12. Elijah
ELIJAH
Stephanie fell quiet beside him.
Elijah wished he knew what to say. He couldn’t help feeling awkward about everything that had happened between the two of them tonight.
He had opened up to her much more than he’d ever intended to.
He had wanted to hide from her just how hurt he had been when his father had cut his speech from tonight’s proceedings, to play it off as a minor annoyance.
It was safe to say that hadn’t been successful. She’d seen right through him at this point. She knew exactly how much it had bothered him.
She had taken off her shoes and was walking barefoot in the sand. By the light of the moon, he could see the silhouette of her, the straps of the shoes dangling from her finger, the dress she had worn clinging to her figure.
If this had been another woman, another date, he would have taken her under the pier to make out. He would have taken advantage of the moment to allow himself to behave like a teenager.
And after the moment the two of them had shared on the Ferris wheel—he’d been so sure, for a heartbeat or two, that they were about to kiss—he thought she just might allow it if he tried.
But she was different. She wasn’t one of the women who clung to him because of who his father was, because she knew he had money and status. Stephanie, against all odds, just liked him for who he was. It was something he knew he had to honor.
He was glad he hadn’t managed to take her home yet, he decided. When that happened—if it did—it wouldn’t be on impulse the way he had originally planned it. It would be something intentional. It would be something special.
“Do you want to sit down?” he asked her, turning away from the pier and the enticing shadows where he knew that even now people would be hiding out with their trysts.
In answer to his question, Stephanie sank down on the sand. Elijah sat down beside her and looked out at the darkness that he knew to contain the water.
“I want to tell you,” he said quietly, “I really appreciate you coming with me tonight.”
He felt more than saw her turn to face him. “It wasn’t any trouble,” she said. “I was glad to go.”
“I know it isn’t that simple,” he said. “You and I… we haven’t really been seeing each other for very long. Technically, this is only our third date.”
“Technically?”
“Well, it depends how you count.” A warmth of unexpected happiness flared to life within Elijah, and he couldn’t keep the smile off his face.
It was lucky it was so dark. He wasn’t sure that he wanted Stephanie to see him grinning like a fool.
“I’ve kind of been counting that first night as our first date. ”
“The night of the awards ceremony? That was a date?” There was amusement in her voice.
“It might have been,” he said. “I guess it’s up to us whether we want to count it or not.
I mean, I know we didn’t set out for it to be a date, but I had fun with you that night.
I liked dancing with you. And if it hadn’t been for what happened that night, I know we wouldn’t be here together right now. ”
“You mean, you wouldn’t have approached me in the gym if we hadn’t already known one another?”
“I don’t approach women in the gym, actually,” he said.
“Really? That’s off-limits?”
He shrugged. “I used to do it, but it never went well, and I got the message. Women don’t want you to come and talk to them when they’re trying to work out. It’s much better to try to pick up women at a club, or even at a bookstore.”
“Thanks,” she said, light and teasing. “I’ll keep that advice in mind.”
He laughed. “You know what I mean.”
“I do,” she said. “I’m glad you came up to me at the gym, too. I’m glad you asked me out, and I’m glad I agreed to go with you.”
“Even though it meant you had to be at that party tonight?”
“I didn’t have to be there,” she said quietly. “I chose to be.”
“I don’t know how I got lucky enough to have you in my life,” he said. “You know… I wasn’t looking for anything serious when we met. And I’ll be totally honest, Stephanie, I still don’t know what I want. Not really. But I do know that I want to keep seeing you. I hope you’re interested in that.”
There was a long silence.
Elijah’s heart pounded madly.
This was the kind of thing he had never feared saying to a woman before.
Usually, he could read them so well. Usually he would have known long before asking someone out what her response was going to be.
But Stephanie was always a mystery to him.
There was every chance in the world that she would turn him down, that she would say tonight was the last night she wanted to spend with him.
The truly odd thing was that it wasn’t embarrassment or rejection he feared.
It was just the possibility that she would say no, and that this would be the last time they would see each other.
He hadn’t braced himself for how sad that would make him—for how much he really did want to spend more time with her.
She drew in a long breath. “I am interested,” she said, her voice soft in the darkness. “I’m having a good time with you. I’d like to see where it goes.”
It was enough for now, he decided. He wouldn’t try to pin things down with her just yet. He would wait and see what tomorrow held, and for tonight, it would be enough to be here with her.
He drove her home and dropped her at her door, and for the first time, he made no attempt to come inside with her. There was a part of him that held out hope for a kiss, but none came—she simply squeezed his hand and then disappeared into her condo, leaving Elijah alone under the starry night sky.
His phone buzzed as he walked through the door of his own house.
He took it out of his pocket, looked at the screen, and winced.
The call was coming from his father. How Oliver Norcross could imagine that his son had any desire to talk to him right now was a mystery.
But then, he’s never been that interested in what I wanted.
It probably didn’t even occur to him to ask himself that question.
