Chapter 29 - Day 11 Next Time
Saturday morning, I woke up and remembered something important.
I had a barbecue party with the Vale family.
Well.
Not exactly a party.
Adrian.
Luke.
Elena.
And me.
Somehow, that felt more significant.
I reached for my phone.
There was a text waiting for me.
From-
Of course.
I opened it.
I stared at the message.
Eleven?
Why eleven?
The barbecue wasn't until one.
Then I remembered last Saturday.
Ten o'clock pickup.
Adrian Vale appearing outside my apartment at nine-ten.
Right.
I should probably start getting ready immediately.
Because apparently when Adrian said eleven, there was a reasonable possibility he meant nine.
I got out of bed.
Before getting ready, I baked chocolate chip cookies for the little monsters.
Because I wasn't about to show up at someone's home for the first time empty-handed.
Especially when two of the people living there were seven and five and had already successfully manipulated their father into buying pizza less than twenty-four hours ago.
Thank God I had a decorative box.
I arranged the cookies inside, closed it, and set it on the counter.
Then I got ready.
Crimson summer dress.
Makeup.
Hair.
Nothing excessive.
Just enough.
When I was finished, I stood in front of the mirror.
I looked at myself.
Turned slightly.
Looked again.
Not bad at all.
Actually-
Pretty damn good.
I smiled at my reflection.
Okay.
Now all I had to do was wait and see what time eleven o'clock meant in Adrian Vale time.
They showed up at exactly eleven.
Exactly.
Not ten-fifty.
Not ten-thirty.
Not nine-ten like a psychopath.
Eleven.
I was almost disappointed.
Then I opened the door.
And discovered Adrian hadn't come alone.
All three Vales were standing outside my apartment.
Adrian.
Luke.
Elena.
For one second, I just looked at them.
Luke was wearing a Superman T-shirt with denim shorts, his darker blond hair slightly messy like he'd already been doing something that required running.
Elena was wearing a little purple summer dress, her blond hair pulled partly away from her face.
And Adrian-
Oh God.
Orange T-shirt.
Denim shorts.
White sneakers.
Watch.
No sunglasses.
And across his chest, in completely unapologetic letters-
I stared at the shirt.
Then at him.
Then back at the shirt.
Adrian looked at me.
His eyes moved over my crimson dress.
Slowly.
Not dramatically.
Not enough for anyone else to notice.
But I noticed.
His gaze came back to my face.
And stayed there for half a second longer than necessary.
I smiled.
"Nice shirt."
He looked down at himself.
"What about it?"
"Nothing. It's just nice when clothing accurately identifies its owner."
Luke laughed.
Elena looked at her father's shirt like she'd never considered this possibility before.
Adrian looked at me.
"Are you ready?"
"Good morning to you too."
"Good morning."
I blinked.
Well.
Okay.
I looked at the three of them again.
"I thought you were picking me up."
"I am."
"You brought reinforcements."
"I told them to wait in the car."
"We didn't want to," Elena said immediately.
Luke nodded.
Adrian looked tired already.
It was eleven-oh-two.
I stepped aside.
"You can come in."
Elena immediately started forward.
Adrian caught the back of her dress lightly.
"No."
She looked up at him.
"Why?"
"We'll be late."
"The barbecue is at one."
"We need groceries."
Oh.
Right.
Apparently this barbecue had not yet acquired food.
"Give me one second."
I went to the kitchen and picked up the decorative box of cookies.
The second I came back, Elena's eyes locked onto it.
"What is that?"
"Cookies."
Her eyes widened.
"You bought cookies?"
"I made them."
She stared at me.
"You know how to make cookies?"
I put a hand against my chest.
"Wow."
"What?"
"That was incredibly offensive."
Luke laughed.
Elena ignored him.
"You can bake?"
"Yes."
"What else can you bake?"
"Things."
"What things?"
"Many things."
"Cake?"
"Yes."
"Cupcakes?"
"Yes."
"Brownies?"
"Yes."
Her eyes got progressively larger with every answer.
Then she looked at Adrian.
"Daddy."
"No."
She hadn't even asked anything yet.
I started laughing.
Elena frowned at him.
"I didn't say anything."
"I know."
"Maybe I was going to say something else."
"You weren't."
I picked up my bag.
"I think I just became more valuable than you."
Adrian opened the door.
"Let's go."
I followed him out.
The grocery store was chaos.
Not actual chaos.
Vale chaos.
Which apparently meant nobody had made a proper list and everyone had opinions.
Adrian pushed the cart.
Luke and Elena supplied demands.
And somehow I became an accomplice.
"Chicken," Adrian said.
"Drumsticks," I said.
Luke immediately grabbed a package.
Into the cart.
Then came a whole fish.
Corn.
