Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 123579 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 618(@200wpm)___ 494(@250wpm)___ 412(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123579 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 618(@200wpm)___ 494(@250wpm)___ 412(@300wpm)
We’re holding hands. In public. Are we there yet? We’ve had only two dates, and they both ended up at home, but it feels like we’ve known each other for longer. For deeper. Maybe it feels like more already because Trevor set out to make it more. Whatever it is, my hand feels right in his.
“All the time.” I can’t help but laugh. “It used to give me a thrill. Now it’s a little bit of a nuisance sometimes, but it usually doesn’t take long to be nice. They build this image up in their heads about you. I at least try to be less of a bitch than usual.”
He still isn’t smiling, so I squeeze his hand and smile at him.
“It’s not a big deal.”
“It could be.” Trevor frowns. “Some guy just like that could walk up with a knife or gun and hurt you before you have time to realize what’s happening. Shouldn’t you have security?”
“I do sometimes.” I shrug. “Like for events and things when people know I’m scheduled to be there, but other than that, not much. This is New York. I’ve lived here my whole life. We New Yorkers can’t be bothered.”
Trevor gives me one more skeptical look before nodding and opening the hotel door for me.
“Now why are we here and what’s for lunch?” I sit in the seat he pulls out for me at the table. “I’m starving.”
“Ah, my horse is back.” He pulls his chair closer to mine. Closer than the other chairs are to one another. “I have no idea what’s on the menu. I only know I get to have lunch with you, and I love this speaker and this cause.”
“There’s a cause?”
His shoulder is within leaning distance, but I resist. I should be careful. I’ve just gotten out of a very public relationship with Rip. One the media is still speculating over. It will take only one picture of me cuddled up with Trevor for them to speculate that I was cheating on Rip. That I’ve moved on too fast. That I’m taking advantage of Trevor. Who knows what they’ll say?
Well, I do because they’ve said it all before.
“Yeah, there’s always a cause.” He takes a sip of water and looks around the ballroom set in rounds of eight or so. The white tablecloths contrast with the bright floral centerpieces. The baskets of bread at the center of each table draw my eyes and my appetite.
“Bread,” I growl. I reach for a roll, but drop my hand back to my side, thinking better of it.
“Thought you were starving.” He reaches for a roll…and butters it, curse his head.
“I’ll wait for protein.” I sip my water, hoping it will douse the growl a little until the food arrives. “I have that shoot tomorrow.”
“Oh, the naked one.” His voice is neutral, but his lips go tight.
“Not naked.” I lean into him for a second. “Remember the panties.”
He relinquishes a small smile, but still doesn’t look pleased.
“Does it bother you that I model in skimpy stuff, and sometimes…” I leave that sentence hanging, but he picks it up.
“And sometimes in nothing?” He sets his water down before looking at me. “I don’t have any right to be bothered, do I?”
No, he doesn’t, but it feels like he does. I don’t know how he manages to make everything feel so intimate and new and familiar. Like an adventure I’m having for the first time with someone I’ve known forever, but just met.
“I just wondered…well, you seemed bothered when Barry mentioned Playboy.”
“Why did you do it?” His voice and eyes hold no judgment. Just genuine curiosity.
“Really, I think I had something to prove.” A low laugh slips out. “I think I wanted to prove that I still had…whatever I was supposed to be losing. I was in the best shape of my life in an industry that ruthlessly judges you by that shit.”
Before he can reply, a few other people join us at our table. A couple of them do double takes when they realize who I am. I smile and shake their hands when Trevor introduces me. I’m too preoccupied with the salmon on the plate set in front of me to wonder what they’re thinking about Trevor’s bringing me.
“I’m so excited to finally meet Halima,” the woman Trevor introduced as Isabelle says. “But you see her all the time, don’t you, Trevor?”
“Some.” Trevor chews the steak he opted for before speaking. “She lives in London now. I actually saw her more when she lived in Gambia.”
“What a treat to have her here in the States,” Isabelle’s husband, Frank, says. “And while you’re in New York.”
“And is this your first Restore event, Ms. Baston?” Isabelle asks, her eyes toggling between Trevor and me.
“It is.” I take a sip of my water, hoping I can disguise how ignorant I am about Restore and Halima, whoever she is, and Gambia in general. “I’m looking forward to it.”