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My blood cooled immediately, the heat fleeing from my body with a swiftness, because I could sense it, smell it, an unnatural disaster. I stepped back, pulled his hand from my face. My voice was eerily cool. ‘What is that, Kai?’

He swallowed, all the burn in his eyes becoming frantic, spitting sparks. ‘It’s. . . Scotch, it’s not a big deal.’

‘Yeah, that’s for me to decide, I think. What the fuck is Jade from your job embarrassed about?’

I’d had the pleasure of meeting Jade before. I was Malakai’s date for a swanky, self-aggrandising event his boss was throwing at his Mayfair penthouse, and I’d left him to mingle. I was halfway chewing through a sixth mini-burger by the bar, texting the groupchat with one hand to say I’d just seen a forty-something white American ex teen drama star withanotherdark-skinned Black actress, and asking how many counts as a fetish, when a woman approached me, looking at me as if she knew me, which was terrifying. She had large hazel eyes and expensively coloured bronde curly hair. She was beautiful, and she shot me a bright smile that immediatelyinformed me that she had a crush on my boyfriend, even before she said, ‘Hey! You’re Malakai’s girlfriend, right? Man, I love a girl brave enough to eat at these things. Woman after my own heart.’

This. Bitch.

I chewed deliberately slowly before dusting my hands off and put a hand out to shake. ‘Kiki.’

She waved a hand and said, ‘Don’t be silly,’ and pulled me into the most awkward hug I have experienced in my life. She patted my back. I gritted my teeth.

‘I’m Jade, one of Matthew’s assistants. Me and Malakai have been working closely over the past year.’

I shot her an equally saccharine smile. ‘Oh? Lovely to meet you, finally.’

I didn’t say that I’d heard so much about her, even though I had. I’d heard about how her dad basically ran the BBC and that she’d once said ‘no offence’ with awinkto Malakai straight after she’d talked about how much she loved the BBC. This had led us to believe that the only reason she’d really talked about loving the BBC is so she could say ‘no offence’ to Malakai, because, really, no one randomly talks about how much they love the BBC apropos of nothing unless they are a government official or part of the royal family. Although, in fairness to Jade, she had family members who belonged to both things. I did think it odd for a woman who ostensibly had some Black heritage to say this, though, so really I think she wanted to talk about my boyfriend’s dick and gauge his reaction. I couldn’t necessarily blame her. I’m sure it worked for her at some point. I did blame her for trying to play in my face, though.

‘Yeah, he’s basically my work husband,’ she giggled.

I stifled my eye-roll. I was bored. If she was waiting on jealousy, she would be disappointed. Malakai told me everything, and trusting him was the easiest thing to do. I knew this was an exercise in delusion, some strange power-trip; she fancied him and was trying to sow seeds of discontent. I felt kind of sad for her. What was the point of this? Why would you want to workthishard for a man? Yes, Malakai was beautiful, great, but, even so, surely Raya was easier than this.

I kept my face pleasant, not reacting to what she thought was a revelation and sipped from the glass of water I’d asked for. ‘Yeah. He did say you insist on calling him that. I think it’s cute.’

It was subtle, but she caught on to it. I’m not new to this– I’m true to this. Jade’s smile went frigid on her face. She didn’t know about me, that as a Yoruba woman, my knives were made from iron gilded in sugar. Most times I keep them sheathed, but, unfortunately, she’d pushed me.

‘You must besoproud of him.’

‘Sure am.’ I wondered what her play here was.

‘You know, the America opportunity is so exciting, and Matthew’s only asked me and Malakai to join him. Isn’t it sick? Will you be coming with? I can imagine long distance will be such achore.’And there it was. I held very still as the first tremors of major change hit my world as I knew it, delivered from Jade of all people, a woman who was wearing nude glitter nail polish. Though there’s nothing inherently wrong with nude glitter nail polish, on her it jarred me, a lazy attempt to seem fun. My insides roiled with confusion– how could he not have told me? Was he thinking of taking it? To Jade, though, I kept my demeanour placid. ‘Nothing’s a chore when you’re in love. Have a great night, Jayda.’

‘It’s Jade—’

I quickly excused myself to go to the bathroom, but Malakai intercepted me, apparently tracking my movements from the other side of the room. He gently held my elbows, ducked his head to keep a gaze that kept darting everywhere to avoid him, because if I looked him in the eye I was very sure I would cry, and I wasn’t about to cry in front ofJade.It wasn’t America itself, it was the fact that he hadn’t told me, and if it was true that Malakai didn’t tell me everything that was going on in his life, then what else was he hiding? What the hell even were we?

‘Hey.’ His voice was all at once tender and protective. ‘What’s wrong baby? What did she say to you? Did she call me a work husband again? I swear—’

I inhaled deeply. ‘Let’s talk at home.’

‘Kiki—’

‘This is a work event. Do what you gotta do. We’ll talk athome.’

‘I won’t be able to focus. Please, Scotch. Tell me what’s up.’

I sighed and dragged him through the corridor into a nearby bathroom, arousing no suspicion because there was apparently a lot of group trips to bathrooms going on.

‘When were you going to tell me about America?’

Malakai was stricken, stepping back, rocking back on the ball of his foot. ‘Fuck.Fuck.’ He rubbed his brow. ‘Shetoldyou that?’

‘Yes, because she has obviously moved to you very recently and is desperately thirsty, but it’s not even about that. It’s the fact that you made me look stupid by not telling me. I mean I could never look stupid, but youriskedme looking stupid.’ I paced the bathroom. There was an old-school bathtub in it, gold clawed feet and everything, and as my non-Louboutin heels clicked against the tile I marvelled at how grand the backdrop was for a domestic. There was a BAFTA on the shelf behind the toilet. ‘Seriously, Kai, I’m supposed to learn that you’re going halfway around the world fromher?’I noticed a stack of Penhaligon perfumes on a recessed shelf against the emerald green tiled wall. I angrily sprayed myself with a cocktail of scents. Malakai coughed, which made me spray harder, more chaotically.

‘Wedon’t keep things from each other. That’s not who we are. What’s going on? I don’t like looking like a prick, Kai, especially by girls with manicures that look like they’re from 2006!’

Malakai approached me, gently removed Empressa and Halfeti from my hands, so he could replace them with his own. ‘Kiki, I am so sorry. You could never look stupid.’