Those 365 Letters

by Ford, Mia

  After breakfast, I opened up my laptop and began to browse around for anyone who needed some part time help for the summer. I was tempted to go for something full time, but I did want to enjoy some time off on my last summer before college. I knew my parents would appreciate that also.

  I was a bit let down by the lack of options, but it was not all for nothing. I found a used bookstore in town who was needing some part time help. It was a new place that had opened up a few months back. I’d already made a few trips there to buy some cheap paperbacks. Digital books are great, but I’ve always loved the feeling of a nice paperback in my hand. The way the paper is rough on your fingers, the smell of the print and the book binding—it’s nostalgic, especially when it’s used. It is almost as good as a library book where every page shares a detail of the history of the book and the life it has lived, passing from hand to hand throughout the years.

  I applied online and sent in the application to the bookstore. After that I applied to a small grocery store that needed a clerk and a stock person, and then I applied at a local sandwich shop. The only one of these that sounded reasonably interesting was the bookstore. They would all get me out of the house and occupy my time so that I didn’t go crazy, but I didn’t really see anything interesting about fixing sandwiches and cleaning up floors all day.

  I’d just finished applying for those few jobs when my phone rang. My first thought was that one of the managers for these jobs had already reached out to call me. But the moment I grabbed my phone and saw the number I did not recognize, I knew it was Landon.

  I took a deep breath and waited. My first impulse was to pick up the phone immediately and start talking, but I resisted it with everything I had. No. I had to appear busy, confident. He couldn’t think that I’d sat around all morning bored out of my mind waiting on his phone call. What kind of an impression would that give to him? No. I had to be cool.

  I took another deep breath and answered the phone in my most stressed out voice.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, Cora,” Landon said. “It’s Landon.”

  I waited a moment as if I was trying to register in my head who exactly ‘Landon’ was. I was a very busy woman after all.

  “Oh,” I said. “Hi, Landon.”

  “Did I catch you at a bad time?”

  “Um…no,” I played. “I have a few minutes. What’s up?”

  “Well, I was hoping that I would get ahold of you,” Landon said. “What are your plans like Friday night?”

  I paused. “I don’t know. I believe there was some talk with a few friends about going somewhere, but as of right now there isn’t anything concrete.”

  “Great,” Landon said. “I’d love to take you out to dinner, if you are interested.”

  “Dinner? Sure. That sounds great,” I said. I cringed that I used the word ‘great’. Should I not have done that? Was it too desperate? Damn.

  “Good,” Landon said. “I was thinking I might take you out to Danwan. It’s a new French restaurant just outside of Cincinnati. Have you heard of it?”

  The City? Wow. I hadn’t been to the city in a while. It was only about a forty-five-minute drive, but when you lived in a small town it was easy to get annoyed by the congestion of a large city.

  “I’ve heard of it,” I said. “That sounds like fun. You are going to behave yourself, right?” I flirted.

  Wow… what was it about talking to him that turned me into some femme fatale? I felt like I was Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct.

  Landon laughed. “Oh, I think I’ll manage it somehow, but it will be very difficult.”

  “Good,” I said. “Pick me up at seven.”

  I gave him my address.

  “Will do,” Landon said.

  “Bye,” I replied before ending the call.

  I stood there in my parents’ kitchen clutching my phone for several seconds just trying to get over what had just happened. It was official. I was about to go out on a date with a sexy billionaire.

  After I gained my bearings, I dialed Miley and told her what happened. I almost didn’t get the phone away from my head fast enough before her scream of total joy and excitement rang through the speaker. I held the phone away from my ear and shook my head.

  I wondered if anyone around her was startled by it.

  “I am so happy!” Miley said.

  “Really? I can’t tell.”

  “You have to tell me all the details about what you guys do and where you go. Girl, I want to know it all!”

  “Ok, but it’s just a dinner date. We will most likely just talk and see if there is any real chemistry between us.”

  “That is so boring,” Miley said. “You have to wear your sexiest dress. Do you have a sexiest dress?”

  I tried to think. “Um, I have a few I think.”

  “No, you don’t. I’ve seen all your dresses. They might be sexy for guys our age, but not for mature billionaires.”

  “I think you are blowing this way out of proportion,” I said. “I have some nice things. I’ll be fine.”

  “No. I refuse to take no for an answer. We have to go shopping, like right now.”

  “I don’t like shopping,” I said. “You know this.”

  “Well, I do. And this is the perfect excuse.”

  I knew that Miley was not going to give up on this and she would practically drag me out of the house by the hair of my head if I bothered to resist. And her enthusiasm was contagious. The more she went on about how amazing and unprecedented this was the more excited I became about it.

  So we went shopping.

