by Goda, Julia
“Tomorrow, guys.” I waved from the car before I drove off and headed home.
Now I deserved a break.
I dropped my purse on the kitchen table and completed my task of drugging myself so I could take a nap. Not even five minutes later, I was curled up on my side, fast asleep.
Soft fingers stroking my cheek woke me up. I blinked a few times before I could keep my eyes open long enough to see Cole sitting in the space by the crook of my hip. His warm, dark eyes were following his fingers’ slow movements on my cheek. There was a tenderness there that I had never experienced before. Tenderness and love that made warmth and contentment spread throughout my body. I watched him for a few seconds before he realized I was awake and his eyes came to mine.
“Hey,” he whispered in a voice as soft and tender as his touch.
“Hey yourself,” I whispered back. He smiled.
“How’re you feeling?”
“Better.”
“That’s good.” We stared at each other silently for a few moments. His fingers kept softly stroking my skin.
“How was your day?” I asked.
“Long, but good. Yours?”
“Same.” Another smile. More staring.
“You need more sleep or can I show you something?”
In answer, I leaned up and touched my lips to his in a barely there kiss, which he deepened when I started to retreat. Our lips were moving against each other lovingly, tenderly. There was no tongue, just our lips brushing and pressing, not leading to more. Just enjoying each other’s closeness. This kiss spoke more than any words could ever convey. It spoke of commitment, of possession, of passion, of sweet, true love. It was a promise. It branded me as his and him as mine. When he ended the kiss in a soft nip to my lower lip and opened his eyes, the emotions in them took my breath away. I’m not sure what he read in my eyes, but he must have liked what he saw because his face spread into a wide grin before he reached out for me and pulled up my body to sit in his lap.
“Okay, baby, I’ve got news.” Still in a daze from our moment, I looked up at him in confusion. Cole chuckled and kissed my forehead.
“Wake up, honey. This is kinda important,” he murmured there. I blinked a few more times, then sat up a little straighter in his lap and focused on him.
“What’s up?”
“I sent my assistant on a quest today.”
“What quest?” I prompted when he didn’t continue.
“A quest to find the perfect place for us that is somewhere in the middle between your work and mine.” Boy, if I had doubted his seriousness about moving in together as soon as possible, I sure as heck couldn’t doubt it now. He didn’t waste any time.
“Don’t you think that is something that you and I should be doing together? I don’t even know your assistant.”
“You’re right. And we will. All I asked her to do was find a few places that fit the parameters I gave her and set up appointments for viewings.” Okay, that sounded good, actually.
“And?” I prompted him again.
“We have four viewings this Saturday. Two apartments and two houses. From what she’s shown me, they all look great on paper. I’ve got the printouts right here for you to take a look.” He reached over to the table and handed me four sheets of paper. I looked through them one by one. The first two were apartments. Good location, good size, great amenities, but nothing special. They were high-end like Cole’s current apartment, but they didn’t do much for me. The third one was a house. One of those Brownstones with Victorian architecture that Boston was so famous for. It had a short brick path that led to the concrete stairs going up to the wooden double front doors, framed by two small flowerbeds. Inside there were big bay windows in the half-turret style front living room, hardwood floors, wood burning fireplace, farmhouse kitchen, two bedrooms with lots of sunlight upstairs, gorgeous bathroom.
I couldn’t tear my eyes from it.
“Looks like we’ve got a winner,” I heard Cole say with a smile in his voice.
“It’s beautiful,” I breathed, my eyes still fixed on the pictures. It was the most beautiful house I had ever seen. But it was also very expensive. And it wasn’t a rental. It was for sale.
“Cole, I thought we were going to rent a place?” Before answering me, he studied my face for a few seconds.
“I was gonna start looking for a place to buy soon to make an investment. Now with us building something that’s leading to everything, buying a house is not gonna be a strictly financial investment, but an investment in our future.” His voice was careful and a little hesitant. He wasn’t sure how I was going to react.
“Cole, I’m a social worker. I’m doing okay, but I can’t afford—” a squeeze of his arms stopped me.
“I can. I’ve made a few profitable investments and then there is the trust fund from my grandfather that I haven’t touched. It’s more than enough to buy that house upfront.”
“Cole, I can’t—” I tried again, but was again interrupted.
“You don’t need to. I’m the one who wanted us to move in together right away. I’m the one who suggested we move. Means that I’m the one who’s taking care of us.” I was getting ticked now. Gone was the calm, sweet, mellow mood from moments before. In its place was irritation. I jumped up from Cole’s lap to stand in front of him, arms crossed, totally peeved.
“I’m not a gold digger, Cole. You want us to move in together? Great. I want that, too. But I’m not gonna let you pay my way. We either split it two ways or we’re staying in separate apartments since you don’t want to live here.”
“We agreed on moving in together, Lizzy, and we’re not going back on that. There is no way I’m gonna let you pay half. You’re gonna let me take care of you.”
“I am not!”
