“I know it’s too soon. I don’t care. I love you, Alice. We were meant to be.”
Reaching up to run my fingertips along the side of his face, I could see the purity of his gaze as he stared down at me.
“I love you too, Taylor.”
10
_____
Taylor
Spending the entire morning just lounging with Alice was absolute heaven. We were so comfortable with each other that it genuinely felt like we’d been together for months.
I don’t know what it said about me that in my close to forty years on the planet I’d never had sex that felt so emotional. It wasn’t just physical, we were becoming part of each other on a much deeper level. I hadn’t even known that I was able to experience that.
There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that we were going to win the stupid show. Although I didn’t care personally, I could see that Alice had a bit of a competitive streak, which amused me. Anything that made her happy was worth a bit of awkwardness on my behalf.
We had a huge brunch, with Alice being surprised that her favorite oolong tea was already stocked in my kitchen. When I asked her about food preferences on the way to the car dealership, I took a note, and sent a text to Mrs. Henderson.
It still broke my heart to some degree that Alice seemed so surprised that I could want to care for her. She hadn’t revealed a lot of her past, but it didn’t sound like she’d ever had anyone to depend on before.
I needed to be that man for her. A pedestal who would lift her up, and let her shine.
We spent a little while discussing an array of “problems” to go over with the therapist, and made note of several options, so we could see which they ran with.
Alice went to shower and get ready. We’d been constantly together all night and morning, so I gave her some space instead of ogling her while she bathed, which would have been my preference.
Taking my coffee to the living room, I did some work on my laptop, checking the security scheduling with my guys, and tweaking one of my investments that was suddenly doing well.
When my phone rang, I knew without even looking it was Gary. “Hey, what’s up?”
“You two are killing it!” he exclaimed. “Seriously, we can’t believe the numbers.”
“What do you mean?” I called up the website on the big screen, but there were no results, just the buttons on how to vote. Gary told me a secure code to add to the URL to get the numbers. “Damn,” I muttered.
“Right?” Gary laughed. “You two are winning by a mile.”
“Yeah, but how did you even get viewer numbers like that? What sort of crazy publicity did Darlene do?”
“She asked for help from the local university,” he chuckled. “They have a ton of media students who are desperate for real world projects. We took on a few interns, and they’ve been working their butts off to make the show go viral.”
“Apparently it’s working,” I said, scrolling through some of the comments. “So I guess the three of us inheriting the TV station is practically a done deal.”
“Pretty much,” Gary agreed. “There’s a bit of a gray area as to what will be good enough to fulfill the terms of the Will, but I’m sure I can make them see our side.”
“Don’t even tell me if you’re going to bribe the lawyers. I don’t want to know.”
“Don’t worry about it. The show is doing great, and we’re nearly there.”
Releasing a loud sigh, I shook my head. “After all this time, I can’t believe that you and Darlene and I are going to own the station. It’s crazy.”
“Hey, wait – I thought you didn’t want anything to do with it?”
“Not really, but if I’m a part owner, I’ll want to at least keep an eye on things. Add my two cents now and then, you know.” Laughing more to myself, I added, “We’ll have to make sure that Darlene doesn’t hand the reins to her husband. Can you imagine what lunacy Darrell would come up with?”
Gary chuckled. “Yeah, I thought of that. Anyway, I’m sure you’ll be great at the therapist this afternoon. At this point, as long as you show up and are polite, you’ll win.”
“Thanks,” I said, ending the call.