I enter the lobby of the fancy condo building that Sloane lives in. I stare up at the large ceiling that goes up in the center to what must be the top floor with all the other entrances to the rooms surrounding the center. The whole building seems extravagant. Everything is wrapped in gold or silver. Flowers decorate the main floor lobby, but there isn’t a dead flower in sight, making it clear that the flowers are pruned and replaced on a regular basis. There is a lot of wealth in this place.
Too much wealth if you ask me.
I walk to the elevator and am stopped by a nicely dressed man in a suit.
“Who are you here to see, sir?” the man asks politely, blocking me from entering the elevator without telling him first.
I look down at my khaki shorts and button-down shirt that is open at the collar. I thought I would dress up a bit for our date tonight, but looking at myself now and where I am, I should have dressed up more because Sloane is a princess who no doubt lives on the top floor of her castle. Despite working for a nonprofit she inherited, she makes plenty of money and expects to live with the finer things in life.
“I’m here to see Sloane Hart,” I answer.
“And your name is?”
“Asher Calder.”
I expect him to request to see my ID before he will let me up. But, to my surprise, he pushes the button for the elevator, and he steps aside to let me in as the doors open. He steps inside and presses the button for floor number ten.
“Ms. Hart’s place is the first door on your left when you exit the elevator. Have a good day, Mr. Calder,” he says before leaving the elevator.
I run my hand through my hair as the elevator makes its way up. I can’t believe people live like this. I know he is here mostly for security purposes, but it still seems ridiculous that she lives in a place where somebody stands at the elevator and pushes a button for her whenever she wants to go up. As if she is incapable of pressing a button. It’s a good thing I don’t want her forever because we don’t belong together. She wants a fancy life, full of finer things, while I want to live with as few things as possible.
I shake my head at the thought of ever imagining myself with anyone for more than a couple of months. That’s not my style. I don’t do the boyfriend or girlfriend thing, and I don’t imagine ever getting married.
The doors open, and I step off and knock on her door. I wait longer than I expected. She doesn’t answer right away even though, if anything, I’m a few minutes late. I pull out my phone, ready to text her with the number that Wes gave me, to see if she is still coming or if she changed her mind, when she opens the door.
She’s wearing a beautiful pale blue sundress that, to my surprise, has more cleavage than I would have thought she would wear for a date that isn’t really a date. Her blonde hair is curled, but it’s her eyes that have my complete attention.
It’s clear that she has been crying. Despite trying to dry her eyes, her eyeliner and mascara are smudged, and her eyes are still a bit swollen and red.
“So, where are we going?” Sloane asks, plastering a fake smile on her face.
I frown. “What’s wrong?”
Her smile falters. “Oh, nothing. Just allergies.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“You’re one to talk. You lie all the time.”
“No, I don’t. I have made my intentions very clear to you. I want you. In my bed. As soon as possible. Now, what is wrong?”
“My grandmother died.”
I feel her pain immediately. It’s clear that she was close to her grandmother.
“I’m so sorry.”
I see the tears forming in her eyes again, but she holds them back, not letting me fully see her pain.
“You should be with Wes tonight. We can reschedule, or I can…” I can’t quite convince myself to say that I’d leave her alone. Because I can’t promise it. I want this too much. I want to steal her heart and know it’s mine and not his. I want to be the cause of her pain. But I’m not devil enough to do it when her grandmother just died.
“Wes is gone,” she says.
“Gone?”
“He’s in LA on business.”
“Does he know?”
“Yes,” she whispers.
“Are you going to be able to forgive him for not being here?”
“I have to.”
“No, you don’t.”
She shakes her head, and I drop the subject.
“Come out with me,” I say without thinking.
She wraps her arms around her shoulders, and I’m afraid that she won’t be able to stand on her own two feet much longer, much less come out on a date with me.
“I don’t mean as a date. Just that you shouldn’t be alone. I can be good, I promise.”
She looks down, obviously thinking about it but not yet convinced.
“Just let me feed you and distract you for a few hours. You can talk to me about your grandmother or not. Or you can yell at me and call me names if it will make you feel better. Whatever you need. Today, I’ll just be a friend.”
“And tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow, I’ll go back to being the monster you think I am.”
At that comment, I get the tiniest smile out of her.
“I know you are.”
I nod.
“I’ll come as long as I can leave when I want.”
“I’ll bring you back whenever you want.”
“Yes then.”
We both smile when she says yes instead of her giving a less convincing answer.
“Let me just grab my purse.”
“No. Change into something comfortable and at least bring your swimsuit.”
She frowns. “Why?”
“Because the ocean can be an incredibly healing thing whether I’m there to enjoy it with you or not.” I take a breath. “And, if nothing else, I’ll get to see you in a bikini.”
