words. I spent the past thirty-six hours
grinning at my screen like a lunatic, and it encouraged me to take the leap and
surprise him earlier.
Admittedly, I didn't know the man. His
texts were mostly flirtatious and chivalrous, like he was from a different era.
I did spend the night scrambling through the Internet to try to acquire as much
information as possible.
There
was so much information available. The tabloids seemed to care most about who
he did and did not date, and he dated a lot, models and celebrities from around
the globe.
He was very driven, one of the wealthiest
men in the world, man of the year in the Times magazine. He owned many
businesses and appeared on talk shows with some famous political figures. It
was fascinating; he was only twenty-eight. Even though he came from money, he
was a prodigy on his own.
He
graduated both Harvard and Cambridge in a record time, spent a year working at
a prestigious law firm, and became the head of one the following year. There
wasn't much information about his family, other than a paparazzi picture from
his mother's wake. She'd died less than two years ago, around the same time my
dad had passed. I read as much as I could, but didn't manage to capture
everything. I'd spent too much time staring at his pictures, when Jenna had
slipped next to me in the bed; she teased me about being as much of a stalker
as he was. We'd booked our flights and a hotel room, prepared our suitcases and
went to sleep after Landon's last nocturnal call to wish me sweet dreams.
Even
though I'd resented him for leaving Calvin with me, he'd turned out to be quite
helpful. Since we had no way of knowing where Landon would've been when we'd
get to Chicago, he made sure to get me a driver with a badge to get me inside
the building or to drive me wherever Mr. Davis would be. He promised his
discretion about the whole thing and seemed to be encouraging the whole plan. I
tried to brush off all the quirks that obsessed me over the whole situation. I
was worried that he wouldn't like to be surprised, or that I might interrupt
his work. He'd been stuck with endless work, even when we spoke on the phone; I
kept hearing buzzing and heated conversations with some law jargon and numbers.
What
scared me most were various ambiguous information I'd read about his
relationship with his partner at the firm. They grew up together, and dated a
lot. In one particular magazine, they were called 'Chicago Law Sweethearts'.
Therefore, I might be throwing myself in the lion's den without knowing it.
Jenna
kept reassuring me with her own arguments about the way he talked to me and
looked at me. Also the fact that he'd chased me across the continent. It was
her way of fueling me, whenever she'd felt that I was going to back off the
whole plan and just wait for him to come Saturday night.
After
work, I walked outside my office building to find an erratic Jenna yelling in
French next to an amused Calvin. He was sipping a coffee and smoking a
cigarette. Jenna’s choleric state and loud swears seemed to offer him an
amusing entertainment.
I wrinkled my nose and cocked my head
darting at the cigarette.
Calvin just shrugged and sighed.
"Bad habits die hard, I'm trying to
quit, but this city is too stressful."
I nodded.
"I'm only thinking of your health.
Also I hate that stuff."
"I'm sorry."
He sounded a little freaked out.
"No don't, it doesn't bother me. I just
hate its very existence, and I want to help you quit."
I said with a smile. He didn't need to
know why I was repelled by it; it took my father's resolve and life.
I climbed inside the car and jumped with
excitement.
"You didn't think we'd let you go to
Chicagoland with only that demented person as a chaperon, did you?"
I jumped into Jude's lap and smothered him
in a bone-crushing hug.
I hadn't told him about the whole idea and
thought it might've been wiser to call him from there. It was surely Jenna's
doing and I loved her for it.
"I'm
grinning at my screen like a lunatic, and it encouraged me to take the leap and
surprise him earlier.
Admittedly, I didn't know the man. His
texts were mostly flirtatious and chivalrous, like he was from a different era.
I did spend the night scrambling through the Internet to try to acquire as much
information as possible.
There
was so much information available. The tabloids seemed to care most about who
he did and did not date, and he dated a lot, models and celebrities from around
the globe.
He was very driven, one of the wealthiest
men in the world, man of the year in the Times magazine. He owned many
businesses and appeared on talk shows with some famous political figures. It
was fascinating; he was only twenty-eight. Even though he came from money, he
was a prodigy on his own.
He
graduated both Harvard and Cambridge in a record time, spent a year working at
a prestigious law firm, and became the head of one the following year. There
wasn't much information about his family, other than a paparazzi picture from
his mother's wake. She'd died less than two years ago, around the same time my
dad had passed. I read as much as I could, but didn't manage to capture
everything. I'd spent too much time staring at his pictures, when Jenna had
slipped next to me in the bed; she teased me about being as much of a stalker
as he was. We'd booked our flights and a hotel room, prepared our suitcases and
went to sleep after Landon's last nocturnal call to wish me sweet dreams.
Even
though I'd resented him for leaving Calvin with me, he'd turned out to be quite
helpful. Since we had no way of knowing where Landon would've been when we'd
get to Chicago, he made sure to get me a driver with a badge to get me inside
the building or to drive me wherever Mr. Davis would be. He promised his
discretion about the whole thing and seemed to be encouraging the whole plan. I
tried to brush off all the quirks that obsessed me over the whole situation. I
was worried that he wouldn't like to be surprised, or that I might interrupt
his work. He'd been stuck with endless work, even when we spoke on the phone; I
kept hearing buzzing and heated conversations with some law jargon and numbers.
What
scared me most were various ambiguous information I'd read about his
relationship with his partner at the firm. They grew up together, and dated a
lot. In one particular magazine, they were called 'Chicago Law Sweethearts'.
Therefore, I might be throwing myself in the lion's den without knowing it.
Jenna
kept reassuring me with her own arguments about the way he talked to me and
looked at me. Also the fact that he'd chased me across the continent. It was
her way of fueling me, whenever she'd felt that I was going to back off the
whole plan and just wait for him to come Saturday night.
After
work, I walked outside my office building to find an erratic Jenna yelling in
French next to an amused Calvin. He was sipping a coffee and smoking a
cigarette. Jenna’s choleric state and loud swears seemed to offer him an
amusing entertainment.
I wrinkled my nose and cocked my head
darting at the cigarette.
Calvin just shrugged and sighed.
"Bad habits die hard, I'm trying to
quit, but this city is too stressful."
I nodded.
"I'm only thinking of your health.
Also I hate that stuff."
"I'm sorry."
He sounded a little freaked out.
"No don't, it doesn't bother me. I just
hate its very existence, and I want to help you quit."
I said with a smile. He didn't need to
know why I was repelled by it; it took my father's resolve and life.
I climbed inside the car and jumped with
excitement.
"You didn't think we'd let you go to
Chicagoland with only that demented person as a chaperon, did you?"
I jumped into Jude's lap and smothered him
in a bone-crushing hug.
I hadn't told him about the whole idea and
thought it might've been wiser to call him from there. It was surely Jenna's
doing and I loved her for it.
"I'm
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