It sounded like a great plan to Joy.
Especially the part about her getting in that tub.
But equally as special was the part about her spending the night with William. It was going to be like walking onto land filled with mines, but she still wanted to walk that way anyway.
Because she liked William and oddly trusted him. And wanted to be with him.
He went back up front to handle business on his phone. She got in the tub singing a tune. It was like night and day from how she woke up in jail that morning expecting to go to be in that same jail that night.
“Ain’t no need in worrying what tonight is gonna bring. Cause it’ll be all over in the morning,” was the Winans/Anita Baker song she kept singing. Since those were the only words she knew to the song, she sung those few lines over and over again as she scrubbed every spot, every dab, every scintilla of jail off of her body.
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
The Mercedes drove through the security gate and stopped at the top tip of the circular driveway of the large mansion on the outskirts of Chicago. With acreage as far as the eye could see, Joy couldn’t stop staring at the vastness of the property. Even after the bodyguard got out and opened the back passenger door for them, she was still staring. Especially at that house. She could not believe how magnificent it was. “This is where you live?”
“Yes it is.” He got out of the car and then offered his hand. “Come on.”
She took his hand and got out too.
She tried not to act as if she wasn’t used to the finer things in life, but she couldn’t pull it off. She was amazed at the fortress-like mansion, with its round towers that made her think of a castle, and it’s super-tall windows that lined up in triple form stacked beneath each other.
But she was even more amazed at the inside of the place. From all of the different sitting rooms with their fancy fireplaces, to the magnificent staircases - three in all - as they spiraled upstairs and with a side staircase and with a downward staircase that led to the basement. If she thought that marbled floor in the lobby of his building was beautiful, the magnificent hardwood floors in his house took her over the top. She was in awe.
“This is amazing,” she said as she looked up at a chandelier that was bigger than her entire apartment and on a ceiling that was as high as she’d ever looked up inside a building.And the windows in that house went as high as the ceiling. “Wow.”
“Glad you like it,” William said as he removed his suit coat, tossed it on the sofa of the main sitting room, and then made his way to the back of the room where a full-sized bar was located. It had been a long time since he brought somebody to his home that was mesmerized by its beauty. It was nice to see.
But when Joy saw where William was headed, she smiled. “Who keeps a bar in their living room?” she asked as she followed him.
William glanced back and was pleased to see that she was still that happy-go-lucky Joynetta whose joy returned while they were in Bridell. “I don’t impress you as a man who would have a bar in his living room?”
“Nobody impresses me as somebody who would have a bar in their living room. I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“No?”
“No!”
It was quite common in his circles. “Who do you think keep bars in their living rooms, Joynetta?”
“Drunks maybe?” she said as he went behind the counter and she sat on one of the bar stools.
He laughed. “I’m no drunk,” he said, “but I like my occasional champagne. Don’t you?”
Joy found it odd that he would think she had access to champagne. He had no clue about her lifestyle if he thought that! “I’m not much of a champagne drinker,” she said.
“Are you old enough to drink?” he asked her jokingly.
“Are you?” she fired back as she pulled out her phone and William laughed out loud.
“She’s back!” he said happily.
Then he saw her making a phone call. “Who are you calling this time of night?”
“Gramps,” she said. “Just to make sure he’s okay. I spoke with him earlier, but his memory isn’t the best.”
“He lives alone?”
“No, his granddaughter stays with him. But he likes to hear my voice.”
