The Billionaire From New Jersey

by Sherie Keys

  She could still feel him on her body. He had an amazing smell that Charlotte couldn’t quite pin down. It was probably some expensive cologne that he had specially made. Or perhaps he was an actual angel sent from heaven who had a natural smell that could attract anyone. Charlotte would have believed it. She could have believed anything after the week she had. Every time she touched Angelo, she felt closer to him. Still, she could never get enough of his touch. There wasn’t a number of kisses that would ever be too many for Charlotte to receive from his perfectly soft lips.

  She threw herself into bed, surrounding herself with a wall of pillows. She wrapped herself up tight in the blanket, wishing she was wrapped up in Angelo’s arms instead. Charlotte gazed out her window at the night sky. She hoped he was all right. She knew he would be fine, but still, she couldn’t stop longing for him to be with her. She didn’t think she would ever be able to fall asleep.

  She hugged her pillows, trying to alleviate some of the passion she was feeling for Angelo. It wasn’t the same, and it would never be enough. She sighed and closed her eyes, hoping that he was thinking about her as much as she was thinking about him.

  Chapter9

  Charlotte didn’t have any alarms set, yet she was still awoken by the obnoxious ring of her cell phone. She was a heavy sleeper, so she usually set multiple alarms. Charlotte didn’t know any better and tried to ignore the call, realizing almost too late that someone was actually trying to reach her. She recognized the number as having a Jersey City area code, so she figured it would be best to pick up right away.

  “Hello?” she asked, trying to sound like she just woke up as little as possible.

  “Charlotte, good morning. It’s Kelly. I just thought I’d let you know personally that we decided you would be the best to play Cinderella. How does that sound?” Kelly asked. Charlotte almost wasn’t able to answer she was so shocked.

  “That, wow that sounds amazing!” Charlotte replied.

  “Great, practice starts this week. I’ll text you a schedule, so you don’t have to worry about writing it down. Congratulations, Charlotte, this is really good!” Kelly said.

  “Thank you so much!” Charlotte responded, Kelly hanging up.

  Charlotte almost fell running down the stairs as she hunted for her grandmother. She imagined how tragic it would be if she were to fall down the stairs and break her leg. She was confident that she would get the part but hearing that it was actually her role just felt so surreal. This would certainly be the biggest role of her life so far, as it was being performed for the public and was also a paid job! Charlotte felt relieved knowing that she would still be getting some income since Angelo had basically quit her job for her.

  “Grandma, where are you?” Charlotte yelled, walking around the house more cautiously this time.

  “In the kitchen baby! What’s up?” April asked as Charlotte skipped into the kitchen.

  “Grandma, I got it! I got the part! I’m going to be Cinderella!” Charlotte exclaimed.

  “Oh honey! That’s incredible!” April said as she walked over to her granddaughter, giving her a hug. “What did Angelo say?”

  “I haven’t told him!” Charlotte exclaimed.

  “You better call him! He’ll be so excited to know!” Charlotte replied.

  She called Angelo, only getting his voicemail on the other line. Normally, if she called him, he’d pick up right away. She started to worry that maybe his brothers being there last night had something to do with his radio silence. She couldn’t let her anxieties get the best of her. Still, she hopped upstairs to her bedroom window to see if anything might be going on at his house.

  When she peeked over at his house, she saw a few men step out onto the back patio. She had recognized his brothers from the magazine article she read, but the men that stepped out onto the patio were unrecognizable. She didn’t see Angelo, however.

  Charlotte started to feel annoyed that he wasn’t there. She called again and texted him but still did not get a response. Charlotte realized she was being a bit too dramatic. He had just set the standard so high that week by always being there. She was feeling a little strange about their date getting cut short but couldn’t get too lost in her thoughts as she was still reeling from getting the lead role. She headed back downstairs and poured herself some coffee.

  She sat down next to her grandmother at the kitchen table and grabbed a section of the newspaper. She loved how her grandmother had the newspaper delivered. She didn’t know many people who still did.

  Her grandmother asked, “Why aren’t you at work? When’s the last time you went in?”

  “Just last night, grandma!” Charlotte explained. Her grandmother had a hard time keeping up with schedules sometimes. “But I won’t be working there anymore.”

  “What do you mean? Did you go and get yourself fired? When your mother hears about this, oh I better call her!” April started to ramble.

  “No, I didn’t get fired,” she said calmly.

  “So, what, you quit?” April asked.

  “Kind of. Yes. I quit. They didn’t treat me right, Grandma. And I need to focus on the ballet. I’ll get paid once it’s over!” Charlotte told her. Her grandmother had agreed to let her live there for free, so the only expenses she had was money to save for next year and whatever it cost to go out. Charlotte wasn’t too worried about that though, as she still had some money saved from her high school job.

  “Well if you ain’t working, you want to drive me to the mall?” April asked her granddaughter. Charlotte never needed an excuse to go to the mall, but it would be hard knowing she was on a tight budget. Still, it was a reason to get out of the house, so of course she was willing to go. She wanted to spend some time with her grandmother too.

