Alexander

 

 

 

“I’m running away,” I said lifting my head in hesitation to watch as Aria came and sat next to me.

“Running away? What are you, ten?”

“I mean, I’m leaving Chicago. I wanted to get out during the daytime, see if I could do it, and I did.”

My heart was pounding with excitement and fear, but most of all, I tackled something my mother tried to destroy in me. I was always curious why she told me to never be seen outside, keeping me almost completely locked away, knowing I would develop this fear of ever venturing outside during the day?

I had to wonder why? She told me it was because other people might hurt me to get to my money, but that always felt like a lie.

Something passed over Aria’s eyes and she twisted her head away. After a moment, she turned back to me. “I don’t understand. Why are you telling me? Just go if you want.”

Her voice deepened with each word. She was angry. It surprised me. I thought Aria, with her free spirit, would be happy for me.

“Because it’s what you said two weeks ago that made me realize that I needed to get away from my mother.”

Aria leaned back. “I’m proud of you, Alex. If what you say about your mother is true, then it’s a good thing you are leaving. I wish you the best of luck.”

She smiled though it didn’t seem sincere. Her gaze focused on her twisting fingers.

My mind filled with a thousand words, jumbling together for all that I wanted to explain, but I knew it would be too much. So, I started with one thing.

The seed she planted when she walked into my bedroom the very first time.

“Come with me,” I said, taking her hand in mine.

She gasped and in that second her eyes gave me her answer. It was stark and surprising, but I smiled anyway. Her truth was the answer I longed for and something she wasn’t ready to accept.

“No. I can’t leave. No.” Aria shook her head and pulled her hand from mine.

The more she fought, the deeper I dug in.

“Why? What’s stopping you? You don’t have a job to get to. And I would make sure you were provided for.”

Aria stood and pushed the chair back in the process, causing it to tip back.

“I’m not a pet, Alex. I don’t need a sugar daddy.”

“Aren’t sugar daddies supposed to be older? How old are you, Aria?”

I knew her age. There was a lot I knew about Aria. When you’re attracted to someone from afar for three years, you spend a lot of time Googling them.

Just thinking that made me realize I sounded like a stalker. Maybe she doesn’t need to know I’ve been lusting after her for all those years.

“I’m twenty-nine. Why? How old are you?”

“I’m twenty-six,” I said and stood from the chair to face her.

“You’re younger than me. Does that make me a cougar?”

She crinkled her nose, warming my chest. I wanted to wrap her in my arms and kiss her everywhere.

“I think you would have to be much older than me. At least ten years older. Not three years.”

“Four years. I’m four years older than you.”

“I may be a recluse, Aria, but I know simple math and twenty-nine minus twenty-six is three.”

“I turn thirty in June. I will be four years older than you in a little over a month.”

“Who’s to say I don’t have a birthday later this year?” I said knowing I didn’t.

But she didn’t need to know that.

She waved her hands at me. “Three years, four years, that doesn’t matter. I’m still not coming with you, Alex. I have a life here. Chicago may not be a paradise island where we can sip mai tai’s on the beach and make love in a room with the sounds of waves crashing in the distance, but . . . wait, what was I arguing about?”

The more time I spent with Aria, the more I learned what she liked. That’s something you can’t Google. As much as she complained about not wanting to be bought, she sure liked nice things and good food.

“I can make that happen,” I said as the corner of my mouth tipped up. “And just think, I could feed you shrimp caught fresh from the ocean and grilled before us on the beach.”

Her eyes were like saucers as she stared up at me. “I do like shrimp.”

I took a step closer, placing my hand on her shoulder before dipping my head to the side of hers. “You know what I like, Aria? Pie. They make a great key lime pie in the Keys. I like other flavors, too. But when I find that perfect pie—as if it was created just for my tongue—mmm, it makes me want to lick the whole thing.”

“Yes. That does sound good,” she said, her voice but a breath.

I lifted my hand to her neck. My nose dipped, tickling under her ear and it took every ounce of my restraint not to bite her. But I didn’t. I held firm until her chest pushed against mine. Her breathing picked up the more I inhaled.

“I’d love to have pie with you, Aria.”

