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“Not today.” I turned on the dishwasher. “Go get dressed.”
“What do you mean go get dressed? We can’t go out.”
I crossed my arms and looked at her. “Why?”
“I don’t know, you just killed somebody. Don’t you need to decompress or something?”
“More reason to celebrate.”
“Wait,” she said, narrowing her eyes at me. “You killed him on my birthday, was that my gift?”
“Would that make you more willing to put some proper clothes on?”
“You’re sick in the head.”
“A little. Tariq and Siani are meeting us at nine,” I said, checking my watch. “You’ve got about forty minutes to get yourself together.”
Belle placed a hand on her chest. “Killing the man who was blackmailing me and planning a birthday date? This might be the most romantic thing anyone’s ever done for me.”
She gave me a quick peck and left the kitchen. I heard the shower cut on a minute later.
34 LA’BELLE EVANS
I hadn’t really celebrated a birthday properly since I was thirty.
Some years it was a spa day and dinner with my girls. Other years it was me rotting on the couch with really good takeout and wine. It wasn’t like I was sad about it. I just never felt like going through all the trouble, and after Andrew and his secret family, I didn’t trust a man to do right by me in that regard anyway.
This year…well, I hadn’t really thought about it, considering I was being blackmailed and forced into a marriage.
Forty minutes wasn’t enough time to do much of anything, so I slicked my hair into a bun and threw on a black jumpsuit from Naked Wardrobe with my knee high boots.
“There’s my Beautiful Belle,” Cardez said when I came out into the living room.
Nine years after Andrew, the man who’d forced me into an engagement had killed for me that afternoon and was taking me out for my birthday.
If that wasn’t romance, I don’t know what is.
“A jazz club?” I asked when the Navigator rolled to a stop.
“I didn’t think you’d be into the rah-rah turn up,” he said.
He was right, of course.
The spot was on the Upper West Side with a small sign out front, maybe thirty tables inside, and a stage just big enough for the four-piece band set up on it. There wasn’t an open seat at the bar or empty table in the room. They kept the lights low, giving the whole place a sexy, chic vibe.
Siani was out of her seat before I got my coat all the way off.
“Happy birthday, bitch!”
I hugged her hard. “Your ass has been texting me all day and didn’t say shit.”
“Riq made me swear on my life that I wouldn’t tell.” She pulled back and made me turn around. “That jumpsuit is doing everything it’s supposed to do.”
“I had forty minutes, girl.”
“And you got that shit on, friend!” she squealed. “Sit, they got these mini cornbread things with honey butter that are so good.”
Tariq stood and gave me a one-armed hug. “Happy birthday, sis.”
