Tomorrow's chapter's gonna be super long!
Please review after reading :)


At exactly five the doorbell rang. 'Hmm. Punctual,' I mumbled, got my purse and walked downstairs. I had put on the perfect outfit: a pretty yet perfectly casual, non-date dress.

I gasped as I opened the door for Noah. I had always had a thing for men in suits, but this one turned that thing into an absolute obsession: he looked positively gorgeous in his perfectly tailored navy suit (although without the jacket) and light blue shirt that somehow made his eyes look even more green.

No. I mentally slapped myself. This was not a date, this was simply a meeting in which he would be begging for my forgiveness. That was, after all, what Gabrielle had told me when Noah had been staring at me and Oliver for the rest of the evening, but never actually offering his apologies.

'Hi,' I said, trying to keep a clear mind.

'Hey,' Noah replied with a smile. 'Shall we go? I know that you probably know this part of the city better, but there is a great coffee place on the other side of the park.'

I nodded, but didn't say anything. I took his arm when he offered his and walked along, not saying anything for a while.

Noah's cellphone rang. He took it out of his pocket and looked at the screen. 'Oh, I'm sorry, I have to take this,' he said, and answered the phone. 'Noah Chevalier. Oh, hi, Iris. No, I'm busy right now, when does he need me? … I'm not sure I will make 5:30. Tonight's better. … Yes, I'll be there. And, Iris…' He quickly looked at me, then added something in that same language he had been speaking to his mother. It was definitely familiar, but I couldn't place it and he was also speaking too fast.

Noah ended the call and put the phone back in his pocket. 'I'm really sorry. Business keeps creeping up,' he said, chuckling for a bit.

'What do you do?' I asked. Business meetings with beautiful women at bars, meetings late at night, secret messages in unknown languages…it was all a bit sketchy.

'It's…complicated. I'm in the family business, we're pretty much all over the place. My dad is coincidentally also my boss,' he explained. 'I'm in charge of…let's call it international relations.'

I nodded. That didn't really sound too weird. It still didn't explain the strange meetings, but I decided to let it go. For now.

'Did you grow up in this city?' he asked suddenly.

I looked up. He seemed sincerely interested in my answer. 'No,' I said. 'I was born in California. But then my mom got her job at Columbia, and my dad and I came with her. My brother was already in college, so he stayed in California.'

Noah nodded. 'Do you miss it?'

I thought about that question for a moment. I never had before. 'Sometimes,' I admitted. 'But I love living here. And I did go to high school here, so I did some growing up in New York.'

He smiled. 'That's true.'

'How about you? You're not American, are you?'

'How did you know?' he said, grinning.

'It's not hard to guess. You don't look it, your name sounds French and you speak a weird language with your family.'

Noah laughed. 'You mean Italian. It's just a dialect. You're right, we're not from here. Our name is just a bit off. I did spend the last twenty years here, though.'

So I'd been wrong. There wasn't a secret code language. Then I had only a few more mysteries to crack.

'Here we are,' Noah said. We had just exited the park on the Eastern side and were now standing in front of a nice-looking coffee shop. 'After you.' He opened the door for me and I walked in.

'I'm going to get some coffee, you pick a table. What do you want?'

'Uh, a cappuccino would be nice,' I said and sat down at the nearest table. He nodded and walked over to the counter. He ordered in Italian - it did sound a bit different this time, but this was probably just standard Italian - and soon came back and sat down with two cups of coffee.

'So. We did meet for a reason,' I started, a bit nervous. 'I'm not just here for coffee and to talk about my family, or yours.'

'You're right. I am here to apologize, and that is exactly what I will do,' he said and took a sip of his latte macchiato. 'I am very sorry to have acted like I had no idea who you were when you came to my house and I am sorry that I acted like an upperclass jerk. In fact…'

'What?' I asked. He had suddenly stopped talking.

'No, never mind. I am also sorry for the idiotic way I was acting at the bar earlier this week. The truth is I hated seeing you with that guy.'

I frowned at him. 'Why? I thought you hated me. You made sure of that.'

