Chapter3
“Girl, where have you been?” Jasmine said when Nina got to the security line at the airport. “You barely made it.”
“But I made it, right?” Nina teased.
“Yeah. Here’s your boarding pass. Good thing you got here, because I was about to give up and just go through security without you. The line is ridiculous.”
“Where’s our stuff?”
“They checked it at curbside. Courtesy of the man who brought me here in a Bentley. Nina, what in the world happened last night?”
“You ditched me to hook up with some guy.” She paused for effect. “Again. And I met someone.”
“And you spent the night with him? Who the hell is he? He’s obviously loaded.”
“I did. And he is. Loaded.”
Jasmine was smiling from ear to ear.
“I’m going to need all the details.”
“Not right now. I just want to get through this ridiculous line and get on the plane. Once we’re on the plane, I’ll tell you what went down.”
The security agent took their boarding passes, scanning them with a handheld device and checking their IDs.
“You’ll go to that line. The one marked first class,” the woman said.
“First class?” Nina said.
“That’s what I said,” the woman repeated shortly. “You have first class tickets, so you go through that line.”
Nina was about to question the woman again, but Jasmine grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the much shorter line.
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. When tall, dark, and silent checked our luggage in, he printed off our boarding passes for us. It took him forever, but I wasn’t about to complain. When he handed them to me, I thought they looked different, but I thought maybe the paper at the airports were all different.”
“I guess Alex upgraded it for us.”
“I’m not mad.” Jasmine laughed. “If he wants to throw his money our way, let him.”
“I had the best time with him,” Nina said wistfully. “I wish we didn’t have to leave today.”
“See? You shoulda gone clubbing with me earlier. I knew if you’d just chill and let yourself have a good time, you would enjoy it. Now, you’re regretting missed opportunities. Who knows, you coulda been Mrs. Rich Dude by the end of the week if you’d rode that a little longer.”
“Whatever,” Nina said, laughing at Jasmine doing a little dance as they moved through the line.
When they made it to the front, a second agent led them to the screening area, but when they went to remove their shoes, the man waved dismissively.
“Leave them on. Just pass through the scanner.”
They did as he asked, whizzing through security in record time.
“Maybe you should sleep with rich guys more often.” Jasmine laughed.
“It was something.”
“What happened?”
“We slept on the private balcony and woke up with the sun. Then, we had breakfast in bed, watched a movie on a giant screen that appeared out of a table, and we swam some more, then we had sex one last time. Then I came here.”
“Did he drive you here?”
“No, he had a meeting or something. We said our goodbyes at the hotel.”
“I bet you did.”
“You’re so ridic.”
“I told you, you’d have a great time if you just took that stick out of your ass. Where did you get that outfit? It’s gorgeous.”
Nina looked down at her neat, powder blue slacks and perfectly cut, white button up shirt beneath the smart little cropped jacket that matched the slacks. The outfit was elegant, but understated, and she planned on wearing it to every interview she had. She felt like a million bucks, and the matching pumps were icing on the cake.
“They appeared, just like everything else. Being rich is pretty fantastic, or at least, it seems that way.”
“I’m impressed.”
“You should be.”
“I’m serious. You took a chance and you had a great time.”
“And now, it’s back to real life, and now the real work starts. The rich may have it easy, but the rest of us have to make a living.”
“Oh, but for one night, everything was perfect, wasn’t it?”
Nina smiled, Alex’s handsome face still burned into her memory.
“It’s a night I know I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
They got to the gate just as they were boarding first class seats. Nina and Jasmine slid into line, presenting their boarding passes and following the group to the front of the plane through a heavy curtain.
“This is nice,” Jasmine said, sitting in the large seat beside Nina. “I didn’t realize how packed into those seats we were. You could easily fit thirty coach seats in this area, but there are only twelve seats.”
“Let’s not make it obvious that we’re not used to first class.”
“You’re right.” Jasmine laughed.
Nina shook her head, still laughing at her friend. She settled in, staring out the window and replaying the night over and over in her head as they waited for the rest of the plane to load.
His hands on her breasts. His face when he looked at her. Waking up in his arms on the balcony, still naked. Wearing his shirt while he cooked breakfast in the huge kitchen in just a pair of pajama pants. She hadn’t expected him to cook, even though the five-bedroom, five-bathroom suite included a gourmet, fully stocked, kitchen. Somehow, the fact that he could afford to have everything handed to him, yet he still knew how to make the perfect omelet, made him even sexier.
