Page 51 of Beni

Beni’s expression didn’t falter.

His older brother gave one last look at the apartment hallway before saying, “Be safe here, huh? Don’t make me come back here just to collect your fucking remains. I wouldn’t forgive you for that, Beni. Ma, either.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”

Always would be, too.

Marcus exhaled long, and slow. “Think you’re going to be bored here without Bene?”

August flashed in his mind. Her sweet, but sly smile, and the way it darkened her brown eyes even more when it turned sexy in a blink. Pretty skin flushed for him, or because of him. And their date to meetup that afternoon.

“You know what,” Beni replied, “I think I’ll be okay.”

“Right.” Marcus headed for the door. “You need something, you call me, okay?”

“I will.”

Without a doubt, he could always count on Marcus for that. It was everything else that was currently up in the air. Strange how that worked sometimes.

“What can I get for you, Miss?”

“I can’t believe you just got up this morning and left before I was even awake.”

August smiled at the girl behind the cash at the café while also rolling her eyes at her friend on the phone. “Just a coffee—two sugars, and cream.”

“Sure.”

“August?”

She stepped to the side, giving the guy waiting in line behind her a nod at his patience in waiting for her to move before going forward. Off to the left of the counter, waiting for her order, she could finally give her attention to the very impatient Camilla on the phone.

“First of all,” August said, “it’s almost noon, Cam. You act like I woke up at six and snuck out of the house before the ass crack of dawn.”

“Well …”

“Seriously, I can’t sleep in like you do.”

“Couldn’t you have woken me up?”

August figured that, since her time in Chicago was about halfway finished, Camilla was starting to show it. She had called in sick to work twice, to follow her around while she finished up some things for the magazine spread. On more than one occasion, she demanded August stay at her place, even though she had a perfectly fine hotel room in the city.

And, she outright asked her to stay.

Here.

In Chicago.

A part of her wanted to agree to that in a heartbeat. Being here with Cam reminded August exactly how much she had missed her friend since the last time they had been together. Not to mention, whenever they got together, it was like time and distance just didn’t matter. They were still just August and Camilla, best friends ‘til the end.

It would be easy to say yes.

And also hard.

“I just needed to get out of the house, go for a walk, think,” August said. “There’s nothing wrong with that, right?”

That was mostly the truth …

She didn’t bother to mention how she had agreed to meet up with Beni at this café, or the meeting she had later in the afternoon with Alessa Conti for Manic Media. Those were the real reasons August left that morning, but she didn’t want to share them.