“Yep,” I replied.
“It’s on my list of places to visit,” she said quietly.
“Visit?”
“Yeah, when I first moved here I had this big long list of places I wanted to see – the Art Institute, the Shedd Aquarium – all those places. I haven’t been to many yet.”
“What about The Bean?”
Bridgett snickered.
“Never been there,” she said with the emphasis on the pun, which I ignored.
“What do you mean you’ve never been to The Bean?”
Bridgett shrugged.
“I only moved here a few months ago,” she said. “I haven’t exactly had a lot of time to check out the city. It was always part of the plan, but then again – there are a lot of things I had planned that didn’t happen. Ultimately, I have to make a living, and that pretty much takes up all my time. I never got around to doing any sightseeing.”
“So what places in the city have you gone to?” I asked.
“A friend took me up to the Observatory when I first arrived,” she said. “I’ve been out to Navy Pier and went to the area where all the museums are but never actually saw the exhibits. I was just applying for jobs.”
“Why didn’t you go work at one of those places?”
“I didn’t get hired,” she shrugged.
I looked over to her and carefully observed her posture as she looked out over the balcony rail, obviously not actually looking at anything outside of her own mind. I watched her hidden memories move around in her head as her tears formed in the corners of her eyes but wouldn’t fall from her lashes.
She’d come here – from where? – looking for something new, something better. So many people did. She was actually far luckier than a lot of those who ended up homeless and strung out on the street. Not that she was in the best of places, of course, but I had seen far worse. She had a good head on her shoulders, and had found a practical way she could get by. It was far from the ideal, but there were far worse options.
Part of me wanted to keep asking questions – to pry into her background, her history, and get to know her better. The rest of me knew that was a really, really bad idea.
This was just fucking.
“You should see The Bean,” I finally said as I turned to go back inside.
There was just no way she could live in Chicago without seeing The Bean.
Chapter 9 – Evening Interlude
“There’s something in the back for you.”
I wouldn’t have admitted it to anyone, but I was really looking forward to tonight. Reservations were made, certain people expecting us, and I even suited up, which I didn’t do often. I was decked out in a pinstripe suit, white button-down, dark purple tie, and dress shoes. I wasn’t wearing any socks – a habit I picked up from my Italian co-workers. I had planned for tonight far more than I had for any
thing that didn’t involve my Barrett and a hole in someone’s head.
Bridgett glanced at me over the hood of the car with suspicion in her eyes. She’d been giving me the same look since I picked her up, and she asked why I was all dressed up. She leaned back a bit and looked at the package on the back seat of the car before she looked up at me again.
“Get it,” I said with a nod, “but don’t open it until we get upstairs.”
She pulled the box out from behind the seat and followed me up to my apartment.
“I didn’t have you pegged as the gift-giving type,” Bridgett said as she sat down on the couch with the box in her hands.
“Just open it,” I said as I rolled my eyes.
Bridgett’s eyes opened wide as she stared into the box with the Armani name on the lid. The sleek dress inside of it was deep purple, matched my tie exactly, and had a black, wool shawl to go with it so she would stay warm. There was also a pair of black heels with straps that would go around her ankles. They weren’t too high, so she could still walk comfortably, but they were sexy as hell.