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"I'm going to the mall with Renly and Ellenora on Sunday then I’m going to talk to Corbus and show him that I haven’t changed." She sighed. "I hope once I explain more, he won't hate me."
Ryker tilted her chin up, so she was looking at him once again. "If any of them do, they were never going to take it well in the first place. In the end, you'll still have me."
She wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him closer. "You're more than enough for me, Ryker."
She kissed him sweetly. It was the first kiss they shared where neither of them was looking to tease the other or trying to prove a point. In a way, there was still a point to be made by the gesture, but it was much more innocent than their other kisses. She hoped the gentle way their lips danced against each other expressed how much she cared about him already.
His hand shifted from holding her chin to cupping her cheek. His hands felt rough on her cheek, but she didn't mind. After spending weeks with him, she knew that his calloused hands were from the jobs he'd done for Chance along with the labor he used to do for his father.
Mykie jumped when someone cleared their throat. Ryker lingered for a moment longer before pulling away.
"I wasn't expecting this," Chance said, obviously amused from where he was leaning on the doorframe of his office. Mykie was embarrassed that she didn’t hear the door open.
"I didn't expect it either," Ryker murmured quietly, and Mykie assumed only she may have heard him.
“I’ll meet you later,” he said much louder as he stepped past Mykie and went in the direction of the Cantil bar, where they kept their more expensive stock of bottles.
"I had the plan to update you on the situation with Caspar and the rest of the boys. I decided to tell them all that I am a part of the Cantil, but I'll hopefully be able to avoid saying much more beyond that," Mykie explained to Chance.
Chance nodded. “That’s your choice. Just remember to keep our secrets beyond that. Just because you’ve decided to expose yourself, doesn’t mean others need to be exposed for who they work with.”
"I promise. I've only mentioned that I'm important to the Cantil and that it was a recent development."
Chance sighed as he circled his office until he could sit down at his desk. Since the last time, it had accrued a dozen more piles of files and loose papers. Chance also looked worse for wear, making Mykie think he had been on a job right before coming to his office.
"Just be careful, Myk. Anything we say can be huge information for the right person. We need to watch who we trust, especially after the events of Friday.“
She had a feeling that he was referring to more than just the boys upstairs. She glanced over in Ryker's direction and agreed. Nothing was more painful than finding out someone you trusted all along betrayed you. If any of the boys reacted badly or told someone about her position or the secrets in the Cantil, she would be devastated. That was why she had to only tell the boys the bare minimum in hopes of making them understand the reason why they shouldn't stay away from her.
Renly was right. There was no escaping the Cantil now, whether they liked her or not. Everyone who was watching her knew she cared about them. They would be equally tied to her for the foreseeable time being.
The thought of being without them hurt her already, but she would have to suck it up if it happened. After all, she was alone up until that point. Would it be so bad to return to that life?
She thought about it and shook her head. Now that she had a taste of something beyond loneliness, she would never be the same.
MALL TRIPS
She was only an hour into the trip to the mall and she'd already wished a thousand times that she had canceled. Ellenora was dragging her from store to store when all Mykie wanted was a simple black dress. It didn't even have to be nice. The cheaper the better, in Mykie's opinion. That way she would feel like she wouldn't owe Renly anything, despite it being a gift.
"You can't just get one thing, Mykie," Ellenora had said every time Mykie complained about all the shopping. "Shopping for nice things is a rite of passage. I don't know why you aren't excited to buy new things."
"Maybe because I'm the one that has to pay back the credit card company after all the shopping," Mykie murmured. They were in yet another store that was above her price range, but Renly and Ellenora insisted was a good place to shop.
"Have you found anything you like?" Renly asked, coming up beside her as she flipped through another rack of dresses to no avail. Sure, she said she wanted a simple black dress, but she was hoping the fabric would cover more than her bathing suits would. Since when did dresses have so many dips, holes, and mesh pieces?
Renly and she had been awkward the entire time they had been shopping. He seemed he had something to say to her, but every time he got the chance, Ellenora pulled her away again.
"It's a choice between whether I'd like to wear something with barely any fabric or spend a down payment for a mortgage on," she muttered, pulling out one dress that stuck out. She frowned when she realized that despite the long sleeves the dress was sporting, the rest of the dress was a see-through fabric that she couldn't imagine herself wearing.
Renly chuckled. "I told you before, I'm buying it. Whatever you find you like, I'll get it. The price doesn't matter."
"I'm not letting you spend almost a thousand dollars on a stupid dress," Mykie scoffed, putting the dress back.
"Would you let Ryker do it? That's all he cares about anyway, the money he can get out of Dad. Why wouldn't you tell me that he's been hanging around you? You know he's only working there to be close to you, not because he needs the money."
"This has nothing to do with him," she hissed. "The fact that you're even bringing him up shows me that I was right not to tell you anything, but I won't discuss that here. This has to do with the fact that while you say you owe me this, you're really just trying to buy my affection."
Renly shook his head. "I don't understand. I thought you would like it if I bought you something. Isn't it like a gift? I wasn't expecting you to complain about it."
