“The games room?” I asked as he laughed and winked at me.
“It’s one of my favorite rooms of the house, come, I’ll show you,” he said, taking my hand.
Chapter Thirteen
“Wow,” I said as I stepped out of the elevator onto level one. I hated how many times I had stood stunned, with “wow” the only simple word that came out of my mouth around Henry. But here I was once again. There was still so much of this building to be discovered.
“This is the games room?” I asked.
Henry chuckled stepping out of the elevator behind me, his hand lightly brushing my lower back. “I know, I shouldn’t really call it a games room, I guess it’s more of a games floor.”
A games floor would have been a much more appropriate term. The whole floor was too large to see where it started and ended, but I did see some kind of library. It was stunning, and the style was very him. Gold and black shelves, filled with books and arranged in a kind of maze. And from where I was standing, I was next to a black velvet armchair and ottoman, hidden in the middle of the shelves.
Directly in front of me were more shelves of games and toys. I stepped forward and touched what looked like some sort ofkid’s robot, sitting alongside the usual game room suspects, Scrabble, and a very elaborate chessboard. As I touched the little robot’s hand two bright red eyes lit up on its round face.
“I made that,” Henry said. “Actually, it was the first thing that I ever made, when I was fifteen. Before I got into digital tech, I played around with some physical pieces. To be honest I wasted a lot of the money that was left to me, building things and not actually making anything come to fruition, but… they live here now.”
“I don’t think that you’ve wasted any money,” I scoffed, “I have no doubt that all of this has led to where you are today… besides, he’s cute,” I whispered in Henry’s ear as I took in the rest of the floor. To the right of me looked like the ultimate relaxation area, which I believed were for both Henry’s books and games. A large low coffee table sat in the middle of various, grey and gold bean bags and to the right of that, was a whole gaming area. A full screen set up with headsets and consoles, even a whole car you could sit inside as well as some arcade games along the far wall.
Ah-ha! I suspected that he was a gamer. I was honestly surprised that I hadn’t seen a set-up of something like this back at his penthouse in New York but now I knew where he hid it all.
“What else are you hiding in this place?” I asked.
“In this place as in this level, this place as in this house, or this place as in Miss Bentley as a whole?”
“All of the above,” I said.
“Well, I can show you this floor and I can show you this whole building,” he said as he paused, spinning around so quickly my eyes were still gazing either side of me, easily distracted by my surroundings. I didn’t realize he had stopped walking. Henry grabbed hold of my shoulders stopping me in my tracks, as his eyes met mine again. “But as for the whole island, I don’t know if we’re going to have the time for all of that over the next four days. That’s going to need to be another trip.”
“Yeah maybe,” I sighed, “I mean, there’s a rose that I have to accept first before you go ahead and inviting me back here, Mr. I wouldn’t get too ahead of yourself if I was you.”
Henry dropped his gaze. “That you are right,” he said, his professionalism taking over. Surely, he knew that I was going to say yes. Surely, he knew how much I loved this, us, everything. He was my unicorn, the one that I had been searching for all along. But he also left me in anticipation before and this was a way to give him some cheeky payback. I had the upper hand, but I could see myself giving up everything in a matter of hours. At least I hope I did.
“Are you still cold? Can I get you anything?” he said.
“Not at all, I’m warm and relaxed,” I replied, following him over to the beanbags. I gazed out the large window, which took up the whole front of the floor. The sun was now completely hidden behind the clouds and the rain was heavy. It made me wonder how long it was going to last for or how much it would end up affecting the middle of the island. I was dying to getout there for a hike. But then again, if the rain stayed like this, I guess it was more of a reason to stay indoors with Henry.
I lounged down on what must have been the most comfortable bean bag. It felt like a golden cloud, one on which I could easily fall asleep. It wasn’t until now that I realized how tired I was. So much had happened already today. My body had been running full of adrenaline with the excitement of it all, the newness, followed by a little too much sun and water. I was about to drift away… until I noticed the mini bar of spirits where Henry began mixing things into a cocktail jar. God, this man could read my mind. A late afternoon drink, relaxing with him. My holiday could end tomorrow, and I could already confidently say that this was the best holiday of my life… not that I had exactly taken many. But four days of this was going to be incredible.
“Oh, what do we have here?” I said picking up a very fitting gold box, that rested in the corner of the table on top of a box of Jenga and Connect Four. Henry turned around shaking the silver cocktail jug before pouring the light green liquid out into two glasses, handing one to me, as I pulled the box in front of me, taking a sip.
“For my margarita girl,” he said.
“Is that another way of saying basic bitch?” I asked. He laughed.
“No, not at all, I’m quite partial to a Marg, I would say basic bitch if your favorite drink was an espressomartini,” he said.
I nodded. “That’s fair… but I don’t understand how you have never seen this box before, when this is your house after all. The fact that they are sitting here is very convenient, I must say.”
“Miss Molly, I would never lie to you. I can honestly say that I have never seen that box before. And although, yes, you are right, this is my place. I am probably the one that is least here. Whatever it is, it could have been left here by one of the many business conferences that has been held here. This is usually the most common floor for people to come to and wind down. Why, what is it?” he said leaning in closer as I shuffled through the cards.
“They're conversation cards, and quite in-depth ones I must say.”
“Oh, how interesting, hit me with one,” he said smiling as he took a sip from his drink leaning back in his chair.
“What don’t you think that you know enough about me?” I asked.
“I hope that I never know enough about you. I hope that I discover more and more things about you every single day. If we’re not growing, we’re dying.”
