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“Excuse me,” he said, standing between Siani and I. “Can me and my boy buy y’all a round?”

Siani looked at me with raised eyebrows.

I smiled as I felt the old me resurfacing—the Belle that would flirt, laugh at jokes, and have a man paying our tab, or maybe even dinner by the end of the night.

“Sure,” I said, turning my body towards him. “What’s your name?”

“Enzo. You?”

I extended my hand. “Belle. That’s my friend Siani.”

Enzo had a pretty smile, dimples, and based on the little I’d heard from him, I knew I could get into his accounts with my eyes closed.

He grinned and shook my hand. He flagged the bartender.

His friend took that as his cue to make his way over. He was around the same height, but stockier, and had money… if the Bvlgari on his wrist was real.

“Jonah,” he said, reaching past Enzo to shake our hands. “What y’all drinking?”

“We’re good,” Siani said.

“Nah, we got it.” He nodded at the bartender. “Another round for the ladies. On us.”

They made themselves comfortable on the stools next to us.

“Y’all from here?” Jonah asked.

Siani shook her head. “New York.”

“That’s what’s up,” Enzo nodded approvingly. “What brings y’all down here?”

“We needed to get out of the city for a few days. You?”

“We’re from Dade County. I have some family that lives on the island.”

“Nice.”

Enzo was fine. They both were—there was no point in pretending otherwise. If this were three months ago, I would’ve turned him into a cute Florida jump off, and Siani would’ve drained Jonah’s wallet with a smile. We’d done it so many times, it was practically a sport.

But in my mind’s eye, I saw Cardez stroll past me, go up to Enzo, say something low in his ear that nobody else could hear, and slap him on the shoulder with that scary-ass smile of his as he told him some joke.

Enzo would be gone before I could explain anything.

“You good?” Enzo asked.

“Sorry.” I blinked.

Siani snickered. “She over there daydreaming about her man. He’s a little coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs.”

“Siani!”

“I’m just tryna help the man before he falls in too deep.”

Enzo looked at me. “You got a man?”

“She does,” Siani answered for me.

“I can speak for myself.” I made a face at Siani, then turned back to Enzo. “But yeah. I do.”