Chapter 1
Oliver
I opened the door slowly and stepped inside the apartment. The lights were off and the empty night sky made the apartment sinisterly dark, the only light being the glow of the city and lightening flickering across the sky. I quietly made his way through the room careful not to hit anything, hoping that the thunder would give me the element of surprise. My shaking hands grasped the door knob and gathering the last bit of courage he had he forced the door open. Thunder rang out and a flash of lightning painted the walls. Two figures were on my bed, one on top of the other. Her long, dark brown hair flowing down her bare back. I watched them for a moment, watched as she leaned down and passionately kissed the man as she had kissed me once before.
"Candace?" I said, my voice trembling with idea of what I was seeing. She turned around and gasped at the sight of me. She hopped off her lover and sprang off the bed grabbing the closest article of clothing possible, covering herself. At this moment, I knew that everything Candace and I had built for ourselves had come to crumbling to the ground. All the love and respect in my heart for her vanished as the rain started to pound against the window. I dropped the bouquet of flowers I bought for her to the floor.
"Olly! What are you doing here?" She said looking back and forth between and the man getting up off our bed and grabbing his pants.
"What am I doing here? What am I doing here! Candace, this is our apartment. I live here. What the hell is he doing here?"
"I-I…Olly, this isn't what it looks like." Candace stuttered.
"Listen man, your girl needed some attention which you weren't giving her, so I offered it to her." The tall blonde juice head said. I swung at him, hitting hum in his jaw with a crack. The man fell to the floor moaning and held is jaw in pain.
"Get the hell out here." I said in a menacing tone standing over him. The man scrambled to his feet and grabbed the rest of his stuff before running out of the apartment. As soon as I heard the front door close, I shook my hand loose trying to relieve the pain in my knuckles. Every nerve ending was on fire and I was on the verge of tears. I had never punched anyone before so that meant I never felt the pain of hitting bone on bone. "Shit."
"Oliver, let me see." She said reaching out to touch my hand. Her fingers barely touched my skin before I felt the sting of her betrayal.
"Don't touch me, Candace. Please, don't touch me. I can't believe you would do this to me, to us." I said.
"To us? Oliver, there hasn't been an us. You have been putting everything over me for the past four years." She said crossing her arms.
"So that gives you the right to sleep with some other guy?" My voice cracked. "Dammit, Candace. I've been working my ass for you. My mother is sick for god's sakes."
"Yea, she can't even remember you." It seemed with this line, her whole body morphed into the mean girl she was in high school destroying people's reputations in the hallway with one word.
I looked down and swallowed hard. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out a small, black box "I'm glad you finally got that one of your chest. You know I can't believe I was going to propose to you. The company is going big and I wanted to share my success with you, my life with you, but you threw that all away."
Her eyes lit up when I told her about my impending success. "Oh, Olly. That's great. I knew you could do it." She said coming up to me and wrapping her arms around my neck. I grabbed her arms and puller her off of me. "Babe, look at me. We can work this out. I want to fix all the damage I did. We can see a counselor."
"Yea, well it's funny how you only said that after I told you that I had success." He said letting her go and turning to leave.
"No. No. No! Olly, wait! Please don't do this to me. I love you." She said walking after me and grabbing me by the arm to pull me to look at her. "Please, you can't do this to me."
"You did this to yourself. When I get back, you need to be gone. We're done." I stated firmly shaking her off of me. I left the apartment with a slam of the door. The storm had stopped.
I don't know how or why I ended up at a bar in Soho. I walked into the empty, musty bar and took a seat three stools away from the only other person there. The bartender approached and I ordered a scotch and told him to keep them coming. I sat there staring my hands before a glass was put in front of me. I downed it and the bartender poured another. How could she do this to me?After six years of dating, she cheated and who knew for how long.
"You look like you've been through hell." The woman to my right said. I looked over into the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen. Baby blue eyes that made me forget all about Candace and her indiscretions. Those eyes made me forget all about who I was, they were new eyes that saw a stranger. Her gorgeous strawberry blonde hair perfectly framed her petite, round face. I pulled my eyes away from her, worried that she might have seen me staring.
"That would be an understatement." I said taking a sip of my drink.
"Wanna talk about it?" She said holding her martini glass to her lips.
"Why would I talk about my problems with you? I don't even know you."
"A stranger sees us the way we are, not as he wishes to think we are." She said with a smile.
"The Shadow of the Wind. Very nice." She was well educated, god I loved a woman with a great mind. It was something I missed out on with Candace. Candace was intelligent but she had more of the conniving and manipulative mind. This girl right here, she had a brain that actually knew things that were worth knowing. "Alright, I'll tell you mine, if you tell me yours." He said turning his whole body to look at her with a grin. She got out of her chair and scooted all the way down to the chair next to me.
