drink orders quickly—Aja sticking with Sprite. Other than the occasional few glasses of wine, she didn’t drink very often. She couldn’t trust that a cocktail wouldn’t knock her on her ass, or at least get her too tipsy to drive home. And since the rideshare market in Greenbelt was sparse, to say the least, she decided not to risk it.

Jade shot up out of her chair when they got back to the table, bouncing in place as she took a long, deep sip of the drink Miri handed her. “This is my fuckin’ song!”

Olivia and Miri shared an amused look but voiced no agreement. It was “Candy” by Cameo, a classic ’80s funk song that immediately made Aja’s brain flood with happiness. She’d grown up hearing the song at family get-togethers and watching her mother and father dance around the house to it. The groove was infectious, putting an immediate smile on her face. It was also impossible not to move to, which was why her face turned down into a nasty little frown and her head and shoulders immediately moved to the beat.

“See!” Jade squealed. “Aja agrees, come on, come dance!” She took Aja’s arm, pulling her towards the little space in the middle of the room that had been cleared as a makeshift dance floor.

“Whoa, whoa.” Aja stumbled, struggling to set her Sprite down on the table and pull away at the same time. “Hold up.”

“Pleeeease,” Jade whined. “Come dance with me.”

“I—” She prepared herself to say no but realized she didn’t want to. Her eyes strayed to the dance floor. There were already a few people dancing, but no one in the bar was paying any attention. The song was really good … it made her happy … being able to let go and dance to it would make her even happier. She swallowed down every bit of doubt and panic and tried to home in on the only thing she wanted to matter: her own desires. “OK, let’s do it.”

Heads bobbing, hips swaying, faces grinning, she and Jade made a fucking meal of the song. For nearly six minutes, Aja didn’t fear or despair and overthink—she didn’t do anything but dance.





Chapter 16


On Monday, Aja felt like she’d been run over by a semi. Her period had come with a vengeance, making her body feel weighed down by pain. Her head hurt, her back ached, and her stomach cramped all the way to high hell. It was so horrible that she’d used some of her sick days to take off work. Around noon she realized that she needed to tell Walker that she couldn’t make it to bingo.

She hated that she wasn’t going to be able to see him. She also hated that it had only been a few days since they’d been together and already she was missing him. She’d wanted to text him on Sunday. Ask him what his plans for the day were, how Ms. May was, what he’d had for fucking breakfast. Her curiosity felt like it was eating her alive. She didn’t know what else she could do with it but lean in. In a compromise, she told herself that when she called, she wouldn’t ask him any personal questions. She’d tell him what she needed to, take a little time to soak in the sound of his voice, and hang up.

Walker answered on the second ring, his slow, deep drawl warming her instantly. “What’s goin’ on?”

“Nothing, just laying here,” she coughed. “Uhm … I have to pull out of bingo tonight. I’m not feeling too well.”

“What’s wrong?” He almost sounded pained as he hurried the words out. “Do you have a fever? Do you need anything?”

“No, no. I’m OK, I just…” She was a grown-up. It shouldn’t embarrass her to tell another grown-up that she was menstruating, and yet, there she was, stumbling over her words. “I have my period and my cramps are killing me.”

Walker breathed a sigh of relief. “You had me terrified there for a minute. You sounded so bad, I thought I was goin’ to have to run over there and take you to the ER. Do you need anything? I can stop at the store for you or bring you some food or somethin’.”

Aja opened her mouth to deny him but stopped herself. Later she’d blame her decision on her hormones—even if that level of bad decision-making was completely unprecedented for her, fluctuating hormones or not.

“No, I don’t need anything, but … you could come over if you wanted.” She threw her arm over her eyes, completely unable to focus on more than one of her senses as her heart thumped. “You know, just to hang out. Only if you’re comfortable with that…”