  Charlotte did get a little nervous about having to drive to the mall every now and then. It was busier than the one at her New Jersey suburb. She was thankful there was still parking at the Newport Center, however. When they pulled in, Charlotte realized it wasn’t going to be that busy since it was a Tuesday afternoon. They got a good spot and walked into the mall.

  Charlotte was always amazed at how much larger everything was in the city. It seemed more important, like there was an extra focus put on the stores at the larger city shopping complex. It was a nice day to do some window shopping anyway, as it wasn’t packed with other loud customers. There were mostly just elderly people doing some light exercise around the mall.

  Charlotte looked behind her. She wasn’t sure, but one of the men lingering behind looked like one of the guys that had been at Angelo’s house. He was the same height and weight as the man she had seen at his house, but he looked a little older. Charlotte realized that it was so far away that she wouldn’t have been able to guess his exact age, anyway. He was easily as old as her grandmother and looked Italian like Angelo. He had dark features and was wearing the same black pants and gray shirt as the man she saw earlier that day. Still, she couldn’t be certain that it was him.

  She couldn’t tell for sure and didn’t want to overthink anything during her vulnerable state. He looked similar to hundreds of other men she saw every day in New Jersey. Why did she think that this man would be following her around? She worried that maybe someone wanted to have her killed so she wasn’t a distraction to Angelo. Perhaps they didn’t trust her or her intentions and worried that she might be a bad influence on him. It would be a strange situation, as he is the one who’s part of the mob. Still, it was clear that in just a week there, she was taking up a lot of his time and attention.

  She got distracted by a cute shirt on sale on the mannequin. Charlotte couldn’t help but admit that she was certainly someone who enjoyed shopping. Still, she had to make sure that she wouldn’t spend any of the money she had worked hard to save up. She couldn’t be sure that Angelo would always be there and wanted to know that she wouldn’t have to depend on any man for financial stability.

  Losing her job was unexpected, but certainly something that Charlotte wanted
to do. She hated having to go into a job that didn’t pay much and treated her even worse. She decided to walk away from the clothes and just follow her grandmother around. She couldn’t let cute tops distract her. When she looked up, she saw her grandmother talking to the man she thought was following them.

  “Leave us alone,” she told the man talking to her grandmother, grabbing her hand and leading her away.

  “Charlotte, what are you doing?” April asked. Charlotte grabbed her hand and led her out of the mall. She didn’t want her grandmother getting involved in something that might be related to Angelo’s illegal activity. She knew that when she saw that man talking to her grandmother that he might be there to harm or threaten Charlotte. She felt sure of it.

  “Charlotte, that was extremely rude of you!” April said once they got back into the car. Charlotte couldn’t stop checking her review mirror on the journey home. She was looking in her review mirror every second, getting confused about who might be following her. She was becoming paranoid and was feeling discombobulated.

  “Charlotte, are you going to talk to me? What did you pull me away from Mr. Lisa for?” April asked.

  “What? Who?” Charlotte asked. “That man was dangerous.”

  “What are you talking about? He lives on Angelo’s street. He’s just a lonely old man,” April explained.

  “You know him?” Charlotte asked.

  “Yeah, of course. He’s very friendly, always wanting to chat and hangout. Everyone in the neighborhood knows Mr. Lisa. He’s so charming,” April started to trail off.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I thought he was someone else,” Charlotte explained. She realized now that he had probably been stopping over to Angelo’s for a visit. She became embarrassed that she was probably overreacting about the whole thing. Angelo still hadn’t answered any of her texts, but that was no reason to start to act a little crazy.

  ****

  Charlotte needed a distraction and someone to talk to besides her grandmother. She was stuck in the house during the day, and now that she didn’t have a job, she was scared she was really going to go stir crazy. She got the schedule from Kelly for rehearsal, and that would certainly take up some of her time, but Charlotte still felt she needed other ways to spend her days. She couldn’t depend on Angelo for all of her entertainment that summer. She thought of one person that she wanted to spend some time with.

  “I would probably get fired if he knew we were out together!” Tina laughed over her salad. Charlotte had only been away from the diner for a day, but she still wanted to get a chance to make sure Tina was still a friend. She had invited her out to a local café for lunch before practice. She was the only girl she had to talk to in person who wasn’t related to her. She still texted and called a lot of her friends from school, but it was already getting harder to keep up with them. It was the summer after graduation and things were changing for Charlotte, fast. “You have no idea how much Pablo hates you right now!”

  “I can’t say I’m too broken up about that. I’m so relieved to have gotten out. I couldn’t imagine having to work there all summer!” Charlotte said. She realized she was telling that to a girl who was going to be working there all summer. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t, you know, I didn’t mean anything by that.”

  “It’s ok, I know what you mean. Things certainly haven’t turned out the way I thought they would,” Tina said. “I sure as hell did not think when I was your age that I would still be working for Pablo. I hated him just as much as you did. But, it was too hard to move away. I wanted to go to New York City too. I guess it’s just easy to fall into a routine, you know?”

  “I get what you mean,” Charlotte said, not sure how to respond. She was just thinking about how she hoped she wouldn’t end up like Tina.

