Arrogant Bastard - Julie Capulet Page 0,55
you?
You’d end up breaking your promise.
The 7 a.m. bus to New Orleans on Monday is fully booked. There’s another one departing at 9:30. I pay for the ticket and book myself a cheap hotel. I’ll find a job and a room somewhere. I’ll lay low for a month and see how I feel at the end of it. Maybe he’ll want to buy me out too, for whatever I own in equity.
I’ll leave him a note. I’ll give him full reign, which he already has anyway, he made sure of that. So, let him deal with it. The staff rosters are already in place, the place runs like clockwork most days. No doubt he’s got his own grand plans for the renovations. He can obviously handle it.
I sleep for a while. Deeply. With no dreams.
Josie and Noah talk for hours. After, she sits on my bed and tells me everything. He wants to see her again. He’ll come to Iowa and they’ll take it from there. He talked about maybe bringing her and the babies out to Big Sur, where he owns a house he designed, with a view of the ocean. She’s not going to get her hopes up, but a weight has been lifted. She doesn’t feel quite so alone anymore.
“Luna,” she says. “Please tell Gage thank you. So much. I’m so grateful he searched for Noah.”
“Of course I will.” I don’t tell her that I’m leaving for New Orleans before I see him, but I’ll make sure to include it in the note.
The next day the limo picks us up, right on time, and I go with Josie to the airport. We hug a lot and promise to Facetime non-stop and she boards her flight and that’s it.
A new chapter.
Me, against the world.
The limo drops me at the bar and I get into my yoga outfit but I never quite make it to my class.
I pack my bag. I’ll get an early Uber, I decide. I book one. It’s unlikely he’ll show up before nine, if at all. Maybe he’ll just send a contractor or a project manager at some point during the week. We didn’t really talk about that. Whatever. If he’s owned forty businesses, he can figure it out.
God, I’m so tired.
I crawl into bed. From here, I can see the water.
I’ll miss it here.
But it’s best this way.
I stare out at the view, where the moon reflects its light into a shimmery line that stretches all the way to the horizon.
I notice then two stars, close together. Maybe those same ones. And I remember something Gage said, about the way his father described his mother.
You can never really know a person. You can only try. And hope for the best. That’s what he did and she never let him down. Not once. She just kept on amazing him every single day.
God, it must be so romantic and beautiful to love like that.
I scold myself for thinking it but I can’t help it.
I wish I could love and be loved like that.
By him.
“Luna.”
I’m on a soft, sandy beach at sunset. He’s calling to me, walking towards me in his business clothes, crossing a divide.
“Luna, honey. Wake up.”
I feel movement, next to me. Of something big. And heavy.
“Luna. Wake up, sweetheart. I need to talk to you about something.”
My eyes blink open. I peek through a small hole in the cave I’ve made with my comforter.
“Hey.” He’s smiling.
Gage is lying next to me with his head on my other pillow, on his side, facing me, arms folded. He’s dressed in worn jeans and an old blue t-shirt that hugs his broad shoulders and his defined muscles. In the purple light of dawn, his irises are a pale greenish-blue. Against the white sheets, his skin is dark. His thick black hair is sticking up in places. He hasn’t shaved. He’s mind-numbingly beautiful. He looks like he hasn’t slept much since I saw him last. He blinks his lashes at me.
“What are you doing here?” I whisper.
“I couldn’t wait any longer.”
“For what?”
“To see you.”
“How did you get in?”
“I have a key now, remember?”
“Oh.”
“I wanted to make sure you were okay and not too lonely. How’d it go with Josie?”
I pull the comforter down a little, so I can see him more clearly. “Gage, she called Noah. One of those photos was him. They’re going to keep in touch and maybe even see each other again. She was so, so happy. Thank you for doing that. She wanted