“You ready?” Darren asks me. “Our bags are in the car already.”

“’Our’ bags?” I echo. “Aren’t you staying an extra week?”

“Why would I want to? Mok left, so I can’t break his nose a second time.”

I grab my purse and we walk out of the cabin. “You were able to change your flight?”

“It was easy.”

“Well, we’ll be flying in separate parts of the plane. I had Cheryl downgrade my flight to economy.”

“You think my manager wouldn’t have told me that?”

“Hope you like it in coach then.”

“Hope you like it in the suite.”

I stop. “You changed my flight?”

“I’m not flying economy, especially on an international flight.”

“Okay, but I’d feel better flying coach.”

He shakes his head at me. “You are one weird-ass chic, Bridge.”

“The more you do stuff like this, the more I feel I owe you.”

His eyes taken on a darker, molten quality. “Maybe that’s the idea.”

I don’t have a response.

Amy, my friend and roommate from Cal, comes up to us. “I wish you’d stay longer.”

“I wish I could, too,” I answer. “But I can’t miss much more school and work.”

I wonder that Amy can seem so nonchalant about her classes and job. I know she’s missing at least one test in her chem class, though she’s so cute, she can probably talk her professor into letting her take it when she wants.

“Where’s JD?” I inquire.

“On a business call,” Amy says. “He’s pretty mad. Something work-related. Like a bad shipment or something. It sounds super serious. I’m actually worried about him.”

She looks over to Darren, who puts on his sunglasses even though we’re standing in the shade of several sugar palm trees.

“He’ll be fine,” Darren says.

“Does this kind of thing happen often?” Amy asks.

Darren shrugs. “Things have always worked out for my cousin.”

Amy appears a little more at ease. “I didn’t realize his line of business could be so stressful.”

Darren doesn’t say anything further on the topic. I remember that JD imports and exports chemical compounds or something like that.

“I’ll go check out,” Darren says before heading over to the reception.

Once he’s out of earshot, Amy gushes, “Can you believe how lucky the two of us have been? Spending a week in paradise with two super hot guys? It feels like I’m dreaming, and I hope I never wake up!”

I finger the stitches in my lip.

“Except for you getting hurt, of course,” Amy adds.

“Still worth it,” I reply.

“It’s too bad that Mok guy didn’t end up in jail.”

I agree, but Darren threw the first punch between the two of them, so if Mok went, Darren might have as well. And apparently both men have sat in jail before. Which didn’t surprise me terribly when Darren had told me. I’ve always sensed there was an edge to Darren, and I don’t usually go for guys like that. If it weren’t for the chemistry…which I don’t understand either. Pheromones, I guess?