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Her brown skin glistened with each flicker of the candles that served as decorations on the table.

Her almond-shaped brown eyes stared up at me with a confused expression on her face.

Her braided hair fell down her exposed shoulder.

With her hair braided in that loose style women got now, she had the front pulled up, exposing her features with a few pieces framing her face. The rest flowed down her back.

The navy-blue backless dress she wore hung off her shoulders and complimented her complexion, along with the gold bold earrings she wore. Her legs were crossed as she leaned over and secretly read in the middle of all that was going on.

“Excuse me?”

“Is the seat taken?” I repeated myself.

She removed the small purse from the seat. “Not anymore.”

I watched as she sat it on the table in front of her, next to the half-eaten food, and went back to reading her kindle. “My oldest sister has a bag like that.”

Kora and Hermes went together like macaroni and cheese. Every time I saw her ass, she had a new bag on her arm. Being that we shared the same sales associate, I knew her ass was spending a grip on whatever she wanted.

That was the thing when it came to being a Caselli. Money was limitless, and you just spent the shit because you could. Whenever a total was read to me before charging my card, I never winced or reacted because there was no feeling behind it.

I was numb to it all.

Always getting whatever I wanted. Knowing I could wake up and go anywhere in the world because I wanted to was something most people wished to do, but I had the power to do it, and all it ended with was me waking up in another country.

Alone.

She dragged her eyes away from the kindle again and stared at me. “She doesn’t have this bag… I can promise you that.” I watched as she looked at my watch and then snickered to herself.

Now she had me out here curious because what the fuck was wrong with my watch? Like she had done twice before, she went back to reading, this time switching to the next page.

“How you figure?”

I guess she figured I wasn’t about to let her read in peace, which was damn near impossible in the environment we were in. Placing her kindle on her lap, she turned slightly to face me.

“I can bet she didn’t go to Canal Street to get this bag and talk him down to forty dollars.” She waited for my response, and I connected what she meant.

She was wearing a replica bag and had haggled the Chinese sellers down to her price. “Looks good.”

“I like to think so.”

“Why are you reading in the middle of a dinner party, anyway?” Since I had her attention, and Beans was over there talking with Greene, it couldn’t hurt to hold a conversation to pass time.

“Is it a crime to enjoy reading?”

“Nah… wondering how you can even focus with all this shit going on. I can never study when too much is going on around me.”

“In college?”

“Used to be.”

She nodded her head. “I tune people out and have been doing it since I was a child. It has always been easy for me to become lost in a book, especially when it’s a good book.”

“What you reading?”

“ Block Wives of Atlanta by Sevyn McCray.”

I nodded my head. “Good?”

“Too good, which is why I’m reading in the middle of this dinner… well, trying to.” She removed the loose strand that fell in her face and looked around.

“Why did you come if you were going to read the whole time?”

The question seemed to be a loaded one with the way she huffed and fixed herself on the chair she occupied.

I watched her as she continued to scan the crowds of people enjoying a night out.

Kennedy was talking to one of her friends and checking a new watch, something she probably got from one of the men she had as a client.

She claimed she wasn’t taking any clients, but that never stopped them from sending her shit to convince her to take them as clients. Shorty checked her phone and then sat it next to her purse before looking over at me.

“My cousin dragged me here because she said the birthday girl invited her and she didn’t want to say no, or come alone, so I was pulled into sitting at this table acting like I know these people.”

A chick in a gold dress walked up to the table and stood there with a smile on her face. “Hey, Navy, do you think I can get a quick selfie? I love you.”

She switched out of her slump and smiled, waving for the girl to come around to our side. I watched as she took hold of the girl’s phone. “We need to get these angles right… you ready?”

“Yes, girl,” the chick was almost too excited to be close to her and get a picture with her. She took a few pictures and then handed the phone back to her. “Thanks so much, girl.”

“Don’t even mention it,” she waved it off like someone didn’t just ask for her picture and fan girl’d right in front of us. “Don’t tell me you wanna picture, too,” she joked.

“Shit might need one. Why she wanted your picture?”

“I’m a content creator and she’s a supporter.” She downplayed it, and then her eyes lit up when Greene made her way over with Beans behind her.

