“Want me to fire you?”
The young woman laughed. “Definitely not.”
“Alright then. Hey, I was thinking, you should come over for dinner tonight.”
“To your place?”
“Yeah.”
It was a big deal. In almost three weeks, Aisha hadn’t been to his place yet. They had been to her small apartment, but he had yet to invite her to his. She had to imagine his home was a bit more spacious and luxurious than hers.
“Alright,” she said, and he smiled and swept her up in his arms, and they kissed.
That evening Aisha left work before her boss, and she took a cab home and showered and changed. She didn’t know what to wear, but she settled on a dress, a deep blood red color with a slit to her thigh, despite the cold weather. She could stand to be cold if it knocked Anthony off his feet. Red heels and makeup went on after, and then she was going down to the street to catch a cab, but she was surprised by a limousine waiting by the sidewalk. The driver stood by the rear passenger door.
“Aisha?” he asked, and the young woman nodded.
“Mr. Conner is anxious to see you,” the driver added as he opened the door and the way his eyes swept up and down her body rather blatantly let Aisha know she had indeed chosen the right dress. She got into the limousine and couldn’t help but smile when she saw a dozen roses waiting for her. She took the bouquet in her hands and sniffed it. Then she saw the bottle of champagne in an ice bucket and poured herself a glass.
The limo moved slowly through the city and finally pulled into an underground parking garage under a massive and sleek looking skyscraper. The driver opened her door and offered his hand. She took it and got out.
“Right into there,” the man said, pointing to an elevator that sat across from a bank of them. “The code is five, three, two, three.”
Aisha didn’t have any idea what he was talking about, and she didn’t have any idea why there was a single elevator across from the rest of them. There was a sign next to it which said private, and as she stepped inside, she wondered if Anthony was so rich he really owned his own elevator. There was just one button inside the elevator, and she pressed it. When she did so, a small screen above the button woke, shining a soft blue. It was a touch screen, and it showed a set of numbers, zero through nine. She typed in the code the driver had told her, and the door shut, and the elevator moved up.
It rose for a long while, and Aisha found herself wondering what floor her boss lived on. Finally, the elevator stopped, and with a ding the door opened. Aisha found herself in a long hallway, lit by lights that ran down either side of the hall. At the end of the hall was a door, and as Aisha made her way towards it, it opened, and she saw Anthony standing in the doorway.
“Wow,” he said, and she would have said the same. He was dressed in a tailored suit, which wasn’t rare for him, but there was just something about him, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on.
When she reached him they embraced and kissed, and then he gave her a tour.
His apartment was massive, mostly open space. One corner had a kitchen, one corner was a walled off bath, with a stone shower with glass walls and a hot tub caddy corner to it. In the middle of the floor space was a living room and in another corner his bedroom. She could have fit four of her apartments in his, and maybe with some space left over.
The dining room was open most of the rest of the apartment, with a long table made of dark wood. Candles burned on the table, and the rest of the apartment was dimly lit. Two places had been set, one at the end of the table and then at the chair directly to the left of that. She sat there, with Anthony pulling her chair out for her, and then he sat at the end of the table. An older woman, named Mary, came out from the kitchen and began serving them. She was Anthony’s private cook, and she found herself wondering if she worked there every day, or only for special occasions. Something told her it was every day.
Mary was a hell of a cook, and the meal was one of the best Aisha ever had. After dinner, she was full and a bit drunk since they had made their way through a couple of bottles of wine. Mary was excused after clearing the table, and she left through the front door.
“You have a cook,” Aisha laughed.
“In fairness, she doesn’t usually serve me like that. I paid her extra.”
Aisha laughed. “I don’t even understand this lifestyle,” she said.
“I work hard for it,” Anthony said somewhat defensively.
“I’m not making fun of you,” Aisha said, touching her hand upon his. “It’s amazing.”
Anthony leaned over and pressed his lips to hers. “You’re amazing.”