"Mine's not much of a story. Probably not as good as yours. But, ok. I came here for the drinks. I tend to put myself over my head in everything I do, so sometimes a girl just needs a drink." She said gesturing to her martini.
"What do you go over your head in?" He said getting more intrigued by the young woman.
"I'm trying to graduate early, so I'm taking a double class load so it's pretty stressful."
"Yea. I bet. That's great that you want to graduate early. I never really had the desire to work that hard. Honestly, college wasn't exactly my cup of tea. But that's really awesome that you set that goal for yourself. Do you think it will happen?"
"Thanks. Yea, all I have to do is get through this year and pass finals and I'm home free." She said with a smile. "What about you? Why are you here?"
"My girlfriend cheated on me." I drank the rest of my drink.
"Oh, god. I'm so sorry." She said putting her hand over my own. "I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable or force you into telling me that." I was so caught up on the feeling of warmth and electricity from her hand that I didn't process her words until our eyes met. She held my gaze for a moment before pulling her hand back quickly, grabbing her glass and drinking the rest of her martini.
"It's fine really. I've been working my ass for the past couple years in college and on this idea I had. I've been trying to get it off the ground and Candace, my girlfriend, never really the supported the idea. She wanted me to follow in my family's footsteps or take a job at her father's financial firm on Wall Street. But I don't want to be handed something, I want to work for it you know?" She shook her head in agreement as I took a drink of my scotch to clear my throat. "Anyway tonight, something big happened. We sold out first big idea and it's finally taking off. I wanted to share it with Candace. I told her that morning that I was going to spend the night at the office, but then everything happened and I had to tell her. So I rushed home and found her straddling some meat head." I laughed at myself.
"What's so funny?"
"Before I told her about the company, she acted like she didn't want to work things out. And then when I told her, she immediately wanted to see ac counselor. I loved her. I spent six years of my life with this girl and turns out she only loved the idea of my success. I was going to propose to her, hell I even bought this stupid ring. My luck, right?"
"I'd say you're pretty lucky. Sounds like you dodged a bullet." I looked over at her and laughed. She couldn't be more right. "Can I see it?" She whispered.
"See what?"
"The ring?" She said. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the black velvet box and handed it to her. She opened it and gazed at the giant rock. "It's big."
"Yeah, Candace always wanted a big ring. She liked the glitz and glamor. You know she actually put some on hold at our jeweler's so that no matter what I chose, it would be something she liked." She rolled her eyes at that.
"I mean it's a beautiful ring don't get me wrong, but I would have gone for something much smaller." She closed the ring box and handed it back to me.
"Really? You don't want a big ring on your finger."
"No. It doesn't matter how big the ring is. It matters who the ring is from. Personally, I would want small and classic. Not big and shiny, and 'ooh look at me'."
"Good to know. You know I can't remember the last time I had an honest conversation with someone." I said. "I didn't catch your name."
"You never asked." She said with a raise of her brow. "I'm Alexis."
"Oliver." I said with a smile holding out my hand to shake hers. She took it but instead she flipped it over to look at my knuckles. She ran her fingertips over the bruised skin.
"What happened?" She asked as she examined my fist.
"I hit the guy. I've never hit a guy before so I don't know if it's supposed to hurt this bad or not."
"Well it's not broken. It's just going to be sore and bruised for the next few days." She said involuntarily drawing small circles over his knuckles with her thumb.
"You studying to be a doctor or something?" I chuckled.
"Spent the summer interning for a medical examiner and spent the my first year as a pre-med major."
"Why did you chan-…" I began to say.
"Hey, we're getting ready to close." The bartender stated as he gave me the look of 'hurry up and pay me so I can leave'. I quickly took out my wallet and handed him enough money to cover both tabs. Alexis looked over at me and I waved her off.
"I didn't realize it was so late. Well, it's been fun, Oliver." She said getting of her bar stool and grabbing her jacket.
"The night doesn't have to end. I'm getting a room at the Plaza tonight. I promise no funny business. We can drink a nightcap and then I'll call a cab for you and you can go home. I promise." I pleased with her not wanting this girl to leave so soon. I didn't want the night to end just yet, especially since I was so enamored by her.
"I don't know if that's such a good idea." She said as he hopped of his chair and stood in front of her.
"Life is either a daring adventure of nothing at all." I said with a smaile.
"Helen Keller. You thought you got me on that one." She said laughing, the kind of laugh that that was bright and cheerful like dandelions in summer days, blossoming upon a quiet field. God, she was sexy as hell when you saw those neurons fire behind her eyes. "Fine, one drink and then I have to go." She said sliding her jacket on. I followed her out to the street and hailed a cab for the both of us.