  “You are going to look so hot!” Miley said as we left the store. I hadn’t gone seriously dress shopping since senior Prom. But now that I had a killer dress to wear on my date the next night I began feeling even more positive about it. I’ve never been the type of girl who spends much time worrying about the right clothes, or having my hair done special, and I hardly wear much makeup. I’m a very casual type of girl, but after we were in the store a bit and I was trying on some dresses, I started to get really into it. I was feeling so sexy. It was amazing how the right dress can make you feel like you are the Queen of the world. By the time we left I was walking on air.

  “I really wish I was going on the date with you,” Miley said as we piled back in her car. She’d come straight from work and she still smelled like animals, which permeated the entire car. I was going to have to take a shower when I got home. I knew I already smelled like wet dog.

  “That is not happening,” I laughed. “What does that mean? That is a weird thing to say.”

  “You know what I mean. I wish that you were like on a reality show and I could just watch it.”

  “That is weird.”

  “No, maybe we are onto something. What if we film this and put it on a streaming video channel? It could be a new thing. Your date with a billionaire. That would be a gold show!”

  “You are delusional,” I said. But as I thought about it, the idea was not horrible. It was almost something that I might have found scrolling through television late at night.

  “So, what are you going to do after dinner?” Miley asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  “Well, let me put it to you another way. What are you prepared to do after dinner?”

  I gave her an inquisitive look. Was she really asking me what it sounded like she was asking me?

  “I don’t know,” I said. “You’ve got to get a grip on yourself. This is just another date. It will probably not be that great. It most likely won’t lead to anything. You need to relax with all that and stop getting all worked up over it. I can’t believe you talked me into spending money on this dress. I have plenty of great dresses to wear.”

  “You do not. And this is different. If you treat this as a normal, run of the mill date with like some guy who works at the power plant or something, then it is going to go horribly. Mark my words.”

  When I got home I ate dinner with my parents and then went
up to my room to read for a bit. I tried to keep my mind off the date, but Miley’s words were swirling around in my head. She was so good at putting ideas in there. It was a gift she had. I was tempted to tell her to give up veterinarian medicine and to go into high pressure sales instead. She’d probably make a bundle.

  I pulled the dress I’d bought from my closet and tried not to think about the excessive price tag. I felt like I was determined to blow through all of my savings this summer. Luckily, my parents were being nice enough to pay for all of my textbooks this semester.

  I held the dress up to me and took a close look at myself in the mirror. It was beautiful. Miley was right. This dress was going to knock Landon’s socks off. And maybe other things would come off as well.

  I felt a blush coming on and I laughed to myself. What would it be like to make love to a billionaire? I felt instantly stupid for fantasizing about the question. It was the type of thing that Miley would wonder about. But wasn’t it normal? I was getting the type of opportunity that most women never got, especially in the town I lived in. I was going to be sitting across at dinner with one of the most eligible bachelors in the country. His father was a billionaire entrepreneur, and he had recently taken over the company. I’d read a bit about him and what I’d uncovered was very interesting. Landon worked hard. He was talented. He was one of the smartest men I’d ever met, and yet he had this down to earth quality that did not make him seem like he was any different than anyone else. I found the combination irresistible.

  I just hoped I was able to resist it on our date. The idea was starting to make me very nervous.

  A knock came at the door just then. Before I could say, “Come in”, my mother was already entering.

  “Mom. What did I tell you about knocking?” I demanded.

  She looked at me sheepishly. “I did knock.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Knocking and then entering without waiting for a response is pointless and rude.”

  “Oh, sorry,” my mother said.

  I groaned to myself about forgetting to lock my door again.

  My mother stopped when she saw me with the dress.

  “Wow,” she said. “That is beautiful. What’s the big occasion?”

  I shrugged. “Oh, nothing.”

  “Surely, it has to be something. Come on, tell me.”

  “Mom, was there something you wanted?” I asked a bit annoyed. My mother often had a hard time taking a hint. It might have been understandable when I was younger, but I was an adult now.

  “I was wondering if you wanted to join me and your father for a few rounds of crazy eights. You know, you used to love playing that game after dinner.”

  “No, I’m kind of tired,” I said. “I’m going to bed in a moment.”

  “OK,” she said. She headed for the door and then stopped to turn back towards me. I braced myself. I could feel some sort of a lecture coming at me.

  “You know,” My mother said. “I don’t want to get all into your personal life, but you should be a bit more open. Then maybe I wouldn’t try so hard. Seriously, what is that dress for? It must have cost you a lot of money.”

  I groaned. “Mom, I have a date tomorrow. It might be kind of special; that’s it.”

  “Really? With who?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said. “It’s a first date and it may not go anywhere. I’m going to bed.”

  “Alright, but I wish you wouldn’t shut me out of your life this way.”

  “I’m not trying to do that, mom,” I said. How did my mother always know exactly how to make me feel so guilty? She’d always had that power and lorded it over me ever since I was a little girl.

  She closed the door behind her. I now felt like a horrible daughter. It had been hard for my mother the past year or so. I was a grown up, officially an adult. Yet, in so many ways I still had to live like a child. That was part of the appeal of going away to school. I’d realized this, years before, and it was part of the reason my parents wanted me to go to a school closer to them.