Elijah refused the call and tucked the phone back into his pocket. He couldn’t think of much worse than talking to his father at the moment, after what had happened at the app launch.
The phone rang again.
Elijah pushed the door closed behind him and threw the deadbolt emphatically, as if that could keep his father’s intrusiveness out.
He pulled the phone out and looked down at the screen.
There wasn’t any getting out of it. He was going to have to take this call, in spite of the fact that it was the last thing in the world he wanted to do.
If he kept terminating it, his father would just keep calling him back over and over.
He could turn off his phone, he supposed, but eventually he was going to have to turn it back on.
Might as well get this over with.
He answered the call. “Yeah?”
“Elijah?”
“It’s my phone, Dad. Who else do you think would be picking up?”
“All right, all right,” his father said. “There isn’t any need to get a smart mouth.”
Elijah waited. He wasn’t about to rise to that accusation, as if he was a teenager.
His father let out a sigh. “What happened at the launch today wasn’t good, Elijah. You storming out like that… it caught people’s attention.”
“And you didn’t want anyone paying any attention to me,” Elijah said.
“I’m aware of that, Dad. You don’t need to call and tell me that I’ve embarrassed you.
Actually, I can just go ahead and assume that’s always the case from now on.
Whatever I do, we’ll just figure it’s an embarrassment, and then you and I don’t have to have these talks anymore. Does that sound good?”
“Why are you being so temperamental? Didn’t you have a good night?”
“You really don’t know, do you?” Elijah asked. “You honestly have no idea.”
His father was quiet for a moment. “The girl you brought with you,” he said.
“Stephanie.”
“Right. She was the one you took to the ball game?”
“That’s who you told me to bring. Don’t tell me something about that pissed you off. You didn’t even say hello to her, by the way. She wanted to meet you. She thought your speech was good—she wanted to hear mine.”
“Oh,” his father said with a tone of realization dawning. “That’s what this is all about. You wanted to give a speech at the launch. You’re annoyed with me for canceling it.”
“Sure, Dad.” Elijah had no desire to get into the nuance with his father. He didn’t care about giving a speech, but to be brushed off as if he was nothing—that had been an annoyance, to be sure.
“Well, you know,” his father said, “if you contributed a little more to the company, Elijah, things might be different. If you were to develop an idea of your own, build your own app, launch your own product, then you would get to choose what the rollout looked like. Then you would be the one who got to stand up in front of a room full of people and be congratulated on your accomplishments. But you can’t just keep piggybacking on my hard work.
You need to accomplish something for yourself. ”
The rage that flooded through Elijah was so powerful that he was hard pressed not to throw the phone across the room.
“You made me come to that launch,” he said.
“You made me prepare a speech. And then you told me that I couldn’t give it because you were afraid it would make you look bad.
I should never have come at all. And Stephanie…
I can’t believe you told me to bring the woman I’m seeing just so you could shame me in front of her. ”
“Elijah.” His father’s voice changed, softened slightly. “That isn’t what I was trying to do.”
“Then what? Because obviously you didn’t want to meet her.”
His father sighed. “Do I need to meet her? You and I both know your relationships don’t tend to last that long, so I saw no reason to make a big formal introduction.
I asked you to bring her because I saw the picture of the two of you in the paper and thought she seemed like a decent woman.
Like the kind you could appear in public with and escape without any scandal taking place.
And now that I’ve seen her, I still think that. I’d like you to keep seeing her.”
“You know you can’t tell me who to date, don’t you?
” Elijah gritted his teeth. This was maddening.
He did want to go on seeing Stephanie, of course, and twenty minutes ago he’d been feeling happy about that fact.
But now, hearing that his father also wanted it, his outlook shifted.
If he went out with her again, his father would think that Elijah was just doing what he had been told.
Oh, but who cares what he thinks? He’s made it more than clear that he’s never going to think well of me, no matter what I do. I wouldn’t date someone to please him—but I also shouldn’t avoid someone I really like just to cause him strife.
Something released deep within him, a tension he hadn’t realized he had been holding onto.
“You know what?” he told his father. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have walked out tonight.”
His father paused, obviously thrown for a loop. “I’m right?”
“It won’t happen again,” Elijah said.
“I… oh. Well. That’s good to hear.”
“But now I’m going to bed,” Elijah said. “I’ve had a long night, and I’m tired.”
“What do you mean, you’ve had a long night? Did you go out when you left the event? Where did you go? Should I be expecting something in the news tomorrow? Were you photographed?”
Yeah, let him wonder. Let him go to bed stirred up and anxious. Elijah wasn’t going to answer questions. Not anymore. “I’ll talk to you in a few days, Dad,” he said, and hung up the phone before his father could ask him anything else.
Satisfaction filled him. He made his way to the bedroom, took off the formal clothes he had worn for the launch, and pulled on his most comfortable pajamas.
And as he threw himself into bed, the only thing on his mind was Stephanie.