At some point after our four-month anniversary, Chase started acting incredibly strange.

More so than usual, anyway.

I hadn’t been keeping track of it myself, but I knew another milestone had to be coming. It was the only logical explanation. Chase had stopped regularly mentioning the number since date thirty—the night our relationship shifted into more serious territory.

The only time he brought it up now was for the milestones.

On date forty, we had our first official date. He took me to a lavish restaurant for dinner and a few hours later, I understood why he preferred to spend time together at home.

Outside the restaurant, Jonas did his best to block us from reporters as they snapped photographs. The next day, my face was on page six. Below it, a quote from an anonymous source stated my name and confirmed that Chase and I were indeed a couple.

Chase didn’t seem at all surprised by the news as he sipped his coffee that morning. When I pushed him about it, he sighed and admitted, “The anonymous source is Fiona. She did exactly as I requested.”

In Chase terms that translated to: I’m serious about you and I’ve decided to introduce you to the world. Or at least to anyone who reads the paper.

On date fifty, he remedied that last part when we attended the Met Gala together. Thanks to Fiona and her hidden talent as a stylist—I ended up in both the newspaper and a ton of magazines under the best-dressed lists.

‘Evelyn Smith: The future queen of Stone Enterprises.’

It was like living in an alternate universe. After the gala, I occasionally noticed people taking pictures of me as I walked the streets of Manhattan. It was motivation enough for me to take Fiona up on her offer to go shopping for a new wardrobe that better suited my job and status.

Chase didn’t care about the attention or the clothes, though he did love discovering the new lingerie I bought specifically with him in mind. That was my favorite part as well.

The milestones stopped at date seventy-five. He chartered a jet for a mystery getaway and the destination turned out to be my hometown. He said he wanted it to be a surprise, but offered me the chance to turn back if I wasn’t ready. I declined without a second thought.

Introducing him to my parents was awkward, as I expected. My mom was in awe of my new job and my very attentive man. Dad was less enthused.

He knew Chase by reputation and respected him in a professional way, but he wasn’t happy about me dating him. To my horror, he snapped at Chase one night over dinner about our age difference. Happy family time came to a close, the rest of our trip tainted by the uncomfortable argument. Chase was more solemn than ever.

He brightened a little when we got back to New York, yet I could sense a distance between us that wasn’t there before. We continued to see each other without the mention of milestones. Despite the sour note of the trip, everything seemed to be fine between us.

At least I thought it was until the day I approached Chase’s office to eat lunch together as usual only to find it empty.

Words couldn’t describe how much it hurt to have Fiona tell me he was out of town on business, her eyebrows furrowing when she asked if I had forgotten.

I refrained from snapping that I couldn’t forget something I didn’t know. He never even mentioned a trip. He was just… gone. My texts and calls went unanswered until late that night.

- We’ll talk when I get back. I love you.

And that was that. I replied to the text multiple times to no avail and every time I called, it went straight to voicemail.

I got closer to bursting into tears every time I heard his voice dryly stating to leave a message. I’d leave short voicemails telling him how much I missed him, hoping he couldn’t hear the misery in my voice.

But I knew he could. On day three of radio silence, another text came through.

- I’m so sorry... I miss you more than I can say.

Even though the phone was in my hand when it chimed, he’d already turned it off by the time I dialed his number. Seething with frustration, I turned my phone off like it would somehow hurt him in return.

Friday—also known as ‘Chase goes MIA: Day 5’—was incredibly odd. Three of my coworkers were mysteriously absent, which meant my workload for the day was doubled. My boss begged me to stay for overtime and I accepted for the sole reason that I had nothing better to do.

Five long hours after my usual quitting time, I was dragging my feet downstairs and stumbling into a cab, looking forward to going home and passing out from exhaustion.

Yet when I got to the door of my apartment, I was struck by a very strange sensation. I couldn’t explain what it was or where it came from, but I opened the door and slipped inside silently. When I flipped on the light, fear and dread raced up my spine.

I’d been robbed. My mouth fell open as I looked at my barren living room.

Correction: I’d been really freaking robbed. They left nothing.

