Page 85 of Ascension

I took a breath. “Welllllll, Jason,” she cut me off before I could get into the details, that’s how much Lena hated his ass.

“Girl,” she said slowly, “if you’re about to tell me that man’s name for anything other than a restraining order, I’m hanging up.”

“I ran into him in New York, at Comic Con.”

“Oh my God. You didn’t tell me that!”

“It didn’t seem important at the time,” I said quickly. “He just said hi, nothing wild. But then he messaged me on Facebook begging to talk, and—”

“Wait.” Lena cut me off so fast it made me laugh. “Begging? On Facebook? That man’s got the emotional intelligence of a toaster. Please tell me you told him to kick rocks.”

“I wanted closure.”

“Closure,” she repeated, dripping sarcasm. “Miyah, closure is an illusion invented by people who hate peace. You don’t need closure—you need better blocking habits.”

“Yeah, well,” I said, “I agreed to meet him at Big Earl’s. We talked.”

Lena made a dramatic groaning noise. “Lord, take the wheel. What did y’all even talk about?”

“He apologized,” I said. “Said losing the baby broke him, that he was scared, all that nonsense. Tried to tell me his rebound wife cheated on him and got pregnant by someone else.”

Lena barked out a laugh. “Karma came back with a prenatal vitamin, huh?”

“Basically.”

“So what’d you say?”

“I told him I wasn’t interested in being friends, that I’ve moved on, that I’m happy with James and Calla.”

Lena hummed. “Good answer, then?”

“And then,” I said slowly, “Calla showed up.”

“Wait, what?”

I could practically hear Lena sitting up in bed.

“She walked right up to the booth,” I said, still half-laughing, half-mortified, “leaned down and whispered in my ear that I had ten minutes—scratch that, five—to wrap it up and get my ass in my car. Said if I wasn’t gone in five, she’d spank my pussy and ass so hard I wouldn’t be able to sit through a team meeting all week.”

The line went silent for a heartbeat. Then Lena screamed.

“No, she didn’t!”

“Oh, she did.”

Lena was still laughing when she finally managed, “Girl, she’s the CEO of a whole tech empire, and she said that to you in public? You dating a comic-book supervillain.”

“More like a superhero because,” I said, laughing and fanning myself. “But I can’t even lie… the way she said it? I knew she meant every word, and my pussy did too because she started playing hopscotch in my panties like she just knew tonight was about to be one for the books.”

Lena cackled. “Oh, so you were a little shook and a little impressed.”

“Maybe more impressed and completely turned out and on,” I admitted. “She went full boss mode in front of my ex, and all I could think was, yep, that’s mine.”

“Oh my God,” Lena said through her laughter. “You are gone, girl.”

“Gone, floating, hypnotized, pick one, hell, all three.”

“Calla got you catching feelings and following orders. Whew, love looks good on you,” Lena teased.