Bare Pleasures. Lindsay Evans

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      “I get by,” she murmured.

      She was probably a millionaire several times over. Lex smiled and pushed away his drink. Time to do a little research, then. “I’m glad you’re satisfied,” he said, feeling far from that state himself. But that would change soon.

      His phone vibrated in his front pocket. “Excuse me,” he said as he reached for it.

      His twin’s big eyes flashed at him from the screen. He answered the phone, turning slightly away from Margot. “Hey.”

      “What are you doing?” Adisa asked the question as if she knew he wasn’t doing anything special.

      “Nothing much. What’s up?”

      “You’re not getting ready for family dinner tonight?”

      “What’s to get ready for? I’m dressed and showered. My car is working so I’ll be able to drive there.”

      “You’re such an idiot. You do know it’s their anniversary, right?”

      “I think you’re the one being an idiot. I know when their anniversary is and it’s not today.”

      “It’s the anniversary of you know...” Her voice trailed off dramatically in typical Adisa fashion.

      The you know was the unfortunate incident of their parents’ separation when their mother ran off to some island with another man. Their parents didn’t think they knew, but all the siblings were very aware of what had happened, although not why, and had created an unofficial celebration of their parents’ reunion by dropping by their house, even when it wasn’t a family dinner, and bringing presents.

      With the meeting with Margot on his mind, Lex had actually forgotten. “Okay, fine.”

      “So, what are you bringing?” Adisa pressed, sounding impatient.

      Lex barely stopped himself from saying something mean. “Right now, nothing.”

      “Let’s go shopping and then we can go to the house after. You can even buy me a drink.”

      “Why am I buying you a drink when you make at least four times my salary?”

      “Because you’re older and that’s what older brothers do.”

      He was about to remind her that older by twelve minutes didn’t really count, but then he remembered where he was. Lex sighed heavily into the phone. “I’ll be at your place in fifteen.”

      “Perfection. I’ll be waiting for you on the porch with fresh coffee.” They were both caffeine addicts and drank coffee any time of the day or night, especially when they were together.

      “French vanilla, please,” Lex said.

      “Like I don’t know who I’m talking to.” She hung up.

      Lex slid the phone back into his pocket.

      “You have to go?” Margot looked amused. She’d never seen him interact with any of his siblings before. Their entire relationship had been in the context of Lex’s isolation from his twin and the rest of his immediate family.

      “I do have to go.” Lex took one last sip of his lukewarm beer. “But I’ll be in touch.”

      She reached across the table to squeeze his hand, her eyes rising to meet his. “I’m looking forward to it.”

      “Even if I say what you don’t want to hear?”

      “I’m an optimist,” she said.

      Lex got to his feet. “All right, Margot. We’ll talk soon.” Then he left the restaurant without any intention of ever seeing her again.

      * * *

      When he pulled up to Adisa’s front door, she was sitting on her front step reading her version of a trashy novel. On the cover was a pretty illustration of nuclear fission. Like him, she was a nerd from way back.

      “Lexie!” She jumped up from the step, slipped her book under her arm and grabbed the two cups of coffee at her side, one with her lipstick stain on its rim. “I swear, you are the most punctual black man in the universe. What did you do, roll out of bed and push her out the door at the same time?”

      He unlocked and opened the car door to let her in. “I didn’t push anybody anywhere.”

      “Right. You were with a woman. I know it.” She passed him his coffee and climbed into the car butt-first, bringing the smell of vanilla-flavored coffee and her bergamot body lotion, a Diallo Corporation blend, with her. She wore her natural hair pulled back from her face and circled with a bright blue scarf. Jeans, a cropped white T-shirt and a gold body chain that flashed at the neckline of her shirt and across her flat belly completed her latest casual look.

      “There was a woman, yeah.” He could never hide anything from Adisa, and he never wanted to. “But not that kind.”

      “A butterface?” She plopped her coffee in the appropriate cup holder and slammed the door shut. “Understandable. You’re a pretty devil, but sometimes you gotta take whatever is available.”

      “Don’t be crass.”

      She tipped her head back in mock shock and then burst out laughing. “Don’t take this all new Alexander to boring levels, brother dear. Remember I knew you back when.”

      Lex started the car just after she belted herself in, gunning the engine of the Charger and taking off so fast that she slammed back into her seat.

      Adisa grabbed the door handle. “You asshole!” But she was laughing. “Wait until I tell Mom...”

       Chapter 4

      Working on Saturdays is for suckers, Noelle thought. Which made her the biggest sucker of all since this was the third Saturday in a row she was in the office. She worked the extra hours for no reason other than she wanted to finish the work on a pending case that her boss needed ASAP.

      “Fuck my life,” she muttered as she stepped outside the law firm’s five-story building into the sunshine and eighty-degree heat.

      It was a gorgeous fall day with just the right amount of crispness in the late morning to make her long for a walk to her favorite Cuban bakery for a pastelito and then a stroll back home to savor that hint of cool weather that Miami got blessed with once in a blue moon. But instead of doing that, she’d been at work. Researching, collating that research and sending it off to her boss in a format he could understand.

      Noelle shrugged out of her sweater and draped it over her arm, slid on her sunglasses and walked toward her car. A few feet away from her little red Honda Civic, she stopped mentally complaining for long enough to realize there was somebody leaning on her car.

      “Hey, there.” Margot waved her phone at her. “I was just about to text you.”

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