It was Monday morning, Paul was meant to be on his way to Boston but he wasn't, he was still in his penthouse. It wasn't that he didn't want to go or that he forgot that he was leaving, he was busy dealing with work. This was until Lily walked in and was surprised to see Paul still in his penthouse.
"Paul the plane is leaving in an hour, why are you still here?" Lily asked putting her iPad on the table next to the door and went over to him.
"I am about to leave, but my stupid computer isn't working and I need to do work on the plane before I get to the Boston branch and I haven't actually visited this branch since I've become CEO" Paul said taking a deep breath, "I might be panicking a little"
"Okay, this is what is going to happen. Give me the computer, I'll take it to the IT department today and get them to figure out what is wrong. I'll call the IT department in Boston to have a computer ready for your arrival and you can get straight back into work. You've been to the Boston branch before, you know people there, it isn't a strange place. You are a great boss, so stop worrying and Stephanie is excited about you being with her, so get out and go to Boston" Lily said taking the laptop of Paul's hand and closed it.
"Okay, I get it. I'm leaving, I give you full permission to study and work in the penthouse just no parties, it's an expensive place" Paul said picking up his bag of the table
"Thank you, I'll email your schedule for the rest the week tomorrow. Don't over work yourself and have fun with Stephanie" Lily said, Paul nodded and kissed her cheek before walking out of the penthouse and out of the building.
Two hours later Paul arrived in Boston and the second he stepped off the plane his phone was blowing up with notifications and missed phone calls, text messages and emails. He groaned and looked and who was calling and texting him, he had one missed call from Stephanie and two from his Dad, a lot of text messages from Lynn. He called his voicemail and put his phone up to his ear as he walked across the runway towards his awaiting car.
First message: "Hey baby, I'm assuming you're on the plane right now since you never asked. I might be in class by the time you get here so just call me when you land and if I'm in class Kelsey's home so she will let you in. I don't know if you'll be working today, if you're not maybe we can go out to dinner or something. Anyways, I need to get to class, I'll see you later" Message saved
Paul got into the car and called Stephanie. He really should respond to his sister but he knew that he could call her later. The phone rang a couple of times before Stephanie answered.
"Hello?"
"Hey beautiful"
"Paul!" Stephanie said excitedly, making Paul smile, "Have you landed? Are you in Boston?"
"Yes, I just landed. I'm in the car right now, I'm just heading to the office really quickly but then I'll be all yours for the rest of the day"
"Great, okay. I've just finished my classes and going home so I guess I'll see you soon then"
"Can't wait" Paul said before hanging up and went through his emails. Before he knew it he's car was pulling into the garage of his office building.
When Stephanie got the call from Paul she was only a couple of minutes away from the house, so the second she got in she went straight to her room and tidied up. Her room was messy though, it was really tidy, she just needed to keep herself occupied. For some reason she was really nervous.
"What are you doing?" Kelsey asked leaning on Stephanie's door frame
"Tidying up, Paul's has landed and will be here in about 40 minutes"
"Okay but we live less than 20 minutes from the airport?" Kelsey asked obviously confused why Paul was taking so long to get to their apartment
"I know, he needs to go to the office then he's coming here" Stephanie said
"Steph, sweetie you don't need to tidy up. Your room is the tidiest room in the apartment, and Paul has spent time with you. If you were messy he would already know"
"Is it okay that I'm this nervous?" Stephanie asked stopping what she was doing and looked at Kelsey
"No it's crazy that you are. It's clear you have him wrapped around your finger, so you just need to relax and realize that Paul doesn't care. He's a CEO and he makes so much time just for you that's saying a lot"
"Thank you, I guess I needed to hear that. Not the part wear he's wrapped around my finger because that's not true"
"Yes it is trust me. Anyways, I came in here to say that I'm going out. Don't know what time I'll be back, I'm guessing you're having dinner with Paul tonight?"
