by Sherie Keys
“But you’re not in love with me,” he managed to finish in a ragged voice. He pushed himself up from the pillows and raked his fingers through his hair. “I should have realized, but I truly thought that I could… if I tried… that you might…” He closed his eyes, and she sat up in the bed as well.
“Maybe it would be best if I spent the night in the other room,” she said quietly.
Adrian opened his eyes, but he didn’t look at her. “You’re welcome to sleep in either room.”
Without another word, she slid from his bed and pulled her silken gown back on. Going to the door she paused for a moment and looked over her shoulder at him. “I’m sorry if you’re hurt. This really has been the most amazing time of my life.” She hesitated then. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight,” he replied quietly, his eyes looking away from her.
With a heavy heart, she closed the door between them and went to her own room. Feeling shattered, she collapsed into the bed and buried her face in the pillow, willing herself not to cry. The night was one of the longest she could remember, and it didn’t seem as if it would ever end.
Chapter7
Morning’s light finally found her and woke her, and she opened her eyes, feeling a deep sorrow all through her heart. She had made a good friend and found a great lover, and she had inadvertently hurt him in the process of building their bond. She wished it hadn’t happened, but there was no getting around it.
She showered and dressed, wondering all the while how he was doing. When she went down to the kitchen, she found him cooking, and when she went to the coffee pot to make the coffee, she saw that it was already done.
“Good morning,” she said with a small smile, hoping to bring some kind of lightness to him.
He looked over at her and smiled in return. “Good morning to you too. You look lovely.” He meant it, and she could see that.
“Do you need any help?” she asked, looking around the kitchen. The coffee was done, the breakfast looked to be done, the table was set, and there was nothing that she could see that she might do to help him.
“No, thank you. It’s all ready.” He put the food on their plates and carried them to the table. She sat with him, and they began to eat.
“This is so good, but then everything you’ve made has been,” she admitted with a slight grin.
He winked at her. “I told you that I was a good cook.” He took a few more bites and then raised his blue eyes to her again. “I guess today is the day. Your flight leaves this afternoon.”
She blinked in surprise. She had forgotten what day it was, and she realized with some sadness that he was right. It was her last day with him, and it was only a half day. “I… I guess it is,” she replied quietly. It was over. The daydream fantasy was over. Reality came rushing back in and it felt cold to her heart and mind. The real world was only hours away, but it felt as if it was right there, sitting at the table with the two of them, glaring at them both.
“Have you already packed?” he asked amiably. He wasn’t in the genuinely good mood that she had become accustomed to seeing him in, but she knew that he was probably trying to put up a good front after their difficult parting the night before.
Delphine shook her head. “No, I haven’t packed yet. I suppose I will go up and do that after breakfast.” She didn’t want to tell him that she hadn’t packed because she had totally lost track of time and she had no idea what day it was. The time with him had flown by, and yet somehow it felt as if it had just barely started.
“I’ll have the car brought around in an hour. Do you think that will be enough time?” He watched her with a steady expression. It felt like a business meeting to her.
“Yes, I think that’s enough time.” She wondered what was really going on in his heart and mind, and she wished so much that she had the courage to ask him, but at the same time, she didn’t want to know because it would intensify the guilt she already felt.
“I had better give you this,” he said quietly, reaching into his shirt pocket and pulling out a folded piece of paper. He handed it to her, and she frowned slightly, wondering what it was. Opening it with both hands, she gasped when she read it. It was a check for a million dollars made out to her.
She sat in stunned silence for a moment and then her eyes shot up to meet his. “You don’t have to do this. You really don’t. I don’t need this.” She reached her hand to him to give it back to him.
He wouldn’t take it. “No, no. That’s yours. That was the deal that we both agreed to. You can’t take it back now. Believe me, I wish it had gone the other way, but not for the monetary sake.” He gave her a heartfelt smile. “We made a wager, and you came out the winner. Take that; I won’t have it back. It’s yours.”
She felt her heart beating so hard that it seemed like it might actually beat itself right out of her chest. She knew that she had hurt him, that he had truly hoped that she would fall in love with him, and though she wanted to return the money to him, she knew that his pride would never allow it.
“Thank you,” she said quietly. He nodded and finished eating his plate of food. “I’ll help you with the dishes,” she said, standing and picking up her plate. He reached for it and took it from her gently.
“No, I think you’d better go and pack. I’ll get the dishes.” He gave her another half-smile and then took both of the plates to the sink.
There was nothing to be done for it. She left him and went upstairs to pack, all the while feeling as if her heart was in her throat. She tried to hold back tears and she couldn’t quite swallow them back. They stung at her eyes and finally spilled over her cheeks a bit before she grew determined and wiped them from her face. It was no time nor place for tears. She had had a wonderful time and it was over. The real world was calling, and it was long past time to return to it. She left the velvet box containing the diamond jewelry set on the dresser, peeking at it one last time and hoping that he would understand why she couldn’t take it with her.
