Banking on Him

Chapter 25 - Serena

Reese and I got up the next morning and got ready to go to brunch with Erica and her new man, whom I hadn't met yet. Of course, getting ready meant shower sex, which ended up making us late.

"I'm never late," I said as Reese nuzzled my neck in the parking lot. I laughed, framing his face with my hands and kissing his forehead. "I guess it was worth it."

Reese smiled. "Okay, let's get in there beautiful."

We entered the restaurant and Erica flagged me down from across the room. "Seriously, if Erica beat us here, we are very late." Reese just chuckled and intertwined our fingers as we walked towards her.

"There you are! Even I've been here for like 10 minutes. What has gotten into you?" She kissed me on the cheek, before turning to Reese and doing the same. 

I narrowed my eyes at Reese, "See; I told you we were really late." 

He held his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay. I take full responsibility." We both laughed.

Erica motioned to the very handsome man, covered in tattoos beside her. "Serena, Reese, this is Sole." 

I smiled, "Nice to meet you."

"It's nice to finally meet you too, Erica has told me so much about you," Sole said. 

I looked at Erica. "Oh, of course, she did!"

She laughed, "Oh come on, S. Only good things! Like how you're a slave driver of a boss." At that, I laughed out loud and so did Sole. "You can't be serious. I'm like the most lenient boss ever!" She raised her glass. "Touche."

"So Sole, what do you do?" I asked after the waitress came to take all of our orders and we were settled with drinks. He took a sip of her beer before answering, "I'm in club management and promotion." 

I looked to Reese, wondering if he knew exactly what that meant, but he seemed just as curious as I was. "Hmm, sounds interesting," I said when he didn't elaborate. "We met at that club opening I was telling you about. He's the reason I got in. Picked me right out of the crowd."

I smiled. "Oh, right! I remember you telling me about that."

"Do you go out much?" Sole asked. "I've never seen you out with Erica." 

I shook my head, "Not really. Although, we did just go out to Reese's new club recently."

This sparked a conversation about the club business between the two guys and allowed for some much more interesting girl talk.

Erica sipped her mimosa, signaling the waitress for another. "So, tell me about your weekend. I can't believe you brought Reese." 

I laughed, "I'm sure he feels the same, but since you're the reason we spent the weekend together, I figured our secret is safe with you."

"So there's a secret to be kept now? You're no longer denying it?" I rolled my eyes but smiled. "No, I'm not denying it anymore."

She smiled and clapped her hands lightly. "Good. I'm really happy for you, S. And for what it's worth, I think you're doing the right thing." 

I nodded. "Thank you. For everything."

Brunch passed quickly, and before I knew it, we were back in the car, headed back to Reese's house. He was driving and stroking my knuckles, softly. "I don't know about that guy," Reese said.

I laughed, "Oh don't worry, he's not a keeper." He looked at me briefly, "What do you mean?" I sighed, "He can get her into all the best clubs, I'm sure. But when she gets bored of the clubbing scene, she'll dump him and move onto her next thing."