"Probably, I'll text you"
"Okay, love you" Kelsey said kissing Stephanie's cheek and stood up to walk out
"Love you too" Kelsey stopped in the door way and looked at Stephanie
"And Steph" Stephanie looked up at Kelsey, "you're not strangers. He's falling for you and before you disagree, I'm right I see you two together and I can tell you are too. Please don't pull away from him, he's perfect for you, I don't want to see you get hurt again"
"Thanks" Stephanie looked down at her hand and saw the diamond ring shining back at her, I'm not in love. I can't be not yet, Stephanie thought.
As she was looking down at the ring she thought back to when Paul gave it to her and how happy she was. It's hard thinking about the fact that just over a month ago she was trying to get over her breakup with Alex, and now she was trying to figure out her feelings for Paul. She was brought out of her thoughts when she heard the doorbell. She walked to the front door and jumped into Paul's arms seeing him standing at the door.
"I'm so happy to see you" Stephanie said pulling away from Paul and gave him a peck on the lips
"It's good to see you too. How's your day been?" Paul asked as Stephanie pulled him into apartment.
"Long, I've had classes all morning. It's a lot better now that you are here though. Did you go to the office?"
"Yeah, I think I should've visited them before I took over the company. This was meant to be one of the best branches I have but no one really does work there" Paul said putting his arm behind Stephanie on the couch, "I have a massive meeting tomorrow, and hopefully I was wrong about it all. It's quiet here, Kelsey not in?"
Stephanie laughed softly at how quickly Paul changed the topic, "Nope, she's gone out. Not completely sure what she is doing though"
"It's Kelsey, she's a mystery to the world. Well, she is to me anyways. I think she's crazy or was dropped as a baby" Paul joked which made Stephanie hit him in the shoulder.
"That's my best friend, and I love her craziness. I won't disagree with you with the being dropped as a baby. She is definitely one of a kind" Stephanie said
"That she is" Paul said smiling, "How was your weekend with your parents?"
"A lot better than I thought. My brother won't drop the whole Alex breakup but I think I'm going to have to tell him about us soon"
"Yeah? Is that what you want?" Paul asked surprised
"Yes, it is but can we finish telling your family?"
"Of course, I can see what I can do" Paul said kissing Stephanie's temple.
A few hours later, Paul and Stephanie had made themselves comfortable on the couch and was watching TV. That was until Paul started to get hungry and knew that Stephanie would probably be hungry too but didn't want to move.
"Do you want to go out or get takeout?"
"Takeout, I'm too comfortable to move" Stephanie said lifting her head to look at Paul, "we have a takeout draw in the kitchen"
"Okay, pizza?"
"Yes please" Paul nodded and got up and went into the kitchen to find the takeout menus to order something for them both.
A couple of minutes later, the pizza came and Stephanie put a movie on and they enjoyed watching the movie and having pizza. About halfway through the evening Kelsey came back and stole some pizza before disappearing into her room for the rest of the night. After a while Stephanie started to get tired so they went back to the bedroom and got ready for bed.
Stephanie and Paul were laying in bed and just talking. There was a point where they were just quiet and Stephanie started to think about what Kelsey said earlier about her falling in love. It couldn't be possible, it has been about three weeks since they started dating and she was still trying to get over Alex . . . at least she thought she was. Ever since Alex came to the apartment, she hasn't really thought about what him or the hell he put her through. Maybe that was her closure and she can finally focus on her relationship with Paul.
"What are you thinking about?" Paul asked pulling her out of her thoughts.
"I'm confused, Paul" Stephanie said getting out of bed
"About what?" Paul asked sitting up in the bed to look at Stephanie
"Us, my feelings for you. I mean we have been together for a couple of weeks, and I shouldn't be feeling this way about you" Stephanie said as she started to walk up and down.
"What are your feelings towards me?"