He smiled. 'No. I don't. But that doesn't matter, because you have a boyfriend. Or did I completely destroy your date?'

I shook my head. 'You didn't. But I think I did.'

Noah raised an eyebrow, but didn't ask anything else. I sighed and decided to let that subject rest for a while. I didn't want to think about Oliver right now.

'That still doesn't explain why you acted so strange at your house,' I said.

'That is…a long story. Let's just say my mother does not really approve of people outside our social class.' He seemed perfectly comfortable saying that, as if I had not just put him in a somewhat compromising position and as if there was no problem talking about social class with a girl who was so obviously not in his.

'So again, I am so sorry. I should not have done that.'

I nodded slowly. 'Apologies accepted.' I took another sip of my cappuccino.

He didn't answer, but looked at me thoughtfully. 'Why did you come back?' he then asked.

I looked at the table and played with my coffee spoon, then looked back up at his face. 'Gabrielle forgot her notebook. Thought it'd still be at the gallery.'

Noah smiled. 'I don't believe you.'

'Fine.' I glared at him. 'She made me go back to see you again. Didn't turn out to be such a good idea.'

He shook his head. 'It wasn't.'

Now I was confused. He had just said he was sorry for that day, and now he agreed that I shouldn't have done it? 'But, you said…'

He cut my sentence short. 'It wasn't a good idea at that moment. I'm not saying I don't want to see you. Your timing was just not very good.'

This guy was just all over the place. Just by saying one thing he came across as wanting to see me but also accusing me of things at the same time. Then, my phone buzzed. 'Oh...I'm sorry,' I said and looked at my phone.

'OMG! Are you meeting him? When? What does he want from you?' read Gabrielle's text. I smiled and put my phone back without texting Gabrielle back.

Noah was staring out the window. I took the opportunity to drink the last bit of my cappuccino. It was quiet for about fifteen seconds; then Noah seemed to be back to the here and now and cleared his throat.

'I'm being boring, sorry. I was thinking about a meeting I just had.'

I shrugged. 'That's okay.' He was right, he was being boring. If this were a date, I would already have left him...just like I left Oliver. No. I should stop thinking about that. I was here with Noah, who was apparently interested in me after all, and for some reason I didn't even want to leave.

I suddenly realized something. 'You said you hated seeing me with Oliver. Why? Why would you say that if you don't even know me?'

He looked me in the eye, clearly choosing his words carefully. 'You may not realize it, but when I met you, you made a huge impression on me. Seeing you at the bar was a coincidence, I did not mean for that to happen…but I was glad that it did. And then the night is a little blurry, so I don't recall exactly why I decided to make an idiot out of myself.'

I nodded. That wasn't really an answer to my question…but I was obviously not going to get it any time soon.

'I'm afraid I have to go. There's this dinner party at my sister's house which I really cannot miss,' Noah said then. He finished his coffee.

'Oh…okay. Have fun, I guess?' I said, a bit disappointed. Even though he had barely given me any explanations and he was being so unclear and...distant, I did want to keep talking to him.

He got up and put his jacket on. 'So I gather you're not seeing this Oliver anymore? I would like to take you out on an actual date and prove to you that I am worthy of it.'

I thought about this for a moment. Yes, the last two times I had seen him had made me believe that he wasn't a good guy, and maybe he really wasn't, but it couldn't hurt to give him a second chance. 'Sure.'

Noah smiled. 'Great. Are you busy tomorrow night?'

I shook my head. 'Not yet.'

'Okay, I'll cook you dinner. This is my address…'

After Noah had walked me home, I checked my cellphone again. Another text from Gabrielle, pressing me to give her some details, and...nothing from Oliver. I decided to just forget about him and texted Gabrielle back, just to let her know that I had already met with Noah and was in fact meeting him again the day after.

Not much later, my phone buzzed again. It seemed Gabrielle was more excited than me about the date…then again, Gabrielle always told me that I wasn't dating enough. Maybe dating an older guy would finally convince her that really, I didn't need such encouragements.

Ignoring Gabrielle's text, I put on my pajamas and started to make dinner for myself. This story was better told in person, so my best friend would have to wait a little longer before hearing all about it.