Carrying her bags down to the foyer, she found that the car was already there and waiting for her, as was Adrian. He looked incredible in his blue jeans and blue button-up shirt. They brought the deep color of his eyes out, and she felt the butterflies in her stomach do somersaults.
“Shall we?” he asked, picking up her suitcase and heading to the door.
“You’re coming with me?” she asked in amazement. It was more than she had hoped for.
“Of course I am! You must know that I want to be with you as long as I can be before you go.” He gave her a smile, and when they got into the back of the car, he took her hand and held it in his. The driver pulled away from the house, and Delphine turned to look over her shoulder at it one last time before it disappeared from view.
“Will you let me know when you’ve made it back safely?” he asked, gazing at her as his fingers stroked hers. She found the action both comforting and arousing at the same time.
“Yes, I’ll do that.” She nodded, feeling pleased that he was concerned that she should make it home safely.
“I want to thank you. This has truly been one of the best times of my life,” he told her, his eyes moving over the curves of her face.
“Thank you, it’s been just as incredible for me. It’s meant such a great deal.” She gave his fingers a gentle squeeze. “It seems like it was only yesterday that you were standing there in the lobby while I was checking into the hotel, and you asked me to get a cocktail with you. Or was that years ago? It feels like both.”
He laughed softly. “It feels like that to me too.”
They reached the airport, and he helped her out of the car and gave her suitcases and bags to her. “You’ve given me so much. I can’t ever thank you enough,” he said quietly, wrapping his arms around her. “I’m not sure I know how to let you go.”
With that, he pressed his lips to hers and kissed her sweetly, lingering there in that precious moment as long as he could until he had to let her go. She felt an awful coldness move throug
h her when she was gone from his embrace, and she waved lightly to him and reached for her suitcases.
“Goodbye, Adrian.”
“Goodbye, Delphine.”
She felt as if the Fado music so central to the region there was perfect for that moment, as it could perfectly convey the sorrow that she felt in leaving him behind. Leave him behind she did, though, as she walked into the airport with her suitcases and checked in for her flight.
As the plane lifted off from Lisbon airport, she wondered how the real world was going to feel to her, now that she had experienced such a different lifestyle, even for such a short time. She promised herself that she wouldn’t think of him at all when she got home, that she would leave him behind her in Portugal, and that perhaps he would only visit her thoughts when she was dreaming. Delphine told herself that he had been amazing and fun, but the fantasy was done and the real world with her real life was zooming toward her at five hundred miles an hour.
She fell asleep, and she only woke when the flight attendants roused the passengers to serve them breakfast. It seemed only a short time later that the plane landed, and before she knew it, she was through customs and standing at the pickup area, scooped up in a big hug from Justin, who was there to retrieve her.
“You’re back! Oh, you’re back, and I’m so glad because I missed you terribly. Well, how did it go leaving the lover of your lifetime?” he asked with an enquiring look at her. He wasn’t going to miss a beat, she realized, and she thought to herself that she should have known it.
“Um… it went okay. It was hard to leave because it was so amazing, and of course he was so amazing, but I’m home now, and I’m ready to focus on everything here,” she told him, trying to pay more attention to putting her bags into his car than in looking him in the eye.
“You are?” he asked with a tone of disappointment.
“Yes, of course! I mean, we’re on the cusp of getting our business going, and we have lots going on, don’t we? Yes. So… let’s focus on that. Portugal is now in the past, and that’s where it stays. We go forward from here.”
“Forward,” Justin repeated with some uncertainty. “Okay then… forward it is. There’s a lot to catch you up on, so we should do that.” He gave her a supportive smile and climbed into the driver’s seat, ready to whisk her back to the island of Manhattan.
Looking at her phone, she remembered her promise, and she opened her email and sent a fast note to Adrian. ‘I’m home. Made it safely. I had the best time of my life, thank you so much for everything. XO’
She gazed at it for a long moment as Justin focused on getting them onto the highway that they needed, and finally she took a deep breath and touched, ‘send’. The message was gone, and she put her phone away and told herself that that was the last of it. Turning to Justin, she gave him her full attention.
“So, what’s going on here? What have I missed? Because I know you weren’t telling me everything over the phone.” She eyed him suspiciously.
He laughed and nodded. “You know me so well.”
“No one knows you better.” She smiled.
“Okay! So, update. Here’s what’s going on now,” he began. “So, to start with, Commissioner Hank Thomas isn’t budging on our requests. I’ve put in an appeal, but there’s not a lot of wiggle room on it. He’s truly a Class A jerk. I don’t know how the man sleeps at night. We have to get past him before we can do anything, including gardens without the bees. I was sweet as sugar to him and he wouldn’t even take a meeting with me. So, we have to get past the zoning commissioner. He’s our first hurdle. Now, for the good news.”
