“I don’t want to walk by myself to work,” she says, grabbing her purse as I grab mine.
She probably wants to grill me about where I’ve been all weekend, and I can’t wait to tell her.
“I have a pit stop to make,” I say as we load into the elevator.
“Oh?” she prods, trying not to be overly eager and start interrogating me.
“Yeah, I sort of promised I’d stop by the gym and see the samples of Jax’s new line of protein bars and shakes.”
I deliberately don’t mention that I haven’t seen them yet because they were getting delivered to the gym this morning. Because it’s Bora, and I want to mislead her just to drag out the suspense. A little payback is warranted, even if it is late in life.
The elevator opens and she follows me off, quickly pouncing on that.
“So you guys are seriously doing this friends’ thing. Um… Whose clothes were you in this morning?”
Jax’s t-shirt and sweats has surprisingly gone unmentioned until now, and I smile to myself while ignoring her question.
“Mom and Dad going to call me soon with the news?” I ask instead.
She frowns while walking, probably thinking of her text to Jax that told him I was at Silk and wondering why he never messaged her back. It’s cute that she was trying to be all shady and helpful. Never pictured Bora as the worried, meddling sister type.
“I don’t know,” she finally says, sighing as though she’s upset. “Bo, I love you, but you aren’t a one-night stand kind of girl. Don’t let some guy take advantage of you when you’re on the rebound.”
The sadness in her voice almost has me spilling details, but we’re at the gym, and I definitely don’t want to spoil it when the finish line is this close.
As soon as we walk in, I see Tria walking toward us, even though she’s not dressed for the gym.
“Hey,” she says, beaming when she sees us. “What are you two doing here?”
“Came to see the new line for Jax’s thingy,” Bora says bitterly.
Tria cocks an eyebrow at me in question, but I just grin and shrug.
“I came with Kode to deliver it, since we’re about to head to New York. He has a meeting with some reps about the launching of the line. Jax doesn’t want anything to do with the business side of it, so he and Kode are going to be partners.”
Tria’s makeup line is officially in Pretty Posh territory now, and she’s definitely one of my favorite people to work with. Now Kode is going to be partners with Jax. Funny how small this world really is.
“Bo!” Jax’s excited voice has me looking past Tria, and he waves me over.
Before I can walk in his direction, Bora is clutching my arm.
“Holy sweet bad boy from heaven. Who the hell is that?” she asks, looking over as a shirtless guy with numerous tattoos stands from a bench and wipes sweat off his brow.
He’s not bulky with muscle, but he definitely looks like he’d be able to bench press me without breaking a sweat. He runs a hand through his black hair, pushing it away from his forehead, and letting it stick up like it’s supposed to be that way.
Tria’s groan draws my attention back to her.
“Don’t even attempt it, Bora. He’s too much for even you to handle. That’s my cousin—Ethan Noles. He just moved back.”
Bora’s slow smile spreads. “I can handle any man in any position. There’s no such thing as too much sex.”
“Eww,” Tria says, wrinkling her nose while choking on a gag. “That’s not what I meant. I meant he’s too big of an asshole for even you to contend with. He’s barely nice to me, and that’s only because we’re related. I just threw up in my mouth, so excuse me while I go rinse it out.”
I snicker while Bora continues to salivate. But then… Ethan Noles walks by, and Bora turns up her charm.
“I have a king-size bed that would look perfect with you on it,” she bluntly states, causing me to groan.
He looks at her with complete disinterest and walks away like Bora didn’t just offer him free sex. That’s a first.