Would it have been wrong for me to tell her it was too much for the world?
Being a friend and doing this Eat Pray Love shit was going to kill me. I already knew it.
“You look beautiful, Lamb. If you see me glaring at a man today, I’m just keeping them in line, okay?”
She beamed and waved me in. “This isn’t going to be weird, is it? We probably shouldn’t have slept together.”
I smirked at how she let the words tumble out of her as she packed up her purse to head out.
“You nervous we can’t be friends after we shared our secrets and I licked your—”
“Dante, that’s not allowed,” she cut me off.
“I joke with my friends.”
“You friends with all the girls you’ve slept with?” she inquired, her cheeks flushing.
“If you’re jealous, the answer is yes.”
She rolled her eyes and asked what was on the agenda first. I guided her through the hotel and told her we would go shopping. She needed to see the little places I'd shopped while searching for her trinkets over the years.
The girl I’d lusted over was finally shopping with me for things I had to guess she’d like when I was overseas. She stopped at every little knickknack to ooh and aah over it, but she surprised me when she picked up a small gold wolf with green eyes.
“It’s you,” she murmured and proceeded to turn to the cashier and haggle over the price.
The piece was inexpensive to begin with, but she got it down to what she wanted by smiling and telling the guy this was the only thing she’d wanted to find today and he had it, that his shop was exactly what she’d been looking for.
The shop played Puerto Rican music and connected to a little restaurant in the back that smelled like sweet plantains and olive oil. At one point, a girl about the cashier’s age came to the front to smile at us both and offer us a lemonade drink, one that was more sour and authentic than the sweet lemonades back home. Of course, Delilah had no problem paying full price for that.
When we left with our drinks, she squealed, “I always wanted to do that. It’s so rude.”
“What’s rude?” We walked down the cobblestone street, and she stopped to pet a stray cat.
“To haggle. I left a big tip for our drinks, so I’m hoping that made up for it.”
“You left a … You got your wolf fair and square, Lilah.”
“Even so, I wanted the experience.” She smiled and walked on.
It was that part of her that made her better than anyone I’d ever known. She wanted to be good to everyone and wanted to be her best self always—even when no one was looking.
“Anyone ever told you that you might be too sweet?”
She hummed and then shrugged. “Anyone ever tell you that you might be too charming?”
I smirked and pointed down the road. Homes colored green, pink, light blue, and yellow lined the street. “Maybe a time or two. I’ve been called just about everything with the life I’ve lived.”
She nodded and stared down the road. “I’m jealous that you’ve had so much experience in just one life.”
“Sometimes it feels like I’m living about ten in one.”
“Can I ask why?” She stopped to look at me, and her hazel eyes peered up at me like she wanted to know every secret I had, like I could tell her anything. “Why did you hide your name from me all these years?”
I stopped and chewed my cheek, not sure if I should burden her with my shit, let her know what I didn’t tell anyone. Not even her brothers knew what she did about me.
“My name isn’t one you throw around. My dad was revered by some but hated by most.”
She nodded, and when she let the silence grow between us, I smiled. “You use that silence to your advantage as well as I do.”
She shrugged. “Some of my work with patients has taught me that people will disclose a lot if you keep quiet and let them.”
“Silence is a technique with a lot of men I’ve worked with.” I nodded, thinking about how I could quietly clean a tool behind a tied-up man and he would start talking faster than an auctioneer.
“Do you get tired of all the lives you live and all the men you’ve had to work with?” She’d known exactly what I was talking about when I used the word technique, and I sighed, pulling her over to a bench where we could let time pass as we talked.
A cat immediately ambled over to Lilah, who took no time at all to pet its orange fur.
“You know they aren’t all that friendly.”