Chapter 14
C H A P T E R
WHEN NIKOS OPENED HIS EYES, HE WAS SURPRISED TO SEE A PAIR OF brOWN EYES LOOKING INTO HIS. Nikos scrunched his nose as he blinked blearily, trying to gather his bearings as he tried to figure out why he wasn’t looking at the white ceiling of his bedroom but, instead, at a young child.
“Mom said to wake you,” the boy said as he nudged his shoulder again, and that was when it came back to him. He wasn’t inside his bedroom but in Honey’s apartment, speaking to her child.
As Nikos sat up, the young boy stepped back to give him some space.
“What time is it?” Nikos asked as he groaned.
“It’s seven,” Kai said before he handed him an unopened toothbrush, a towel, and cloth. “Mom said to use the bathroom to get cleaned up.”
“Thanks, kid,” Nikos said gratefully, not expecting this. He was certain that when he opened his eyes, Honey would be carting him out the door. But as he glanced around the room, he didn’t see her. “Where is your mother?”
“She’s getting dressed,” Kai said as he grabbed the remote and turned the TV on. He was still dressed in pajamas.
“Shouldn’t you be taking a shower or something?” Nikos asked, thinking about how Honey said the kid had to get ready for school in the morning last night.
“I already took one last night,” Kai said as he sat in front of the TV, watching a cartoon. His eyes were laser-focused, and he didn’t even bother to look back at him as he spoke.
Before Nikos could say anything else, he heard Honey’s voice call out into the room.
“Kai, when I get out there, you better be dressed for school and have brushed your teeth already, and that’s why I hear the TV on!”
Kai’s head whipped back, his eyes slightly panicked.
“Come on, kid,” Nikos said as he hauled the kid onto his shoulder with ease. Kai giggled as Nikos tossed him around playfully. “You don’t want to start disappointing your mom just yet.”
“When can I do it then?” Kai asked curiously, and Nikos laughed.
“When you’re in your teens. She’ll forgive you then.”
He took the kid to the bathroom, and they brushed their teeth together before Kai ambled off to his room to get dressed.
Nikos took a shower before putting on the clothes Honey had given him.
By the time he finished, it was twenty minutes later, and when he stepped back into the living room, he saw Kai sitting at the kitchen island, eating breakfast while Honey cooked in the kitchen.
“Nik,” Kai said as he waved him over. Honey glanced at him beneath her lashes but didn’t acknowledge him.
She was dressed in simple gray sweats with her hair pinned up, but like always, Honey was beautiful even without trying.
She wore no makeup, letting her natural beauty shine, and still, she looked as good as she did when she performed at the club.
It was no wonder his uncle was obsessed with her.
Nikos nearly tried his hand last night and was glad that Kai interrupted them, even if he wouldn’t have gotten far. He doubted Honey would have given in, but Nikos knew he could be persistent when he wanted something.
Nikos sat down on the stool at the kitchen island and glanced between Kai and Honey, still surprised that she had a son.
When he had come here last night, he hadn’t been expecting his tiny figure to come around the corner.
Kai was a cute kid though and reminded him of himself when he was young— all charm, smiles, and mischief.
Honey was lucky to have a cute kid like him.
“Good morning,” Nikos told Honey.
“Is it?” Honey asked sarcastically.
“Getting to start my morning with you is always good,” Nikos said without missing a beat. Honey rolled her eyes as she placed a plate in front of him. Nikos’s eyebrows rose. He wasn’t expecting to get a plate too.
“Dig in,” Kai said over a mouth full of food. “Mom’s food is the best!”
“Make sure you chew your food first, honey,” Honey said, and Kai complied, chewing the rest of his food as Honey wiped the corners of his mouth before he spoke again.
“Go ahead,” Kai urged eagerly, and Nikos looked down at the omelet on his plate.
Shrugging, Nikos grabbed his knife and fork and cut into the omelet before taking a bite.
Honey watched him with interest, and Nikos was already prepared to give her a flirtatious line about her cooking, whether the food was good or not.
But when the flavor hit his tongue, he was surprised by how good it actually was.
The flavors of tomatoes and sausage burst into his mouth.
“Wow,” Nikos said as he looked at Honey. “This is really good.”
“Told you!” Kai said proudly.
Honey’s tense shoulders relaxed. “You’re saying it as if you expected it to be bad.”
