Chapter 20

Cody

“I’m sorry for not being honest with you,” I said to Alexis as we walked up the stairs to her apartment. “I had a lot of excuses for not telling you but not of them were fair to you. I should have told you and I’m genuinely sorry for not saying something.”

“Thank you,” she said and gave me a hug.

We held onto each other for a minute, but I knew she wasn’t about to let me kiss her. Alexis let go of me and turned around to unlock her door. She didn’t smile. She didn’t look back at me.

“Do you want Noah’s phone number in case you need to contact him directly about your acting stuff? I don’t want you to have to talk to me if you don’t want to.”

“Oh, yes, that would be really good. Thank you,” she said.

I really did want Alexis to succeed in her career. Even if she decided not to be with me as more than a contracted spouse, I would always encourage her and hope that she had the best possible life she could.

She handed me her phone and I put Noah’s number in for her. I hoped he would be able to get her the job she wanted.

“I’m not sure if he will be around when you try to reach him though. I haven’t heard much from him since he met that girl.”

“Did you meet her?”

“Nope, I don’t even know her name. All I know is he’s helping her with something and he’s in love. Anytime I ask him about her he gets this puppy dog love look on his face.”

“That’s sweet,” she said as she opened her door and walked inside.

Alexis turned around and stood with the door between us as she waited for me to leave. As much as I knew she wanted me to leave, I was terrified. Once I left, there was a real possibility I might not see her again until we signed a contract for this marriage and that wasn’t what I wanted. I needed our relationship to be real.

“Okay, well call me when you’d like to talk,” I added as she started closing the door. “Again, I’m so sorry.”

“Have a good night,” Alexis said and shut the door.

All in all, the day had gone pretty well. I was going to get access to my father’s estate money and I could start building my new hotel. Somehow, I’d lost my motivation for the project though. Instead, I was focused on figuring out how to save what was going to happen between Alexis and me.

I texted Noah to see what he was up to and surprisingly he answered and agreed to meet up for some drinks downtown. I hadn’t seen him much at all in the last week and was really interested in hearing about this woman who had captured his heart so quickly.

After the last few days that I’d been through, I couldn’t wait to relax and drink. The Veranda was where Noah wanted to meet, and it wasn’t at all our usual type of place. This restaurant was much more upper class than the places we usually hung out at while in college. It took me a little off guard as I pulled up.

Sure enough, when I got inside, Noah was there waiting for me with a stunning redhead on his arm. She wasn’t just beautiful though, this woman looked like she was a supermodel. She was just as tall as Noah, thin, tan, with bold cheekbones that highlighted her smile. This had to be the woman who had captured Noah’s heart so completely.

“Hi,” I said smiling and looking at Noah, but then quickly turning my attention to the woman and shaking her hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

She pulled me in close and kissed each of my cheeks without saying a word. Her mannerisms reminded me of European customs.

“I’m Katarina,” she said with a very thick accent.

“Hello. I’m Cody,” I replied and then quickly shot Noah a glance that questioned what the heck was going on here. This girl didn’t sound like she could speak English, or very little. How had he happened to find her and fall in love with her so quickly without them being able to talk to each other?

“Katarina was just about to go to the hotel. I rented a room downtown for us. We are trying to figure out her status, so she can stay here,” Noah said.

Oh shit. This beautiful woman was trying to get Noah to marry her so she could stay in the country? I wasn’t exactly sure of the status they were referring to, but I knew the two of us would be talking about her the second she was gone.

“I love you,” she said to Noah and passionately kissed him.

By passionately, I’m not talking about a sweet kiss that lasted a little too long. No, Katarina grabbed Noah and pulled him to her. She pulled his shirt into her hands and tugged on it tightly as she opened her mouth and let his tongue inside. This girl wasn’t shy at all. Whether it was some sort of ploy to get Noah to help her or she really liked him, I wasn’t sure, but there was no denying he was wrapped around her sexy little finger.

“I’m going to walk her across the street really quick,” Noah said with a glint in his eye that told me he wasn’t just walking her across the street and would likely be taking her all the way up to the hotel room.

“I’ll see you,” I laughed as the two of them started to walk away.

“Nice to meet you,” Katarina turned to say as they left.

I’d come all the way downtown just to hang out with Noah and now I was left alone. Not that I cared that I was drinking alone, but if I was, I preferred to be in a bar that had some sports going on the televisions at least.

Optimistically I ordered a couple of beers for Noah and myself, just in case he did come right back. I sipped on the first one while watching the people around the bar. This place did have a lot of beautiful women.

“Noah?” I heard a woman say as she started walking toward me.

She looked familiar, but it took me a minute to figure out where I knew her from. She must have realized that I had a puzzled look on my face though and as she gave me a hug she told me who she was.

“Jacqueline, I’m Alexis’ friend from Vegas. This is Rose.” I just noticed that she had a friend.

“Oh yeah, sorry. It’s been a crazy couple of days. How are you two doing?”

“Us? We are fine. How about you and Alexis? I still can’t believe the two of you got married. Have you had a good couple of weeks together? Tell me all about it.”