“Liz—”
“No, Cole! That is not gonna happen! I have taken care of myself for as long as I can remember. I started taking odd jobs when I was thirteen to buy stuff for school and clothes that didn’t make me look like a homeless person. When we didn’t have food in the house, I used that money to buy peanut butter and bananas so I didn’t go hungry for days. I fought my way out of that and have a good job that pays decent enough money so I can live a moderate life. I never strived for luxury. All I ever wanted was a good and simple life and I made that happen. I won’t let anyone take that from me! Not even you!”
“I’m not trying to take anything from you! I’m trying to give you something! Don’t you know how hard it was for me to watch you go through all that? To know you had no decent clothes unless you bought them yourself? To know you were going hungry but not being able to feed you without you feeling like a charity case? All you ever let me pay for was ice cream cones and cake on your birthday! Even as a kid you were so damn proud and stubborn!”
“I’m not stubborn!” Though I knew I was. His raised eyebrows indicated his disbelief at my words. He hung his head and shook it in a show of male incredulity and reflection. All that shouting had made my head start to throb again and I pressed the palm of my hand to my temple. When he looked back at me and saw me in pain, his anger dissipated instantly. He walked over to me and held me loosely against his body.
“Liz, seeing you struggle and fight every single fucking day of your life broke my heart. I’m so proud of you for being strong and making it on your own. But you’re not on your own anymore. You are part of a unit now. We are a unit. Does it really matter which one of us makes more money and pays a bigger share of our expenses? What if it were reversed and you were the one with the trust fund? Would you let me pay my way even though that meant I would have to keep struggling?”
Well, shit!
Did he have to put it that way and make sense?
He paused, gauging my reaction to what he had said. My silence told him that he was getting somewhere, that I started to come around, because what he said made sense. When I didn’t say anything, he moved in closer and his arms tightened around me.
“It’s you a
nd me, Lizzy. This is it for us. From now on, we’ll share everything. That includes our finances. Please let me do this for us.” God, he made it hard to resist him when he was like this. What he was saying made sense. Would I let him pay his way and watch him struggle if I were the one with the money? No, I wouldn’t. I would think it silly and unnecessary. I didn’t care about money, so I wouldn’t care if I were the one paying the bigger portion. So what did not letting him do the same thing say about me? It said I was a hypocrite. That I was too stubborn and proud to let him take care of us.
Shit!
He was going to buy us a house.
My forehead fell to his chest. “Shit,” I mumbled there. He read that as what it was, me agreeing with him—if begrudgingly—and giving in, and hugged me tighter in response as he kissed my temple.
“So we’re going to look at the Brownstone?” I nodded my head against his chest.
“Good.” Another squeeze and a kiss to the temple. “Now, dinner?”
“Pizza.”
“Okay, honey. I’ll order a pizza. You go lie down and rest.” He let me go and went into the bedroom to change out of his work clothes before he ordered a large meat pizza, then grabbed himself a beer and me a pop before he joined me on the couch. We cuddled while watching a movie until the pizza arrived, then cuddled some more until I feel asleep in the middle of the movie.
Cole
I was standing in line at the coffee shop, waiting for my Americano. The meeting at the bank had gone well. Not that I had expected it to go different. I was using some of my trust fund money to buy the Brownstone that Liz had fallen in love with at first sight. I will never forget the light that shone in her eyes when we had first walked into the house last Saturday. She had stood in the middle of the living room, slowly turning around, taking her time to take everything in. Happiness and excitement gave her eyes a sparkle that made her normal beauty even more powerful and shoot straight up to stunningly marvelous. She literally took my breath away. We spent a good hour in the house, looking at every little thing, arranging furniture in our heads and out loud, creating scenarios like Sunday morning breakfasts or lazy winter afternoons in front of the fireplace. It was perfect for us. Even if I hadn’t liked it just as much as Liz, I would have bought it for her just to see her eyes sparkle like that every day. I had humored her and we had looked at the other places Sam had found for us as well, but there was absolutely no contest. They were nice enough, but compared to the Brownstone they didn’t even rank.
An hour ago, I had made things final and had signed the papers that would let us move into our home in just over three weeks. Time to pack. I was impatient to start our lives together, living in the same space, making her mine that much more. The sooner we moved in, the sooner I could move on to the next step and put a ring on her finger. I would give her a couple of months to get used to the idea before I proposed, though. Then a wedding by next summer and pregnant by fall. I had it all planned. Liz had no idea I intended to move this fast, but for me it was a given. Nothing and nobody would come between us. I would give her the life that she deserved and be grateful every day that she allowed me to share that beauty with her.
My friends had been relentless in their request to meet the famous Lizzy who did the impossible and chained me to her. They were idiots. It was the other way around. I wanted her chained to me as much and as fast as humanly possible. They had a bet going about Liz being pregnant and that being the reason why instead of being out on the prowl I looked at houses and discussed paint colors and furniture. If I had it my way, I would knock my girl up tonight, so she would always be bound to me in some way. That would also speed up us getting married. Nobody but my oldest friend Steve understood my, what seemed to them, sudden change of heart. Steve had met Lizzy once, and I had had a hard time keeping my cool and not ripping his head off when he started flirting with my girl. That had been the only time I had let any of my friends near her. They were all pigs. Steve had known, though, and had ribbed me ever since. He had also known why I wouldn’t let myself have her and had been in my face about that as well. Once I introduced her to the rest of them, they would understand. One look was all it took and they would be goners, just like I had been. We were all going out this weekend with some of Lizzy’s friends and coworkers. I still had a hard time not pissing all over her—as she called it—when we went out, so I wasn’t really looking forward to having her anywhere near the guys who would undoubtedly flirt their asses off just to aggravate me.
