The phrase "rags to riches" was not lost on Unique. She stood in what she was informed would be her new home and marveled at how casually some people could spend money. After getting themselves unstuck the pair managed to shower, dress, and finalize the particulars of their new relationship with only a minimal amount of awkwardness between them.
"I'll have Enzo set you up with a credit card. If you have anything you need to be brought over from your old place just let him know and he'll have it shipped," Rayyan said.
"Enzo is whom exactly?"
"Enzo is my personal assistant. He sort of does what a wife normally does...with one important difference." Rayyan winked at her as he made the phone call that would change her life.
Over the next three days, she didn't see her "husband" at all. Enzo, a dapper young man who said very little, chauffeured her around, buying clothes and shoes that would be appropriate for the wife of a millionaire. He provided her with a list of events and dinners that they would be required to attend together and a new cell phone with a "private and unlisted number" that she was not to give out liberally.
At least that's what the note Rayyan wrote her said.
After three days of being married, it was the most intimate contact that they'd had.
On the third day, Enzo arrived at her hotel suite with brand new luggage for the previous days' purchases and a plane ticket to San Francisco. Unique sat on the edge of the bed obediently as Enzo and two other assistants packed her luggage. She flew first class for the first time in her life and decided that since she was sitting in her own little pod, she would braid her hair. By the time the plane landed she was not only sporting a whole new wardrobe, but a fresh set of box braids to go with it.
"I have instructions to settle you at the loft," Enzo said in response to her repeated inquiries about where they were going.
"The loft" didn't seem like a place she would want to be. Enzo, who was always so short on words, knew how to make every syllable pregnant with meaning. The disappointed note in his voice answered all of the questions she hadn't yet asked.
When they arrived at the building, it looked like the kind of funky downtown building that she's seen a thousand times growing up in Washington D.C. It was renovated and overpriced, she could already tell from the outside.
"Mr. Z owns the building. You live on the top floor. The lower spaces are empty right now but he usually rents it out," Enzo informed her as they rode the converted service elevator.
"Okay," Unique said, trying to imagine what she would be in for when the doors opened. Maybe it was a really shabby place. Maybe it wasn't shabby, but it was desolate. Unique smirked at the thought. It wouldn't be the first time she learned to get by with the bare basics. Like so many other young girls in South East D.C., her family had seen it's fair share of hard times. Her mother's battle with drug addiction didn't make things any easier. She'd learned how to glue tennis shoe soles back together and a thousand uses for vaseline before she was eight years old.
Unique often thanked God for those lean years. She learned that a person's poverty wasn't a reason to be ashamed. The noblest people she ever met often had even less than she did. She also learned that degrees on the wall weren't the same as knowledge in the mind. The streets produced some of the deepest poets and philosophers she'd ever have a chance to meet.
When the doors opened Unique held her breath for a moment. Enzo stepped out of the elevator and opened the front door to the loft. Unique stepped inside and let out a tiny cry of surprise.
Far from the forgotten bell tower, she was sure she was walking into, the loft was fully furnished and decorated in a style that was as functional as it was comfortable. The simple design of the furniture didn't take away from its opulence. The coffee table in the middle of the living area was little more than a large block of marble stacked on top of a smaller one...but it was pure marble.
YOU ARE READING
Unintended Consequences (Act One) Completed
Spiritual"It's simple; you help me convince everybody that we're a normal married couple and I help you hide from your homicidal gangster ex-boyfriend." "And the cuffs?" Unique held up their shackled wrists. "Don't look at me! I was as drunk as you were!" *...
