by Bella Grant
The thought hadn’t crossed Ava’s mind because she’d never had the money to travel anywhere. She’d never even been on a plane. Suddenly, a whole world of possibility opened up in front of her. “Soon, I hope,” she replied, her mind swirling with the possibility. “I do get two weeks of vacation. Let’s plan something!”
“Deal,” Mateo agreed, and Ava could hear a clock chiming in the background. “Sorry, I’ve got to run. My Civil Procedure class is about to start. Keep killing, girl! I’m so proud of you.”
For the remainder of the day, all Ava could concentrate on was the possibility of visiting Mateo. She had never been to Boston, or Cambridge, or wherever Harvard was. She daydreamed of the green trees and the old brick buildings, the North Church and Paul Revere. Mostly, she daydreamed about spending time with Mateo, talking and laughing, and catching up on everything they were doing with their lives.
Ava’s biggest fear since he’d left was that their lives would inevitably diverge, and without daily interactions to keep them connected, there wouldn’t be anything to tie them together. Mateo would be a big-shot lawyer. Recently, Ava could see her own future, one that had started to materialize in the time they’d been apart. She was going to be a manager. After working entry level jobs for years, things were starting to change for her. That was their reality. Before he left, he told her nothing would ever separate them, that she was his family, and she wanted to believe him. But life had a way of pulling people apart. Maybe her newfound financial freedom would allow her to stay connected to him.
When it was time to close the café, Ava felt her daily sense of dread creep up on her. She hated going home at night. Each day was filled with a frenzy of activity, and each morning promised something new and exciting, but when night fell, she had to return to her empty apartment, half-furnished and full of the ghost of Mateo.
By the time she fell asleep each night, she felt the crushing weight of his absence, and her last thought before slumber took her away was that she desperately needed to get out of the apartment. As she swept up the coffee grounds behind the counter and counted the money in the till, she braced herself for a long, wretched night alone. It will be easier when you move, she reminded herself. This isn’t forever.
Still, she couldn’t afford to move right now, despite the comfortable padding in her bank account. She hoped this job would last a while, but she had learned long ago not to put her faith in anyone or anything but herself and Mateo. Now was the time to squirrel away her money, to save it for a time when she wasn’t so lucky. As tempting as it might be to plunk down the first and last month’s rent on a new apartment, her pragmatism won out. When there was nothing left to do at work, Ava locked the café door behind her and trudged home to her dark, empty apartment, where she ate a box of macaroni and cheese standing over the sink, and went to bed.
It was still dark out when the room echoed with a clang, jolting Ava from a deep sleep. She shot up in bed, confused and bleary-eyed, trying to orient herself and figure out what was going on. Bang! The noise persisted, and she jumped out of bed to inspect the noise coming from her bathroom. As her bare feet touched the carpet, she felt a squelching between her toes. The carpet was soaked and the room was still dark, the sun barely over the horizon. She flipped the light switch for the overhead and looked around, panicked.
Ava tiptoed through the water-logged carpet to the bathroom, where the banging seemed to originate. The linoleum was pooled with water, and she heard a drip, drip, drip coming from the sink. She opened the cabinet but saw nothing. The water seemed to pool from under the linoleum, squeezing up around the bathroom fixtures and soaking the entire floor.
“Fuck!” she moaned in dismay. Unable to identify the source of the leak, Ava yanked her towels off the hook on her bathroom wall and laid them on the floor in an ineffective attempt to stem the flooding. Out of options, she sat down on the edge of her bathtub and sobbed.
By the time her landlord answered her frantic phone calls, the apartment was destroyed. Her mattress, which was situated directly on the floor, was soaked through. Her books and records piled in neat stacks on the carpet were sopping wet. She managed to save a few, stacking them on the kitchen counter, but most had soaked through by the time she got to them. Her hamper full of clothes was water-logged. Even the shoes she needed to wear to work were drenched. Most of Ava’s possessions were ruined. And now she was thirty minutes late for work.
