I disconnect the call and walk up to Ezra, kissing the granite line of his jaw. He dips, angles so he can catch my lips. The kiss catches fire and he sits on the edge of the bed, pulling me down to his lap. This is happiness. Passion. Contentment in a way I’ve never known it before. Even the shock of what we found at the lake house, the problems that still lie ahead, can’t diminish that.

“What the actual fuck, Ezra?”

I nearly fall out of Ezra’s lap at the angry question but catch myself and land on the bed beside him.

“Who the hell are you?” Aiko demands, glaring at me and walking fully into the room.

I’ve only seen her in real life once, at my father’s funeral, and that was from a distance. The photos on the bedroom walls didn’t tell the full story of her beauty. Her face is a pale oval, her lips red as cherries, and her hair swings in a dark curtain to her waist. The expression on her face belies her fragile petiteness. She’s delicate and steely, a lovely weed in my garden.

“You have two seconds,” she says, venom dripping from her words, “to get this bitch out of my house.”

Bitch?

Hold up.

“What are you doing here?” Ezra stands, his expression strangely calm in the face of her obvious rage. “You aren’t due back until next week.”

“What am I doing here?” She steps closer to him, only coming to the middle of his chest, and points a slim finger at me. “This is my home. What’s this bitch doing in our bedroom, Ezra?”

That’s two. You got one more strike, Aiko.

I’m losing patience with this one fast. Ezra knows. He glances between the two of us like he’s caught between two she-bears.

“Don’t call her that,” he snaps, the words clipped, a frown marring the harmony of his features. “Her name is Kimba, and you won’t disrespect her.”

“Disrespect her?” Aiko’s voice breaks, and she takes her trembling bottom lip between her teeth. “What’s she doing here, Ezra? In our bedroom? Really?”

He scrubs his hands over his face and releases a heavy sigh. “Look, I know it’s disconcerting to come home and find someone else here like this, but this isn’t our bedroom anymore. I was just changing clothes because my stuff is still here.” His voice, his expression gentles. “You know I wasn’t sleeping here even before you left, Ko.”

“Yes, but I didn’t think…” She lowers her eyes to the floor. “So soon?”

“Babe!” a voice calls from downstairs. “Everything okay?”

“Chaz, I’m fine,” she yells down, her eyes never leaving Ezra’s face. “You can leave the bags at the door.”

A silence booms following her words, those few seconds after a bomb drops before you can hear again.