Chapter 9
KAITLYN
It took around half an hour to reach Alex’s apartment building.
It was on a fashionable-looking street, one of the main thoroughfares to the south of Central Park.
Everywhere she looked, Kaitlyn saw wealth and ostentation: the stores, restaurants, bars, and the people, too.
This was a place to see and be seen. New York was an attack on the senses, so much bigger and bolder than San Francisco, or so it seemed.
The city on the bay was contained. It had always felt to Kaitlyn like a collection of neighborhoods, a friendly city, not too big, but not too small.
As for Cedarhurst, small-town America now felt very far away indeed.
“That’s our headquarters, the Macarson building,” Alex said, as they passed a skyscraper with the words “Lancaster Holdings” emblazoned over two sets of revolving doors.
People were hurrying in and out, jostling with one another through the marbled lobby toward elevators with golden doors in art deco style.
The car purred past and stopped a few blocks down, outside another of the tallest buildings Kaitlyn had ever seen, the one Alex had pointed out from the plane.
Two men in elaborate uniforms stood at the door, through which Kaitlyn could see a desk with security seated behind it.
“This is where you live?” she exclaimed, and Alex nodded.
“Up in the penthouse. Come on. They’ll be expecting us,” he said as the door of the car was opened for them.
The uniformed men tipped their top hats and greeted Alex as “Mr. Lancaster, sir.” It was a similar story inside.
The security guards greeted them, and the elevator was called, while their luggage was taken by another route.
The elevator itself was all gilt and mirrors.
Kaitlyn suddenly felt seriously underdressed.
She hadn’t given a second thought to what she was wearing when she’d left her mom’s house that morning.
She was in sweatpants and a T-shirt with the Golden Gate Bridge emblazoned across it.
Over the past few months, she’d been so busy thinking about other things that what she was wearing barely registered.
The elevator glided smoothly to the top of the building, stopping at a floor marked “Penthouse.”
“Your own floor?” Kaitlyn asked, staring at Alex in disbelief.
Alex smiled. “Don’t worry. You can’t open the door without authentication,” he said, as though she’d been commenting on security, rather than the fact of an elevator going right to his apartment.
There was a fingerprint scanner to the left of the elevator controls.
Alex had used it in the lobby to start the elevator, and now, he placed his index finger on it again.
The door slid silently open. Kaitlyn gasped, finding herself in another lobby, this one lit by enormous windows looking out across the Manhattan skyline.
They were so high up as to be above the other buildings.
The view stretched into infinity. Four doors led off the lobby, and an archway led into another room, a living room, with similar windows, where chairs were arranged around large palm plants in a seating area, with a coffee table and the largest television Kaitlyn had ever seen in her life.
“This is… I never imagined,” she said, shaking her head in disbelief.
“Do you like it?” he asked.
Kaitlyn wasn’t sure if “like” was the right word.
It was impressive, but it didn’t have a particularly homey feel to it.
Everything was of the best quality, but it could’ve been a hotel suite.
Where were the books? The pile of dirty laundry?
The thrift-store ornaments? The table covered in papers to be sorted?
The odds and ends stacked here and there?
Compared to her mom’s house, this was like some sort of minimalist dream.
“It’ll take some getting used to,” she admitted.
“Come and see the rest,” he said.
There were three bedrooms, one with the biggest bed Kaitlyn had ever seen. This was their bedroom, and did, at least, have a little more character to it, with some prints on the wall, and a display case with various small sculptures arranged around…
“Oh… I recognize that,” Kaitlyn said, pointing to the piece of ceramic in the center of the others.
It was her own work, the work Alex had secretly bought from her. He smiled and nodded.
“It’s my favorite piece. I see it every day,” he replied.
Kaitlyn was touched. She’d thought he’d probably have put it away somewhere after buying it and hardly given it a second thought, but the fact that it was there, right where he could see it, made her happy.
“I’ll have to make a twin for it. It was a nice piece,” she said, and he nodded.
“I think you should. We need a few more pieces around the place.”
Kaitlyn agreed. He showed her the bathroom, more like a spa, all marble, with plush towels and low lighting. There was a sauna and steam room, a bath as big as a small swimming pool, and his-and-her basins in front of an enormous mirror.
“It’s breathtaking,” Kaitlyn said after they’d returned to the living room.
