Chapter 4
Chapter Four
One final exhale and the elevator doors opened.
Game face activated, shoulders back, head held high and a pout I had perfected in the mirror with my new nude lipstick.
With my plain face, and long hair that I always found hard to style I decided to show off my best asset, or at least my self-proclaimed best asset which was my long thin legs, poking out of my little black dress.
If the rest of my body wasn’t so top heavy, I could have been a model, my Aunty used to tell me as a teenager.
It was the very comment that ran through my mind every single time I looked down at my legs and still I was unsure if it was meant to be a compliment or not.
I was ready for some fun, a great dinner, amazing conversation and feeling myself locked inside his energy again, his blue eyes.
I knew I would look incredible on Henry’s arm.
Thanks to a phone call with Lotte, I had found out a lot more about who Henry was and I was glad for that because what I had found out about him shocked me.
I knew he was successful but from what Lotte explained, this was next level wealth.
He was a businessman, my favorite kind. Although I would never actually speak it out loud, considering I didn’t want to go against what it meant to be a strong independent female--because that was what I wanted to be.
It was what I had prided myself on the past couple of years, working hard, paying my own rent.
But I couldn’t help but say that I wasn’t turned on by a businessman and that was just because I genuinely loved working in the structures of business.
But money was a turn-on too. Who didn’t want to be wined and dined?
I wondered where he was taking me tonight.
I hoped it was somewhere in the city that was so exclusive that I hadn’t even heard about it. In fact, half of the celebrities in this town hadn’t even heard about it because it was reserved for the very few elites. Which I now knew that Henry was a part of.
Wherever he was taking me, tonight belonged to this dress.
This perfect, little black Dolce & Gabbana dress that I found for $50 dollars at a second-hand store on the corner of my street.
It was only by chance that I went in just before Lotte called me, and there it was, in my size.
I couldn’t believe that I had found this.
It was such a steal. But I didn’t want to question it, second guess all the incredible things that felt like they were falling into place for me.
After being rejected from the only thing that I was working towards, reality television, I couldn’t help but laugh at myself for how adamantly I felt this was the right direction for me.
At the same time, if I hadn’t taken the chance on that, then I wouldn’t be right here, right now, strutting myself out of the double doors of my building, to be greeted by a man in a suit and a hat, holding open the door of a black car.
“Miss Molly?” the man said, and I nodded, playing the perfect part as though this was normal.
I had a fucking driver! We had a driver.
Oh my God. My heart began pounding as I got closer to the door, and I tried to gulp it down.
One more slow breath, I prepared myself for meeting his intense blue eyes again, slipping into the back of the car, like this was my new normal.
But as I took a seat and the door closed behind me, there was no one else sitting in the back.
He sent a car to pick me up? A car that he wasn’t in.
It was a flex obviously. Technically, it’s not very personal, more like I’m a package being collected.
But then I noticed the bottle of Moet standing alongside a crystal glass on a small table between the two back seats.
Well, I guess this wasn’t too bad. I shrugged as I poured myself some bubbly.
I’d revel in these benefits. And I’d drink in every single moment of this night as if it was my last. A real smile took over my face.
I sunk back into the leather seats, bringing the glass to my lips as the driver started the car.
“I’m Aaron, by the way,” he said.
“It’s lovely to meet you Aaron,” I replied. “Where exactly are we going?”
“We’re going to Mr. Bentley’s penthouse in the city, Miss Molly,” Aaron politely replied.
“Right,” I whispered under my breath. His penthouse?
This was technically a first date, and he was taking me straight to his house?
This was wrong. Well, no, it wasn’t wrong.
It was exactly what I wanted, and it was exactly what I was good at.
This man had some class. I was drinking Moet in the back of some random but very nice car, although I would have been happy to go straight to his bedroom with the way my body began to heat from even just thinking about him.
He could at least take a girl to dinner first.
“Mr. Bentley has organized a nice dinner there for you. But I don’t want to give too much else away. He just wanted to enjoy your time in a much more private environment,” said Aaron.
Of course he did. Lotte had told me so much about Henry but nothing about his dating history. Maybe with a little more of this bottle and a couple of bold questions, I would be soon to find out.
The drive was longer than expected and I was already three glasses deep.
I lost myself staring out the car window, watching the various lives and bright lights that lined the city at night.
Just as I finished my last glass, the car had come to a stop and, within seconds, Aaron was opening my door.
I took his hand, and he helped me out, whispering in my ear, “Number 1306.” He pointed toward the number next to two double golden doors on the street and gestured for me to walk ahead.
I wondered if he was going to follow me in.
How did I get from the ground level to the penthouse?
Just as I neared the doors, the two of them parted at the same time, and I looked up to see Henry standing inside looking a hell of a lot smarter than I saw him last night. He stood tall, wearing a pair of black pants and a black shirt. His dark hair was slicked back.
“Wait,” I paused for a second as I took a step back from the open doors, realizing what he was trying to do, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
I didn’t mean to offend him. It’s just this.
I was not expecting this. Thankfully, he did not look offended by my laugh.
Instead, his lips turned up as he chuckled, laughing at himself.
I took a step closer to him, and the golden doors behind me closed.
His blue eyes locked with mine and it was as though we were in our own little bubble again.
“Miss Molly, will you accept this rose?” he asked. This time I had to bite my lips closed to stop myself from laughing again. I paused, letting him linger, waiting to see if he would sweat. Even though we both knew I wasn’t going to turn away right now.
“You said I was too good for ‘The Bachelor.’”
He nodded in agreement. “I did say that, and I meant it,” he said, taking another step closer to me.
He was a whole head taller than me, even when I was wearing heels, and he looked down towards me, not letting our gazes break.
“But I was wondering if this bachelor could try and win you over.” he pointed back at himself.
I sighed, looked at him up and down very slowly.
With someone that held as much confidence and ease as he did, I wanted to make him squirm for a minute.
Just the thought of holding that power was getting me off.
And this may have been the only night that I got to flex this power, so I was going to make sure that I used every single moment of it, right up until I finally saw what he was hiding underneath those surprisingly tight black pants.
“It depends, who else did you give roses to this week?”
Henry smirked as he raised his arm and clicked his fingers.
I was instantly taken out of the bubble that we had created, and I scanned the lobby we were in.
It was long and thin, with shiny black tiles on either side of me, and below, boasting an unclear reflection of our two shadows facing each other.
Above us, the ceiling held three large gold sparkling chandeliers dripping with crystals.
The two of us were standing in the middle of a sleek golden carpet.
A young man dressed in all white, no older than twenty, appeared from behind Henry and handed him what was the largest bunch or red roses I had ever seen.
I gasped, shit. I didn’t mean to gasp. Gasping wasn’t sexy, gasping wasn’t cool.
But the size of them, the smell of the roses and their beauty, I didn’t know what else to do other than to gasp.
“I had these sitting on the dinner table. I thought that you might ask that question.”
I was speechless. Was this really happening right now? Was this man real? He literally had already planned the physical answers to what was nothing but my fun banter. How could he have planned that?
“Right,” I said still a little speechless and definitely not quick enough to come back at him with something else. “Well, in that case, I guess you can take me to dinner?” I shrugged. “Maybe I could let you know as to whether I accept the many roses after that.”
“Couldn’t think of a better answer.” Henry grinned as he passed the roses back to the young man.
He then reached out for my hand, and I let him take it.
Holy shit. His touch felt electric. I had to keep myself together, just through dinner.
It’s just a couple of hours, I said, giving myself a pep talk as Henry spun around and walked me towards a black door at the end of the long hallway.