Alex
Traffic near the park is a nightmare. I don’t think my blisters can possibly get any worse, so I jog the twenty minutes to Blackwell headquarters on Park Avenue.
I first called her rabbit in the elevator, but the marble lobby outside the golden sets of elevator doors will have to do. It’s dark by the time I get there, and I have to use my keycard to get in.
It’s just the security guard, Jeffries. I know all the night staff, being that I’ve spent the entire night working in my office plenty of times.
“Evening, Mr. Blackwell.”
“Jeffries, have you seen a woman try to get in here in the last few minutes?” I ask, realizing, with a jolt of panic, that she could’ve beaten me here and left already, if she even heard my little speech at all.
“No, sir.”
“Could you leave the main doors unlocked for the next half hour? I’m expecting a guest.”
“Sure thing,” he says and hits a button under his desk.
“Thank you,” I say and walk around the grand lobby towards the elevators. When I reach the short hall with the elevator doors, I wilt.
I was still half expecting her to be waiting for me here already.
It’s silent where I stand. At this time of the evening, the building is all cleaning staff. The occasional banker will descend to pick up their DoorDash before returning to their glass-walled dungeons for the night.
I stand for five minutes. Ten. I’m tapping my feet and checking my watch every thirty seconds, but I get less hopeful as more time passes.
I slide down the wall until I sit. She probably didn’t even hear my speech, and if she did and still decided to go…
A pair of heels echo in the lobby. I lift my hanging head with lightspeed, and a woman comes into view.
Not Hailee. Her hair is shiny and pulled back into a tight ponytail. She pays me no attention, probably thinking I’m just another burned-out banker. She punches the call elevator button and disappears behind a set of gold doors.
I picture the elevator rising and my heart plummeting in the opposite direction, straight into the core of the earth.
Hollow. It’s a sensation I haven’t let myself feel for a very long time. I’m reminded of why I built my empire. Reminded of why I spent so many countless hours working and not reflecting on the past or even the present.
I had opened myself up to this feeling, and now I was paying the price because Hailee isn’t coming.
I stand quickly, as if with enough speed, I can hop out of my despair. I cross the lobby, say a goodnight to Jeffries, and walk back into the cool night.
The mansion is a dozen blocks from here, but I’ll finish my pilgrimage on foot, deserving every burn from my blisters.
“Hey, stranger.”
Tiny fires flicker all over my skin. They slide down my spine and fill my heart like a caldera. I turn around to see Hailee standing there. She holds her backpack in one hand and smiles at me.
I smile back, for maybe a second, before I take one quick step to her and crush my lips against hers. I can feel her smiling as I taste her with my heart, my brain, my vision all buzzing at once.
She breaks the kiss first. “Sorry I’m late.”
I’m too lost for words. I kiss her again and dip her. She squeals and giggles until my lips keep her busy again.
“I’m coming with you.” The words escape me before I can even think about what they mean.
“…”
“No. There’s no conversation to be had about it. I’m coming with.” Her back is against my palms, and I swing her back up so she’s on both feet.
“Does this mean I won’t have to stay at a Holiday Inn?”
“Yes.” I smile and peer into those beautiful brown eyes. I can see myself reflected in the dark pools of her pupils. I can’t help it. I lean forward and kiss her eyelids as she closes them.
“I missed my flight,” Hailee says.
“We’ll take my jet.”
“Yeah?”
“And stay in a cabin. And I can work via satellite, and when you get home from the woods, you’ll find me shirtless, chopping wood for our stove.”
“You know it gets cold in Washington?”
“Fine. You’ll find me flannelled. And we’ll fuck in front of the fireplace and have pot pie for dinner.”
“.” Hailee looks at me seriously. Enough so that my expression shrinks from a grin and goes neutral. “I really love you.”
I hold her chin in my hand. My heart hammers, and I see the world in blurry disbelief. I’ve gotten everything I wanted, and it’s every bit as incredible as I pictured it would be.
“I love you, rabbit.”
We kiss once more, and then all of a sudden we’re walking. Nice and slow.
My arm is over her shoulders as we stroll, and we’re smiling stupidly at nothing like a couple of new lovers.
I don’t even know how it happened. How we both decided to move. It’s like we’re so excited to get our future underway that we couldn’t stand still.