CHAPTER THREE #2
The doors opened, and I thought I heard her breathe a sigh of relief. What if she didn’t like being around me? I winced inwardly at the thought.
I felt the stares as I walked across the lobby with her. We walked outside, and I just stood there for a minute. I rarely drove. I either took an Uber or called my driver, but the first option seemed weird. And calling my driver seemed like a douche move.
But driving really made me anxious. I hadn’t thought this through. Maybe that’s why Grandma and Tallon had been so shocked.
“Um… where do you live?” Maybe she was within walking distance.
“The Estates at South.”
My eyebrows lifted. “Really?” It popped out before I could take it back.
The Estates at South was the premier neighborhood in the ‘new’ section of West Bay.
It was full of gorgeous, modern brick mansions.
Only the very wealthy lived there. West Bay’s elite.
I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye.
She looked like she might be a college student, though she seemed a bit more mature than the college girls I’d seen hanging around the streets of West Bay.
She was a few years younger than my thirty years.
Either way, a young woman in her early to mid-twenties who delivered sandwiches for a living was not the typical demographic for that neighborhood.
Maybe she had the kind of parents who were millionaires but expected their kids to pay their own way through school.
“Sorry,” I amended. “I just didn’t think…”
“That I lived in one of the nicest parts of West Bay?”
I cringed. “Yeah. I didn’t mean to offend you.”
She laughed. “Oh, you didn’t. Believe me, I wouldn’t normally be living there.” She suddenly stopped talking as if she had been about to tell me something she didn’t really want me to know. “I, um, have a lot of roommates.”
A lot of roommates? I wanted to know the story there, but I got the sense she wouldn’t be sharing anything else about that.
I watched her out of the corner of my eye as we walked towards the parking deck.
I had a couple of cars there, but I wasn’t sure which one to take.
The only car I felt comfortable driving was my old Camry.
It was the car I’d learned to drive on, and that was the reason I kept it around.
But it wouldn’t make a very good impression on her.
And someone might call the cops if I drove through the Estates at South in that old thing. My Aston Martin made my hands sweat when I drove it. But it seemed much more like what someone like me would drive. It would fit the image of me Laura worked hard to portray to the world.
We entered the parking deck, and I stopped. She looked up at me questioningly. I knew I should make a decision. I knew I should pick the Aston Martin. But my feet seemed to have a mind of their own. I walked to the Camry.
She did her best not to make a surprised face when I stopped by it and said, “This is me.” I liked that. A lot of beautiful girls would’ve been upset to ride in such an old, beat-up car. In fact, every girl I’d been on a date with in the past two years would’ve refused to be seen in it.
But she didn’t seem to care. I swear my heart fluttered in my chest, and I thought I was either like the fucking Grinch and my heart was growing, or I was falling in love with her.
Or extreme infatuation at least.
Or I was having a really early heart attack even though I was very physically fit. I reached inside my pocket, distracted by my thoughts.
And that’s when I realized I didn’t have my keys or my wallet.
Or my phone.
Even though I knew it, I kept patting at my pockets as if any of those things were going to appear there suddenly. “Uh… I seem to have not brought anything with me,” I admitted sheepishly. “Maybe you could drive?” I asked hopefully.
She looked embarrassed and shook her head. “Sorry. I only have a bike.”
“Oh. Well, I could ride on a motorcycle, I guess.” I couldn’t. I absolutely couldn’t. All the different ways I could die were already running through my mind.
“No,” she said, shaking her head.
I was both extremely relieved and slightly disappointed. I wouldn’t die, but I wouldn’t get to have a reason to hold on to her, either. “You’re a solo rider. I get it.” I held up my hands. “Tallon has a bike, too, and he never lets anyone near it…”
“No, no,” she almost laughed. “It’s an actual bike. Like a bicycle. With a basket on the front and everything. It’s not built for two.” She snorted and started really laughing. “I mean, I guess you’d know that. Who the hell rides around on an actual bicycle built for two?”
I stared at her for a minute, then I started laughing, too, the ridiculous image of the two of us riding around the streets of West Bay on a bicycle built for two running through my mind.
When we finally stopped laughing, I asked her if she had a phone so I could call up to have Tallon send someone down with my keys.