“Kitten?”

My heart hammered at the sound of Chase’s voice. He stepped out of my bedroom, turning the light on as he exited the room. I craned my neck to see around him, noting that it was just as empty as the living room.

“What the hell is going on?” I asked in confusion. “Did you—Was I robbed? Where’s my stuff?”

“At the penthouse,” Chase said with a small, sad smile. “God, I missed you so much.”

But as he reached out to touch my face, the anger I felt from being abandoned flared up and I smacked his hand away. It took a great deal of restraint to ignore the hurt look in his eyes when he flinched.

“What the fuck? You—You disappear for five days and just come to my house without a word and take all my stuff?! What the hell is going on?”

“The penthouse wasn’t ready and I couldn’t risk seeing you. The timing went wrong,” he muttered as an afterthought before shaking his head. “I’m so sorry. It was my fault.”

“I… I need more information, Chase. What do you mean the penthouse wasn’t ready?”

“The remodeling wasn’t finished in time. It was supposed to be done last weekend but there was a shipping delay and everything got thrown off balance.”

“O-kay…” I said slowly, still not following the sequence of events. “And what does that have to do with my stuff?”

Chase reached into his pocket and produced a small rectangular box, holding it up in the air as he asked, “Do you know what today is?”

Oh. Oh! Things began to click into place—the lack of recent milestones, him not wanting to risk seeing me. I was still pissed off about his method of arranging the surprise, but at least it all made sense.

“It’s Friday,” I replied, continuing our long-running joke.

Chase grinned. “Correct. It’s also our one-hundredth date.”

Once he finished, he moved the box in front of me and waited for me to take it. I already figured out what must have been hiding inside—and it definitely wasn’t a bracelet.

As I suspected, it was a set of keys and a slip of paper. The box contained all the keys I needed to get into his building and the paper had the security code for his apartment neatly recorded on its surface.

“Will you move in with me, kitten?”

“Before I answer, I have one question.”

He raised his eyebrows expectantly. The poor man looked nervous as hell even with his carefully constructed mask of indifference.

“What do you plan to do about my stuff if I say no?”

“Your belongings are at the penthouse but they haven’t been taken inside yet. The movers are waiting for my signal near the service elevator. Jonas is standing guard, so I promise that everything is safe.”

“Did you hire movers to pack up my stuff?” I asked nervously, very weirded out by the thought of strangers poking through my things as they boxed it up.

“No, Jonas and I did that ourselves. The movers just handled the boxes.”

“Wait a second—is that why three people were missing today? So I’d have to stay late and give you time to pull off this insane plan?”

“I wouldn’t call it insane,” he said, his tone defensive. “At least no more insane than the party that brought us back together in the first place.”

“Yeah, that was also a little insane. I’m still not entirely convinced that you aren’t insane.”

“But you love me anyway, don’t you?”

“Yeah. I really do,” I admitted softly. Chase was becoming more and more antsy the longer I avoided giving him an answer, so I decided to show him some mercy. “I’d love to move in with you, Chase. But I’m still pissed off about the radio silence.”

“I’ll make it up to you however you like,” he promised as he placed his hands on my hips. “For however long you like.”

“I’m also pissed about the overtime.”

“We should get a move on then. I have a lot of work to do to make up for my indiscretions.”

“You sound so happy about that,” I said as he led me out, failing to suppress my laugh.

“I am. I also have five days of lost time to make up for. Should we stop and get you a coffee on the way? Perhaps an energy drink or two? It’s going to be a very long weekend.”

I closed my door and locked it, turning around to press a kiss to his lips before I whispered, “Just take me home, Chase.”

He captured my hand with his and laced our fingers together.

“Home,” he repeated, chuckling softly. “I suppose it will be one with you there.”

“What was it before today?”

His eyes were unguarded as he simply said, “Empty.”

As we made our way to our new shared home, I realized how desperately I wanted to be the one to surprise him with a milestone for a change. The smile he shot me on the ride told me he was more than happy to be the one arranging everything, but my mind was already made up.

I was going to get him back and I only had until Halloween to do it.