  “So, how’s your boyfriend? I’m so obsessed with my car, you have no idea,” Tina explained. Charlotte still couldn’t believe that he had given Tina an entire car.

  “I don’t know if I would say boyfriend, but, he’s good. I think,” Charlotte replied.

  “Uh oh, that doesn’t sound good,” Tina responded.

  “It’s just so hard to know how to feel sometimes,” Charlotte explained. “Like, I can’t tell what’s the truth and what’s just my insecurity.”

  “Well that’s just being young,” Tina told her. “The older you get, the less you care about the small stuff. You start to learn what’s important and you don’t have to second guess so much anymore. Don’t worry, you’ll grow out of it.”

  “Easy for you to say, but what if I don’t? What if I only get worse as I get older. I mean, I’m not totally insecure, it’s just, Angelo’s an intense person. I really like him and don’t want to mess things up,” Charlotte said.

  “Look at you! So serious after such a short period of time. You can’t be so paranoid,” Tina explained. “Needy girls are not cute.” Charlotte watched as Tina shoveled a fork full of salad into her mouth. She looked at Charlotte while she chewed.

  “I’m not needy!” Charlotte said, annoyed that Tina was being a bit insulting. She suddenly didn’t feel hungry any more.

  “You seemed stressed, and why? Because you need some sort of validation from him. Just try to focus on yourself! That’s all I’m saying,” Tina said. Charlotte suddenly regretted bringing her out to lunch.

  When Charlotte got home, she looked out her back window like usual, a ritual that had started to form every time she walked into her room. It had been several hours since she texted Angelo, and he still hadn’t responded. She thought about what Tina had said and wondered if she was being a bit needy. She was young, and this was only her second relationship. She still wasn’t fully dependent either. She started to wonder if she actually liked Angelo or if she was just feeling reliant on him.

  Then, she remembered his smile. The way he could make her laugh and how good it felt when they touched. She knew that she was feeling something for Angelo. Maybe that’s why it was so hard to picture if things didn’t work out for them. It made her sick to think that he might be losing interest.

  Charlotte didn’t like to feel needy. Tina was right, it wasn’t an attractive quality. Still, Charlotte couldn’t help but have anxiety over what would happen between the two. Adding that on top of her nerves about the upcoming recital was really making Charlotte a wreck. She wasn’t normally like this. She was a perfectionist, so anxiety wasn’t an unfamiliar state of mind. Still, it had been a while since she felt this messy over something! Was it because she was falling in love? She didn’t even want to eat.

  There was a knot in Charlotte’s stomach that would just not go away. She just wanted to see her phone light up with his text. She just wanted to know that he was still there. Charlotte was starting to get worried about how much she was having an issue with their status. This was not healthy.

  She had to get ready for practice. It would give her something to focus on. Charlotte had to remember that she was valuable on her own and didn’t need to rely on a man for her happiness. She was still drawn to Angelo, but it was time to push that to the back of her mind and head to practice.

  It was lonely walking to practice. The day was cloudy and reflected Charlotte’s emotions. She should have been happy after their amazing date on his own yacht. Still, seeing his brothers there so angrily really put a wedge in her nerves. It just reminded her of the truth of their situation. She was young, he was dangerous. It just didn’t seem like it would work out between the two, but Charlotte wanted that more than anything. Charlotte hoped that practice would cheer her up but stepping into the theater only made her stomach twist further.

  Charlotte stumbled a lot during the first rehearsal. Perhaps her getting the lead role was going straight to her head. She worried about her performance. What had happened to her drive since the audition? Was she letting her insecurities about Angelo get to her that bad? She couldn’t find the energy to perform at her best and she wasn’t memorizing the moves easily. She started to feel overwhelmed and wondered if she wasn’t
ready for this responsibility. Did she push herself too hard? Was she at her breaking point?

  Kelly didn’t make things easy for her. Charlotte was suddenly realizing she wasn’t in high school anymore. Kelly wasn’t afraid to lay into her and criticize every last move. She was being a good coach, but Charlotte was certainly used to more sympathetic instructors who weren’t as critical with their teachings. Kelly was laying into everybody, but especially Charlotte. She thought she was going to pass out and wondered how she was going to make it through the rehearsal. Her chest was getting tight, and it was getting harder to breathe.

  Her muscles felt tight, and her stomach wouldn’t settle down. She knew she had to run to the bathroom. As soon as Charlotte made it to a toilet, she threw everything up. She had barely eaten that day, only picking at a salad during her lunch with Tina. Still, it felt like everything inside of Charlotte’s body was coming up. She just wanted to be at home and in her bed. Charlotte was loving everything that had happened since her summer started, but the bad parts were a little too much for her to handle. She wiped the vomit from her mouth and did her best to recollect before heading back to the stage. As soon as she opened the door, Kelly was standing there.

  “I’m calling practice today. I think everyone needs to go home and think about if they’re really in this or not,” Kelly told her.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me today,” Charlotte told her. The energy was low from everyone, but Charlotte was only making it worse.

  “Did I make a mistake in casting you?” Kelly asked. Charlotte’s heart dropped. That was the last thing she wanted to hear.

  “No. No I promise you,” Charlotte told her. “I won’t let you down again.”