“There’s good news?” Delphine’s brows rose slightly as her heart sank at the report on the zoning commissioner. She wondered if she could have gotten any further with him than Justin did, but she doubted it.
“Yes, thankfully, there is good news. I worked my magic, and I was able to get an investor to buy a building for us, if you can believe that. So, we at least have a place to be based out of. Oh! I’m so excited about it! You’re going to love it! It’s perfect for us. Just perfect.” He paused a moment. “Well, it’s going to need a little renovation to suit our needs, but it really is just perfect. We were so lucky to get it! I’m really sorry that we couldn’t wait for you to get back to help make the choice on it. I know you’d normally want to be a part of one of the biggest decisions about our company, but we had no choice. We had to close on it quickly; kind of do or die, or the deal would have been gone because someone else was bidding on the property. So, I jumped on it and prayed that you’d understand. Of course, if you don’t like it, we can sell it and look for another property.” He looked over at her with no small amount of concern on his face.
“You found an investor and bought a building? I was gone less than two weeks!” She stared at him, stunned.
“Yes,” he told her uneasily. “Are you completely furious with me?”
Delphine thought about it for a long moment. “Am I furious with you? No. No, of course I’m not. I trust your judgment. It’s just that those are two really big steps and they happened so fast. I mean, I’d usually put so much research into both of those things, finding out all that I can, comparing other options… you know the drill.”
“I know the drill. I just leapt. But, if you want I can take you to see the building right now and you can see it for yourself. That way you can make up your own mind about it, and I’m fine with letting it go if you don’t want to use it, but I do think it’s perfect.” He couldn’t help smiling.
“You really love it?” she asked, giving him a sidelong gaze.
“I really do, and I think you’re going to as well.” He laughed softly.
“Okay. Let’s go see it,” she replied, unable to hide the smile that crept over her face. She did trust him, even if he handled both situations much differently than she would have.
Twenty minutes later they were pulling up to a slightly rundown warehouse, two stories tall, in a neighborhood that was seeing a small bit of rebuilding but could definitely use more. Justin parked the car and he and Delphine got out and stood beside the vehicle, looking up at the structure.
It was made of slightly weathered old blue steel; sturdy and strong. There was a wide front door big enough for at least two semi-tractor trailers to be parked in it at the same time and still have plenty of room around both of them. There was a small door that a regular-sized delivery truck or pickup truck could drive into, and there were two standard doors for people to walk through, one on each side of the front of the building. On the left side of the building was a small office area, with a window that looked out to the street and a wide window that looked into the warehouse.
“I have the keys. We can go in and look,” Justin tempted her. Delphine nodded.
“Well, we’re here. Let’s go look at it,” she answered, feeling a surge of excitement growing in her. “We really own this place?” she asked, taking a good look at it as they walked toward the office door.
“Yes. We own the building and everything in it,” Justin answered proudly as he put the key in the door and opened it for them.
“What’s in it?” Delphine asked interestedly.
“Not much,” Justin told her honestly. “We have an old desk and three chairs in the office, a water cooler that I’m sure died two decades ago, a small table with a typewriter on it, and in the warehouse area there are a few boxes of odds and ends that will more than likely wind up in a garbage truck.”
She could see for herself what he was talking about as they walked through the old office. It was like stepping back in time, but it was nothing that couldn’t be shined up. She followed him out of the office and into the great space where the warehouse was. It was all wide open, one big area, but she looked up and saw that there were skylights set at intervals all along the roof, and there were some workbench areas along the wall beside the office and the far wall opposite them. There were racks where things had possibly hung at one point, and at the back of the war
ehouse, there was another big door that two delivery trucks could drive through side by side.
“What’s back there?” she asked curiously.
Justin grinned. “Well, that’s part of what makes this perfect. Come have a look.” He hustled through the warehouse and she followed him to the door. When he reached it he pressed a button to the side of it, and the door slid upward automatically.
“Are all the doors electric?” Delphine asked, glad to see that there was some modernization in the structure.
“Yes. But that’s just a perk. This is the good part.” He walked through the open door and into a big glassed in room made entirely of old windows.
“Is this a greenhouse?” she asked in amazement.
“Yeah, I think it was. From the look of it, I’d guess that it was at one time a marijuana growing greenhouse. See those broken lights overhead?” He pointed around them to what looked to be old growing lamps from ages before. “I think this fronted as a warehouse for storage, but the real business was in the back. I think it is from the seventies or early eighties. I mean, it’s an old structure, but there was definitely something growing back here, and I don’t think it was fruits and vegetables.” He gave her a wink, and she laughed out loud.