She shoved her feet into the wet shoes and ran the six blocks to work. By the time she arrived, her feet were blistered from the wet material rubbing against them, and they still made a loud squeaking noise when she walked. Her cheeks were red from the exertion and her hair was piled in a sweaty knot on top of her head. Despite her possessions being destroyed and her home in shambles, the thing that bothered her most was she was late for work.
Although she paused briefly outside the door, trying to compose herself, the moment she walked in the café she saw Carter look at her, alarmed. She tried to slip behind the counter unnoticed, but that plan failed as her shoes squelched loudly on the dark hardwood floors.
“Ava, will you come up to my office for a moment?” Carter asked quietly across the counter. He led the way up to his office, reaching out to catch Ava’s hand when her wet shoes slipped on the polished iron staircase. “Whoa, careful,” he said, making sure she had her balance. Once inside, he closed his office door and pointed to a chair. “Have a seat. What’s going on?”
Ava remained standing uncomfortably in front of his desk. She tried to compose herself and find the words to describe the disaster that her morning had been, but as soon as she started to speak, her voice broke and she sobbed into her hands, tears falling on her already wet shoes.
“Hey, easy, what’s going on?” Carter asked, his voice soft and full of concern. “Deep breaths. Tell me what happened.”
“My apartment flooded this morning,” Ava said, inhaling deeply and trying to smooth the tremors in her voice. “All of my stuff got soaked. It’s ruined. And the landlord isn’t doing a damned thing about it. He said I should have bought renter’s insurance. And I have no idea when he’s going to fix it. My floor is a swamp. My shoes are soaked… And I was late this morning.” She trailed off.
“Ava, I’m so sorry,” Carter replied quietly. He stood up and closed the distance between them. After hesitating a moment, he extended his arms and pulled her into a hug. His hand felt warm against her skin, and she noticed for the first time that her damp clothes were quite cold in the air-conditioned café. She shivered and relaxed into his embrace. Unlike the other night, his arms wrapped around her felt like exactly what she needed, and she rested her head on his shoulder as he rubbed her back.
“It’s going to be okay,” he whispered soothingly. “You’re going to be fine. We can fix this.”
Ava pulled back and looked at him with despair. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she admitted at last. “I have to move out, but I’ll never be able to find a decent, affordable place on such short notice. I had a plan, and this accident has destroyed it.”
“Let me help you,” Carter urged.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, whatever you need,” he answered. “If you need a reference, I can provide one. If you need a realtor, I can put you in touch with a good agent.”
“I can’t afford a realtor,” Ava said, resisting the urge to scoff. He was offering his help and being incredibly generous, but her life was quite different from that of a millionaire. “I’m going to have to get a roommate,” she said miserably.
“Not necessarily,” Carter replied. “Have you given any thought to my offer?”
“What offer?” Ava asked, surprised. He had mentioned renting to her weeks ago, but she’d assumed it was a joke and hadn’t given it much thought after that night.
“You could live in my guesthouse,” he replied sincerely. “I’d let you live there for free, but something tells me you’d be more comfortable with a formal contract.”
His words took her by surprise and she looked at him unblinking. “Are you serious?”
“Of course,” he nodded. “I was serious the first time, too, although I expect you thought I was joking. I have an enormous guesthouse on my property, and I hate that it’s a wasted space. Renting it to you would give it purpose. I can have my realtor draw up a lease, if you’d like. What do you say to four hundred dollars a month?”
“I think that sounds like a dream,” Ava said. “Which makes it hard to believe.”
Carter pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contact. “It’s not a dream.” He smiled, placing the phone to his ear. “Alex, hi,” he said in his professional voice that always made Ava feel a little awestruck. “I need you to do me a favor. Will you draw up a lease agreement for my guest house? I’m renting it to my employee.” Carter smiled at her as he spoke. “Yeah, Ava. Can you have it to me by the end of the day? Great! Thanks a lot, man. Take care.”
“Why did you say ‘Yeah, Ava?’” she asked when he put his phone back in his pocket. “Did he already know my name?”
