Page 57 of You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty
Feyi exhaled at the pressure of his skin against hers. “Thank you,” she said. The sourness was receding, fading away into her body.
Alim grinned at her. “Kiss me,” he whispered. “I miss your mouth.”
The ease with which he said it made her heart flutter slightly. A day ago, she wouldn’t have been able to do this, to touch his face and pull his mouth down to hers, feel the restrained force of his lips, his tongue, hear him moan at the back of his throat as she pressed her body against his. So much could change in such a short slice of time.
Alim broke off the kiss, his breath ragged. “Are you certain you want this omelet?” he asked. “Because I could wash my hands and do other things with them, if you’d rather.”
Feyi laughed and pushed him gently back to the counter. “I’m starving,” she said.
Alim’s eyes licked up and down her body. “Yes,” he replied. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you—so am I.” He laughed at how hard Feyi blushed in response and relented. “Fine, I’ll feed you first.”
Feyi settled into the breakfast nook as he returned to his cooking. This new world they’d fallen into so quickly was still terrifying, but on the other hand, this wasn’t the first time Feyi’s life had changed at a breakneck pace, so the uncertainty was both familiar and uncomfortable.
Back in New York, she’d just been settling into a life that she could call her own. It had taken years to find a rhythm that didn’t include Jonah’s stride in lockstep with hers, that didn’t include her stumbling with grief every time she realized he was gone. What was going to happen now, if this thing with Alim was real? They’d been so worried about him and his children, Feyi hadn’t even thought about how her life would change.
Would they date long-distance, across a stretch of seawater? Oh God, her mother was going to be furious. An older man with kids was nothing like what she wanted for Feyi. What if Alim wanted more children? Feyi had assumed not, but they hadn’t even talked about it. She didn’t have any siblings, so did this mean that her parents were never going to become grandparents? She knew they’d been looking forward to her and Jonah adopting, even though they would have preferred a biological child, and they hadn’t had the heart to bring it up to her after he died, but Alim’s presence would resurrect conversations Feyi had hoped to never have again. Jesus, neither of them had even talked about if they wanted to get married again. Fuck, imagine if she ended up being Nasir and Lorraine’s stepmother? A panicked giggle tore through Feyi, and she clapped her hand over her mouth to stifle it.
Alim looked up. “You okay?”
“Mm-hmm. It smells amazing.” She wasn’t about to bring any of this up with Alim. Not yet. “I gotta catch up with Joy for a while after breakfast,” she added. “Is there anything you’d prefer I not tell her?”
Alim came up behind her with a buttery-yellow omelet folded on a plate, a drizzle of bright orange on top of it. Feyi could smell the mango and Scotch bonnet from the sauce. He tucked a stray braid behind her ear as he slid the plate in front of her. “You can tell her whatever you like, sweetness.”
Feyi tilted her head back to look at him. “You sure? I don’t wanna, like, invade your privacy.”
“Please. I understand the intimacy you have with her. Don’t worry about it.” He went back to the stove to flip his omelet in a second pan. “If you like, you could tell her that I’m generously endowed. Apart from the money, that is.”
Feyi choked on her juice and reached for a napkin, spluttering. “What?!”
Alim’s laugh was rich with a mischief that seemed much younger than his age. “From what I’ve heard of Joy, the odds of her asking you that were already quite high.”
He was absolutely right, but still. “You know they say if a guy claims he’s packing, then he usually isn’t, right?” It was such a distracting visual! Feyi found herself wondering if she’d be able to wrap her palm around him, if her fingers would touch. She drove the thought away, even as she flashed back to the kitchen counter the night before, the pressure of his body against hers. “You’re supposed to wait for me to find out on my own!”
“We are in extenuating circumstances, Feyi. Trust me, you would have found out for yourself otherwise.” He threw her a sharp grin over his shoulder, then changed the subject, much to her relief. “I have to run some errands this afternoon anyway, but I’ll see you in the evening. Is there anything you need from town?”
“Nah, I think I’m good. I’ll talk to Joy, probably take a swim, and then start thinking about the piece for Pooja.”
“You know she’ll be delighted with whatever you make her, right?”
For a moment, Alim sounded unnervingly like Nasir, and Feyi fought the pang of guilt that it set off in her. Na-sir wasn’t here. Nasir could wait. She hadn’t checked her phone in hours, though, and she was going to have to keep texting him as if everything was okay. Did that count as lying? She forced her head clear as Alim brought his plates over to the table to join her, smiling at her like both their lives weren’t on a flashing fuse. It was easier, then, looking into his eyes, for Feyi to believe that everything was going to be all right.
• • •
The conversation with Joy was hard, there was no other way to put it. It was one thing for this to be just her and Alim, but saying what had happened out loud to someone else made Feyi feel like she was losing her entire mind. She couldn’t even bring herself to joke about it.
“I haven’t talked to Nasir yet, but yeah, that’s what’s been going on.” Feyi glanced at the phone screen, bracing herself.
Joy had both hands pressed to her mouth, her eyes wide with shock. “Are you fucking serious right now? Like, you’re messing with me. You gotta be messing with me.”
Feyi glared at her, feeling frayed. “Do I look like I’m fucking around?”
“I mean, bitch, you gotta be fucking around because there’s no way you’re telling me that you and Nasir’s father are making some plan to ride off into the sunset together. It’s been what, twenty-four hours?!”
“I know it sounds ridiculous—”
“I’m not even saying that. I’m just trying to understand. You’ve been there for a couple of weeks, I thought you just had a crush on him. When did all the rest of this happen?”
“I don’t—I don’t know how to explain it, Joy. We’ve been talking, that’s all. About real shit. I guess it happened somewhere in there?”