“I can give you a ride home,” he offered and he noticed my hesitation. “Why do you have to be a difficult girl still? I thought we had everything worked out. I thought we understood each other.”
“Why are you calling me a girl again?” I squinted my eyes at him playfully. “I’m not trying to be difficult. I’m the new girl on the block. I don’t want people to think I am screwing the boss. As it is, Bryce gave me a nice office and this job,” I said, leaning back in my chair.
“I understand, Vicky, although technically you aren’t screwing the boss, yet, but that’s about to change,” Luc responded, leaning forward across my desk and placed a soft kiss on my lips. A part of me wanted to crawl up on the desk, grab him by the tie and seduce him, but I urged my libido to calm the fuck down. He seemed light and happy and it warmed my heart to see it. He deserved happiness and it made me happy to think that I had something to do with it. He walked around the desk and touched my chin with his finger before he leaned in and pressed his lips to mine. His movement was soft and tender, and my eyes closed reveling in how close he was to me. That he even wanted me or trusted me enough to do this with me. Then he pulled away.
With my eyes still half-mast and my lips tender from his kiss I said, “I will see you later.”
Luc nodded his head in agreement and walked out of the office. My eyes followed his long built body in his suit and my chest tingled with excitement. So this is a crush…
After tidying up my desk, I grabbed my purse and walked over to the elevators. It had been a pretty good second day and I was hoping to visit the plant soon to see the construction of the cars first hand. I sent Nessa a quick text that I was on the way home.
I quickly caught a cab and as I stared out the window at the setting sun and the evening traffic jam, I realized that New York was doing something to me. Once again, I blamed Mama’s letter. Is this why she wanted me to come here? Did she see this place as filled with opportunity for me? She never told Bryce about me but something inside told me that she was sure he would accept me or else she would have never sent me here. Even from heaven she was looking out for me.
Ten minutes later the cab pulled up to my new home. As the elevator rose up the levels my excitement to see Nessa grew. At the twenty-third floor, I exited the elevator and quickly unlocked the front door as Nessa turned the handle opening the door and throwing her arms around my neck.
“Nessa, uh….your hair,” I muttered, pointing to her head like an imbecilic idiot. Her hair had been jet black since the day I met her. I figured she was a brunette and dyed it black to emphasize her bad girl persona. “You’re….you’re…. blonde. Not just blonde, almost white blonde,” I stated, still dumbfounded. It was such a drastic difference.
“Ah, yeah, I’m actually a natural blonde Vick,” she said, twirling a tendril of hair. I slowly made my way into the apartment and Nessa bounced on her heels following me. It felt good to have her there. She had become like my family and now this place was feeling more like home.
“No way… I would have never guessed…” I admitted feeling foolish. I felt like I knew her better than anyone else, how did I miss this about her? Seeing her as a blonde had softened her features and made her look like a different person. I fell back on the couch and let out a long breath, it’d been a long day.
“Why did you dye your hair so black then? It’s a pretty drastic move, don’t you think?” I tilted my head assessing her. She seemed antsy, I always knew that there was more to her story than being left alone at a young age when cancer took her mother.
“Come on, Vick, you know I’m a drastic person and now you’re here in New York and I felt alone back in Canada…” she explained with a frown. “Everything was good before I met you.” She squinted her eyes at me but her tone was laced with humor. I came barreling into her lonely life and she may not have realized that she needed a friend before she met me but she took the job of being my friend seriously and has always had my back. “I was used to being alone and then you went and changed that on me.” Her head tilted down and her plump lower lip darted out. “I suddenly didn’t like Thunder Bay without you,” she admitted with brutal honesty. That’s one thing I’d always admired about her; she was a straight shooter. Only now sitting here and looking at her I felt like she was a complete stranger and not the person who saved me from drowning when my mama got sick. This girl didn’t look dark and haunted, she looked like Malibu Barbie all bright and sparkly.
“But why wash out the hair color to come here?” I asked, knowing she’s not the type of person to care what people think of her.
“Because, Vick, what you don’t know about me is that this is home…” she said softly and her face paled as if the words were painful for her.
“What do you mean? You’re from New York City?” I asked with a surprised tone. I knew she wasn’t from Thunder Bay because it was a small enough town to know who’s who, but I figured she came from one of the bigger cities in Canada since she didn’t like to talk about her past.
“Yeah, Vick, I’m from here, my family lived not too far away from this building,” she admitted. “I know what you are thinking. Why have I lived this poor life on the streets and just barely getting by when I was born rich, right?” She wrapped her arms around her waist and gave her arm a small rub almost as if she was consoling herself.
“Nessa, you know I’m not judging you, if you want to share with me I’m listening. I was just surprised to see you….so …..uh….blonde…” I repeated the word blonde because it still hadn’t settled with me. I leaned forward and gave her a small hug. She rubbed my back.
“Sorry, Vick, you were talking about this long lost father in New York, and well, I thought it was pretty ironic. I mean what are the chances of meeting some drunk girl in a bar in Thunder Bay, Ontario and our stories are so similar, right?” she laughed to herself. Her voice was shrill and her hand landed on her chest almost as if she was controlling her laughter, or maybe she was trying to steady herself. She was speaking so fast that I could tell she was nervous. She was making me nervous.
“I don’t understand what you are saying…” I trailed off. I was suddenly panicked that Bryce had another long lost daughter and the color must have drained from my face.
“Oh no, honey,” Nessa responded quickly. I think reading into my assumption. “We don’t share the same daddy. My daddy is in politics, not business, even though those two things are closely knit together here in America,” she explained and I exhaled a long breath. I don’t know why the thought just didn’t sit well with me.
“Are you okay to be back here?” I asked, worried. She must have left this place at such a young age because something wasn’t good for her here.
“Yeah, I wanted to be close to you, maybe it was a sign that I should come home. I had dyed my hair black because I was a missing child, Vicky, and I didn’t want to be found, but now I am grown up, no one can force me back anywhere. I just need to find a way to stand on my own two feet. Maybe I can find a job tending bar or waitressing like I did back in Thunder Bay.”
I didn’t want to press Nessa knowing that family trouble could be hard to discuss. Clearly there was a reason she left this lavish style of living after her mom died. Her father must be a real jerk.
“Yeah, so I was kind of telling you on the phone the other night….I met a man,” I paused, as if I told her I was growing a third boob and her eyes widened as if I did say I was. After explaining the situation with Luc, she plastered on a happy face, probably because she didn’t believe in happily ever after’s and she didn’t want to rain on my parade. I’m not sure I believed in them either. The only thing I did know was that Luc was one of the good guys and thinking of him caused my lips to curve up.
“I told Luc I would text him, we made plans to grab dinner. You should join us,” I knocked her shoulder.