I wink, and to my surprise, she chuckles. It’s not a full-body laugh, but it’s enough for now.
“Fine. I’ll wear my bikini underneath something more comfortable.” She starts walking to her bedroom. “I’ll be right back. Make yourself comfortable.”
She closes the door to her bedroom and leaves me in her living room. I walk around, staring at all the things in her living room that are varying shades of white. I’m surprised that I don’t find many photos in her living room. I don’t see any of Wes. The only one I see is a picture of Sloane with who I assume is her grandmother.
I pick the picture up and study it a moment. Sloane is a little younger-looking in the picture but not much younger. She has her arm wrapped around her grandmother’s shoulders while her grandmother blows out the candles on her birthday cake. It’s a sweet picture. Full of love. It’s obvious that Sloane loved her grandmother.
I place the frame back on the end table where I found it, and a familiar feeling washes over me. I shake it off because the feeling makes no sense. I haven’t been in this building before and certainly not in Sloane’s place.
I walk over to the kitchen counter and see a pile of pictures and papers piled up. I don’t think anything of it at first until I spot a surfboard that is very familiar, sticking out from beneath one of the papers. I pull it out and see a picture of myself staring back at me.
What the fuck?
Why does Sloane have a picture of me?
I rifle through more of the pictures. They’re all of me. Then, I realize what the pictures are when I spot Wes in the background. Sloane is the one who hired me to take the ad photos and video. That just leaves me even more confused. I know Sloane works for a nonprofit, so why would she want to have photos of a surfer for advertising? It doesn’t make sense to me.
“I didn’t realize it was you that I had booked; otherwise, I wouldn’t have booked you,” Sloane says from behind me.
I turn and look at her, and I completely forget about the photographs. “You’re beautiful.”
She shakes her head and blushes a little, which makes her all the more enduring. She doesn’t blush when she should be embarrassed, but one tiny compliment, and she’s a blushing fool.
Sloane runs her hand through her hair, shaking out the curls that were there before. “No, I’m not. I’m in a T-shirt and shorts. I don’t have an ounce of makeup on, and I’m blotchy from crying. It’s not possible to look beautiful at the moment.”
I frown, trying to come up with the words that will make her see what I see. I doubt I can convince her of anything in the moment. “It doesn’t matter if you believe me or not. You’re the most fucking beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. And, right now, you are more beautiful than I have ever seen you,” I say, meaning every fucking word, my eyes glued to hers.
She stares back at me until she is finally convinced that I am telling the truth. I don’t know when she’ll realize that I never lie. Never. I don’t lie to women to get them to leave their husbands. I want an honest fight. I just usually win, which must mean that the women don’t really want to get married. Marriage is a ridiculous concept anyway. No one should be with just one person for the rest of their life. People are constantly changing and not always in the same way.
Why would you stay with the same person when you no longer fit together anymore?
I try to search her eyes to see if she is just like the rest of the women, who were looking for an escape from a marriage that they thought would be everything they’d ever dreamed up but realized too late that it was going to be a nightmare that there was no way out of. But whatever she feels, she hides it well. She might just be the exception. She might really love Wes and want to marry him. I just can’t see how a woman like her, who seems to have such ambition and is constantly changing and wanting more out of life, would be happy with settling down with one man for the rest of her life.
“The video and pictures we took are for an ad my new head of marketing came up with. I don’t love the idea, but she is insistent that, since I spend so much time in Hawaii and many of our donors live or at least vacation here, we need to add more inspiring images of what our children and families could eventually achieve with the money they are given instead of just images of hungry children.”
“Why don’t you use images of people who have gone through your program and made something of their lives?”
“We did.”
“I didn’t do any ads with children that have gone through your program.
She shakes her head. “You did.”
I pause for a second. “Wes? Really? But he always seems like—” I stop myself from saying how I really feel about Wes.
Sloane smiles though. “Like a spoiled rich kid.”
I nod.
“He thinks he needs to act that way to fit in with me and my family.”
I glance around her expensive apartment and raise an eyebrow. “I can understand why.”
She lets out a huff of air. “I guess so.”
I don’t want to spend the rest of the evening talking about Wes. My job today is to cheer her up and be her friend. I made a promise, and I won’t go back on my promise.
I hold out my arm to her, like the gentleman that I am. “Hungry, or should I take you to the beach first?”
Sloane walks toward me. Her hips sway as she does, and I have never wished I were standing behind a woman like I do right now.
I think she is going to take my arm, but she stops short.
“Beach. I don’t have an appetite for food.”
She walks past me and toward the door, and I finally get the view that I was desperate for a second earlier. Her tight ass moves from side to side, just barely covered in her tiny shorts, making the fact that she isn’t holding on to my arm so that I could feel her skin worth it.
“You coming, or do I have to go myself?”
I grin. “Definitely coming.”