Her throat constricted when she went to answer, and she had to take another sip of her martini. It didn’t help much because her throat wasn’t reacting to the smoke.
“Sulgaana Hookah Lounge.”
Adam repeated that into the phone and then hung up. “John is on his way over,”
he told her. “He said his dinner plans ended early, and he would rather hang out with us tonight.”
With a shiver running down her spine, Chyna swallowed again, her throat tight.
She slurped down her martini like it was her life force. “I…uh…think I need another,” she said, standing.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked.
He was in such a good mood from their evening together, and now, his brother was on his way. Chyna had never met anyone who liked his sibling so much.
“There’s a waiter.” He called the guy over and ordered another round of drinks for them, not letting her leave their little niche. He rested backwards into the cushioned seat.
“So,” Adam began, taking another pull from the hookah, “you have fun last night?”
“Yeah.” Chyna shrugged.
“I was surprised you were in before me. I didn’t finish the project until two, but I wasn’t expecting you until at least three or four,” he said with an easy smile.
Nonchalantly, she said, “Just an early night, I guess.”
“I didn’t know you had those,” he said innocently.
“Sometimes.”
“Thank you for dragging John out with you.” Adam crossed his leg over his knee at his ankle and slung one arm across the back of the booth. “I know he’s my older brother, but we’re only two years apart. I guess I took care of him for long enough that it’s kind of natural.”
“Why did you have to take care of him? He seems like a big boy,” Chyna said.
“Too smart for his own good. He always thought he could get away with murder.” Adam laughed.
“He probably could,” Chyna said under her breath.
“Anyway, he was a party animal in high school and college. He’s cut back drastically since taking this job. I probably shouldn’t try to keep taking care of him. He has a good head on his shoulders.”
“You’re a good brother.” Chyna swallowed.
Adam chuckled softly. “Thanks. I know John didn’t always deserve it, but I love him. It’s kind of like how you are with Lexi.”
“Yeah, she’s basically my sister,”
Chyna said, doing anything to grasp on to a new line of conversation. “Bitch needs some serious therapy, but I’d do anything for her.”
Both of them started laughing because, really, no one could deny that.
“There you guys are,” John said, rounding the corner unexpectedly. “What’s so funny?”
“Hey,” Adam said, standing and making room for his brother.
Chyna’s eyes went to John. He was in crisp, black dress pants and a white button-up shirt with the top button undone for a more casual look. When he glanced in her direction, she diverted her eyes.
“We were just talking about Chyna’s friend, Lexi.”
“The one who left for the week?” he asked with a curious glance in her direction.
Chyna nodded and tried not to look at him. “Yeah.”
“You made it over here fast,” Adam mused, moving closer to Chyna to give John room to sit down.
“Yeah, there’s not that much traffic yet tonight. I hope you don’t mind, but I brought some friends along. After I told them where we were going, they insisted,”
John said with a smile as his friends walked into the nook. “This is Nitya, Trey, and Darius. Trey and Darius work with me at Global.”
He volunteered the information for those two but left out an explanation for the woman that was with him. That immediately drew Chyna’s eyes to her.
She was Indian with gorgeous dark- caramel skin, thick, long black hair with natural body, and almost unnatural blue eyes. She was exotically beautiful and clothed in an eye-catching red dress. Nitya smiled at them before taking a seat next to Adam.
“No problem at all. Nice to meet you,”
Adam said, promptly standing and shaking the two guys’ hands. “I’m Adam, John’s brother. This is my girlfriend, Chyna.”
Chyna just smiled at them. Trey was a medium build guy with short blonde hair, and he was wearing a navy suit. He was everything she expected from a Global employee. In fact, he looked like he had the superiority complex to boot. Or, is it a Napoleonic complex? The guy next him, Darius, was a tall, skinny African American man with a perfect smile that was contagious.
They all filed into the booth. The room was already filling up, and they now had a party of five when she had been expecting just the two of them. She couldn’t help noticing how close John sat next to Nitya when they all sat down.
“So, how do you know each other?”
Chyna asked. She couldn’t believe she had even opened her mouth.
“Nitya was at Harvard when I was getting my MBA,” John told Chyna with a smirk.
Nitya rolled her eyes. “Don’t make it sound so amazing,” she said. “I was just getting an art history degree. It wasn’t a big deal.”
“Harvard is a big deal,” Trey said, shaking his head.
“Not to someone who went there,”
Darius said, elbowing him in the side with a big full-watt smile.
“Alright, guys,” she said, rolling her eyes. “It’s not like I’m the MET curator or anything. I still sell shitty paintings every day.”
“They’re not shitty,” John said, his hand touching her arm in a way that Chyna was all too familiar with.
She narrowed her eyes at the movement. Then, he caught her looking at him, so she turned her attention to Adam, who was too busy with the hookah to pay attention.
“Do you…paint?”
Chyna asked, breaking the private moment.
“Some, but I’m shit. And, don’t you say otherwise,” she said, pointing at John.
“I work for a small art gallery as a viewer doing appraisals for their collection.”
“That’s pretty cool actually,” Chyna said disappointed. That was actually really cool .
She hated these moments. She didn’t regret not going to college because she got more partying done in New York, and she didn’t have to deal with the whole school aspect. But, she had never had anything she could really call hers like this Nitya chick.