Carter looked a little flustered. “I actually started the contract process two weeks ago, the first time I offered,” he admitted. “I had already spoken to Alex, my realtor, about drafting a lease.” He smiled at her sheepishly, and Ava felt a calming warmth flood through her body.
Chapter 11
Carter
With Ava in his arms, Carter felt as if his world was suddenly full. He hadn’t realized how badly he wanted to touch her until that moment, with her small body pressed tightly against his and her head resting on his chest while he stroked her hair. In the past days and weeks, he had tried to convince himself the things he felt for her were entirely sexual. Now, as he ran his fingers over her back, he knew that was bullshit. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, Ava was more than a conquest.
The sensation of pleasure that pulsed through him when she agreed to rent his guest house was intense. He tried to contain himself but inside, he felt like a kid stumbling down the stairs on Christmas morning, confronted by a mountain of presents with all the mysteries still intact. He wasn’t sure what to expect from her living so close to him, but the thought of it was enticing and he was eager to tear into that mystery.
“I can send a moving truck for your things,” he offered helpfully, breaking the stillness that had settled comfortably on them. There was an unspoken intimacy to this moment, and for the first time in his life, Carter wasn’t talking simply to stave off the awkwardness of silence.
“That’s not necessary,” Ava said politely. She cleared her throat and added, “I honestly don’t have that much stuff. After the water damage, I think most of my stuff is trash, anyway.”
“Let me come help you, then,” Carter insisted. Her body stiffened a little and her eyes darted to the floor. He wondered briefly if she was embarrassed to show him where she lived, but he didn’t care. She shouldn’t feel that way about her life, and he certainly wasn’t going to judge her. In fact, it would be good for them to work through this together.
“I’m not taking no for an answer,” he added. “In fact, I’m going to put Danielle in charge for the afternoon, and we’re going to deal with this right now. You’re not spending another night there. Agreed?”
Ava looked at him, and he saw in her countenance a submission that made his heart quicken. She was gradually becoming his, bending to the gentle pressure he placed on her. He wondered, sometimes, if he was wrong to try to control people, if it was some sick personality trait he should be working to overcome, but the reality of this situation was that Ava was in a bad spot and his primary desire was to help her. By exercising his dominance over her, he would help her become a stronger, more functional person. It just happened that the first step in the process was getting her to submit to his desires.
Carter noticed that her shoes were still squeaking when they left his office. He stopped briefly by the espresso bar to tell Danielle they were leaving for the day and she was in charge. Then he placed his hand on the small of Ava’s back and guided her out the door to where his car was parked.
He opened the passenger door of his Mercedes and watched as Ava hesitated to get in until he gave her a little nod with his head. He guessed that she had never been in a car like his before, or that perhaps this was the first time in her life anyone had ever opened a car door for her. The thought intrigued him as he walked around to the driver’s side and climbed in, wondering what other things he would enjoy exposing her to.
“Where do you live?” he asked.
“14 North Maplewood,” she replied and tucked her hands under her legs. She seemed so small and frail to him, and Carter had to force himself to turn back towards the road instead of watching her.
When they arrived at her apartment, Ava looked at him shyly, and the look on her face suggested to Carter that she was pleading with him not to come into her apartment. He ignored it, determined to break down the barriers she tried to erect. Her life should not be an embarrassment, no matter what her home looked like, and she needed to understand he didn’t give a shit about her situation in life. He was here to help her, not judge her.
Inside the apartment was damp and musty. The water was shut off but the floor was still soaking wet, and Carter could tell at first glance that most of the things she owned had been ruined. He made a mental note of the personal items destroyed so his assistant could replace them for her.
“Gather whatever you want to bring with you now, and I’ll send a crew in to take care of the rest,” he instructed her. “Right now, just grab some clothes and your toiletries. The rest can be replaced.”
While Ava was in the bathroom, gathering her cosmetics, Carter took a quick look in her closet to make a note of her sizes.
