in the doorway. It feels like I’m losing something, but I’m not sure what. “Don’t worry about us,” I tell him, though I’m not sure why I feel the need to reassure him.
He frowns. “Ten thousand dollars isn’t going to buy you a car.”
“We don’t need a car. We have the bus line.”
More frowning. “Are you sure you don’t want to go out again?”
“Would it be a regular date? Or through Madam Durand?”
“Through Madam Durand.” No hesitation. He wants to pay me. He wants to have sex with me. But he doesn’t want to know me. It shouldn’t be a surprise, but it stings anyway.
“Then no,” I tell him. “I’m done.”
6
Anita
In the days that follow, we get a deluge of deliveries. Ripe mangos and juicy strawberries. Whole milk. Fresh bread from a nearby bakery. There’s too much to fit in the small galley kitchen, even though we’re feasting for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Then the furniture starts to arrive. There’s a new mattress for each room. The delivery men bring them right in and haul away the old, sagging ones. Leather sofas for the living room, along with a solid wood entertainment center and bookcase for my textbooks.
A desk follows, along with a sleek white package that looks suspiciously like…
A gorgeous new laptop.
It’s powerful, too. Built to the highest specifications available. This can beat anything in the twenty-four-hour computer lab, that’s for sure.
There is no return label on anything. No address to send things back to him, or even to send a thank-you note. It’s by chance that I come home early from class one afternoon to find his driver hauling in more boxes. I’m afraid to know what’s inside them.
Valentina meets him by the door, a wide smile on her pretty face. “James.”
James? That sounds awfully cozy. I’m not sure how to feel about that. “What’s this?” I ask.
“Ma’am,” he says to me with a polite nod. “I’ll stay out of your way. I’m just installing the new security system.”
My mouth drops open. “You can’t install that here. We’re renting.”
“Midas got special permission from the landlord.”
“Of course he did.” And probably bribed him for the privilege. “That man is so high handed; I don’t even know what to do. He’d probably hire a security guard if I didn’t… He already did, didn’t he? God.”
James the driver has the grace to look abashed. “I couldn’t say.”
My sister looks at him, her expression adoring. I’m torn between finding it sweet and being frustrated. She’s supposed to be focused on her freshman year of foreign language studies. Not falling for a man several years older than her.
She’s not the only one.
I’m supposed to be focused on my senior year of computer engineering, not falling for a man who thinks he can buy his way into everything.
Even if his gifts are actually painfully sweet.
“You drove here, right?” I ask James.
He gives a reluctant nod, as if he knows where this is going.
“Then you can drive me to him. We have some things to discuss.”
7
Raoul
I’m going through a fifty-seven-page contract for a relatively simple acquisition. The business is going under. I can buy it, build it up, and sell it for ten times this price.
I should be focused on what I’m reading, but my mind is on refrigerators. Who knew there were so many options? I’ve been researching them to find the best one to send. What I don’t like, however, is that only a few will fit into the small alcove in their kitchen. The higher-end ones are basically out of the equation.
That makes me wonder if I can do some minor construction in their kitchen. All we need is a couple of extra feet to put in a wide chef-quality fridge.
The owner will be amenable once I increase their bribe money.
Then again, I may just put in an offer to buy the apartments. Then I could make all the changes I want to their apartment and the security without having to check with anyone.
A text comes in. Ms. Washington is with me.
Anticipation runs through me, sharp and hot. Along with lust.
I’m unable to focus on the words and numbers in front of me in the forty-five minutes it will take for the Bentley to arrive. What is she going to think about the empty fortress that is my office building? Nothing good. Not after seeing the home she created for her sisters with so little.
My phone vibrates, and I know before I reach the window that she’s arriving in front of the office.