“Did you say his name was Alex Conrad?” Jasmine asked, interrupting her thoughts.
“I did.”
“Nina. Do you know who he is?”
“The owner of the hotel and the nightclub. He told me.”
“Not just that. Nina, he’s not just rich. He’s the richest bachelor in Miami.”
“Okay. That doesn’t really change anything. I knew he was rich.”
“He’s more than rich. He’s a freaking billionaire.”
“That still doesn’t change anything. We had one great night, but that’s all it was. He didn’t make any promises, and I didn’t make any plans to come back. You hook up with guys all the time and never see them again. What’s the big deal?”
“I don’t hook up with billionaires who treat me like a spoiled princess. If I did, that would be my last hookup.”
“You’re a hot mess.”
“Miss Nina Wilson?” a flight attendant asked, interrupting their conversation.
“That’s me.”
“This was sent for you.”
He handed Nina a gift bag, leaving before she could ask who it was from.
“I hope it’s an engagement ring,” Jasmine said, only half-joking.
“Stop. You’re being ridiculous.”
“Are you going to open it?”
“I am.”
Inside the gift bag was a small box wrapped in elegant black paper, wrapped with white ribbon and sealed with a wax heart.
“Fancy,” Jasmine said. “What’s zChocolat?”
“I guess it’s chocolate.”
Carefully, she unwrapped it, revealing a beautiful, wooden box with a gold emblem on the front in the shape of an old-fashioned skeleton key with a heart-shaped top.
“I’ve never seen chocolate that came in a wooden box before. There’s a card, what does it say?”
Nina pulled the card out of the box, revealing a dozen golden hearts. Nina read the outside of the card and furrowed her brow.
“Edible 24-carat gold?” she read out loud.
Opening the card, she couldn’t help but smile at the message within.
Nina,
I had a wonderful time last night. If you’re ever in Miami again, I’d love to take you out on a proper date, maybe show you more of the city. I hope you enjoy these chocolates. They’re dark and silky; the most delicious I’ve ever tasted. They remind me of you. Safe travels.
Always,
Alex Conrad
His phone number was written on the bottom of the card.
Nina took one of the hearts out, carefully placing it in her mouth and biting down. To her surprise, the gold didn’t feel like metal. The first taste of the impossibly perfect chocolate hit her tongue then, and she closed her eyes and moaned softly.
“Are they that good?”
“Have one. But just one.”
Jasmine laughed.
“It must be good if you don’t want to share.”
“It’s amazing.”
Jasmine took a heart from the box, putting it in her mouth.
“Damn, this is good.”
Nina closed the box, holding it on her lap and letting the last bite of chocolate melt in her mouth. The flight attendant got on the intercom, going over the same safety lecture they’d heard a thousand times as the plane pushed away from the gate.
But Nina wasn’t listening. She was looking out the window, thinking about the man who did sweet things like upgrading their tickets to first class and sending a five-hundred-dollar box of chocolates to the plane before it took off. He’s more than made good on his promise to spoil her, and Nina couldn’t let go of the twinge of sadness over leaving.
Alex was everything she’d ever fantasized about, but they lived in two different worlds, and it wasn’t like she could just jump off the plane and run to him. That only worked in the movies. In Nina’s world, men made big promises that they rarely kept, and dating was more about getting her in bed than getting to know her. She was living in a fantasy if she thought that Alex loved her after one night together.
She would cherish the memories, but that’s all their night together would ever be; a sweet memory.
The plane was speeding up now, then, they were in the air, speeding away from Miami and leaving spring break behind. In a few months, Nina and Jasmine would graduate from college, and then there would be no fairytales, and no jetting off to spring break for a last hurrah before they entered the workforce. She was closing a chapter in her life and making way for the woman she knew she would become. There was no room for fantasy in that life.
Sighing heavily, she leaned back in the large, comfortable chair and stretched her legs out all the way without touching the chair in front of her. She was determined to enjoy this last bit of luxury before they landed in Lexington. She would savor the chocolates until they ran out, and then she would put away the box and the card, and she would move on with her life. And Alex Conrad would fade away until he was nothing but a distant memory.