Today I'm living through the apocalypse.
My phone begins to vibrate on the side dresser. My body is too heavy with sadness to move. Burrrrr … .burrrr … it shakes and rattles. It hits the floor with a thud, and I place my pillow over my head to drown out all noises as the rain presents a soft tranquil affect against my window.
A while later a melody interweaves through the window, calling my name. NO, it is literally calling out to me.
"Luxury... Luxury … Luxury … " That actually sounds like the trio of singers who often gather outside the shops around the area. Yeah, that has to be them. Now, I do toss coins into their guitar case when I have change and sometimes a few dollars when they're singing one of my jams. Not enough for this special treatment.
The singing gets louder and couples well with the drumming of the rain outside, but my heart is hurt, and I'm determined to not be bothered.
"What!" I start to get up. A chill zips through my body, as my bare feet touch the ground. I quickly slide them into my fuzzy slippers, and huddle in my pajamas. I step to the window and look down. Peering through the ugly rainy haze. Within the folds of them is Victor, standing there in the rain, looking up three stories and waiting.
It showers down on him in torrents. "Luxury!" he shouts upon seeing me.
Instantly, I shot back into the darkness of my room. "Go away." I cup my hand to my mouth and am surprised that I brushed my teeth this morning, must be the routines of it all after peeing.
Then I lift my arm. Hey, not too shabby. But still I haven't taken a shower since yesterday.
"I don't want to talk to you," I shout down, still too shy to show my face. Finally, the music gives way, and the singers silently listen.
"Luxury, come down or I'm coming up."
At least he gave me two choices.
"Give me 10," I snap and close my window.
I kick off my close, as I go to the bathroom and turn on the shower. Two minutes should be just enough for the water and soap to hit my hot spots. As I get in, I sob at how ridiculous I'm being. Why am I cleaning for him? Why am I going above and beyond the call for a man who hasn't done the same for me?
Victor
How do I tell my little that I've have fallen for her.
No, not love. Never. Addition. A must.
"I think about you entirely too much. You consume me, Lux." The words fly from my mouth as soon as the front door opens and I look down at her. I've never been so out of control in my life, but what I've said is true.
Luxury has on these pair of jeans that cling to her soft, sensual curves. A magenta knit sweater leaves her left shoulder, bare and vulnerable.
"Yeah, right." Her eyes move away from mine as if she's holding onto some shred of sanity. That's okay, for the moment, I'm content with just the fact that Doctor Whitson is nowhere in sight in the spacious living room.
Luxury's ass mesmerizes me as she starts up the stairs. Without words, I close the front door, lock it, and follow her. Luxury's bedroom is a crisp chilly coolness as if the windows have been open. She takes to the opposite side of her bedroom, seemingly more interested in picking up and holding a curly haired teddy bear from her dresser than talking to me.
"I want to have you anytime of the day and night, Little One." I part the room in seconds, stepping toward my lady. My thumb softly grazes her chin, pulling Luxury's eyes back up to me. When she looks everywhere but at me, I take to lifting her to eye level, my holding her at the waist. Hello Kitty house shoes dangling in the air.
"Luxury!"
"No, I get it, Vic. I went hard on you. Asked you about kids. Said I loved you for Christ Sake!" She finally looks at me with tears in her amber eyes. "Victor, we've only known each other 28 days. The next thing on my mind would have been proposal on day 82. Me. Stooping so low to propose to a man when I didn't even have much self-esteem when we met! You do something to me and I don't like it. Not one bit! So it's good that you got ghost, now put me down and step off. Okay, asshole?"
"As you wish." I set her down, tossing her hair. "But know this, Luxury, you are the most beautiful site ever. When God created you all the 7 wonders ceased to exist. Trust me I've seen them all."
"No, Victor," she treads her fingers over the foot of the bedpost. "You're just saying it."
"You don't believe me?" I ask, hoping that my questioning will make Lux forget trying to get me to leave.
"Your very presence makes me believe that roses are peonies." She scoffs at the absurdity.
I rub a hand across my face. Then sneeze.
"You're cold?" Luxury displays a fraction of worry, and then realizes she should be angry with me.
"I feel not, Lux, because you've denied me," I reply drily.
"Don't get all romantic. When you're the one who wouldn't take my calls." Her hand goes to her hips. "I don't want you anymore. You've made me crazy enough so just let me go."
Damn, have the tables turned? First female I've ever chased. And first female to dismiss me? My confidence shoots to shit as I ask, "We're done?"
"We haven't even lifted off Vic. Go back where you came from. When I want to fuck, maybe I'll text you, so then you'll be sure to reply instead of the uncertainty of me waiting for you to answer my calls."
My hands go to the top of my head, as I stare at this unyielding woman. Arlington is calling. Lux has a front as hard and high as the Great Wall of China. I don't even need a fleet of risk assessors at D'Ross Enterprise to determine which course to take.
Luxury is high risk, with what would be high rewards if she just gave me that smile, or even looked at me again like she loves me.
What I have at home? Low risk all across the board … Today I'm not up for a challenge.
I start back down the stairs, and can see Whitson hurrying by. He had to be somewhere near when Luxury let me in. He huffs, realizing his snooping has come to an end.
Then he asks, "Do you care about my daughter?"
"Yes." I don't even skip a beat.
"Where are you going, then?"
"You told me to leave her be. Lux just told me to leave her alone." Damn, I chuckle at that. For me, commanding a woman comes easy. All because I can read what their body needs. Lux's body is radiating hate, and commanding me to fuck off.
"You look like a man that will fight for what he wants," Whitson glares me up and down, "So why not – "
"Daddy!" Lux shoots from the tip of the stairs. "You told Victor to stop talking to me?"
I want to tell her it's more complicated than that, but she hurries down, hands on her hips. I begin to take up for the old guy, "Wait, it's not – "
"No, Vic." She turns to her father. All the anger that was geared toward my abandoning her has now set its claws on Whitson. "Daddy, why? I'm not a child!"
Whitson's hands go up in defense, "I just think you deserve better than what he can give."
"What he can give?" she repeats in that cheeky tone that is so sexy to me.
"Well, yes," Whitson begins in a stutter. "Honestly, I just don't think your personality types mesh well."
"Let's go, Victor," she says, grabbing her purse from the side table. "I want to leave, now!"
I take a deep breath and notice that the look on her face mirrors mine from the past. Whitson doesn't know my identity, but his instincts tell him that I'm a risk to Luxury. Riskier than D'Ross Enterprises acquisition of the faultiest business. If I take to this girl, and become that rock she needs at this moment, Lux will have required certain expectations. Then there will be no going back.
Lux
I can't believe Dad still treats me like a child. First, he's against my location for Urban Gardens. He wants to take over everything. My body is tense with irritation as we step outside. Victor tries to take up for my father again.
"You know, it's been just you and him for a while," Victor rationalizes.
"I don't want to talk about or even think about Daddy right now," I snap, mashing on the elevator button.
As soon as we step on, Victor bestows that mind-blowing kiss on my lips and says that he's going to change any thoughts I've ever had of the rain.
"No matter how much you enjoyed the rain pre-Arnold, and hated it after him." Victor says, "When it rains, you'll always think of me."
Even though my smile is bright again, I just cling to it. No matter how confident Victor is or how good his words sound, this promise doesn't sit right with me. Always think of him...
No, I don't want to just think of Victor. I want to be with Victor 24/7. Something about the statement leaves me wanting to cry even more. This only implies that distance and time will become a factor in this intense love I have for him.
"Luxury? Are you thinking?" he asks in this scolding tone. Light shimmies through the elevator bars and reflects off the strong God-crafted angles of his face, as we make our descent.