The last thing I wanted to do was ruin the night of these two women. They were all dressed up and looked like they were ready to take on the town. But I also really needed someone to talk to and bounce off my ideas about how to win Alexis back. Who better to help me with this than her friends?

“Actually, things are sort of a mess right now.”

“No, you two are so perfect for each other. I saw how the two of you looked at one another. There was so much passion and love between you guys. You have to work this out,” Rose added.

“I sort of messed up. Actually, I really messed up. I think it’s going to be really difficult for her to trust me and I don’t blame her at all.”

“What did you do?” Noah said as he came up behind me.

“Well man, I didn’t think you were coming back so soon.”

“I can play with her later,” he winked. “What happened with Alexis?”

So I proceed to tell the three of them everything. I told them about the estate, the paparazzi, Alexis losing her reality show, and that fact that I’d been lying to her. Noah knew most of the story already, but the women were hearing it all for the first time. They were not happy with me at all, I could tell by the scowls on their faces.

“You lied to her?” Jacqueline asked.

“Yes, after we got married in Vegas I should have told her about my father’s will. I wanted to tell her, but I didn’t. I can’t take that back. I tried to tell her a few other times but each time I was terrified that if I told her she would leave.”

“Yeah, that’s what women do when they are with liars,” Rose said and crossed her arms as she looked sternly at me.

“I understand where you are coming from, but I can’t take it back now.”

“After all of this, Alexis still came and met with Richard for you?” Noah asked. “That says a lot about her feelings for you. There’s no way she would have done that if she didn’t still like you.”

Jacqueline and Rose started shaking their heads as if Noah was wrong. At that moment I was extremely grateful that I’d run into her friends and could get women’s opinions on what was going on.

“Nope, she could have just done it because she is nice,” Jacqueline said. “Alexis doesn’t like confrontation any more than you do. She might have just agreed to do the interview because she didn’t want to be the bad guy.”

“We had a moment there though. She admitted that she had a crush on me in college and I admitted the same. The way she looked at me made me think there was still something there.”

“Maybe you should try some sort of grand gesture? Something to show her just how much you really do care about her?”

“That is exactly what I was thinking. But I don’t know what to do. She’s asked for some space and I told her I’d give it to her.”

The last thing I wanted to do was ignore her specific request for space. I did like the idea of a grand gesture, but it would have to be a few days or a week down the road.

“What if I helped set something up?” Noah asked.

“Yeah? What were you thinking?”

The rest of the evening Noah, Jacqueline, Rose, and I managed to put together a plan to get Alexis back. It was risky, but we were going to wait two weeks to start it and I hoped that would be enough time for her.

I had a good feeling about this plan. It was bold. It showed Alexis that I was willing to work with her friends to show her how much I cared and if all went well, this plan was going to start the process of winning her back. I was prepared to do the work I had to do in order for her to trust me again.

“You will get her back,” Jacqueline said as we wrapped up our planning late that night. “She loves you. I saw it in her eyes. There was no doubt about it. This is a good plan too. You aren’t asking for too much.”

“Thank you for everything. Maybe if this does work we could have a real wedding somewhere down the road. That’s if Alexis wants to do something like that.”

“I think she would like that.”

“You’re a shit head,” Rose said as she punched my arm and then gave me a hug. “If you mess this up then you don’t deserve her at all.”

“Thanks for helping with the plan, Rose. I appreciate it. And thanks for being willing to give me a shot. I really wasn’t sure what to do. You two came along at the perfect moment.”

“Yeah, yeah, we are the perfect friends,” Rose said and grabbed Jacqueline’s hand as the two women left.

“I better get going also,” Noah said. “I have someone to attend to when I get back to the hotel room.” Noah was smiling and more confident than I remembered seeing him. He looked as if he was even an inch taller than before. The love of a beautiful woman had the ability to transform a man.

“Someday very soon you are going to tell me how this whole thing really came about. Be careful though. You know she could be using you.”

“Oh, she is using me,” he said with a dirty smile. “She’s been using me real good.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at Noah. At least he was aware of the possibility that this wasn’t real. I wasn’t so sure it mattered to him though because he definitely was wrapped around that woman’s finger.

“Be safe, man. Text me and keep in touch so I don’t have to worry that she’s murdered you and chopped you up into little pieces.”

“She’s a good girl, Cody. I know it’s a weird situation, but my gut says she’s a good girl. I’m just trying to help her out the best I can.”

“Okay, man. Thanks again for the help with my troubles. You were right. I should have told her sooner. So I’ll trust that you are right about this girl you’ve got up in your hotel room too.”

Noah and I hadn’t spent that much time together in recent years, but at that moment I felt like no time had passed at all since college. We were very similar, and both truly trusted each other. I was lucky he had connections to help me with my plan and lucky that I knew he would follow through with what he said he would do.

Without Noah, this surprise wouldn’t work at all. It was riding on him bringing his piece of it to the table. Then, when Alexis was in front of me, that’s when it would be up to me.

The idea of laying my heart on the table for her was scary as hell. She might stomp on it. Alexis might tell me that she didn’t love me anymore and didn’t want anything to do with me. But I was going to go for it. I wanted Alexis as my wife. I loved her, and I believed she loved me and the two of us were going to work this thing out.