Later that night as they said good bye to their guest Gabriella sneaked away from the room, leaving Troy behind as he help her father put away the chairs and tables. Quietly she pushed the door shut making no sound at all. Taking a deep breath she focused on the task at hand. Tax documents. She had to use this time wisely and find his laptop. Taking a moment she looked around the room then began picking at the bags, looking for his laptop, he never went anywhere without it. The only time it left the house is if he had it at the office. Gabriella pushed at the loose strands of hair as she checked the next bag. Her fingers trembled as her attention shifted from the door to the next item.
Finally she found it she worked quickly leaning against the bed and opening the device. Pulling the Zip drive out of her pocket she plugged it into the side and powered it on. She could hear people talking downstairs, Troy and her mother, a cold sweat broke out all over her skin. This was just information, information from one person to the other, no big deal. All she had to do was picture herself in a jail cell her father in tow. Sobriety took over she needed to get what Anthony wanted and she needed to get it done.
Gabriella looked down at the laptop her fingers felt the edges of it. This was wrong; she shouldn't be doing this at all. She had to tell Troy, she had to do something. Anything was better than feeling like this. another noise from below of someone laughing poked at her train of thought and she looked back at the laptop returning to the task at hand. The sooner this was over the better.
The blue screen popped up and the cursor blinked at her as she looked at the password box. She took a deep breath and typed in his birthday, then his mother's, then his last name, Shapay's name, lady, and four more possible passwords. Giving up she powered it down and put it back in the bag. She'd have to find another way to get it. This wasn't going to work. Standing up she took out her phone ready to dial Antony's number when she heard the door lightly shut again behind her.
"I was wondering where you ran off to, Your family is amazing," Troy said in a low voice.
Gabriella turned to face him slipping her phone back into her pocket that was close, almost to close. "Yeah I'm lucky I guess," she said looking down at her hands; she was raised with all those morals and at the first sign of trouble she gave them all away, yeah she was lucky alright.
Troy eyes lingered on her for a moment and she shifted uncomfortably. "Thank you for teaching me how to dance,"
"It's alright," Gabriella said biting her lip and looking around the room, she needed to get out of there.
"I hope you don't take this personally, but I was looking around up here earlier." He said with a small grin, "your bed room is a much less pink version of my sister's." he said looking at the bed, she had full size bed with light yellow sheets, one bed, one big bed. He shoved his hands in his pockets and let his shoulder drop.
"So we're going to share the bed?" Gabriella said looking at it as well. the only person she ever shared the bed with was a cousin or two during sleepovers, not to mention the occasional scary dream that had her running down the hall to her parents' bedroom.
Shock by how quickly she taken the words from his head he quickly responded. "Not if you don't want to," Troy said with a shrug, he would like to but he did what to if she didn't. It almost seemed like forever since he shared a bed with anyone. "I can sleep on the floor."
Gabriella felt her inside go mushy, "No it's alright, we can share the bed." was it really alright? Could she trust herself, was she going to be able to even sleep? Gabriella looked nervously at the bed then back at him. "I hope my family wasn't too overwhelming they can be a bit much?" she said not sure if that was the exact way she should put it.
"Baby crazy maybe?" Troy chuckled "then again my family must be ..." he pause his eye drifting to the bed. visions of her tangled in sheets sent a warm amount of blood coursing through his body. "A bit much?" he said no longer sure about what he was talking about.
"I'm an only child and the oldest all my cousins," Gabriella shrugged. "They mean well."
"Yeah," Troy smirked and then finally ripped his eyes away from the bed. "So, do you even want kids?" Troy winced he should have just pulled out a condom and suggested positions.
"One or two," Gabriella said with a nervous shrug, "You?"
Troy nodded and let out a sigh, "sure, why not?" He smirked. "It's what people do after their married, right?" Troy said with a nervous shrug.
"Most people," Gabriella said looking down at his bag she'd left unzipped. Panic ran through her, "Maybe we should go downstairs, my parents must be super tired." She went to move past him and he step out of the way.
"Actually your mom sent me up, she said that we should get a good night's rest." Troy brought up a hand to his head and scratched behind his ear, "I kind of mentioned that we were going to go around town, see the sites maybe?" Troy shrugged. "I've never been here so I just thought…"
Gabriella frowned as she let the thought linger for a moment. "That's alright."
Troy nodded, "Yeah,"
Gabriella nodded, "I'm going to get ready for bed then?"
"Right, I should go?"
"Well you could just turn around," Gabriella said with a light giggle as she bent down to reach for her bag pulling it over his and quickly zipping it up. "Maybe I should go get Lady?"
"Actually, why don't I just go and get her," Troy said closing his eyes as he waved his hand, "I mean that way you could change and I'll just be a second."
"Sure," Gabriella nodded as she moved to the side letting him through, his arm brushed against her breast and she felt a warm ripple slam through her body and like that he jerked back, both of them looking each other in the eye caught on the same moment of shock.
"Sorry," Troy mumbled as he nodded and continued his way out the door. Once he was on the other side of it Troy moan inwardly, being in the same room, in the same bed, with her, his own wife? It was going to be the longest night of his life. Coming down the stairs Troy remained quiet as he heard voices in the kitchen.
