Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 78483 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78483 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
The elevator itself was made entirely from glass and had panoramic views of the surroundings. It came to a stop and Alex and I got out. We hadn’t exchanged a single word since leaving the car, which was odd for us as we never ran out of things to say to each other.
He slid a card into his door and held it open for me. I stepped into a living room. The first thing that hit me was how much glass there was. And the views. I thought back to how proud I was of the view from my bedroom and instantly cringed. I’d even mentioned it to Alex.
Had he been quietly laughing at me?
From the impossibly high ceilings hung a glittering chandelier, the likes of which I had only seen in hotels, not a private home. Cream leather seats were arranged around a glass coffee table and underneath a thick white carpet covered part of the floor. The rest of the floor was gorgeous dark wood.
I could honestly say that I had never been surrounded by such opulence.
Charlotte
“Welcome to my home,” he said, his tone coated with misery. That made the two of us.
So many things made sense. Alex came across as classy and now I knew that it was because he was. I shuddered as I imagined the kind of family that he came from, and his friends.
It was glaringly clear. Alex and I were from two vastly different worlds and we did not belong together. He knew it too. That was the reason it had taken him so long to invite me to his place.
“What’s wrong, Chaz?” he asked coming to me. He had taken to shortening my name to Chaz. I liked it.
I brushed my tears away from my eyes and turned to him. “We’re from two different worlds Alex.”
His eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
I gestured around me helplessly. “Look at all this. How you live. Compare it to my poor little apartment above a shop.”
“Don’t call it that!” he said harshly. “It’s your home and I love it.”
I folded my hands across my chest. “Fine, but you know what I mean. You weren’t eager to show me your place because you knew it would prove that we don’t belong together.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, his eyes flashing with anger. “But you’re right about one thing. I didn’t show you because I knew your views about kids born into wealth. Trust fund babies. Isn’t that what you called us?” He was angry and rightly so.
Shame flooded me as memories of that day came to me. I’d indignantly shared my views and my anger for kids who were born with silver spoons in their mouths. “How can we make this work?” I finally asked.
“We’ll laugh together and we’ll let our bodies do the talking. That’s how. I have more fun with you than I’ve ever had with anyone else, male or female. And we’ll push each other to be better people,” he said, his voice shaky.
He was right. Alex was good for me. In the three weeks we’d been together, I had not missed work once and we even studied together. Alex was not the problem, I admitted to myself. I was. And I was frightened of his family and his friends back home in New York.
“What if your family hates me?” I asked him.
He looked at me incredulously. “Why would they hate you? You’re awesome! Besides, I’m a grown man Chaz and I get to decide who I’ll marry.”
My eyes nearly popped out of my head. “Marry?”
He stared at me for a few seconds without speaking. “Yes. Did you think this was it? That after the year is over, we’ll go our separate ways?”
I nodded numbly.
“I fell in love with you on that first day I saw you on the train Chaz. Dozing on a stranger’s shoulder like it was a pillow,” he said.
I let out a shaky laugh. “I did not.”
He ignored what I’d said. “Then you woke up abruptly, peered out the window and saw that the train had stopped at your station.”
I laughed at the memory. It seemed so long ago and yet it was almost a month now. I felt as if I had known Alex all my life.
“Then like lightning, you bolted out of your seat and before I could tell you that you’d left your bag, you were off of the train,” he said.
I grew warm all over at the memory.
“I remember how frightened you looked when I showed you your bag through the window and then I yelled that I’d be waiting at the next station and your lips curved into this smile. A smile that did things to me. A smile that I intend to see all my life,” he said.
“The next train took forever but you never left. You were waiting,” I said as tears fell from my eyes.