“Ah. I left it at work. I can run get it, though.” She paused. “You know, you really don’t need to take me home. I ride my bike home every day.”
I could feel my chance to keep her with me slipping away. I glanced up at the sound of heels clicking nearby. A woman I recognized as working for me was walking by.
“Barbara,” I called. She didn’t stop walking. Probably because I had zero clue what her name actually was, but it most likely wasn’t ‘Barbara’. “Hey, Barb!” I wasn’t giving up. She stopped walking and turned, looking like she was reaching for her purse.
There was probably mace in there.
“Mr. Lancaster?” Her voice dripped with shock and disbelief.
“Yes. Hey, Barb, do you think I could borrow your phone? Or better yet could you just call the front desk and have someone bring my keys to the parking deck? My, um, Camry keys?”
“Sure!” She beamed. She was ridiculously pleased to help me. She pulled her phone out and called someone. “Hey, Janice, it’s me…” her eyes met mine, and she turned away and whispered, “Glynnis.”
I glanced at Daisy to see if she’d heard. She was covering her mouth with her hand, not hiding a smile very well. “You know your employees well, huh?”
I started to try to cover it up but decided to be honest. “I’m not all that great with remembering names. Or people in general,” I admitted.
She grinned. “You’ll have forgotten my name by tomorrow,” she said.
I frowned slightly. “I’ll never forget you,” I said.
Her lips parted and our eyes locked. I wanted to reach for her, to pull her to me and kiss her senseless. But Barb/Glynnis was trying to get my attention.
“Someone’s running down with them now, sir,” she hollered even though we weren’t that far apart. Her voice echoed around us.
“Er… thanks. Thanks so much.”
Before I knew it, someone I’d never seen before literally sprinted towards me. He seemed as fast as Usain Bolt, and I stepped in front of Daisy to protect her in case he couldn’t stop himself once he reached us.
He tossed the keys to me then bent over, his hands on his knees, sucking in breath. “Your… keys… sir.”
“Thanks,” I said, a little bemused. I kept glancing at Daisy, and I realized I wanted her to think of me as if I was someone normal and not a famous billionaire game designer. Why would I want that?
And then it struck me. It was because she seemed so normal.
Not her looks. She was fucking gorgeous and had a body that wouldn’t quit.
But her personality. She was smiley and nice.
The women I dated… weren’t. They were rich debutantes or models, actresses or singers.
They didn’t work at places like Dinardo’s Deli.
They all seemed bored all the time, and if they smiled it looked plastic somehow.
Daisy was real.
And I wanted her to like me. A lot.
“Also,” the kid gasping in front of me continued, “Cynthia says she’s sorry, but you have a meeting you can’t miss in thirty minutes.”
I frowned then smacked my forehead. “Shit,” I said. “Okay, tell her I said thanks and I’ll be back in time.” I looked at Daisy with regret. “I really do have to go to that meeting. It’s about the release of CaveSphere 4.”
She shocked me by clapping her hands together and suppressing a squeal. “Is it going to release soon?”
I was so surprised, I could barely speak. “You play?”
She bit her lip, and my eyes followed the movement. God. I wished it was me biting that lip. “I play a bit,” she admitted.
“That’s so… unexpected,” I said. “But no, sorry. It’s still at least two years out from being finished.
We have a lot of work to do, but I still need to have meetings to keep certain people up to date on the progress we’re making.
” I ran a hand through my hair. “But I can definitely take you home. We can stop by Dinardo’s to pick your bike up and put it in the trunk. ”
“Only if it’s not too much trouble,” she said, flipping her hair over her shoulder. One side was thick, dark, and shiny. The other was rapidly drying in stringy clumps since it had been doused in soup.
“No trouble at all,” I grinned. I don’t think I’d smiled so much in one day in my entire life.
My mouth was starting to hurt. I wonder if hers did.
She seemed to smile most of the time. I opened the car door for her, then got in myself.
I sat there for a second staring at everything. How long had it been since I’d driven?
I gave her a quick look then started the car and pulled out. At least if I had to drive, nothing made me more comfortable than the car I’d learned on.
I pulled into a parking spot right in front of the bike rack outside the deli. She unlocked her bike, I put it in my trunk, and we were on the way.
I knew it would be a brief trip, but I couldn’t think of a way to extend it. Especially since I had to be back at the meeting.