Triplets Make Five

“What makes you think this was simply a tryst?” I asked.

“The fact that it was so easy for you shut me up. The fact that you simply thought you could crook your finger and I would come. The fact that you understood there were monetary issues with people’s homes-- with my home-- and yet no phone calls were made to update us on anything.”

“You are well aware that I hadn’t be able to arrange anything with the board until just this afternoon, correct?” I asked.

The question garnered me her silence, so I filled it with the words I knew she needed to here.

The truth.

“When the monetary issue was presented to me, not only did I figure my project manager but I got the board of investors to agree to a personal investment of my own. I’m taking more personal stock in my company in exchange for a two-hundred-thousand-dollar investment that will cover the overages that have been discovered with regard to your condo as well as your neighbor’s condos who have plans to stay in the building. The price isn’t elevating from the one you signed off on when I was in your apartment that day.”

“What?” she asked.

“As for the question of my character, you would be spot on. The man I was when you met me at Expose was nothing but a sleazy scoundrel who was looking for a one-time fling because of a stressful day at the office. But, that’s not what this morphed into, Miss Ella. I began to miss you. To long for you when you weren’t there. Yes, my body gravitated towards your beauty, but waking up with you in my arms forced my soul to gravitate towards yours. The man sitting before you now isn’t the man you met at Expose. This man-- this Foster-- wants to be with you. This Foster cares about you and what happens to you. You’re special, but not just to this world, Miss Ella. You’re special to me. I’m paying out of my pocket, so I know nothing happens to you. So you can have what you want. So you will stay so I can take you out to more dinners. Maybe whisk you away to France or Italy one day just to see your face when you taste the delicacies their countries have to offer. I’m sorry for what you overheard, and I’m sorry for the way we left things. Please let me try to make it up to you.”

19

Ella

Wait, did I just hear him right.

“What?” I asked.

“Please, let me make this all up to you.” I felt Foster’s foot gravitate towards mine underneath the table. The toe of his shoe began to run comfortingly up my ankle, and I felt myself shiver in my seat. Foster had given up his own money for me? For us? For the complex?

“You’re… investing in your own project?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said.

“To make sure we could stay?”

“Yes, Miss Ella.”

I looked off into the distance as I tried to hold back the tears. I felt his foot scoot back before he sighed, and the lack of his presence made my body feel cold. I swallowed hard before I went to turn my gaze back to him, but when I finally turned my attention back to him he was getting out of his seat.

“Let me take you home, Miss Ella. I’ve wasted enough of your time.”

“Please don’t.” His eyes ripped down to mine and suddenly I felt my icy facade fade away. Suddenly, I saw Foster in a different light. I saw him for the vulnerable, caring man he was instead of the cold-hearted playboy the media painted him to be. I allowed the ghost of the man I’d met in the club to fall away from the back of my mind, and I replaced it with an image of the man currently standing in front of me.

His towering body went to sit back down into his chair, but I simply shook my head.

In that very moment, I was no longer hungry. In that very moment, I no longer wanted to share him with the world. In that very moment, the only thing I wanted was to feel his hand slip delicately into mine before we went to create our own little fantastical bubble.

And I knew just the place to do it.

I stood from my chair and held my hand out to him, smiling when I felt his hand connect with mine. Our fingers intertwined as we made our way out of the restaurant, and I was painfully aware of how Foster was looking at me. His eyes were devouring me in only the ways his could, and when we stepped out into the parking lot his arm wrapped around me protectively.

Before he could guide me towards his car, I raised my hand to hail a cab. I could feel Foster’s confused look on the side of my face as the yellow cab pulled up, and I simply opened the car door and nodded for him to get in. He wasn’t in control of this evening, I was. This changed man, who had made me feel like the beautiful woman I’d always longed to be, had given of his own money to make sure myself as well as my neighbors could stay in the homes we had created for ourselves.

It was time I gave him a bit of something in return other than my own malice.

I dipped down beside him and felt his arm snake around my waist. I leaned forward and showed him a bit of my ass, swaying it from side to side as I whispered to the cab driver to take us to Expose. I felt Foster’s hand slowly round up my ass cheek, giving it a little squeeze before I settled back down beside him.

“Where are we going?” he murmured deeply into my ear.

“You’ll see.”

The cab driver pulled in front of the club and I climbed out of the car. I walked over and opened his car door, offering my hand to help him out. I could see the confusion wafting behind his eyes, no doubt wondering why the hell I’d pulled him from the restaurant just so we could come to a place where I worked.