"I don't know" Stephanie said stopping to look at Paul and sighed, "I'm falling for you, Paul. I really am, but I shouldn't be"
"Why not? Steph, why is it so bad that you are falling for me?" Paul asked standing up
"Because I just got out of a relationship and I'm being really strong right now. Like really strong but if it wasn't for you I would be broken and struggling" Paul pulled Stephanie into a hug as she started crying. A couple of minutes later Stephanie stopped crying and looked at Paul in the eyes and just saw how much he cared for her and all the love, "I lied."
"What about?" Stephanie pulled away from Paul and stood opposite him as she started to think about what she was going to say.
"Alex and I, we dated for two years" Stephanie started, "I'm going to tell you everything that happen, can you please just listen?"
"Of course, come here" Paul said pulling on her hand towards the bed
"I love . . . loved Alex a lot, he was my first love and everything was all new with him. He was amazing, at least he was when we started dating. About a year after we started dating, I had a . . ." Stephanie stopped talking and started playing with Paul's fingertips, "I had a miscarriage. That's when everything changed, he blamed me for everything that happened and it hurt because I was already blaming myself"
"Steph, you don't . . ." Paul said but Stephanie cut him off
"Please, I want to tell you." Stephanie said, Paul nodded and held onto Stephanie's hand for comfort as she continued, "He wasn't the same loving boyfriend as before, he became abusive. The first time he actually hit me was when he was drunk, it was an accident, at least that's what I've been telling myself. But then it continued, he would keep going to parties and getting drunk and it repeated for too long, so I broke up with him. We were apart for a couple of weeks until he came to me and said he was sorry and wanted to fix everything and go back to normal. That's exactly what we did, we went back to normal, he didn't go to parties, he didn't hit me, everything was perfect. Or I thought they were. I just didn't feel the same love I did as I did in the beginning. At the end of the relationship, I could kind of sensed it, we lost our spark. Then he broke up with me, it was hard for me, really hard but I had Kelsey and then I met you"
"Stephanie" Paul started and hooked his finger under Stephanie's chin to make her look at him, "I told you that if you don't want to continue on with the marriage just say. I'm not keeping you away from anything."
"I don't want that Paul. Being with you is just making me understand that I probably didn't love Alex as much as I thought I did"
"I love you." Paul said quickly, Stephanie's eyes widened and looked at Paul shocked, "Yes, it's early but you make me so happy. I'm not going to hurt you like Alex did, I'm going to show you what's it's like to have the whole world because you're going to be mine"
Stephanie went to say something but Paul kissed her to stop her talking. When he pulled away he smiled at her, "You don't have to say anything, you don't need to say it back. I just wanted you to know that's how I feel"
"I can't say it back, not yet anyways Paul" Stephanie said, she knew Paul understood mainly because he just said that she shouldn't say it because he said it and also because of everything she just told him.
"And I don't expect you too, just take your time. Let's get to bed, it's getting late."
It was coming up to 3 in the morning and Paul couldn't sleep, not after everything Stephanie told him about her relationship with Alex. He looked down at Stephanie's sleeping form, she looked so peaceful, it hurt him to think about what anyone could do to her; even if it was before they knew each other. Paul slowly moved Stephanie off of his chest, to make sure that she wouldn't wake up. He walked out of the bedroom and went across the wall to Kelsey's room, and went next to her and softly shook her awake.
"Kels, we need to talk" Paul said quietly
"Paul it's the middle of the night" Kelsey whined
"I know, I need your help, can you promise not to say anything?"
"Depends what it is?" Kelsey asked sitting up
"I need to know where Alex lives" Kelsey rubbed her eyes and looked into Paul's eyes and just saw rage and anger. He knows, Kelsey thought to herself.
Sorry, sorry I'm so sorry! It's late and short but this is the best I could do for now. Give me a break I've got a lot of things to do before the end of the year and it's November. I sort of read the chapter but not that well so I'm also sorry for any mistakes in there. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and please be give me a little bit of a break with writing, give me 2 weeks to write an amazing chapter just for you guys. Thx