“Like when you sat with me?”
“No, you’re the first person I ever sat with. You just drew me in, and held me captive.” My lips involuntarily turn up at his kind words. “I’ve helped a lady whose house was in foreclosure, her husband had run off with a younger woman, and she was going through chemo. I had her mortgage paid two years in advance, and all her medical costs paid.”
“You did that? What did she say?”
“I don’t tell the people I help, I simply help.”
“People? As in you’ve done this before?”
“And since.”
“What?” I move my body and sit on the bed in a way where one leg is slightly hitched, not too high, because I am wearing a dress. “Who else?”
“I once helped a young girl, well her parents. They came in, distressed because she wasn’t breathing, but their medical insurance had stopped because he’d lost his job. The girl ended up needing an operation to correct a heart defect her parents didn’t know about. The operation alone would’ve bankrupted them and left them on the street. I paid for it.”
“You’re a saint,” I blurt.
“No, I’m not a saint, but I have more money coming in than going out. I want for nothing, so I give where I can.”
“Wow. Speaking of giving I still have my bonus money from work, I wanted to donate it to a local refuge for women, who’ve escaped from domestic violence.” I get up, go to my bag and get the envelope.
“How much is it? I’ll match it.”
“I don’t know,” I answer.
“How can you not know how much is in it? Did you open it?”
I flop the envelope down next to Max’s leg and sit beside him again. “No, I didn’t.”
“How about this, I will not only match it, I’ll double what’s in that envelope, and we’ll go down to the closest domestic violence shelter and give it to them, now.”
“But, Shayne and Liam have people coming over soon.”
“What’s more important to you, Lily?”
He’s right, I’ve held onto it for far too long. “Deal,” I say as I hold my hand out to him to shake it.
“Let’s see what’s in the envelope.” He picks it up and hands it to me. “Wait, before you open it, what do you think is in there?”
“I don’t know, really. I thought the fact they financed my car was my bonus. I’m really not expecting much. I know the highest bonus was five thousand and it scaled down from there.”
“What was the lowest?”
“The cashiers. They received a hundred dollars each.”
“Okay, so it’s somewhere between one hundred, and five thousand.”
“It won’t be five thousand. No way.”
“Open it.”
I tear the envelope open, and there’s a wad of one hundred dollar bills. We start counting it. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, at one thousand, I look up at Max. I keep counting, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen and the final one hundred dollar bill, makes two thousand. “Oh my God,” I say, clearly unable to say more.
“Not bad work, Snowflake.” I look up at him and he winks. “I have to go home and get the money, because I think I only have a few hundred on me. I’ll be back, and then we can go.”
“Wait,” I say as we stand together. “I can come with you.”
“I don’t want you uncomfortable, I can come back to pick you up.”
“You slept on the sofa, and you were a perfect gentleman, I’m sure.”
“Okay let’s go.”
I go out to Shayne and tell her what we’re doing, she gives me a kiss and tells me to be back soon because Michaela will be here and wants to meet me.
Max and I go to his apartment, and when he pulls up outside, I instantly recognize it as the building he was describing earlier. “This is where you live?”
“Yeah, come on. I’ll show you my place.” He rounds the car, and opens the door for me, then with his hand to the small of my back, he leads me up to the entry, which is manned by a young man with a hat and a suit.
“Good evening, Mr. Sterling. Ma’am.” He tips his hat to me, and opens the door.
“Charlie,” Max says, and nods.
We walk into the grand foyer, and there’s a security guard sitting behind a concierge desk, looking down at something. But he stands the moment Max and I approach him. It feels so opulent and sinfully decadent. There are large gray tiles on the floor, and the entire lobby is so lavish with its deep green and red hues. “Mr. Sterling, on the way up?” the security guard says as he removes a small plastic card and waves it over a black box near the elevator.