by Lund, S. E.
"I'll hold off ravishing you until tomorrow morning," she replied and took a sip, her eyes narrowing.
"Phew," I said and mimed wiping my brow.
The food was good, and when we were finished, I paid and took Alexa's hand.
"Do you feel like a walk along the street? I want to relish being free for a while."
"Do we need to call the security company so they can send a guard for us?"
"Oh, crap," I said and frowned. "I guess I'm not really all that free after all. Maybe we should just go up to the suite. I could happily go to bed right now."
"Okay," Alexa said and I knew she was thinking about not being able to fall asleep so soon.
"Do you have some research or work to do for your classes?"
She shook her head. "No, I'm all done. Maybe I'll read for a while. You can go to sleep if you need to."
"Okay," I said and pressed the elevator button. I yawned at the thought of going to bed and covered my mouth. "Sorry. I'm toast. That beer was one too many."
She squeezed my hand as we rode up the elevator. "You deserve to sleep as long as you need. I have an early class, so I'll get up and be quiet as a mouse so you can sleep in."
"No, no," I said and kissed her. "Wake me up for an early morning session. I need to remind myself why I can't just go and punch Eric's lights out when the mood strikes me."
She laughed at that and we went down the hall to the suite. "Not on your life. You're sleeping in."
Once inside, I could barely wait to get out of my clothes and under the covers, my head on the pillow.
So as soon as I'd brushed my teeth and undressed, I did.
Alexa took care of turning all the lights off for the night, and within ten minutes, she was in bed beside me. I was already drowsy, my eyes barely able to stay open, but I wanted us to kiss goodnight before I went to sleep.
"Come and snuggle with me," I said and pulled her against my body when she climbed in bed. "I need my Alexa time."
We embraced and she leaned up and kissed me. "I love you, Luke. Don't do anything like that again, okay? I've read of cases where one unlucky punch ended the life of someone and then, it was too late."
"I love you more than anything, Alexa. I'll never do anything like that again, I promise," I said and squeezed her tightly. "I promise I'll be a paragon of discretion from now on."
"Good. Now go to sleep. I'm going to read for a while."
She gave me another kiss and then leaned over to turn off the bedside lamp. She had her tablet in hand, her book open, and other than the faint light from the screen, the rest of the room was cast into darkness.
I barely even remember closing my eyes.
When I next awoke, I was alone in the suite. Alexa had been true to her word and had gotten up and left without waking me. I lay on my back and stared up at the ceiling, happy to be back to my real life and no longer facing criminal charges. My day was totally unstructured, but I did want to go for a run and maybe head down to the temporary office John had rented for us to use as we developed our next project.
I got up and pulled on a pair of shorts and t-shirt. Before I left, I checked my cell for any messages, and was surprised to see one from Peter, my attorney.
PETER: Hey, maybe you better come down to the office today. I got papers from your mother that you've been disinherited.
My jaw dropped open. She really had gone through with it. What the fuck?
LUKE: Okay, I'll be down later this morning. I expected this, but it was pretty quick.
PETER: You didn't tell me you were having problems with your mother.
LUKE: I was kind of preoccupied with possibly going to jail for assault…
PETER: Well, you can fill me in when you get here.
LUKE: Thanks. See you soon.
I put my cell down and for a moment, I felt like just plopping down on the sofa and ordering myself a case of beer but then I caught myself. I expected she might pull something like this — drawing up papers as a threat and then ripping them up when I came crawling to her, begging for her to forgive me, promising to end my relationship with Alexa so I could get her hundreds of millions of dollars when she died.
No such luck.
I didn't need her.
I called down to the security service and once my guard arrived, I went for a run around Central Park, with him following me in a vehicle. I needed to burn off my excess adrenaline from the previous couple of stressful days. I needed to be completely calm when I went to speak with Peter. I didn't care about her money. It was the principle of the thing that mattered to me.
Why she thought she could control who I loved and who I married was beyond me. It was none of her business.
After my run, I returned to the hotel room and had a quick shower before dressing and going down to the lobby to catch the limo to Peter's offices. When I arrived, I said hello to Peter’s admin assistant, and then went into Peter’s office in the corner of the Madison Avenue building.
"What have you got for me?" I asked after shaking his hand. "What has my mother done to try to hurt me?
He opened a file and removed a sheet of paper, placing it in front of me.
It was a notice that I had been removed from her will.
"I honestly don't care," I said and shrugged.
"There's also this," Peter said and placed another sheet of paper in front of me.
It was another notice that I was also no longer the CEO of the board of directors of the foundation founded to allocate my family's fortune to various charities. It provided me with a yearly salary, which was considerable — several million a year.
"Son of a bitch," I said and shook my head. "I should have expected this."
"She's really unhappy with you."
"I guess," I said and put the notice down. "Is there anything else?"
"Isn't that enough?" Peter said. "Those two are worth millions of dollars."
I exhaled and held up my hands in surrender. "I don't want her money. I have my own now."
"You could contest this," he said.