“You invite me out and then ditch me to drink and take selfies with these bitches,” she started in on her the moment Greene put her clutch on the table.

I looked from Greene and then back to shorty and was trying to figure out their connection. “My cousin… her name is Greene.”

“He knows me, Navy. This is my boss’s brother, Don Caselli.”

Not that I wanted her to, but I expected her to act differently and get excited. “Hey Don.”

Beans looked at Greene. “The fuck is up with your family and color names?”

Greene laughed. “Our mothers had this deal with each other. If they both had girls, then they would name us the other's favorite color. It’s a joke within the family that we all laugh about.”

“It’s so hilarious,” her cousin sarcastically replied while rolling her eyes.

“Don’t be mad because your mother took it a step further by adding blue.” Greene busted out laughing.

Navy looked at her and flipped the middle finger. “The next time you don’t want to attend an event alone, make sure you forget my number.”

Greene continued to laugh and then snatched her clutch back up. “Relax. I know you have been miserable since we arrived. Beans invited us back to his place for drinks and hookah.”

She snatched her bag up and stood up, and that was when I got a good view of the ass she was hiding from me. The dress fell down her body like a piece of silk falling from a freshly undone bed.

So effortlessly.

“You wore navy blue because that’s your name?” I asked, remaining seated as she stood beside me.

Her hair touched my arm as she looked down at me. “It was the only thing that looked cute on me tonight.”

“Find that hard to believe.”

She smiled. “Are we leaving or what?”

I saw Kennedy coming from across the room toward where we were. Navy headed around me, ready to get the fuck out of here. I peeped her kindle and picked it up as I stood to leave.

“Landon are you really going to leave right now?” she asked, checking her watch, then looking back at me.

“You busy, birthday girl. It’s cool. I’ll get up with yo?—”

“Well, look at you being so nice and holding Kindle-esha,” Navy came back over and gently took her kindle from my hand.

When I looked down at her, her body just fit perfectly next to mine. Like she was meant to be there. She looked at Kennedy and smiled.

“Yeah, I got you.”

She shoved it back into my hand. “Cool, you can carry it, since it doesn’t mesh well with my outfit.” With that, she went back over toward where Greene was while Beans went to settle the table for me.

Kennedy watched her walk away, and then her eyes looked up at me. “You messing around with Navy? Come on, Don.”

I looked down at her, not even rattled by what the fuck she said.

Kennedy was throwing shit out there because my attention, for a split second, wasn’t on her.

Even from across the room, as she took pictures and talked with her friends, I watched as she looked up every so often and saw me and Navy talking to each other.

“Nah.”

“Then why are you leaving with her?”

I looked back at Navy, Greene and Beans waiting for me. “You see two other people, right?”

The frustration entered her face, and it made her look even more cute. She wasn’t getting her way and was mad because of it. “I thought you came for me?”

“You preoccupied. Finish enjoying your party and then hit me up.” I rubbed the back of my hand gently down her face, and she smiled up at me.

She wanted to kiss me, and her body wouldn’t allow her to because she was scared of anything getting back to Menace. While she was worried, I didn’t give a fuck what made it back to his ass.

The fuck was he gonna do?

Put me over his knee and beat me?

Cutting me off from the family’s money was a thought, but I could take care of myself without the Caselli money, and he knew that shit. As much as he didn’t want what was happening between me and Kennedy to happen, the shit was moving toward that.

I hoped.

“You gonna answer?” she folded her arms as she stole a peek at Navy, with her head down in her phone.

Her golden skin was flustered because, with it being a packed house tonight, it was slightly warmer than usual, and the pink dress she wore seemed heavy. All the light in the room attracted toward her, as it should, and that meant the heat, too.

“C’mon now. Don’t I always answer the phone for you, Ken?”

She blushed, her cheeks becoming more red. “Tonight might be different.”

I looked back at Navy, who wasn’t paying us any attention, and then back at Kennedy. “Stop all that shit. Have fun with your friends and then call me to pick you up.”

“K.” I watched as she walked backward back to her friends, and I turned around with Navy’s kindle in my hand and walked past them toward the exit.

“I’m riding with Greene back to my crib,” Beans said, as he told the valet to bring Greene’s car around.