I grabbed my Americano when I heard my name called at the end of the counter and turned around to head back to my office when I bumped into someone. I looked up to apologize but clamped my jaw shut when I saw who it was. Courtney. What the hell was she doing here? I had been glad when I hadn’t received any more phone calls or text messages from her since I laid it out for her at the bar, but the look she gave me right now and the determined proximity of her body to mine told me that I had been too quick or stupid in the assumption that she had given up. I tried to step around her, but she stepped with me and put her hand on my arm. I moved the other way, but again, she moved to stay in front of me. I lost my patience and, not caring about the other patrons overhearing us, I snarled at her.
“Bitch, get out of my way.”
“Relax, Cole. As hot as you are, I’m not going to jump you in the middle of the coffee shop. All I wanted to do was say ‘hi’.”
“You’ve said it. Now move.”
“Fine. Be that way,” she said as I stepped around her and dislodged her hand from my arm in the process. Without looking back or paying any attention to the shocked expressions on the faces around me, I walked out the door and left, putting her out of my mind before the door had even closed behind me. I wasn’t going to waste any more time trying to convince that bitch. She wasn’t worth it.
But over the next week, I had to admit to myself that the game she was playing was concerning. Twice more she ran into me. The first time was during a business lunch with one of the company partners. Clive had excused himself after our meal. He wasn’t gone for ten seconds when none other but Courtney sat down in his chair across from me. She gave me some stupid excuse of having lunch there herself with one of her girlfriends. Not that I cared, but I could smell bullshit when sitting across from it. I was waving the waiter over to pay the bill and get the hell out of there, sticking to my new strategy of ignoring her. My eyes were on the waiter, so I didn’t see it coming when her hand landed on mine or I would have pulled away before she made contact. My head whipped around and I pulled my hand out from under hers. We were in a fancy restaurant with lots of high rollers in the business world in attendance, so I couldn’t exactly make a scene. Calculating bitch probably knew that all too well. I leaned across the table and rumbled too low for anyone else to hear.
“I’m not sure what game you’re playing, but I’m not biting. Save yourself the trouble and give up.”
“That, my dear, is never gonna happen,” she said in a smooth but determined voice. I should have known then that she had every intention of making my life hell.
The waiter appeared at my side and I gave him the company credit card to pay the bill before I rose from my seat. I caught Clive’s eye on his way back into the room and nodded that I was ready to go. Without another word to Courtney, I left, hoping that she would eventually give up, but knowing deep down that she wouldn’t. Something needed to be done. Who knew what vindictive, spurned bitches like Courtney were capable of? I, for sure, did not want to find out. First order of business would be bringing Lizzy up to speed, though honestly, I didn’t want her to know. I wanted her to feel safe in our relationship, not have to deal with my past mistakes. She trusted me and I wanted to deserve that trust.
By the next time Courtney made an approach, I still hadn’t filled Lizzy in. I was leaving my office at the end of the day, my thoughts on my girl and how I was going to show her how much I’d missed her and needed her. The elevator doors opened to let me out to the park
ing garage and there she was, leaning against my car. Annoyed, I stalked toward her. I was done with this shit once and for all. Obviously, she needed to be persuaded in a more serious manner to leave me the fuck alone. If I had to hire someone to do that job, I would.
Annoyance turned into fury when she started taking her coat off and I realized that all she was wearing was sexy lingerie underneath. Fucking hell! Did this woman have no shame? Sure, the old Cole would have taken that invitation without blinking, but I was not that man anymore. Her offering her almost naked body to me in all its glory didn’t stir me in the slightest. Nobody could compete with what I had at home. I would never risk that and betray Liz’s trust, and I was glad that my dick and I were in absolute agreement about that.
“Put your fucking coat back on!” I growled at her. She didn’t move to do so, but instead turned around to lean over the hood and offer me her ass, looking at me seductively over her shoulder. I ignored all that was her and went straight to the driver’s door, intent on leaving. Before I could get in the car, she pressed her body to my back, her hands reaching for my dick from behind. I pushed her off me with such force that she fell and landed on her almost naked ass. But I didn’t give a shit. I got in my car, started the engine, and roared off before she even got up.
Fuck!
That bitch was demented.
There was no way I could tell Liz about this. She was going to go apeshit not only on Courtney, but also on me for letting it escalate to this degree without telling her what was going on. Fuck! I had to get this sorted. Now. There would be no other encounters. She would go away and Liz wouldn’t have to know anything ever happened. I made a few calls until I got the number I needed and made arrangements to have a message delivered to Courtney that should make it crystal clear how serious business just got.
“I want her out of my life, to lose my number, to forget I ever existed. And she can’t come near Liz.”