intercoms, and I didn't push it. He did give me an entire wing of the house as a walk-in closet, after all."
I widened my eyes at that. We were strolling through the house, which really was properly called a palace. There were sitting rooms with ornate, period-style furniture and fireplaces and Greco-Roman sculptures, a formal dining room big enough to seat at least fifty people, and a dozen other rooms, including a library that seemed to be a reproduction of the one in the animated Beauty and the Beast movie, with hundred-foot high ceilings and shelves of books stretching out of sight, lining every wall, with nooks and crannies and ladders and paintings.
"An entire wing for clothes?" I asked, as we neared a curving staircase wide enough to fit a Hummer.
"Would you like to see it?" Virginia asked.
Did I ever. Her 'closet' was two floors, connected by a private spiral staircase. It wasn't just racks of clothes in a giant room. It was a display, a museum, a department store. There was a room dedicated to dresses custom-made for her by all the top-name fashion designers, some in different colors of the same design. There was an entire room just for shoes, floor-to-ceiling shelves designed to display only shoes. I may have drooled, just a bit. There was another room for purses, organized by color, size, and designer. More drool. And yet another room for lingerie, and another for more mundane things like jeans and shirts and socks and such. I was speechless.
We found our way back to the shoe room. "Henry calls this my 'shoe-seum'," Virginia said. "He says I have enough shoes that if we ever went bankrupt, I could open a shoe store. He may be right, but hey, a girl can never have too many shoes, right?"
I laughed. "No, I suppose not. But then, I have three pairs of shoes at the moment, so I'm in no position to talk."
Virginia lifted her eyebrow again. "Three? Total?"
I shrugged. "With me here, at least. I have more back in Detroit, but I left everything behind when I went to Africa with Shane. He told me he'd had it all packed up and moved out of my ex-fiancé’s house, so I still technically own them, but that doesn't do me too much good at the moment."
Virginia led me to the kitchen, where she had coffee brought to us. "So, tell me how you met Shane. I'd ask him, but you see how he is with information."
"Well...I'd just had an argument with my ex-fiancé, John. The argument itself was one of those stupid things. It had started with something dumb he said to me, and I'd gotten pissed off. But it was more than that. John was boring. I've been realizing more and more that I was only with him because it was easier than breaking up. I mean, I guess I did care about him, I'd been with him for several years after all. But...he was uninteresting." I stared into my coffee as I spoke. "It was pouring rain, and I was wearing heels since we'd come from a party, and I just jumped out of the car and ran. I broke a heel and fell, scraped my knees and hands and all that. John was following me, but I wasn't listening. And then I ran into Shane. I mean, literally ran into him. He'd seen me running in the rain, apparently, and stopped to see if I needed help. I didn't see him and ran smack into his chest. I couldn't go back home, or to John's house, I guess I should say, so Shane took me to his, and then..."
"I can guess the rest," Virginia said, a wry arch to her voice. "How did you end up in Sudan with him, though? That's extremely unusual for him."
I shrugged. "I'm an ER nurse, and we'd talked about that, and his company that he started with his brothers. He asked me if I wanted to go with him, and arranged for it with the hospital I worked at and got me a passport. It was crazy, as I'd just met him, but...I needed a drastic change. When I had that argument with John, I'd had this vision of my life with him. It was the same thing, day after day, for the rest of my life. It scared me. So when Shane suggested going to Africa with him,
I widened my eyes at that. We were strolling through the house, which really was properly called a palace. There were sitting rooms with ornate, period-style furniture and fireplaces and Greco-Roman sculptures, a formal dining room big enough to seat at least fifty people, and a dozen other rooms, including a library that seemed to be a reproduction of the one in the animated Beauty and the Beast movie, with hundred-foot high ceilings and shelves of books stretching out of sight, lining every wall, with nooks and crannies and ladders and paintings.
"An entire wing for clothes?" I asked, as we neared a curving staircase wide enough to fit a Hummer.
"Would you like to see it?" Virginia asked.
Did I ever. Her 'closet' was two floors, connected by a private spiral staircase. It wasn't just racks of clothes in a giant room. It was a display, a museum, a department store. There was a room dedicated to dresses custom-made for her by all the top-name fashion designers, some in different colors of the same design. There was an entire room just for shoes, floor-to-ceiling shelves designed to display only shoes. I may have drooled, just a bit. There was another room for purses, organized by color, size, and designer. More drool. And yet another room for lingerie, and another for more mundane things like jeans and shirts and socks and such. I was speechless.
We found our way back to the shoe room. "Henry calls this my 'shoe-seum'," Virginia said. "He says I have enough shoes that if we ever went bankrupt, I could open a shoe store. He may be right, but hey, a girl can never have too many shoes, right?"
I laughed. "No, I suppose not. But then, I have three pairs of shoes at the moment, so I'm in no position to talk."
Virginia lifted her eyebrow again. "Three? Total?"
I shrugged. "With me here, at least. I have more back in Detroit, but I left everything behind when I went to Africa with Shane. He told me he'd had it all packed up and moved out of my ex-fiancé’s house, so I still technically own them, but that doesn't do me too much good at the moment."
Virginia led me to the kitchen, where she had coffee brought to us. "So, tell me how you met Shane. I'd ask him, but you see how he is with information."
"Well...I'd just had an argument with my ex-fiancé, John. The argument itself was one of those stupid things. It had started with something dumb he said to me, and I'd gotten pissed off. But it was more than that. John was boring. I've been realizing more and more that I was only with him because it was easier than breaking up. I mean, I guess I did care about him, I'd been with him for several years after all. But...he was uninteresting." I stared into my coffee as I spoke. "It was pouring rain, and I was wearing heels since we'd come from a party, and I just jumped out of the car and ran. I broke a heel and fell, scraped my knees and hands and all that. John was following me, but I wasn't listening. And then I ran into Shane. I mean, literally ran into him. He'd seen me running in the rain, apparently, and stopped to see if I needed help. I didn't see him and ran smack into his chest. I couldn't go back home, or to John's house, I guess I should say, so Shane took me to his, and then..."
"I can guess the rest," Virginia said, a wry arch to her voice. "How did you end up in Sudan with him, though? That's extremely unusual for him."
I shrugged. "I'm an ER nurse, and we'd talked about that, and his company that he started with his brothers. He asked me if I wanted to go with him, and arranged for it with the hospital I worked at and got me a passport. It was crazy, as I'd just met him, but...I needed a drastic change. When I had that argument with John, I'd had this vision of my life with him. It was the same thing, day after day, for the rest of my life. It scared me. So when Shane suggested going to Africa with him,
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