“So much yes right now.” Her fingers gripped my shoulders trying to pull me closer.

But, again, I held firm. I wanted to give in and let her do what she wanted to me, but I needed something more from Aria. A promise.

I straightened my back and stood to my full height. It surprised her but she refused to let me go.

“Then come with me. Let’s find that perfect island together. No more cold Chicago winters.”

That’s when she gave in. Her eyes widened and her lips—they were the key—spread into a breathtaking smile. Full of as much hope as I felt.

But then one person ruined everything. As she had for most of my life, my mother walked in to take control.

“What on earth?” Aria said as her head turned toward the door my mother walked through moments ago.

She was surprised by mother’s appearance but I wasn’t. My mother had spies everywhere. This wasn’t the first time I tried to leave my home during the day. I once talked an old friend, someone I thought was a friend, into coming to a gallery showing by a new artist with me.

Turned out that friend was one of my mom’s spies. My mother showed up there too. But not before the true beauty of the night captured my heart.

My mom’s gray eyes narrowed on Aria. “Alexander. What are you doing here?”

My instinct was to push Aria behind me, protect her from the woman who used my love like candy. When she had a sweet tooth, my mother would visit me only to chew me up.

I wanted to lie to my mom and never tell her what I was planning, but it was time to face her. Despite my promises long ago to my mother, I needed to do this for me. Even if it meant breaking those promises. She broke enough promises over the years.

“I’m leaving. I won’t marry whoever you picked out for me. This isn’t the middle ages, Mother.” I turned my eyes to find Aria’s mouth wide in surprise. “I’m only here to tell Aria that I won’t need her to paint the mural anymore. In fact, she might be coming with me,” I said before I looked at Aria.

Not wanting to overstep my bounds I asked, “If you’re interested?”

She chewed on her bottom lip. And after what felt like forever, Aria grabbed my hand and smiled up at me. “Yes. I’ll come with you, Alex.”

There was an ache in my chest and a burn that prickled and twisted throughout my body. It was almost too good to be true. This beautiful, amazing woman wanted to be with me.

Noise disrupted my joy and I turned to see my mother clapping her hands.

“Aww, that is sweet, but I’m afraid you can’t run off with your little love, Alex.”

All I cared about was that Aria wanted to be with me. My mother could make fun of me or spread lies about me or Aria, and it wouldn’t matter. The only important thing was that we were going to be happy together.

“Don’t even start, Mom. I told you I’m not marrying Alexa Dorton,” I said feeling emboldened with Aria at my side.

My mother told me when I was a kid that I am destined to marry into a powerful, politically connected family. I met Alexa when I was a kid. She was sweet and as nervous as me. We planned to run away together, not so we could be together, but to get away from our controlling parents.

My mother rolled her eyes and waved her diamond-cluttered fingers at me. “You can’t run away from your destiny, Alexander.”

I stood there and stared at my mother. What sort of fantasy world did she live in?

“It’s done. None of that matters anymore because we’re leaving.” I tried to make my way past my mother, pulling Aria along with me.

“You can walk out and break my heart like that, Alexander? After all I protected you from. I’m the one that gave you everything. If it weren’t for me, you would be lost out there in the world with the worst life. Maybe no life at all.”

I stopped and looked over at my mother.

“What are you even talking about, Mom? You think sheltering me, making me scared to step outside in the daylight was protecting me? The most it ever protected me from was mosquitoes. Bravo,” I used the slow clap on her, “you saved me from malaria.”

“And West Nile virus. Oh, and also the Zika virus,” Aria said.

We both turned toward Aria. She shook her head. “But you aren’t a pregnant woman so you don’t really need to worry about Zika.” Aria’s eyes lowered to the floor and she frowned.

“You are right, Ms. Dixon. He doesn’t need to worry about that or you, for that matter. Since you are already married.”

Another one of my mother’s lies. She really thought I was that naïve, that stupid, that I would believe Aria was married just because my mother said it.

I shook my head. “How can you lie like that and then look at yourself in a mirror?”

There was a tug on my sleeve and I glanced down at Aria.

“Alex, she’s not lying.”