Page 94 of Ashes

I wrapped my arms around her. “I’m so sorry for being late. I lost track of time,” I explained, hoping she wouldn’t ask why.

“It’s okay. I was dealing with a work emergency, so I barely noticed,” she shared before pulling back, giving me a small smile.

Esra sat back down and I slid into the booth next to her, giving her my bag to place next to hers on the other side.

“Same emergency that kept you from Kenna’s wedding?” I asked.

She winced, nodding.

The makeup artist had been putting the final touches to Kenna’s makeup when my phone rang. I’d picked up, surprised to see Esra’s name flashing on the screen. She’d called right before the ceremony started, apologizing profusely because her new boss had asked her to amend the entirety of their upcoming fall/winter line.

She’d been working on the collection since last December, but a media tycoon who seemed to love making her life harder had recently acquired her company.

Esra had explained that the asshole—her words, not mine—had unexpectedly shown up right before she had toleave and had critiqued every single piece from their upcoming line.

Since they were only two weeks away before her team was meant to send the collection into production for it to come on time for their fashion show set in a few months, she’d have to spend the next few days working overtime to meet the deadline.

Esra already spent most of her days at work, but he seemed to be wanting to make her spend even more time there since he took over.

“I still can’t believe the asshole is making me alter every single piece. The only reason I’m not at the atelier right now is because his royal pain in the ass is having a celebratory party for becoming CEO.” She let out an exasperated sigh, brushing a stray curl out of her eye. “Anyways, enough about me. How’s married life?”

“Oh, you know.” I paused, looking for non-incriminating words. “Marriage,” I finished.

Great, Sienna. Just great.

I grabbed the menu lying on top of the table and looked over it. I didn’t need to since we came here often and I always ordered the same thing—their specialty loaded Mediterranean omelette and an espresso—but I needed to keep myself busy before I gave myself away.

Pretty sure you already did,my mind mocked me.

Esra reached over and lowered the menu I was using to shield myself. My eyes met hers and I gave her a small smile.

“You’re glowing,” she remarked, her green eyes sparkling with curiosity.

Fuck. She knows.

“What?” I choked, my heart speeding up. Heat crept up my neck and I shifted in my seat, pretending to get more comfortable. I cleared my throat. “No, I’m not,” I added, shaking my head at the same time.

“You are. Your face.” She paused, looking for the right words. “You’re more relaxed.” Her eyes widened in realization. “You had sex,” she said, loud enough for the people around our table to hear.

I whipped my hand out, placing it over her mouth to stop her from announcing to the entire restaurant that I got laid. “Esra,” I condemned.

Triumph glowed in her eyes. “I knew it,” she said, the words muffled under my palm. She wrapped her hand around my wrist, signaling she would watch her volume.

I took my hand off and she opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, our server came up to our table.

“Hi, I’m Alessandra,” she introduced herself. “Can I get you anything?”

We greeted her in return and placed our orders before handing Alessandra our menus. Looking up, we both gave her a small smile before she walked away. Our server wasn’t even fully out of earshot before Esra finally looked back at me and the questions started coming in.

“Oh, I’msohappy for you!” She clasped her hands together. “Was it good? Washegood?” she whispered. Orat least, tried to because the couple at the table in front of us gave us judgmental looks.

I sighed, rubbing an exasperated hand over my face. “Esra.”

“What?” she said, holding up her hands. “It was your first time. I want to make sure Jamal took care of?—”

Her sentence was cut short when Alessandra came over with our food. She placed our respective plates in front of us before briefly leaving our table and coming back with our coffees.

“Enjoy,” she said to us before walking away.