“I didn’t expect it to be this good,” Nikos said as he took another bite.
“My mom’s going to be a chef one day and have her own restaurant,” Kai bragged as he grabbed his orange juice.
Nikos looked at Honey in a new light, feeling like he was looking at a different person.
He didn’t know that Honey had those types of ambitions, and it made him realize that he didn’t know Honey at all outside the club.
This Honey standing before him felt like an entirely different person.
At the club, Honey came off as standoffish, barely interacting with the other dancers or anyone else.
A permanent frown was always on her face, and she had an air about her that said she didn’t want to be bothered, but here, she was totally different, at least with her son she was.
She spoke to her son in a kind, gentle tone filled with affection, and she seemed more open.
Though that shouldn’t have been surprising at all, considering that it was her home after all.
But still, every time he saw Honey outside the club, he felt like he was peeling back different layers of her like an onion. He wondered what else there was to her.
“What did I tell you about talking and eating at the same time?” Honey said as she started to eat from her own plate.
“Sorry, mom.”
“After you finish eating, get your shoes on,” Honey told her son before she gave Nikos a pointed look. “And after you finish eating, go home.”
“Yes, mom,” Kai said.
“Yes, mom,” Nikos repeated, and Honey glared at him.
After they finished eating, in a flurry of rushed actions, they made their way out of the apartment and to the parking lot on the side of the building.
Nikos glanced around the neighborhood, having no idea where he was.
He had walked really far from Hugo’s place to make it here.
But he had been so out of it last night that time had run away from him.
“Honey,” Nikos called as the woman in question hurried over to her car with her son in tow. She whipped her head back, looking at him with a puzzled look.
“Can I hitch a ride with you?” Nikos asked. “I don’t know the neighborhood.”
Honey paused, looking at him with mild irritation as she glanced around. “You could totally take an Uber or a Lyft, you know.”
“Can Nik come with us, mom?” Kai asked as he tugged on her hands.
Honey looked exasperated, and Nikos smirked.
Even after being in their presence for a short period of time, Nikos could tell that Honey had a habit of giving in to her son’s wants as she nibbled on her bottom lip before she acquiesced.
“Get in,” she said reluctantly.
They all piled into the car together, and Honey pulled off, turning the radio on low in the background as her son asked him questions as if he were filling out an interview sheet.
“Do you have any children my age?” Kai asked curiously as he hung on the back of Nikos’s seat like a sloth. Honey had already given up on telling him to sit back because he kept doing it anyway.
“No,” Nikos answered. “I’m waiting for the right one. But I will be having a niece or nephew soon.”
“I hope it’s a boy,” Kai said. “Boys are much better.”
“I actually hope it’s a girl,” Nikos said, and Honey glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.
“Why?”
“I get along with them better.”
“Tuh,” Honey muttered as she turned the corner. Nikos bit down his grin. He shouldn’t have so much fun annoying the woman who was doing him a favor. He didn’t want her to kick him out of the car.
“What do you do?” Kai asked.
“I’m a pilot.” A frown formed on Kai’s face, and Nikos explained himself. “I pilot airplanes. I fly them.”
“Really?” Kai asked excitedly. “You fly planes?”
“Yep,” Nikos said proudly as he shot a grin at Honey, who had a look of disbelief on her face. “One day, if your mother lets me, I’ll take you out on one.”
“So cool!” Kai exclaimed as he stamped his feet. “I want to fly a plane one day.”
“Sit back,” Honey said, and Kai fell back into his seat though his excitement didn’t die down.
“Don’t be a liar like Nikos,” Honey told her son. “It’s not good for a man to lie.”
“I’m not lying,” Nikos said, chuckling. “I’m telling the truth. One day when I have the time, I’ll take you and Kai.”
Honey shook her head, and Nikos could tell she still didn’t believe him, but he guessed he couldn’t blame her.
She only saw him working for his uncle and had no idea that he had been a part of the air force before coming here.
He would have to find flying areas around here so he could prove her wrong.
They pulled up outside the elementary school as the kids bustled into the building with their backpacks on and with energy only children could have so early in the morning that adults lost the moment they turned eighteen.
“See you, Nikos,” Kai said as he got out of the car and waved to him. “Don’t forget about the plane ride.”
“I won’t,” Nikos promised. “See you later, kid.”