"On what grounds?"
"The reason she's disinheriting you is due to estrangement and the fact that you are independently wealthy. All her money will go to Dana and her children."
I shrugged. "I'm good with that. My sister is divorcing her husband and will be a single mother. I'm sure she could use the money. Maybe she can take over as CEO of the foundation when she's able to work again."
"Okay," Peter said. "We won't contest it. Speaking of divorce, have you given thought to a pre-nuptial agreement with Alexa?"
I made a face, not really wanting to have to think about a prenup, but it was essential.
"Draw up whatever you think is reasonable."
"That's really up to you," Peter said. "I can write up a draft and Alexa's attorney can look it over, make any changes. The two of you have to come up with something you both feel is fair."
“Okay,” I said and remembered my previous prenup that had been negotiated with Jenna’s and my lawyers. It hadn’t included the money from Chatter, because we hadn’t done the deal yet. But the basics were all there. “Use the one Jenna and I had but include the money I earned from the sale of Chatter, and of course, remove any reference to my mother’s money. I know Alexa will be embarrassed to be even talking about my money, but we have to deal with it. If something’s drawn up, I’m sure she’ll be only too glad not to have to think about it.”
“Her lawyer will want her to think about it,” Peter said.
“Make it reasonable, so he doesn’t have to. I don’t plan on getting divorced, but if I do, I want it to be fair.”
We finished discussing matters and I said goodbye, glad to have that out of the way. While managing money was my forte, planning for how your money will be distributed due to divorce wasn’t a pleasant thing to do. I preferred thinking of how to spend it on the space program.
I took the limo service to the office, stopping on the way to get a coffee. John was already
there, busy at work looking over technical details of various rockets used by our future competitors.
“How’s it going?” he asked, looking up from the papers in front of him.
“Well, I spent the last hour with Peter talking about being disinherited from my mother’s fortune,” I said sarcastically, “and drawing up a prenup for my upcoming marriage to Alexa. Pleasant things, you know…”
“Lucky you,” he said and smiled, turning back to the papers. “I’m glad I spent the last hour trying to figure out how rockets work so we can better understand the competition.”
“Soooo much easier than relationships,” I said and sat down beside him at the conference table.
He laughed and we spent the rest of the morning hard at work, the cares of the real world forgotten.
Chapter Nineteen
Alexa
Luke sent me a message while I was walking between buildings, going to teach my seminar. It was not at all a good message, and while I had been pretty happy during my morning class, I was now fuming.
LUKE: My mother sent papers to my lawyer advising me that I was no longer in her will and that I should arrange my finances accordingly.
I stopped and sat on a bench in the small green space outside the building, angry that she was such a bitch and sad that I was the cause of this turmoil in Luke’s life.
ALEXA: I’m so sorry…
Luke texted back right away, and while his words made me feel somewhat better, I still felt a weight of guilt on my shoulders.
LUKE: Fuck her. I’ve got over a billion. If I invest it right, I can ensure our future is secure and have more than enough to stake a claim in the space industry. You have to remember that a billion dollars is a thousand million. That’s a lot of lettuce, my grandfather would say.
ALEXA: A lot of lettuce – I like that! It is a lot, when you think of it that way. I never imagined I’d earn a million over ten years, let alone being married to a man with a thousand million.
LUKE: If we invested it right, you and I could live off one-tenth of that and I could spend the rest building rockets to the asteroid belt or Mars.
ALEXA: Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds to a normal person’s ears? Living off the interest of a hundred million dollars?
LUKE: It does sound ridiculous. Maybe ten million dollars? Even at today’s return on investment, that’s still at least a million dollars.
ALEXA: If you and I can’t live off a million dollars a year, we should give up in shame. That’s almost ten times what I expected to earn as a college professor.
LUKE: You’d be surprised how easy it is to spend more and more. I’ll invest a tenth of my fortune for us to live off. The rest is more than enough for my business needs. I know how to raise money for projects.
ALEXA: Good because it sounds outlandishly extravagant to me. I’ve never wanted for anything growing up or even living in Manhattan with Candace, but still. That’s a lot of money.
LUKE: It is. We don’t have to ever worry about it, no matter what my mother does or doesn’t do with her stupid will.
I sighed, sad that Luke’s adoptive mother couldn’t bring herself to accept me. I realized there was nothing I could do, so I had to just forget about her. It wasn’t like Luke planned on being around his parents much, given his feelings towards them.
ALEXA: I better go. I have to read over my notes before my seminar.
LUKE: See you later tonight. We should do something fun. Meet for a drink and plan how we’re going to furnish the apartment.
ALEXA: You pick the time and place and I will be there. Later. OXOX
LUKE: Okay. O’Riley’s at six. Be there or be square. XOXO
I smiled, glad that he was so good natured about the whole business of his mother’s will. Not that I ever thought for a moment that he’d call off the engagement because of it, but still, it made me feel unwanted and rejected. It wasn’t a very nice feeling, even if Luke disliked his adoptive mother.
