Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 61248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 306(@200wpm)___ 245(@250wpm)___ 204(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 306(@200wpm)___ 245(@250wpm)___ 204(@300wpm)
Ethan departs, the scent of vanilla and musk still lingering in the air and on my skin, and I lean on the hotel room door, lost in my thoughts. I’m falling for him. I’m falling so hard, so fast, I think…I could love him. It’s crazy and a good formula for self-destruction. The hotel room phone rings, and I rush to answer it, thinking it might be Ethan. Is my phone dead? I glance around for it, not sure where it’s at, grasping the receiver and pressing it to my ear, to hear a rough, older man’s voice spit, “Leave the bitch in the room, and get here now.”
I hang up the phone without speaking a word. It rings again, but I don’t even think about picking it up. That was Ethan’s father calling. I’m sure of it. I don’t know how I know, but I know, and he apparently knows me as well. I’m “the bitch,” and the man has not even met me. I hug myself, blood swishing in my ears, the beat of my heart magnified tenfold, uncomfortably present in my chest. My first reaction to what feels like an attack and belittling of me as a person is a need to withdraw and leave. But after pacing the room several times, I’ve found logic. That caller wasn’t Ethan, but he was another example of just how shitty the people in his life are, and not the people he chooses to have in his life either—case in point, Harper. This is about the ones forced upon him—his family.
Ethan just told me to stop putting him on a pedestal. That man on the phone put me in the sewer. I wonder how many times he did that to Ethan himself. Between his brother, Anna, and his father, it’s no wonder Ethan’s a control freak, but it’s incredible that he has the gentleness in him and fairness I’ve seen as well. Nothing Ethan has said or done makes me feel as if he wants me to leave.
Come to Paris with me.
I want to go to Paris with him.
I’m not leaving.
Well, except to go to the store and get a morning after pill. Ethan and his wealthy self might not be freaking out about baby Ethan, but I am. I want kids, but I don’t want them because I trapped a man who does not have the good sense to not be trapped. Only he does. I know he does. He’s simply let his guard down with me, and I want to be worthy of that trust.
I grab my purse and head to the door, only to realize I don’t have a key to the room. I have no choice but to call Ethan. I pace again, and then decide on a text: I don’t have a key to your room. I have to go to the drugstore, so I’ll probably just pack up and go back to my room for now.
He calls almost immediately. “Don’t leave,” he says without prelude. “I’ll have the front desk bring you a key.” His voice softens. “Sorry, baby. I’ve got hell going on and wasn’t thinking.”
“I’m fine. I hate I had to bother you.”
“You’re absolutely not bothering me. If I didn’t have to go to this meeting, I wouldn’t.”
“A man called the room phone.”
“Oh fuck. You answered?”
“Yeah. I think it was your father. I didn’t reply to him. He didn’t know it wasn’t you, so he probably thinks you hung up on him.”
He’s silent a beat. “What did he say?”
I sit down on the bed and sigh heavily. “I don’t think I want to repeat it.”
“That’s what I was afraid of. He’s a bastard, Sofia. I wish I could tell you that would change, but it won’t. Ever.”
“But you’re not. That’s what matters.”
“I can be when I have to be. Ask your father.”
“Brutally honest is not the same as being a bastard.”
“Isn’t it though?” he asks, his tone stark, as if this is an admission, not a question. “I’m more like him than I want to be.”
“I don’t think you are, or I wouldn’t be here.”
“You make me want to live up to that blind faith in my character.”
“Then you will,” I say. “You have with me. You didn’t let me put me on hold.”
“No. And I won’t. I gotta go. I’ll try to be as fast as possible. See you soon.” He disconnects.
Thirty minutes later, I have a room key and flowers—lilies. I love lilies. The card reads, They are not anywhere near as beautiful as you are inside and out, Sofia.
I am warm inside as I set them on the dining room table, a centerpiece of freshly opened blossoms as delicate as the connection I share with Ethan. I don’t kid myself into believing everything with Ethan will be sweet-smelling flowers, and I’m afraid of being hurt. I am, but as my mother always said, “Fear is the number one enemy that steals your happiness.” Ethan called me on my fear already. He was right. He saw that truth in me, and that tells me he sees me. I think he needs me to see him, too.