Cheese.
Bread.
Fruit.
Watermelon.
Pineapple.
Potatoes.
More cheese.
Some kind of chips Luke apparently considered essential to human survival.
Elena added strawberries.
Then marshmallows.
Adrian removed the marshmallows.
Elena put them back.
Adrian looked at her.
She looked at him.
I watched.
He sighed.
The marshmallows stayed.
Interesting.
I added onions and bell peppers.
Then saw the flowers.
Sunflowers.
Bright, ridiculous, cheerful sunflowers.
Beside them were red roses.
I stopped.
Picked up a small bunch of sunflowers.
Then a few red roses.
Into the cart.
Elena appeared beside me almost immediately.
She looked at the flowers.
Then at me.
"Why are you taking flowers?"
"For decorations."
She considered that.
Then her face became deeply suspicious.
"Will you grill them too?"
I stared at her.
Luke started laughing from the other side of the cart.
"No."
"Then why do we need decorations for?"
Excellent question.
Because apparently I couldn't tell a five-year-old:
Listen, tiny person. Your father is offensively attractive, you and your brother are adorable, I'm wearing a crimson dress, you're wearing purple, and if by some miracle your deeply private father allows photographic evidence of today's existence,
I refuse to waste the opportunity by not having props.
Also-
I didn't even know if we'd take pictures.
This was Adrian.
The man treated his personal life like classified government information.
There might not be a single picture.
But.
Just in case.
I looked at Elena.
"Because flowers make things pretty."
She looked around the grocery store.
Then at the flowers.
Then at me.
"But our house is already pretty."
I paused.
Of course she'd say that.
I hadn't seen their house yet.
She had.
"Then they'll make it prettier."
Elena accepted this logic surprisingly easily.
"Okay."
Adrian walked back toward us carrying another package of chicken.
His eyes dropped to the cart.
Then stopped.
At the flowers.
He looked at me.
"Flowers?"
"Decorations."
"For a barbecue."
"Yes."
He looked at the sunflowers.
Then the roses.
Then at me again.
I lifted my chin.
"Don't start."
"I didn't say anything."
"You were about to."
One corner of his mouth moved.
Barely.
Then he put the chicken into the cart.
"The flowers stay."
I blinked.
"I wasn't asking permission."
"I know."
And he pushed the cart away.
I stood there for a second with Elena beside me.
She looked up at me.
I looked down at her.
Then at Adrian's retreating back.
Orange shirt.
Denim shorts.
Argument printed across his shoulders.
I picked up one more sunflower.
Just in case.
The drive from the grocery store took us north.
Away from the denser parts of Miami.
Toward Sunny Isles Beach.
I knew Adrian lived somewhere in Miami.
I had never asked where.
Apparently I should have.
Because when the Atlantic started appearing between enormous oceanfront towers, I began to understand exactly what kind of somewhere we were dealing with.
Then Adrian turned toward one of them.
I looked through the windshield.
Then at him.
Then back at the building.
Of course.
Of fucking course.
Luke and Elena were completely unimpressed.
Which told me everything I needed to know.
This was just home to them.
Adrian drove into the private entrance and down into the residents' garage.
By the time we parked, I had another realization.
The building was directly on the ocean.
Not near it.
Not ocean view available from selected units.
On it.
There was private beach access for residents.
Because apparently Adrian Vale had decided public beaches involved an unacceptable number of other human beings.
That actually made perfect sense.
We unloaded enough groceries to feed approximately seventeen people despite there being four of us.
By the time we reached the elevator, I was carrying the flowers and the cookie box.
Luke had two grocery bags.
Adrian had somehow acquired most of the remaining ones.
Elena was carrying the marshmallows.
Only the marshmallows.
She had apparently assigned herself according to importance.
The elevator required Adrian to use a key card.
Interesting.
Then it started going up.
And up.
And-
I looked at the numbers.
Still up.
I turned to Adrian.
"Do you live in the atmosphere?"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
Elena looked up at me.
"We live really high."
"Thank you, Elena. Finally, an honest person."
Adrian ignored me.
The elevator opened directly into the penthouse.
And I stopped.
Oh.
Oh, wow.
I had known Adrian was wealthy.
Obviously.
The man owned Vale Architecture.
He drove a Tesla to work and apparently kept a Corvette around for weekends.
He wore watches that probably cost more than my car.
I was prepared for expensive.
I was not prepared for this.
The penthouse was enormous.
And white.
Almost entirely white.
White walls.
White marble.
Pale floors.
A massive white kitchen.
White and cream furniture.
Glass.
So much glass.
Floor-to-ceiling windows stretched across enormous sections of the penthouse, wrapping the living spaces in sunlight.
And beyond them-
The Atlantic.
Blue.
Endless.