The rest of my afternoon went smoothly, and I soon forgot about Luke being disinherited, caught up in my seminar with my students discussing the Cold War.
Nuclear build up and tensions were preferable to family matters.
Later that day, I met Luke at O’Riley’s, and we spent happy hour drinking draft beer and eating bar food for snacks. The place was a neighborhood sports bar with multiple screens and several different games being shown. We sat at the bar and glanced around, our discussion moving from one game to another. It was a great way to reduce stress.
“I wanted to bring up something that might be uncomfortable,” Luke said, leaning closer to me, his eyes on mine.
“Okay,” I said. “I’m already uncomfortable, waiting to find out what it is you want to discuss.”
Immediately, I wondered what he meant. Was he having second thoughts about our marriage?
“It’s the prenup,” Luke said. He made a face of pain. “I don’t like to have to have one, but my lawyer insists, and it is normal for someone with my money to have one. I hope you can understand.”
My face reddened. “Oh, God, Luke,” I said and felt my throat constrict. “I’ll sign anything you want. Do whatever you need. I don’t want your money.”
He took my hand and stroked it, then kissed my knuckles. “I’m sorry to have to bring it up. I know you don’t want my money. It’s just one of those things we have to deal with. You need to bring a draft of what Peter draws up to your own lawyer to advise you, but you can be assured it will be standard and fair.”
I sat up straighter. “I’ll sign whatever Peter draws up.”
I couldn’t help but feel insulted, even though I knew it was necessary.
“Don’t feel bad about it,” he said and moved closer to me. He leaned in, his eyes on mine once ore. “I love you. I’d leave you all my personal money if we were married and I died. But if we divorced, I’d have to protect my investments for the business so it could still be used for my purposes.”
“Whatever,” I said, my eyes starting to tear up. I couldn’t help it. I felt like he thought I’d go after his money if we were to divorce.
“Don’t feel bad, Alexa,” he said, his voice emotional. “I know this is sensitive for you, but you shouldn’t take it personally. Anyone with any money has to have a prenup.”
I sighed and glanced away, not wanting Luke to see how emotional I was.
“I know,” I said and took a drink, trying to get my silly feelings back in control. “I know it’s necessary. I just never figured I’d have to be talking about these things.”
“We won’t talk about it again, okay? You find a lawyer and I’ll get Peter to send the documents to them, and we’ll let them hash it out. All I care about, all I ever cared about, is being with you, being happy with you. I could be happy living on The Phoenix for the rest of our lives if it came to that.”
I turned back and looked in Luke’s eyes. I knew he was telling the truth. He saw money only as a means to an end, not a measure of his worth. He could feel that way because he never had to even think about money all his life so to him, it was just a way to do what he wanted. Nothing more and nothing less.
I picked up my glass of beer and held it up. “To our future together.”
He picked up his glass as well. “To us. No more worries about money. Just happiness.”
We clinked our glasses, and each took a drink. Then, Luke leaned closer and kissed me, smiling when he pulled back.
For the rest of the evening, we forgot all about his mother’s will and our prenup, and instead talked about the plans he and John had for their company and how my seminar went, talking about the Cold War building up of nuclear arms.
In other words, the things we really cared about.
Over the next week, our lives were pretty much settling into the new routine of me going on campus and Luke going to the office to work on plans for Astra Investments – the name Luke and John settled on for their new joint venture. There was no more talk about the will or the pren
up, and so we were two happy people, just building our lives together. Mrs. Marshall and her pettiness were soon forgotten while we spent the weekend shopping for our new home. I made sure to take lots of photos of the items we purchased for the apartment so I could have brunch with Candace and show her everything.
“I live vicariously through you, sweets,” she said to me as we flipped through my photos. “What a hard job to have – outfitting an entire new apartment in Manhattan and having an unlimited budget to do it. It’s every girl’s dream.”
“Ha!” I said and flipped through my photos, looking for the patio set Luke and I had picked out for the rooftop patio. “I’m sure every girl has different dreams than that.”
“None that I know. You’re lucky.”
“I am,” I said, and then remembered the will and prenup. “Luke’s attorney is drawing up a prenup for us.”
“Of course, he is,” Candace said. “He’d be stupid not to. You don’t deserve half his fortune just because he married you. Don’t you agree?”
“I do, of course. It’s just embarrassing to be so poor when he’s so rich. I can partly understand why the rich want to marry other rich people. At least they understand what’s at stake and don’t have to worry about things like grifters marrying you for your money, not for love.”
“Luke’s lucky to have you. You’d love him if he was middle class, right?”
“Yes,” I said. “If he was just an engineer or an investment advisor, or even just a yacht club gas pumper, I’d love him. But there’s no question that money is an issue because I have none and he has way too much.”
“Just wait until he starts investing in the space industry. He won’t have so much anymore,” Candace said with a snort. “The space industry is very investment heavy and small on profits. He’ll burn through his fortune in no time. You two will be paupers living off your salary as a college professor soon.”