The Choice

by Alice Ward

  “Good, good.” She sighed lightly and rested her hands on her hips. “Thanks for coming on a Saturday. Amy is busy getting the last minute stuff together for her wedding, so she’s gone until tomorrow. Until then it’s just me.”

  “Oh, no worries. It’s my pleasure. I can even stay longer today if you want me to. I have nothing going on.”

  She bit her bottom lip, her eyebrows bunching together. “Let’s see... it seems to me I had something... hmm...” She ran her thumb over her lip, thinking hard. “There was something I had planned for you to do, but now I just don’t remember it. Oh well.” She threw her hands up in defeat.

  “I can help clean,” I suggested. “Or take some kids to the park. You know, whatever you need.”

  She smiled. “Oh, that’s all right. I don’t think any of them will want to leave. One of their favorite visitors is here. He’s out back playing with them.”

  I cocked my head. “Really?”

  “Mm-hmm. Cristiano Leventis.”

  My heart flipped. “The Cristiano Leventis?”

  “You’ve heard of him?”

  I slowly nodded. “He was on the local news last month. I don’t remember which station, but he was in this segment about up and coming Chicago entrepreneurs.”

  “I saw that!” she exclaimed, then wiggled her eyebrows. “He looked so good.”

  Yes, he did. So good, in fact, that the sight of his face had bestowed me with my first real insta-crush in years. I hadn’t gone so ga-ga for a guy I didn’t know since fourth grade and N’Sync’s first album cover. His raven black hair, olive toned skin and sparkling amber eyes had practically melted me to the couch cushion.

  I swallowed hard. “C-cool.” So that was what Jenny had been trying to spit out. Cristiano was there, in the flesh.

  Teresa smiled even wider. “Why don’t you go out and play with them? He’s a really wonderful young man.” She winked at me. “He’s single too... as far as I know.”

  I nodded, blushed, and squirmed all at the same time, suddenly feeling put on the spot. Could Teresa read the effect the mention of Cristiano’s name had on me? “All right,” I said with a thick tongue.

  Stay professional, I told myself. This isn’t about you getting kicks from the attention of some semi-famous hot guy.

  Still slightly nervous, I crept my way into the back yard. Ten or so of the kids were in the shady part of the fenced-in yard, Jenny among them. The smaller ones ran around shrieking, not seeming to be playing any game that I could detect. A couple of the older children yelled after them, telling them to pay attention so they could hear the rules of the game.

  And there was Cristiano, every inch the man I’d seen on the television screen, and yet so much more. Technology didn’t do him justice, didn’t capture the way he shone, the way he seemed to command not only the attention of those near him but the very elements of nature itself.

  I stayed planted on the porch, watching the scene unfold. Compared to the children, Cristiano looked out of place in the yard, running around in dress pants and a blue button-up shirt. He clapped his hands and called to one of the kids, a grin on his face.

  Without any warning, his head turned, and those tiger eyes fell right on mine.

  Everything got hazy, and my stomach twisted into a tornado of butterflies. Cristiano’s smile flickered and dimmed a bit, his eyes gazing questioningly at me. After a few seconds, the smile picked back up, turning into an all-out ear to ear grin. I smiled back, the assurance coming from him making me less nervous.

  “Hey!” one of the boys, whose name I couldn’t remember, called to me. “Come play!”

  I dumbly nodded in his direction and ambled down the steps, all too aware of Cristiano’s eyes on me the whole way. I stopped at the corner of the group. “So, what’s up, guys?”

  The noise picked up, everyone talking at once. I bit my lip and waited. Various kids shouted out their demands for games, while others argued that they wanted to stick with Red Rover.

  Cristiano spoke up, his voice smooth and low. “Those who want to play Red Rover come over here. If there are enough people, then we’ll play it, and the rest of you guys can go do something else. We’ll play whatever game you want next.” He raised his hand, but no one came over.

