Chapter 22
VICTORIA
It was strange to be in a busy house. It wasn’t loud, but I wasn’t alone. I’d been alone for a long time. Even when I lived in my parents’ mansion, I basically had a wing to myself. I rarely heard the staff and God knew my parents were rarely home and definitely never at the same time.
I showered and dressed in jeans and a blue top.
I left my hair loose. Last night Callum said he wanted to do a little sightseeing today before we had to fly back.
I was pretty sure that was for my benefit.
He’d seen the city. Technically, I had as well but it had been a while and I never really did the whole tourist thing.
It would be nice to see it with Callum at my side.
He was already downstairs, standing in Mimi’s kitchen with a coffee mug in his hand. He’d dressed casually. Dark jeans, a simple navy henley with the sleeves pushed up.
And I’d seen that man naked. Damn. I was a lucky, lucky girl.
“Morning,” he said. “Coffee’s ready.”
“Morning.” I poured myself a coffee and looked around the kitchen. It looked very new, as in it had been recently remodeled. It was gorgeous with tons of natural light.
“Everyone else is sleeping in,” he said.
“Smart people.”
“We could do the same.”
I looked at him. “Or we could go outside. You promised.”
He smiled into his mug. “I did.”
“I’m ready if you are.”
He dumped the remnants of his coffee into the sink. I took a giant swig of mine and followed suit.
I jogged upstairs to grab my phone and sunglasses. Callum was waiting at the door for me when I returned.
We took an Uber to Central Park. And then we just walked. I didn’t know when it happened, but we were holding hands. And I couldn’t stop smiling.
Callum was quiet. We both were. I loved that we could do that. It was like we’d known each other for years. It was easy to be around him. We didn’t have to fill the silence. It wasn’t awkward or uncomfortable.
I did get the feeling there was something on his mind, but I didn’t press him. I’d let him decide if he wanted to tell me.
“Hot dog?” he asked, stopping at a cart near the path.
“Breakfast of champions.” I laughed.
He ordered two with everything and paid the vendor. We carried them to a spot on the grass and sat down. I stretched my legs out in front of me and looked around at the city.
“Been here before?” he asked.
I nodded. “Well, not this particular area, but I’ve been to a concert here.”
I took a bite. It was perfect in the way that only a hot dog could be. I wiped ketchup from the corner of my mouth.
“How are these so good?” I asked. “It’s a hot dog. It should not be this good.”
He laughed and took another bite. “New York baby.”
“Isn’t it Staten Island that has the killer hot dogs?”
“Same thing.”
We sat and did some people watching. Normal people doing normal things.
I looked at Callum from the corner of my eye. He wiped his hands and his mouth and looked very satisfied.
I thought about the first time I saw him. That initial flash of irritation before I even knew his name. I had built a whole person in my head based on a two-second collision. And when I figured out who he was, I had made up my mind he was an asshole not worth my time.
I had been so wrong.
It wasn’t that he didn’t have an edge. He did. He was a little cocky but he didn’t flaunt it. He was who he was. But that was the version of him the world saw. He didn’t go out of his way to hide his true self. He just didn’t have the time or opportunity to really show that side of him.
I was one of the few people in the world who got to see it, which made me feel privileged. He was a man who cooked dinner for one person. A man who thought of his aunt like a second mother and treated her with love. A man who brought me sushi without me asking him for anything.
Every man I’d dated in my old life had been so busy trying to prove who they were and what they were worth.
It was all a show. It was so hard to know what was real and what was pretend.
I’d learned the hard way that most of it was all bullshit.
And that had made me jaded. I had made assumptions about Callum based on my past experiences.
That had been wrong.
Callum pulled out his phone to check the time. “Oh my God.”
My stomach dropped immediately. “What? What happened?”
He turned the phone toward me. It was Chantilly’s Instagram.
The most recent post was a photo of her and Jack Montana.
They were on a boat somewhere sun-drenched and gorgeous.
Chantilly was in a white bikini, her hair perfectly tousled, her smile enormous.
Jack had his arm around her and was looking at her like she’d hung the moon.
