The driver was at the gate and Maxie escort's me out like I was going for an important trip
"Girlllllll, I can smell you from here, you all set" she smiles sheepishly while I just roll my eyes at her
I noticed Marcus didn't answer my greeting but to hell with him
The driver took my bag without asking, he didn't drive me to the penthouse in town. He drove me back to the apartment near that picnic spot where everything had started, the place that still smelled like the first lie I ever told myself about him. The driver helps me to get my things to the door and leaves. I pressed the doorbell gently but there was no reply then I pressed it again. Nothing... Five minutes became a small, impatient drumbeat under my skin.
I pulled out my phone to call him. The screen was a flash of Maxie's last message, then Aec's name, right as I hit call button the door swung open.
There was no one standing there.
Of course there wasn't. He'd opened it and moved away. I stepped in and the place hit me with the wrong kind of honesty. Outside it looked neat and deliberately simple; inside it belonged to someone who'd learned how to keep a corner of himself soft.
"Hi," I said
But he was silent and after weird minutes of just standing confused his voice came out smooth and flat. "Room to the left."
He walked away without looking back. "Feel at home," he added, like a man giving orders with a velvet ribbon.
I wasn't surprised one bit and did what I was told. The room was small but decent: a bed, a dresser with three tins lined up like a militia, a soft lamp that made everything forgiving. I dropped my bag, peeled off my shoes, and had a hot shower, arranged my things and set to sleep.
When I woke it was close to evening. My phone lit up with missed calls from Maxie and one ridiculous message: "Babes you cum!" with that silly emoji she sent when she wanted to ruin my composure. I laughed out loud alone in the quiet, typing back something flirty.
The other room's door opened and I bolted out, towel tangled in my hair. He looks at me keenly...
"What?" he asked, the word flat and clinical.
I returned the stare he was giving "What was what?" I answered.
He gestured. The slight, disdainful motion toward my face. "The stare."
"Oh." I scoffed, "I was returning the same look you gave me." I could feel the heat under my skin
He walked to the living room and I followed.
"You need anything?" he started, trying to fill the silence with small talk
"I won't hesitate to ask," i cut him off, he let out a short laugh that sounded new and awkward to me. For a second his mask slipped and he looked, almost, like a man who could be ordinary. Then he pulled the mask back on and his mouth set.
There was total silence again, both of us disappeared into screens like two people who'd agreed not to touch a live wire. The quiet held until he said, abruptly, "Get dressed. We're going out."
I blinked. "Out where?"
"You'll see."
I changed fast into something simple but with an edge, that kind of dress that moves. He clocked it, then complained the hem was a little too short. "You're not my daddy," I said loud enough for the words to slap the air between us and walked right pass him
He didn't reply, he never did unless it pleased him to. We left the city and the car cut through the buildings like a blade. He stopped at a place that shouldn't have fit his resume, a market town near that picnic spot, where old men sat on stoops, kids played like they owned the world, and the air smelled of street foods.
He stepped out and took a long breath and smile, something in me cracked at the sight.
"Let's go," he said, and reached across to take my hand.
His touch was careful, not claiming. We walked, and the street moved past us fast, the street snacks looked eye catchy with old songs that made people slow their steps and remember things they liked better not to name. The place smelled like childhood and Sunday visits.
"Sire" but I noticed his breath hitched
"While we're out, I'm Aec," he said, the cold settling back in. "Don't address me with 'sire.'" The command came sharp enough to cut.
I shrugged but let sarcasm cover up for me "Not that I respect you or anything. I just don't want you to have a reason to fire me."
He laughed, a short exhale. The sound made me stupid with the thought that maybe the man who could destroy me also liked my jokes. He studied me for a second as if cataloguing: sarcasm, humor, bruises.
"Let's make today count, Pookie,"
"I hope this is not the scenario where you tell me you are dying in three months" I looked at him suspiciously
"Why" he frowns
"You are different, too different" and it was true
"Whatever you see here today should remain with you," he said meaty and ambiguous.
Half request. Half order.
We moved through the market with a speed that made choices look easy, roasted plantain from a paper cone, a bite of sugar bread that stuck to the roof of my mouth.
A little girl, five, maybe six barreled up and pried Aec's hand away from mine like she had jurisdiction.
"Flower for you, cute mister," she announced, thrusting a clumsy bloom at him.
Then, with the unbearable truth of children, she added, "When I grow up you'll divorce her and get married to me." She pointed at me like I was a game piece.
Aec crouched to her level "If you want me to divorce her now I will. You are way prettier than her ." He patted the child's head with a softness that made my stomach do a dirty flip.
The ridiculousness of it made me react before I could think. "He's mine," I snapped, yanking his hand back and locking my fingers around his. "Go get your own, mister handsome." I stuck my tongue out at the child.
She ran off with a triumphant giggle and Aec smiled "We're never divorcing..."
The words landed like a verdict. Possessive, gentle, dangerous even. I didn't know whether to be held or to be alarmed.
We passed an ice-cream shop and I wanted nothing more than to sit, but my legs were tired.
"I'm tired, go get it" I removed my hands from his
"Ordering your boss around" I sat on the bench by the side and looked up at him
"Well..."
I rested on a bench while he went to buy.
"Hi" the voice wasn't familiar
"Hello I answered with a smile" I noticed Aec coming back, his expression dark
"Can I get your contact please" he brings his phone out
Aec walked over with that polite but final tone of someone used to being obeyed. "Excuse me," he said.
But his snubbed, he stretched his hand to give me his phone and before I could move, Aec slapped the phone out of the man's hand. The screen hit the pavement and shivered.
"What's your deal man" The man hit Aec on the shoulder.
Aec dropped the ice cream, rolling up his sleeve like a man who had practiced for minutes that would require him to fight. A small crowd gathering.
I stepped in between because God knows why. Maybe because I was tired of being the headline in progress. "He just want my number," I said, voice tight. "What right do you have to stop that?"
He gets pissed, grab my arm with a grip that said leave-now or I'll leave-you-right-here. "Time to go," he said, and his voice was all edges.
He drag me down to the car, the ride home was a hard, head-down silence. I mutter under my breath half-speech, half-paranoia.
"These neighbors can be dangerous too. What if you get hurt? By Monday the office timeline will say I wanted to kill you for some stupid reason"
He doesn't pay attention to me anymore, just driving and acting deaf to everything I was saying
We drove back slow, the city lights regaining their glassy patience.