  “Red Rover, Red Rover,” Cristiano lightly sang. “Is no one coming over?”

  Apparently, the kids who initially wanted to play the game had changed their minds. They were all dispersing, running off to play soccer or climb on the wooden playground set.

  After a few seconds, it was only Jenny, me, and Cristiano.

  I laughed. “Sorry.”

  He grinned at me over Jenny’s head. “It happens.”

  A shiver went down my back. That voice... hearing it directed at me was like being doused in warm honey. Never before had I heard a voice so smooth and comforting. Surely it was a crime for a man to be in possession of such delicious tones and timbres. How could women be expected to properly function around him?

  Hell, maybe they didn’t. Maybe most of them lasted a few seconds before tumbling to the ground, their entire nervous systems malfunctioning from overload.

  “I want to watch the bunny show,” Jenny announced.

  Cristiano patted her head. “You’ll have to ask Teresa, Jenny. I don’t know if it’s TV time right now, and I’m not the one who makes the rules.”

  “Oh, yeah,” she agreed. “It’s not TV time. Hey Cris-oh, this is my friend Blaire. She has blon... um, blonde hair and likes mermaids too.”

  Her small hand pushed its way into my palm. I squeezed it lightly and smiled down at her.

  “Actually,” I corrected Jenny and poked her in the belly. “I love mermaids.”

  She giggled. “Yeah, me too.”

  When I looked up, Cristiano’s eyes were on me. “Nice to meet you, Blaire.”

  “You too,” I volleyed back. “So do you, uh, come here a lot?”

  He nodded. “Yes. But I’ve never seen you.”

  “This is only my third time here.”

  “You already seem to be well loved.”

  Jenny giggled. “That means married. Love means you’re married.”

  I laughed along with her. The kid was non-stop with the giggles. “Not always. You can love anyone, not just people you’re married to. There are all kinds of love. More than we could probably ever count, actually.”

  “Oh,” she said, looking solemn. “Yeah. Teresa loves me.”

  “Exactly,” I agreed.

  “I’m going to see if she’ll let me watch TV.”

  “Tell her you love her first,” Cristiano suggested, with a wink in her direction. “That might help your cause.”

  “Okay!”

  Jenny ran into the house, leaving us behind.

  I cleared my throat and glanced around the yard, seeing if any of the children might need my attention. Presently, they were all good, deeply involved in games with each other.

  “Looks like we’re not needed,” Cristiano said, echoing my thoughts.

  I nodded. “Oh well.”

  “Why here?”

  I blinked and glanced at him. A thick wave of hair fell over his right eye to gleam in the late morning light. It reminded me a bit of Derek, and yet not at all. Though I’d only just met the man in front of me, I already knew he and Derek had next to nothing in common. It was a deep sense in my gut that informed me that no one on the planet was quite like Cristiano Leventis.

  “Um, sorry?” I shook my head, feeling stupid for having already forgotten his question.

  “Why did you decide to volunteer here?” he asked again, not seeming to be annoyed by my stupidity. “I’m merely curious. We have volunteers come through here, of course, but they usually pick the orphanage through some kind of program, such as a church or school.”

  “Oh! Right... I’ve worked with kids before, and I kind of miss it, so that’s basically what brought me here.”

  He stepped an inch closer, focusing on me as if I was the most impo
rtant person in the world to him right then. “Where did you work with children before?”

  “When I was in high school, my mom and I would go to the homeless shelter in our neighborhood. She worked at the daycare there once a week, so I just kind of tagged along.”

  “Your mother is already an impressive woman, and I’ve never met her.”

  I smirked. “Just because of that?”

  “Yes.” His head tilted slightly to the side, giving him a boyish look. “Making the time to care for others isn’t something that most people do. We’re all too... busy with our lives.” He looked across the yard at the children playing. “Busy with ourselves,” he added, as if an afterthought.

  “What about you?” I asked, not eager to keep talking about myself. “What brought you here?”