I stared at it. Then I looked up at Callum. “Is that an old photo?”
“Nope, posted today.”
We both started laughing at the same time.
I read the caption and shook my head. “They’re saying they met the night of the fire alarm.”
“A terrifying blaze,” Callum said, reading the post. “Wait? This soul mate she told you about. It’s Jack Montana?”
I burst out laughing. “I had no idea. She never told me his name, and he wasn’t tagged in any of her posts.”
“Whoa,” Callum said. “If she isn’t with him just for internet clout, maybe she really does like him.”
I looked at the photo again. Chantilly really did look happy. Not performatively happy, not Instagram happy.
“Your little stunt created a match made in heaven,” I said.
“Maybe for two couples,” Callum said and nudged my shoulder.
I looked up from the phone. He was already looking at me. My breath caught and I could have sworn my heart did an actual somersault.
“Maybe,” I said. My voice came out quieter than I intended.
He took the phone from my hand and slipped it back into his pocket. He winked and it had the intended effect. I was smiling so hard my face hurt.
We spent the rest of the morning wandering without any particular plan. We walked through the park until it opened up near the Bethesda Fountain. We got coffee from a cart near the east side and drank it while we continued to walk through the city.
By early afternoon we were back at Mimi’s. The house had come to life while we’d been gone. Mandy was at the kitchen island with a cup of tea and her laptop. Cleo was somewhere upstairs packing for the flight back.
We said our goodbyes over a late lunch. I didn’t want to leave. I really liked his family and wanted to get to know them even better. Mimi held my hands again when I hugged her goodbye. Her smile was so genuine. The woman was the matriarch of a fashion empire and yet she was so down to earth.
“Come back soon,” she said.
“I’d like that,” I told her.
The flight back was quieter than the one out. Cleo fell asleep almost immediately after takeoff, curled against the window with a travel pillow. Drew had his headphones on and was watching something on his laptop that made him laugh every few minutes.
Callum and I sat across from each other with the small table between us.
I had my notebook open but I wasn’t writing anything.
He had a drink in his hand but he wasn’t really drinking it.
I could feel the tension but it wasn’t an uncomfortable feeling.
Our morning together had changed things between us.
I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I felt it.
“Thank you,” I said quietly, so as not to wake Cleo. “For bringing me along.”
He looked at me and shrugged. “I couldn’t have done it without you,” he said simply. “And everyone loves you.”
“Everyone?” I asked with a smile.
Callum chuckled.
I looked back down at my notebook and drew a small, meaningless line across the corner of the page.
“Callum.”
“Mm.”
“I’m glad Drew pulled that fire alarm.”
He laughed softly. “Don’t ever tell him that. He’ll start doing it all the time.”
It was dark out when we landed in Los Angeles. Drew and Cleo said their goodbyes and I ended up in an SUV with Callum. Neither of us had discussed whose bed I would be sleeping in tonight.
When the driver turned toward the hills instead of toward my place, I didn’t say anything, but a warm feeling spread through me. He and I were a thing. We didn’t need to put a name on it, but we both felt it.
We walked into his house. I left my overnight bag in the entryway and couldn’t resist going to check out the view.
I heard glass clinking and then he was beside me. He handed me wine. I sipped it and thought about the view from my shitty apartment. I could admit I did miss the million-dollar views of my old life.
But I was also very content with this new life and the things it offered me. Things that didn’t have a price tag.
We finished our drinks and set them on the table. I turned to face him at the same time he looked at me.
He reached out and tucked a curl behind my ear. His fingers barely grazed my cheek and my whole body responded to that single, light touch like it was a signal I’d been waiting for.
“I love your hair,” he said.
I smiled. “It’s unruly.”
He kissed me slowly, and his hands came up to cradle my face. It was tender. Gentle. And so beautiful. I kissed him back the same way.
When he finally pulled back, he rested his forehead against mine and took my hand. I let him lead me through the house I was starting to know.
We walked into his bedroom. We didn’t have to talk about it. We both knew what we wanted. His hands moved from my waist to my back, drawing me in. I sank into him and let him take me to bed.