“And if you need anything, just ring for Brett. He’ll come,” Alex said, pointing to a series of call buttons on the wall by the arch leading back into the lobby.
Kaitlyn wasn’t entirely sure why she’d need to call the butler, for that was what Brett was. It wasn’t as though she’d suddenly become incapable of doing things for herself. She didn’t want to imagine herself being infantilized, asking someone else to do the simplest of tasks.
“What do you ask him to do?”
Alex shrugged.
“He makes great grilled cheese,” he said.
Kaitlyn was more than capable of making her own grilled cheese, though the kitchen looked like something out of a sci-fi movie rather than a practical space in which to cook. But not wanting to make an issue of things, Kaitlyn simply nodded. It would take some getting used to, that was for sure.
“I suppose I should unpack,” she said.
“Let Brett deal with that. He and Miriam will have it all in hand,” Alex replied.
“Who’s Miriam?”
“Oh, she does the cleaning and all that sort of thing. She’s lovely. Filipino,” Alex replied.
Kaitlyn didn’t particularly relish the thought of someone else unpacking her clothes, but it seemed it was yet another thing for her to get used to.
She was about to ask what she should do when Alex’s phone rang, and he disappeared into the lobby to answer it.
Kaitlyn sat down on one of the chairs, looking out across the Manhattan skyline and tapping her fingers on her knee.
It felt like she was waiting for something but didn’t know what. What did billionaires do all day?
Make money, I suppose.
The thought of the studio in Greenwich Village cheered her, and she reminded herself she’d only just arrived. It was bound to feel strange, and she knew Alex wouldn’t allow her to get out of her depth. He returned a moment later, apologizing for the interruption.
“There’s a lot going on at the moment. This Jamaican investment should’ve been easy, but it’s proving so complicated. Anyway, are you hungry? We could go out to eat. Gill’s, perhaps.”
Kaitlyn looked at him in surprise.
“The Gill’s?” she exclaimed.
Everyone had heard of Gill’s. It was one of the best restaurants in New York, famed for its three Michelin Stars and a string of celebrity endorsements.
Kaitlyn had read about it in one of her mom’s gossip magazines, where pictures of a Hollywood A-lister proposing to his girlfriend had been leaked.
The article had stated there was a six-month waiting list for a table. Alex nodded.
“Hilary arranged it,” he said.
It seemed Hilary could arrange anything.
“But I don’t have anything to wear,” Kaitlyn said, looking down at her sweatpants and T-shirt.
“Oh, don’t worry about that. Have a look in the closet in the bedroom. I asked Hilary to sort that, too,” he said.
Kaitlyn was astonished. Going into the bedroom, she opened the closet to find a whole wardrobe-worth of outfits, all in plastic wrapping, just waiting to be tried on.
There were dresses, trouser suits, pretty tops and leggings, and shoes…
so many shoes. Alex had followed her into the bedroom, and Kaitlyn turned to him, shaking her head in disbelief.
“You did all this for me?” she said, and he smiled at her.
“I wanted you to feel comfortable, at home. I hope you like them,” he said.
Kaitlyn put her arms around him and kissed him. “You’re so sweet,” she said.
She looked up at him, those beautiful eyes, so big and green. It was just like prom night, the way he’d looked at her then…
“And I still can’t believe you said yes. I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”
Kaitlyn blushed. Right now, she felt like the luckiest woman, too. “Why don’t I try on a few things, then we can go to the restaurant,” she said.
He nodded, kissing her on the lips, before retreating from the bedroom and closing the door behind him.
Kaitlyn began trying on the dresses, deciding on a mauve-colored one with a matching shawl.
It was designer, and had surely cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.
Looking at herself in the mirrored closet doors, Kaitlyn could hardly believe what she saw.
It was a transformation. She’d never worn clothes like this or had so many to choose from.
“You look beautiful,” Alex said when she emerged from the bedroom a short while later.
Hilary had thought of makeup, too, and Kaitlyn had found everything she needed in a large vanity case on the dressing table. She’d showered, and after had found a dozen scent bottles to choose from — a palette of different perfumes, all of which smelled divine.
“I hope I’ll do,” she said as Alex slipped his arm around her.
“Don’t say that. You were perfect before, but seeing you now… wow,” he said, shaking his head.