  Cristiano blinked and looked down at the grass near his polished dress shoes. “A long and winding path.”

  The tone he used told me it was a touchy subject. I shut my mouth, my mind racing for the next conversation piece.

  Cristiano was already going on though. “Jenny seems to like you.”

  “She seems to like you.”

  He smiled. “She probably likes everyone. So... Blaire. May I ask more about you?”

  I bit back a smile. He was so polite and formal. Was it forced, crafted, or just the way he naturally was?

  I glanced toward the house. No Teresa. No kids in need. Nothing to do.

  “Of course,” I answered.

  He looked at me with what seemed to be genuine interest. “What do you do?”

  “I... I’m kind of in between jobs right now.”

  “I see. So that’s why you decided to come here?”

  “Uh... no. It doesn’t really have anything to do with that. I still plan on volunteering here even after I get a job.”

  My response clearly pleased him. “Now I like your mother even more. She raised quite a woman. What would you like to do?”

  “I’m figuring it out, actually,” I said, knowing how lame that sounded. “I’m still trying to figure out just what I want to do, and what I’d be best at.”

  He nodded, looking at me as if I was some puzzle he hadn’t quite solved. “It can take a while.”

  “For me it has. What about you? Have you figured it out?”

  He laughed, the deep timbre of the sound going straight to my belly. “Not at all. But there’s time... for both you and me.”

  I lifted a fist and smiled when he bumped it. “Here’s hoping.”

  “I’m in the stock market,” he added, shoving his hands in his pockets.

  “Oh.” I nodded, wondering just what that meant. Did he buy and sell stocks? Advise others on buying and selling?

  “I like your outfit,” he commented, his eyes moving down to my toes. “Very retro.”

  I looked down at my hands, at the thick bracelets around one wrist. “Thanks. Almost all my clothes are vintage. It’s something I kind of got into over the last year.”

  “I’ll have to keep coming back here, so I can see the rest of your wardrobe.”

  I grinned up at him. “And what about you? Do you always dress so nice?”

  His amber eyes twinkled. “Only on my best days. Although I have to tell you, I can be a lot of fun once the suit comes off.”

  I caught myself one millisecond before imagining him naked and laughed at his attempt at a joke instead. One more second and I cut the chuckle short. Was I flirting? And not even an hour after kissing my boyfriend goodbye?

  I cleared my throat and looked away. Nope. This wasn’t good. Not at all. It didn’t matter who the man standing in front of me was. Chicago’s top entrepreneur... or Money Man... or whatever the fricking name that news program had given him.

  Teresa came out onto the back porch, calling for one of the children.

  I quickly glanced at Cristiano. “I should go see if I can be of some help.”

  He nodded. “I have to be going anyway.”

  My heart sank a little... and then I reminded myself it didn’t have to. Cristiano was completely and totally off limits. Him leaving before I started all out salivating would be a swell idea.

  He went on. “When will you be back here?”

  I lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know, really. We haven’t worked out an exact schedule yet.”

  I pursed my lips against the half-truth. My schedule actually was starting to shape up, with Saturdays being my primary day, and I shouldn’t have lied to Cristiano about it. I just didn’t want to give him the wrong impression, to make him think that I was asking him to come back and see me.

  He gazed directly at me. “I wish that was good enough for me, but I would really like to see you again.”

  Oh damn. My legs set to quaking. I wanted to beg him to repeat the words, to say them over and over again until I was nothing but putty in his hands.

  I licked my dry lips, not sure how to respond. “Well, I have plans with my boyfriend tonight...”

  There. A casually thrown out mention of a boyfriend. It was kind of a dick move, but I didn’t want Cristiano to think I was actually interested in him. Maybe mentioning Derek would be enough to deter him without flat out turning him down.

  My response didn’t seem to faze Cristiano in the slightest. “Another time then.” The response was simple, but the look in his eyes was not. The look held promises that curled my toes and forced the air from every cell of my lungs.