Hi Kim, he texted his assistant. I need you to do me a favor and pick up clothes to fully stock a closet in size 2. I need shoes in six and a half. Get a mix of dressy and casual. Sleep and loungewear, too. Everything. I need it in the next three hours, please.
A moment later, his phone buzzed. Got it. I’ll have them in the closet by 2 p.m.
How his assistant was capable of pulling off a feat like this was beyond him. He suspected she had a network of agents working for her, contacts in every store, and all she had to do was drop his name—or at least his credit card—for them to scramble. There was no way he could do her job, and he was infinitely grateful for her service. He wanted Ava to arrive at her new home to find a fully stocked closet befitting a girl as beautiful as she was. Since most of her clothes had been ruined by the water leak, he hoped this would eliminate the stress of replacing them.
When Ava had packed her few salvageable possessions, Carter helped her carry her things downstairs. “You don’t have a car, do you?” he asked, looking around curiously.
“No,” she admitted. “My old car died a year ago, and I haven’t been able to replace it yet. I had planned on saving up for one…Do you mind if I put my stuff in yours?” She looked self-consciously at the haphazard pile of clothes and bags she had scrambled together.
“Of course not,” he answered, popping the trunk and helping her load them inside. “But there is one place I want to stop before we go to my house.” As he said the words my house it occurred to him it would soon be our house, and the thought made him feel buoyant in a way he never had before.
The sun was setting behind the hills when they arrived, and the lights automatically came on. “Everything’s on a timer.” Carter laughed, watching Ava flip the switch on the wall to no effect. Looking at his watch he said, “Give it about five minutes. You shouldn’t ever have to turn on a light here. It might take some getting used to—it did for me.” Ava nodded silently, her eyes wide as she looked at her new surroundings. “This way.”
He led her around the main house and down a thick, jungle-like stone pathway to the guesthouse and the pool. “Leave your stuff,” he told her when she looked back at his car in the driveway. “I’ll have someo
ne bring it to you.”
When they approached the pool, Carter noticed the waterfall was flowing. His assistant must have turned it on, and he made a mental note to thank her since it was one of the most beautiful parts of the property. He hit the door code on the guesthouse and unlocked it, turning off the alarm. Inside, the recessed lighting made the hardwood and the Carrera marble sparkle, and he smiled when he saw the enormous bouquet of pink roses on the counter. He needed to give his assistant a raise. She was too good to lose.
He turned to Ava to gauge her reaction and felt his heart beat a little faster at the expression on her face. Her eyes were filled with tears and her chin trembled as she looked around, absorbing the space. “Do you like it?” he asked quietly.
She turned her sights on him and stared, unblinking, for several seconds. “I don’t know what to say,” she replied, wiping away a rogue tear that slipped down her cheek.
“Say you like it,” he whispered.
“This is the most beautiful room I’ve ever been in,” she said truthfully. “I… I don’t belong here, Carter.”
“You do,” he said firmly. “Don’t ever say that again. There isn’t a single place you don’t belong, and I don’t ever want to hear you say that again.” Ava nodded silently. “I asked my assistant to pick some things up for you,” he mentioned off-handedly. “I hope that’s okay. I wanted to make sure you have plenty of clothes since yours were water-damaged. The closet should be fully stocked, as well as the pantry and fridge,” he said, nodding to the refrigerator. “It’s all yours. Everything in here. Don’t hesitate for a second.”
“Um, where is the fridge?” she asked, looking around with a confused look.
“Sorry,” Carter said with a little chuckle. “Another design feature the architect insisted on. It’s over here.” He pulled on a wood panel and enjoyed the startled look on Ava’s face when he pulled open a refrigerator door. “Well, I’ll get out of your hair now,” he said, writing down some numbers on a pad of paper. “These are the codes to the property. I’ll leave the main house unlocked, and you’re always welcome to come over. It’s a big place, and honestly, I get lonely here. It’s nice to have another person around.” He felt more open and vulnerable than he’d intended, perhaps more than he’d ever felt. Clearing his throat, he turned hastily and exited the guesthouse into the rosy twilight.