A Word of Praise
Chapter 17

Kiara was, to put it in simple terms, dodging Chris. She did not want to go to his apartment, so during the following weeks, she craftily made him believe she was too busy. Luckily for her, his work seemed to be chaotic during that period. He had no idea how flexible her schedule was, but she wasn't about to tell him she spent his only available hours binge-watching Netflix.

Sooner than she expected, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving was there, and she saw herself preparing a small bag of clothes for the trip. A quick call to Michael was enough to clear her performances for the long weekend, and she was ready to go.

Against her better judgment, she provided Chris her home address so he could pick her up and drive her to the airport. When the clock hit three in the afternoon, she left the building and waited by the sidewalk. There was no sign of the Aston Martin, and she couldn't wait to point out he was late.

She was thinking of ways to rile him up about his lack of punctuality when a large SUV parked outside her building honked. Son of a bitch, the fucker had another car.

"What are you waiting for?" His sunglasses were hiding his dark brown eyes, but if she had to guess, they would show his amusement by her hesitation.

"Where should I put my bag?" She lifted her one and only duffle bag, trying to show him why she was still outside the car.

"Do you want help to pick up the rest?"

"What rest?"

"Is that all you are bringing?"

"Yes. Now can I put it in the trunk?" She went to the back of the car and placed her bag on the floor to replace the opening button. Chris opened his door and told her to wait, but she was not in the mood for prince charming to come to help her. She found the button and clicked it, but as soon as the door lifted, her view of the car was quickly replaced by the clear skies above and a four-legged giant pressed her chest to the ground.

Something wet and textured got in contact with her left cheek and her hands instinctively darted up to protect her face. Only when she touched the softest of furs and noticed the immense weight, she realized the situation she was in. "Batman!" His voice was commanding, but with a hint of worry. The answer was a rough bark and the giant dog moved to her side. She sat on the street, and her first instinct was to touch that fur again.

"Are you alright?"

"Hm? Oh, yes!" She was still looking at the furry ball in front of her and wondering how weird it would be to sink her head into the fur. She used to do it all the time with her childhood dog, but it might seem weird. The best kind of weird. "Hi, fluffy dog." She pressed her recently licked cheek against his neck and her arms darted around it to increase the contact. So soft, so fluffy.

"Kiara?"

If his tone were annoyed, she would probably stick to hugging the dog just to irritate him a bit, but he was worried, and she couldn't help but look up. "Yes?"

"You are in the middle of the street hugging my dog."

"Is there a problem with that?"

"Are you hurt?"

She took a second to understand his question, but then remembered how that immense dog projected her to the ground. Her hand darted up to check her head, but she fell on her butt first.

"I don't think so." She got up and looked back at the dog who was sitting patiently looking at her with a cocked head and wagging tail.

"This is Batman. Your encounter is long overdue, but I can see you didn't need much to get familiar"

"If I knew that's who you wanted me to meet, I wouldn't have ditched you the whole week."

"You what?" Oops.

"Never mind. Where should I put my bag then?"

"Back seat. I was wondering if it would fit but you seem to pack light"

He double-tapped the trunk and Batman got in again, visibly used to the whole car drill. She ignored his comment about packing but deep down wondered if maybe she should have brought more stuff. It would be awful to have the whole thanksgiving crowd looking down on her clothes.

Once inside the car, she looked at the mirror to see if the fall caused any damage. Fortunately, the worst part was her still wet cheek, which suffered the love attack from Batman. The name was cute as hell, she'd give him that. "Do you have baby wipes or something?"

"Glove compartment"

Besides the wipes, she found a not-that-hidden stash of condoms and a Star Wars' thermal bottle. She couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"I can't believe you get laid keeping a Star Wars bottle and condoms in the same place"

The sunglasses kept her from seeing his expression, but the light tone of red that climbed up from his neck was enough to see she hit jackpot. Whatever comeback he was hoping to shoot would be nothing compared to that. "Never had any complaints. They are not paying attention at much else by the time we get to the condoms."

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Fine, that was a nice comeback. She rolled her eyes, definitely imagining that. The SUV was huge, and she could bet the seat reclined to the back. She recalled the last time she had sex in a car. It was a Toyota Yaris, and it was hot, steamy, and cramped. She could only imagine the mess she could make in a less compact vehicle.

For a while, the only sound she could hear in the car was the soft pop music and loud snores of a now sleeping Batman. But silence was not comfortable for them. Silence was personal.

"So, tell me their names again so I don't miss anything."

"Right. Patricia and Edgar are the only important ones, the rest doesn't really matter."

"I know, but you said your best friends will pop up there. I should at least know their names; you'd probably mention them a lot to a girlfriend."

"Marcus and Luke. Marcus is the life of the party. Luke is the smart one."

"Right. Marcus and Luke. Anyone else?"

"Just some people from the company, but you don't need to know their names"

Just like that, the conversation died again. The man seemed annoyingly comfortable cutting the conversation short, but Kiara couldn't stand the quiet.

"Isn't it a problem, to flight with Batman? I don't see a transportation cage here."

"It's on the plane, but he rarely stays inside."

Kiara took a few seconds to understand what he meant and was glad to hold her tongue. It would be plain stupid to ask if they were flying commercial when they obviously weren't. Fucking rich people, he didn't even think to tell her they would take a private jet.