  Then he smiled and turned away, walking across the grass, carving a line around the side of the house. Every step was confident and smooth. Strong. Riveting.

  I shook my head, trying to yank myself out of the daze.

  Teresa still stood on the back porch, involved in talking to one of the boys in a low voice. I jogged across the grass and hovered at the bottom of the steps, waiting until their conversation had finished to approach her.

  “Hey,” I started.

  Teresa beamed at me. “Did you meet Cristiano?”

  “I did. He’s... nice.”

  And sexy... and suave... and commanding... and just mysterious enough without being cold-shouldered.

  “He comes here a lot, although sometimes he’s out of town and has to skip his regular visits.” She leaned back on the edge of the banister, bracing herself with her arms. “He’s a pretty big honcho in the stock market, though he doesn’t like to brag about it.” She smiled, her eyes twinkling. “So I do it for him.”

  She laughed lightly, and I joined in.

  “Most of the kids have known him for years,” Teresa went on.

  “What’s his story?”

  She looked slightly surprised. “He didn’t tell you?”

  “No.”

  “Cristiano spent six years here. And then he went into foster care. But he’s been visiting his whole adult life. When he’s in Chicago, he doesn’t miss a week.”

  “He’s from here?”

  She nodded. “I worked here when he was dropped off. It was my first year.”

  I stared at her, riveted. “And who dropped him off?”

  Teresa opened her mouth but then seemed to think better of whatever she was about to say and pursed her lips together instead. “Oh, I don’t know, honey. They didn’t say.”

  “His parents?”

  Teresa shrugged. “I really don’t know.”

  I looked down at the wooden steps. “Wow. That’s crazy...”

  “I know,” Teresa murmured. “And just what he had been through we’ll never know.”

  “He was too young to talk?”

  “He didn’t seem to want to. He said a little bit when he got older, but it wasn’t much. Certainly nothing for us to go on.” She waved her hand. “Oh, but that was so long ago. Let’s forget about it.”

  “Okay,” I answered, knowing I would do anything but forget. Those intense coppery eyes... the long, sweeping black lashes. The full lips. The golden skin.

  How could any woman do anything but forever remember a man like Cristiano Leventis?

  CHAPTER T
WO

  “She acts like she can’t lift anything heavier than ten pounds,” Evie complained.

  “Hm,” I offered, doing my best to try and pay attention.

  My friend sighed and swung her feet up onto my couch to curl them underneath her. It was only May, but she already had a tan thanks to the week-long trip she’d just taken to her family’s house in Florida. It complemented her black hair and dark brown eyes well and also made me think of other dark toned people. As in certain men. As in one in particular.

  I mentally shook myself. “Why don’t you just quit?” I asked. “Do you really need that job?”

  Evie’s nose wrinkled. “Yeah, I do. I mean, I guess I could look for something else. I just like complaining.”

  I laughed lightly, loving my friend and her honesty. “Everyone does.”

  Evie cracked a smile. “Kidding. I really do kind of like retail, even if the pay is shit. But one of the managers is leaving soon, and they’re either going to hire a new one or promote one of the associates.”

  “Hey, that’s good.”

  “It’ll be better than hanging clothes all day. At least then I’ll get to boss around other people and tell them to hang the clothes. And I won’t have to vacuum.”

  I laughed. “You’re bad. You know, I’ve only ever heard people complain about retail. I worked at a smoothie stand in high school, and I hated it.”

  “Where?”

  “At the mall.”

  “Yeah, I bet you hated it. Ugh, teenagers...”

  “Exactly,” I agreed. “They all wanted the most complicated drinks and never left tips.”

  She sat up straighter. “Hey! You should come work at the store with me. They need to hire a couple more people. You can pick between handling shipping in the back or working in sales on the floor. I promise that if I become a manager, I won’t yell at you too much.”