  Living under their roof made me feel like I was still a kid in so many ways. I hated it. I love my family. I’ve always had a close relationship with them and I’ve always known how lucky I am to have such amazing parents, but at the age of eighteen when you are trying to break free and establish your own life, it is so hard to do when you feel like those same parents are holding you back.

  I put the dress away and then looked at myself in my full length mirror. I looked so much younger than Landon. He was a man of the world, even if he was only six years older than me. It felt like twenty.

  As I laid down and tried to drift off to sleep, I couldn’t help wondering how far things would go on our date, and if I wanted them to. But the conclusion was an easy one to come to—I did want it to. I wanted Landon. I didn’t know him well, but I felt this strong connection on a physical, an intellectual, and an almost spiritual level. I couldn’t explain it, but I knew that I belonged with him.

  It was an odd thing to admit to myself, but my last thoughts before the world went dark and I fell deep into slumber were of how good it would feel to make love to Landon Glatt.

  Chapter 8

  Landon

  I’d spent the day in a fog. From the moment I woke up I’d had thoughts of Cora in my mind. What was this girl doing to me? I could not get her out of my head and when I spoke to her I always ended up feeling like I was in the presence of someone so much more sophisticated than I was, like she could see through me. I felt transparent.

  She was like a drug. I could not get enough of her. And so far all we’d done is talk. I jumped out of bed after a fairly sleepless night and hurried into the gym to get a quick workout. I spent the better part of the next ninety minutes doing cardio, intervals, and the heavy weights. Afterwards I felt a bit more relaxed and primed for my day.

  But my mind was still racing with thoughts about how I was going to get through the next eight hours before I would leave to pick up Cora for our date. I’d already done the prep work. We had reservations at one of my favorite five star restaurants and they would have a bottle of their best champagne waiting at the table for us. I’d paid extra to get the most private and romantic seat in the house, and the musicians would be playing just close enough to us to be as romantic as possible without being stuffy or cumbersome.

  Now, I just had to get my head ready.

  I’d never been so nervous to go out with a woman. It didn’t make sense. I’ve always been considered attractive and of course my looks combined with my status and wealth has always made me a great catch with women, but I’ve always eschewed all that. I loved it when a woman has no idea who I am, when I can pretend to just be some random guy. That way, it is all about me. I’d enjoyed that in college for most of the first semester, but then word began to get around. And after that I wasn’t sure how many of the women I met were only after me for obvious reasons, or if they actually thought I was interesting.

  Right then, it was tough to tell exactly where Cora stood. The first time we’d met she obviously did not know who I was and she’d given me a bit of the cold shoulder, thought she’d done it with such style, grace, and charming sex appeal that I knew I had to meet her again.

  And then at the restaurant where we ran into each other (which I now understood to be a carefully coordinated effort between my friends Britney and Joanie) Cora was quite a bit more receptive. It might have been that she just took time to warm up to me, or was it that she now knew who I was and that was intriguing to her.

  “Stop it,” I said to myself as I drove to the office. I was doing it again. I’ve always had a habit of psyching myself out of possible relationships. I was just going to go out with Cora and have a great time to see what happened. That was all. There was no reason to be nervous. It would be easier if I just took the expectations off the table.

  So, I did. By about mid-morning I was feeling much more relaxed. I breezed through the rest of the day and got a lot of work accomplished. And I did all of t
his while still fending off the sexual innuendos and advances of my secretary. If I didn’t have a great evening lined up with another woman, it might have worn me down. I am a man and I have needs, after all. There was only so much of that I could take.

  But, it wasn’t going to be that day. I had a very special lady waiting for me.

  I left the office on time and drove to Cora’s to pick her up. She lived in a nice, two story house, in a pleasant neighborhood. I believed she still lived with her parents and I was going to come inside to introduce myself, but as I stepped out of my car Cora came walking down the walkway from her porch quickly.

  My eyes almost fell out of my head. She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Cora was wearing a sleek, sexy, black dress that fit her curvaceous form perfectly. She had just the right amount of cleavage showing, her hips were being hugged in the perfect way to accentuate her curves, and her long, sexy legs were on full display as well.

  I almost couldn’t speak when she walked past me to the car.

  “Let’s go,” Cora said quickly.

  I was a bit confused. I figured I’d come to her door and do the proper gentleman thing, but she had other ideas.

  “Why didn’t you want me to meet your folks?” I asked as we drove down the freeway a few moments later.

  Cora looked over at me with that beautiful smile and gave me a slight shrug. “Do you normally meet the parents of women you go out with on the first date?”

  “I guess you have a point,” I said.

  I wondered if it embarrassed her that she lived at home still. I didn’t think it should.

  “Do you make it to the city very often?” I asked.

  “No,” Cora replied running her hand through her hair. “I imagine you are running around the city all day. Isn’t that commute a bit of a bear?”