“You know my name?”
His smile is the same but unique to him at the same time. His canines protrude just a little, and there’s something subdued behind his eyes.
“I’m Kyle,” he introduces himself, comes closer to shake my hand. He removes his suit jacket, folds it neatly, and sits on the pool lounger next to me. “Please, sit. This isn’t a formal meeting. My brothers asked me to come and speak to you.”
“They did?”
Is this the part where they get the lawyer of the family to evict me from the rooftop terrace? Maybe he’ll serve me with a legalinjunction to leave his twin brothers alone, a judicial order to maintain a three-mile distance between me and Cassius and Bastien, or their place of employment.
“They didn’t tell you, did they?” He shakes his head, but it isn’t accompanied by a Scrooge-type scowl. “I don’t even know why I’m surprised at this point.”
What’s that supposed to mean?
I haven’t moved, but breakfast is churning around inside my stomach, and I pray that I won’t be sick in front of him. Or if I must, I pray that I can at least contain it until he has finished delivering the bad news.
“They want me to discuss your property requirements.”
“Myproperty requirements?”
My brain isn’t working at the correct speed. When Cash and Bash left me earlier, they kissed my cheek and told me to help myself to whatever I wanted. Food. Drink. Clothes. Books. The rooftop cabana. Now they want me to sign for it or something.
“I’m not going to take anything home with me. I’ll wash the bathing suit and replace it in the closet.”
I peer down at it and feel self-conscious about having this conversation half-dressed. Kyle has the advantage here. Well, it’s more than just the suit, there’s his legal background to consider too.
“No, you misunderstand me.”
Well, maybe that’s because you’re not being clear enough.
“Property requirements. Housing. Where would you like me to start looking?”
I open my mouth to speak and change my mind. I’m still not following the conversation. Ariel mentioned that baby brain is a thing. Women shed brain cells during pregnancy which is why they often become forgetful and clumsy. But I’m still in the first trimester, God help me, I won’t remember my own name by the time I go into labor.
“Start looking for what?”
“Somewhere for you and the babies to live.”
I’m still numb when I leave the apartment to go to college.
Ariel’s predictions are coming true. No paternity test, and they want to buy me an apartment. Anywhere I want. Kyle didn’t mention the possibility of them living with me, but baby steps. I wanted to ask him how much he knew, but he was so focused on showing me images on his tablet of the kind of real estate featured onSelling Sunset, that I was afraid to interrupt.
I saw the price tags. I’m still unsure if they were real or if I imagined the entire conversation, because Kyle moved swiftly onto gynecology care once I told him that I couldn’t possibly accept that kind of offer. I grew up in Port Washington. Owning my own home is something that I’ve never strived for. It’s right up there on a shelf, alongside getting married and having babies.
I guess I’m partway there.
But still…
The Murray family will pay for the best gynecology and obstetrics care for me and the babies. Apparently. Because onlythe best for their offspring. I didn’t ask the difference between the care they want to pay for and the care I would receive through my own healthcare policy. At this point, I’d given up trying to follow the conversation and was trying to get my head around sums of money that don’t exist in the real world.
I’m still so dazed that I exit the elevator into the foyer rather than Bash’s private parking bay at the back of the Rinse.
Each time I pass through feels different. Today I feel like a fraud. I’m wearing clothes that don’t belong to me, I spent last night in a penthouse that people like me only see on TV, and am vaguely aware that soon, I will be calling a vastly overpriced apartment home.
I keep my head down, trying to remain invisible.
A woman dressed in a raw silk shift dress, carrying a chihuahua under one arm, almost walks straight into me on her way to the restaurant, distracted by the telephone conversation she is having. She sees me though. She sees me, and she makes that call to keep right on walking because she expects me to move out of her way.
I stare at her back, teary-eyed, willing her to turn around and acknowledge that she elbowed my chest as she walked by. But she is oblivious.