As we slid into the cab, I gave instructions to the driver. "Why did you change majors?"
"I didn't. I'm still majoring in biology. I'm just changing my plans for after school. Instead of going to med school, I'm planning on going to law school."
"Why did you change your plans, then?"
"Oh, I don't know. I recently been working at a P.I. office and I just woke up one day and realized that I loved working there and helping people. It was crazy because I had my heart set on being in the medical field for a long time but now I am in law enforcement I guess. Plus, I get to act like a detective with no rules." She said with a wink.
"Do you run around with a monocle and a magnifying glass?" I said having images of a role play.
"No, I'm not on Scooby Doo." She giggled.
"You know I've never met anyone as smart as you before. Someone who knows what they want and chases after it. It's pretty amazing what you're doing." I said scooting closer to her, my knee touched hers. I stared into her alluring eyes. They were magical. She was magical. She was like a magnet pulling me towards this stranger, this person who holds my attention in every demeanor. It's looking at her and instantly thinking 'I could spend the rest of my life with you'. Her cheeks flushed a bright, crimson red and I could feel the butterflies move their wings vigorously in my stomach.
"Sir, we're here." The driver said as he pulled the car to a stop. I dragged my eyes away from her and paid the man. Alexis got out of the cab and I soon followed. She then proceeded to follow me into the lobby. As I walked to the front desk, she waited back.
"Hi, there." I said to the clerk behind the desk.
"Hi. Can I help you?" She said eyeing me up and down.
"Yea. I need a room preferably with alcohol." I said getting my wallet out.
"Sir, we don't take walk ins."
"I understand that but I think you will make if you knew my name." I said pulling out my id and handing it to her. She looked at it for a moment before her eyes bulged and quickly looked up at me to make sure we were the same person. I smiled big for her and she smiled back handing me my id back.
"Yes, sir. Just one night?" I handed her my credit card.
"Yes, thank you." She gave me both my card and room key.
"Ok, welcome to the Plaza, sir. Have a nice stay. Call down if you need anything and there should be a well stocked fridge in the room."
"Thanks." He said walking away and up to Alexis. "You ready?"
"Yea." She said following me towards the elevator. When we got to the room, I helped her out of her coat revealing her blue skinny jeans that hugged her curves and a black v-neck long sleeve that showed just the right amount of cleavage. I hadn't noticed at the bar due to the bad lighting and I had been to consumed with her eyes to even think about the rest of her body. She truly was stunning.
I slid off my blazer and pulled the tie off my neck before popping the first two buttons on my blue dress shirt. I went over to the fridge which was full of snacks, whisky, brandy, wine, vodka, water and bourbon.
"Your pick?" I said looking over to Alexis who had sat down in of the chairs by the window, legs crossed.
"Nightcaps usually consist of brandy or bourbon. Let's go with brandy."
"I've never met a girl that links whiskey." I said with a smile as I began to pour the drinks.
"Guess you haven't met the right girl, huh." I think I just did.
I handed her the drink and I downed my own and poured another. I could feel the alcohol start to take affect on me. My head began to feel cloudy and my body started to feel numb. I was sure that she was feeling the same because she had started drinking before him and she was keeping up.
"I said one drink and now I don't know how many I've had." She said standing, but missing the footing and falling into me as I stood to catch her.
"No. Don't go." I whispered to her as I moved a piece of her soft hair out of her face. "Just stay one night with me, Alexis."
"I don't do one night stands." She whispered, catching his eyes.
"It doesn't have to be." I whispered our hot breaths mixing. I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers. At first it was gentle, like I was afraid to hurt her, but as soon as she began kissing back I responded by pushing her towards the bed. She kissed me with so much passion that I saw stars. I felt her tongue run across my bottom lip and I opened my my mouth to let our tongues explore each others mouths. I ran my fingers through her hair and pulled her closer, running my hands down her body to the hem of her shirt before pulling away from her completely so we could catch a breath. "Tell me to stop and I will." I whispered as I opened her eyes to see her biting her bottom lip.
"Don't stop." She said as she put her hands on my chest. They ran up my chest to my neck and into my dark brown hair. She surged forward and attached our lips in a searing kiss. She elicited a moan as I pulled away and trailed kisses down her neck. "Oliver." She moaned and my name never sounded better coming off her lips. "Oliver." She said pulling me up to look at her.
"What?" I panted.
"What about Candace?"
"We're done. I promise." He said cupping her cheeks.
"I just…"
"I know." He said silencing her with a kiss.
No more talking.