Garden Kisses

chapter 6

It was the last day of my trip to Miami. The days spent with Erin seemed like a perpetual dream. I came to Miami as a broken soul and Erin found me, licked my curves, and stuck me back together. Now I found myself dreading the moment we would part ways. The thought of leaving Erin scared me. I buried my face into her toned stomach and rolled over on the bed.
“You okay babe?” Erin asked, realizing my energy was low. I looked up at her. She stared at me with huge sad eyes and I immediately fell under her spell.
“I don’t want to go and leave you here.” I whimpered.
“Well, this trip had to end eventually, right? You have your business to go back to.” Erin justified, rubbing my forehead gently. “Besides, my trip ends a day or two after you. I already finished my video project for my client so nothing left for me here…” Erin’s voice faded out. It was almost as if she found her statement irrelevant and did not want to bother me with her concerns.
An idea began to creep into my mind.
“Is it a case where you HAVE to go back home? Is there someone waiting for you?” I inquired.
“What? No, I pretty much do what I want. That’s how it is when you live that Youtuber life.” Erin smiled at me.
“What do you think about… coming to LA?” I asked her. Erin hesitated to respond.
“It doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” She finally answered, “It’s just… If I go on another trip right away I’ll be right back at square one. I don’t think I can afford to travel unless I’m doing a project right now.”
“Well what if I pay for you?” I sat up to ask, excitement building in my voice.
“You’d pay for my trip?” Erin sounded surprised.
“Yeah, of course! Especially if it means that you will spend more time with me.”
“I – I, I really don’t know what to say…”
“Well please don’t say no,” I begged her. “I’ll pay for everything. You won’t have to lift a finger and you can stay as long as you like.”
“Well with an offer like that I’d be an idiot to say no,” Erin replied with excitement. “But are you sure though? That’s a lot of money to spend on someone you just met.”
“I would probably get depressed if I went home and never saw you again… So the money spent is no problem for me. I’ll organize you a proper hotel to stay in and give you some pocket change as well so you hopefully won’t have to spend a dollar of your own money.”
“Zinnia that sounds amazing! I’m lost for words. I have never been to LA. Hmm, I should take that opportunity to do some vlogs as well.”
“Oh sure! That’s a great idea. In fact I know quite a few celebs because of my salon so I could even set-up interviews for you.”
Erin was now more excited than I was. I felt wanted. To me, paying a trip for Erin would not hurt the bank. It was a small gesture to accommodate her. I expected her to refuse my offer. It was just another hotel stay to me, but to Erin it was a world of opportunity. I felt a lot better about returning home later that day.
“It’s settled then!” I said, jumping out of the bed. “I’ll go pack and we’ll book your trip right after!”

I landed in LA with a heavy heart. I already missed Erin. She did not travel with me immediately. Erin opted to spend her remaining days as planned so no extra expenses are incurred (even though I insisted she should not worry). I expected her arrival two days later. In the meantime, I planned to keep myself busy. The conference, which was the original intent of my trip, was a huge success. With the new connections I made, I was confident in achieving our goals for growth and expansion. A fashion agency, well-known for their high-end models and contracts, had expressed their interest in partnering with my salon. The agency was launching a new branch in LA and wanted to host an expose at my new salon in the boulevard. This was a huge opportunity to reel in some serious bank. I hadn’t thought much about it since I was constantly sitting on Erin’s face. Now, as my lover was miles away, I could focus on work.
“My lover…” I thought to myself. It was interesting how Erin swept me off my feet in basically one day. Because of her, I was able to forget all about Addonis.
“Addonis…” I hadn’t thought much about him till now. I ignored him for the entire trip, not answering his calls and leaving his messages on ‘read’. It was not much to say to him. He obviously did not care and I just wanted to move on. The best way to do that was to submerge me in work and then get some head.
“Zinnia? You there?” Addonis shouted, running down the stairs of our beautiful home. I had gotten up earlier than usual. I intended to leave without him noticing but unfortunately he caught me by the door, walking out with my work bag in hand.
“Nope! I’m heading straight to work.” I said turning angrily to leave. Addonis had no idea how through I was with him.
“Baby wait! I’m sorry okay? Just talk to me, please!” He ran up to me and held my arm.
“Talk about what? About how you don’t give a fuck about me anymore? Let me go!” I shouted, trying to pull my arm away from his muscular grip.
“Babe, come on! This isn’t right. How do you think you could disappear to Miami for a week and not even speak to me when you get back!”
“Fuck you, Addonis! You act like you don’t do the same damn thing! You could come home drunk every night for weeks and never even look in my direction before collapsing on the bed. By the mornings you’re either already out the door training or still fucking asleep. You know how many times I got to my office late just to see if you would even try to fucking touch me. Your fucking wife!”
My revelation hit Addonis like a ton of bricks and he finally let my arm go. I marched out the door and jumped into my car.
“Fuck him…” I spurted out while angrily pushing my hot wheels out the driveway.