"Who does she think she is?"
"Please she's only been here day and your already driving her off." Maria said in a harsh whisper.
"So you're okay with the fact that our 26 year old daughter got up one night and just left." Luis said slamming his fist down. "I let the wedding go by, I didn't say anything, I didn't make a scene but something is off."
"She's happy," Maria said closing the cabinet. Troy ducked behind the entry hall careful not to be seen.
"Please dick can't be that good for her not to realize he's using her, he just wants the minority vote so he figures he'd fuck one of them and get the votes." Luis lifted his beer and took a swig. "He's a fucking politician Maria not the saint of Christopher,"
"You watch your mouth. Gabriella is a smart girl, she knows what she's doing."
Luis let out a laugh, "Of course she does it's her favorite past times, pissing me off, fucking some guy and not giving a shit about the 43 thousand dollars we put into her education."
"Those were loans." Maria said coming around the table.
"Loans I cosigned for," Luis grabbed Maria by the arm and pulled her closer. "She's hiding something, she was delinquent on those loans and suddenly out of the blue Mr. Wonderful swoops in and pays them off."
"Let go of me," Maria jerked her arm away. "That right there is why she left, and your macho attitude is why if they ever do have grandchildren we won't be seeing them."
Troy stood silent in hall listening to the conversation. Rage ran smoothly in his veins, something like this was the trouble that he was worried about. He spotted Lady leaving the kitchen and gave a quick tsk sound catching her attention. The dog lazily made her way to him and he picked her up giving her a good scratch behind the ear before heading back up the stairs.
Opening the bed room door he found the French doors open letting lady down he closed and locked the door behind him, "Gabriella?" slowly he made his way to the balcony it was calm, and the night was still. He took a deep breath and could smell the linger scent of barbeque and salsa dip in the air. This was a beautiful night, a wonderful clear-
"Hey,"
Troy turned to see Gabriella in the doorway, his breath hitched at the sight of her wardrobe. "Is that my shirt?"
Gabriella looked down at her bare legs, grateful for once that she shaved her legs the night before. "I couldn't find my overnight bag and I don't have many clothes here." She said with small frown. "I hope you don't mind?"
"No," Troy brought a hand over his jaw and rubbed at the tension, his gray shirt came over her body stopping at her lower thigh just inches before her knee. No shorts, no pants, just his shirt. Troy felt a surge of blood drain from his own torso, could almost feel it filling other places of the body that reminded him he'd gone to long without a female's attention.
"So," she said walking out on to the balcony a little and looking around. "It's a nice night," her bare feet softly stepped out on to the wood and Troy couldn't help but feel the entire space shrink brining them closer together.
"I think your dad might be on to us," Troy said taking his eyes off her legs and back up to her face, she was blushing."Guess I wasn't very convincing."
"My dad's just worried about me," Gabriella stepped back into the bed room turning around towards the bed. "He and I fought a little before I left." She rolled her eyes at the understatement.
Troy followed her, "I fought with my dad a lot growing up," he said watching as she lifted a leg up to the bed. There was no way he could get into that bed. He watched the shirt crawl up her thigh, exposing more skin. "We didn't agree on a lot."
"Like what?" Gabriella said shifting so she sat on one leg and faced him.
Troy looked away from her towards the closet. "About politics, about my policies and opinions, believe it or not I didn't get along with my father until I became a senator."
"Did you become a senator to please your father." She said playing with the edges of his shirt.
"No," Troy shrugged his shoulders "I became a senator because I wanted power."
"Congratulations, you're almost the most powerful man in America," Gabriella said with a smirk. "If this presidency thing falls through,"
Troy eyes caught on something in her closet, "Oh wow," he said walking towards her closet.
Gabriella watched as he moved some things aside and reached to pull out a slender box. It was a monopoly game board. Troy looked back at her with a daring smile and she could help but enjoy that flip her stomach made. It was like something inside her had a weak spot for that smile. "Do you play?" Troy asked wiggling his brow.
"I haven't played that in ages," she said with a small giggle.
"I think I was 14 the last time I even seen one of these." He said bringing it over to the bed. "What do you think?"
"What do you mean what do I think?" Gabriella smiled as she watched his eyes glow as he removed the lid off the box and twirled it between his two index fingers.
"Come on," Troy said in pleading tone, "Loser wakes up early to walk lady."
Gabriella let out a laugh, "Oh lady you hear that he's wagering you off already?" she said leaning over to see their puggle puppy who snuggled herself into a chair in the corner of the room.
"Scared?" Troy said raising a brow.
Gabriella looked back at Troy then at the board game box. "Bring it, I get to be the car." she said with a smirk.
"Fine I'll be the battle ship, just don't cry, when I bankrupt you," He chuckled.
"Oh god, the last time you played was 14, the last time I played was a year ago." Gabriella chuckled as she opened the board. "I want you to remember not to feel emasculated when I beat you."
Troy shorted out the money, "How much does each player get?"
"You know what that means?" Gabriella said plucking the money from his fingertips.
Troy let out a laugh, "What?"
Gabriella reached for the money. "You're not the banker," she giggled.