Page 39 of Beautiful Noise

“Then how about you just make sure the fridge is stocked and my son doesn’t survive on only takeout. You cook right?”

“I do but Elite doesn’t offer in-house chefs. It’s a cleaning company. And I don’t know that I cook well enough to be classified as an in-house chef.” I frowned.

“You said you do enough to survive. That’s all I’m asking for now and Ezren texted me saying that you didn’t mess up my grilled steak recipe. You’re not terrible in the kitchen. You don’t want a handout and I don’t want my son wasting money on takeout. It seems we have both a problem and a solution.”

“But Elite…”

“Doesn’t have to know what you’re doing while you’re there. I would assume that as long as you’re scheduled and not getting complaints they won’t care one way or the other. The only way Dior will know how you spend your time is if you tell her. So do we have a deal?”

I smiled, shaking my head. “We have a deal.”

“Perfect because I would have hated to leave a terrible review or demand that she fire you so I could properly hire you myself.” I dropped my mouth open and she added, “I’m a very determined woman, Kori. I get what I want.”

“So I’ve heard,” I mumbled and she laughed.

“Now that that’s settled, is there anything else?”

“Nope. I guess we’re all set.”

“Glad to hear it. I’ll text you some recipes to try. He’s a bit spoiled with what he eats. That’s my fault but he’s my only child so I indulged. You two have fun and play nice,” she sang, then ended the call.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Ezren.

A few days had passed since our bullshit ass friend deal. Things ran smoothly for the most part but I wasn’t blind to the way Kori did her best to stay out of my way. She spent a lot of time in her room but I also spent the majority of my time in the studio.

She fed me and I loved that shit. Lunch, which she left for me in the kitchen, and dinner in the studio last night after she brought it to me. I kept telling her I would be up soon but the song I was working on kept fucking with me. The lyrics didn’t fall like I needed them to and there was something off about the melody. Eventually, when I didn’t show, she brought the food, plates, and soda to me.

Homemade pizza from scratch, which was my mother's recipe. She nailed it down to the layers of mozzarella, mushrooms, and full leaves of basil. The chicken was marinated and grilled to perfection.

My mother thought she was slick. Feeding me through Kori’s hands was intentional. She knew how much I loved to eat and she made sure the woman in charge of feeding me had all my favorites.

Regardless of my mother’s intentions, Kori and I were just friends. I wanted to be friends with benefits but she remained steady on the just friends part. Her ass was even fully dressed at all times. I swear she went to bed with a full fit each night just to prove a point. I laughed at the thought because her ass was just that stubborn.

Shaking my head in amusement, I glanced over my shoulder to find Kori stepping out of the kitchen with a dish towel tossed over her shoulder. I frowned when she ended up beside me.

Kori cooking and cleaning around here irritated my spirit. If this were our house—a thought I considered far more times than needed—and she was a resident, not a guest, it wouldn’t have bothered me so much. But the current set up made it feel like she had to work to stay and that wasn’t the case. She was simply stubborn as hell and wanted to assert her independence. I respected her hustle but also wanted her to accept that I wanted her here.

“What are you doing?” she asked, voice chipper but then again she was always in a good mood which was why I didn’t mind having her around.

“Trying to decide what to do with this living room.”

“What do you mean?”

I brushed a hand over my head and examined the sea of gray. I loved the sofa and most of the stuff I purchased to go with it. At the time, it seemed like a great idea but now all I could see was gray. I blamed my mother for putting that shit in my head.

“You don’t think it’s bland?” I muttered, then turned my head when I felt her rock back on her heels beside me. I wasn’t feeling the smug grin on her face or the way she pulled her lip between her teeth to hide it. Okay, maybe I was feeling the lip thing, but not that smug ass grin.

“Say what’s on your mind, Ri.”

Her eyes darted toward the living room and back to my face. “It’s nice…”

“But…”

Her brows pinched and her smile grew. “But, it’s just gray. A lot of gray.”

“You don’t like it?”