Danielle will be living here, and I’ll just pay her tuition next semester so she can still achieve her dreams, but I can be with her.
“Katia, please tell Danielle that breakfast is ready in the dining room,” I say as she pours me a steaming cup of coffee. She nods and leaves the room, summoning Danielle to join me.
Not knowing what Danielle likes for breakfast, I had Yuri prepare just about everything under the sun. Scrambled eggs and fried eggs, omelets with cheese, hash browns, sausage,bacon, pancakes. As soon as Danielle walks into the dining room, she looks at the spread on the table and laughs softly under her breath.
“This is too much,” she says as she sits down beside me.
“In the future, it’ll be simple, but until we know what you like, we have to make sure it’s presented.”
“I’m not picky. You could have had a bowl of store-brand Cheerios, and I would have been happy,” Danielle says, grabbing a plate and putting a fried egg and some bacon on her plate. I take note of that to tell Yuri later on.
“I trust you slept well,” I say, shoving my phone in my pocket as I see it lighting up on the table. I briefly register Lev’s name on the caller ID before silencing it.
What could he want so early?
“I did, thank you so much for everything.” I watch with a smile growing on my lips as she bites into the food. I pour her a cup of coffee and slide it across the table to her.
Thanks to the research, I know just about everything there is to know about her. I know her mom’s name is Diane and her dad’s Connor, that she has $218.48 in her bank account, and she graduated from a high school in Michigan less than a year ago. But despite learning a bunch of things about her, I’m desperate to know more. I want to know everything. What kind of movies does she like? Does she read romance books or science fiction? These are just some of the little details I can’t wait to uncover about her.
“I noticed the cafe was done up for the holidays,” I say, bridging the conversation to something a little more personal. “Are you a big Christmas person?”
Danielle nods excitedly. “I love it. It’s my favorite time of year, hands down. It’s so beautiful, especially in the city when it snows and all the shop windows are lit up with Christmas trees and twinkling lights.”
“You must find the penthouse rather sparse right now then,” I say with a laugh. I’ve never been too fond of the holidays. I’ve always found them overly sentimental and a waste of time.
For Danielle, I could change that.
“You could definitely use a Christmas tree.” She laughs. “I take it you’re not keen on celebrating?”
“Growing up, it was never an important part of our lives. My parents were always focused on working and business, so Christmas fell by the wayside,” I explain, tiptoeing around the actual truth.
While what I said is true, I left out the part where Christmas was deemed unimportant because my father was usually working by smuggling more weapons and drugs across borders thanks to the influx of international shipping. We were always too busy to sit around the Christmas tree and open presents.
“Christmas was a huge part of our lives growing up,” Danielle says, folding her arms in front of her as she stares at me with a smile. My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I ignore it as I watch her. “My mom planned for the season months before Christmas. We didn’t have a lot of money for presents, so it was never about who got the coolest gift or the most expensive thing. It was always about the nights we would stay up late watching Christmas movies and making s’mores out back covered in thick blankets to shield us from the snow.”
“That sounds really lovely,” I say, admiring the wistful look in her eyes.
“I’m really going to miss that this year. I was going to stay with my friend Leah over winter break to keep working.” Danielle sighs. “I guess I could go home now, but then I’d have to tell my family about what went wrong, and I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet.”
“They won’t understand?”
“As much as I love them, they’re a big ‘I told you so’ family. They always thought studying animation was useless, and the only reason I was able to do it was that scholarship. If they find out that was taken away from me, then I’ll never hear the end of it.”
Even talking about it again this morning, I can see how it’s stressing her out. That’s the last thing I want for her right now.
“How about you don’t worry about that anymore and just trust that everything is going to work out? Today you need to relax and decompress,” I say, a smile growing on my lips when an idea hits me. “You should come swimming with me. I have a heated pool on the rooftop, and there is a fire pit nearby we can make s’mores on.”
Danielle smiles at me and laughs nervously, shaking her head a little bit. “I don’t know. It’s 20° outside right now.”
“I promise you won’t be able to tell in the pool.” I raise my eyebrows at her.
She laughs and nods, blushing a tiny bit.
We finish breakfast, and she heads to her room to change into a bathing suit, and I gather everything I need for s’mores as well as some blankets to wrap up in after we’re done swimming. The idea of getting to see Danielle in a skimpy little bikini gets me excited, and I don’t know how I’m going to hold myself back from her.
I don’t know if I want to try.
After about ten minutes, she meets me in the living room. She’s wearing an oversized sweater that covers her bathing suit. I can’t wait to get that off of her.