“Oh no!” I groaned, dragging my hand down my face. “I completely forgot about that!”
“Well it doesn’t matter, cause you already promised me. So… whatever plans you made after me? You should call and cancel now.” Gilly said with a disappointed look on her face that I knew oh too well. I had messed up. Gilly had invited me to a Black Sun function and I eagerly accepted it several weeks ago. The problem was that it slipped my mind and Erin was due to arrive tonight.
I looked at Gilly in the eyes. My best friend and backbone… there was no way I would leave her hanging to go get some pussy.
“Ah! Damn it! You’re lucky I love you so hard, Gilly” I said with a frustrated sigh. I had been looking forward to Erin’s arrival for two days and now the moment had arrived, I could not even go meet her at the airport. I felt embarrassed about inviting Erin to spend time with me and already having to blow her off for an important engagement. She did ask me if I would even have time for her…
“You’re lucky I don’t disown you for forgetting about our important event. Come on, let’s go. I’m not gonna let you go home and change your mind while you change your clothes.” Gilly insisted.
“Ok fine! At least let me call and cancel my date.” I retorted and turned to my computer to start making arrangements for Erin.
“Oh? You had a date? Who’s the lucky guy?” Gilly grinned.
“Lucky gal? You mean?” I flashed a sly smile back at her.
“Ooo? Ha! So you took my advice, I see. Girl you’re gonna have to tell me all about that on our way. Ooo! I can’t wait to hear all the juicy details.”
I blushed. It was true that I had kept Gilly out of the loop but I was not sure how she would react to my affair. Even though I was not entirely in the wrong, I was still a married woman. At this point, however, I saw no harm in letting my secret slide to my best friend.
I tried calling Erin but as I expected the call went to voicemail. I realized she was probably mid-flight and expected to land in LA at any moment. I called the hotel and made sure that they would be ready to accept Erin and then I arranged for my trusted chauffeur to pick her up at the airport. I prepared an envelope with some cash in case Erin had any expenses to cover. I did promise her I would cover it all and I had broken too many promises already.
After all, arrangements were set I turned to Gilly. She had been waiting impatiently to hear me detail my exploits.
“Let’s go,” I said. “I’ll tell you all about it on the way.”

The crowd erupted with explosive applause. Gilly smiled at her audience and bowed, gracefully exiting the stage. I was truly impressed with her speech. I always knew Gilly to be a powerhouse but she never ceased to amaze me with her clarity of thought and speech. Everyone in the audience had connected to her.
Gilly took her seat next to me, shrugging her shoulders and looking at me with a huge question mark on her face. I knew what that look meant.
“You were amazing! Girl you had everyone hanging on to your every word. I’m so glad I got to see you in action outside of the salon.” I said, reassuring her of her success.
Gilly flashed a contented smile at me and as she opened her mouth to say something, we heard both our phones ringing. I looked at the time while Gilly fumbled around her bag to answer her phone. It was 10:30 PM and I had a policy of not accepting business calls after hours, so I didn’t bother to look at my phone. Gilly, on the other hand, answered hers and I watched all the excitement drain from her face.
“What happened?” I asked. It wasn’t often that I saw Gilly looking worried.
She paused and looked at her phone screen, then back at me.
“Someone just broke into the salon. That was the inspector on the case, asking us to report in and assess any damages.” Gilly said dryly, looking at me with confusion and disappointment in her eyes.
It took me a while for the information to register in my mind but as soon as I realized the seriousness of the update I sprang to my feet.
“Let’s go! We don’t have time to waste.”