“Do you have everything?” Honey asked, and Kai nodded. “Love you, honey.”
“Love you too,” Kai said before he skipped off into the school.
Honey didn’t pull off until she saw her son ushered inside by another teacher.
Honey turned up the radio, and unlike the ride to her son’s school, filled with idle chatter, the car ride to his place was mostly silent.
Honey made sure of that by turning up the radio.
Nikos wasn’t offended but surprisingly amused by how much Honey disliked him.
When they pulled up to his apartment building, Honey peered out of her window, looking at the towering seven-story building.
“Of course, you’ll live in a place like this,” she mumbled under her breath.
It wasn’t a place he picked out on his own but a place his uncle had gotten for him.
It was a nice, spacious two-floor loft, and he didn’t have to pay for anything because his father was already paying for it.
Usually, he wouldn’t feel embarrassed by the money he had, but after Honey’s comment the last time, he couldn’t help but think she was thinking about that.
“Thanks again,” Nikos said as he unbuckled his seatbelt, “for everything. I was kind of out of it last night, and I’m not sure how I would have gotten home.”
“No problem,” Honey said as he got out of the car and spoke to her through the lowered window. “But don’t tell anyone at the club.”
“Why?” Nikos asked curiously. He didn’t see any need in hiding it. It wasn’t like they had done anything.
“One, I don’t need any of the girls attacking me about you.”
Nikos laughed. “I do have that effect on women.”
Honey genuinely looked disgusted, and it made Nikos laugh harder.
“What is the second reason?” Nikos asked. Honey didn’t say anything, but her lack of words spoke volumes as his uncle crossed his mind. He was positive that his uncle wouldn’t appreciate him spending the night at Honey’s place even if he hadn’t done anything with her.
“Okay, my lips are sealed,” Nikos said as he made a gesture of sealing his lips. Honey rolled her eyes.
“Have you ever heard that if you roll your eyes too much, they could get stuck?”
“Have you ever heard that if you say too many sweet things, it can literally make someone gag?”
“My words are sweet to you?” Nikos asked, giving her a knowing look as he smirked.
“Ugh,” she said as she started to roll her window up on him, but then she noticed something over his shoulder. “It looks like someone is waiting for you.”
Nikos peered over his shoulder and cursed under his breath when he saw Rheagan in front of his building, watching them. He wondered how she even found out where he was staying. He had hoped he would not see her again after their last meeting at the airport.
“The only person with questionable morals here is you,” Honey said matter-of-factly before she pulled off.
Nikos sighed deeply before he approached the building. “Why are you here?”
“I miss you,” she said as she latched onto his arm, batting her eyelashes. “And…I need some money.”
He should have known. He had half of mind to tell her to leave.
It was exactly what he should tell her. He didn’t owe her anything, and he had already given her enough money, money that should have lasted her well over a year.
And yet, something tugged at his conscience and made him unable to dismiss her, and Nikos knew it was his guilt.
Reluctantly, he took her upstairs to his loft and grabbed some money. When he returned to his living room, Rheagan was on his couch, taking photos of herself. She stopped when she saw the envelope in his hand.
“Here,” Nikos said as he passed it to her. “After this, don’t ask me again. You need to know how to provide for yourself.”
“You sound like Raelyn,” Rheagan said, frowning.
“And you should listen to her,” Nikos said, wondering how Raelyn had put up with something like this. Rheagan was still young, but she wouldn’t be able to skate by forever on other people’s dime. If she continued this way, she would never grow up.
“How do you know where I live?” Nikos asked suspiciously.
“Social media,” she explained simply before she looked at him beneath her lashes. “Who was that woman who dropped you off?”
“No one,” Nikos said.
Rheagan slipped the envelope into her purse before she fixed him with a serious stare. “I know that you work at a strip club. The girls there take pictures of you all the time. Is she one of the strippers there?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Nikos said bluntly. “I don’t have to explain myself to you.”
Rheagan stepped closer to him, slipping her arms around his shoulder as she leaned forward to kiss him, but Nikos pushed her away.
“Go,” Nikos said, exasperated. “Go and get your life together.”
Rheagan’s lips turned thin, displeased with his words.
“Okay, I’ll leave,” she said as she headed to the door before turning a serious stare on him, “but I’ll be back. You won’t be able to get rid of me.”
Nikos watched as she left his loft, and he could only regret the day he had ever met her.