***ANNOUNCEMENT: I am excited to announce that I was accepted as a paid writer for Radish fiction, and this story and its sequel will now be available with new chapters on Radish. I will also have other stories to read on there as well! Please come...
When I step off the elevator into his penthouse, I'm not really prepared for what I see. His living room is the size of my entire apartment. There's a middle-aged woman there, which surprises me at first.
"Gloria," he says to her. "Leave."
"I'm not finished," she says, looking at me.
"Now."
She nods and walks to the back of the apartment for a few minutes, while he shows me around.
"This is my bedroom," he says, opening a door. I peek my head inside and I'm pleased at how simple it is with just a large bed, white sheets, a blue blanket, and long curtains covering the floor-length windows.
We walk down the hall and he opens another door. "This is where I work out." He has his own personal gym. Impressive.
He opens another door and we ascend a winding staircase to a locked door. He takes out his keys and opens the door, leading me to a beautiful roof garden with a jacuzzi, garden lights, and a pool with a glass bottom that looks into the room below in his apartment.
"This is so... wow, Lex. This is extraordinary."
On the other end of the apartment are the dining room and the large kitchen.
"Do you ever cook in here?" I say, opening his fridge to see a few beers, and bottles of water, but not much else.
"No."
He walks past the fridge, takes a beer, offers me a bottle of water, and then goes into the living room. As I follow him into the living room, I realize there are no pictures of people. No loved ones, no personal touch to this apartment whatsoever, and it saddens my heart. This man needs love.
"Lex," I say, sitting next to him on the couch, pulling my legs up underneath me as I relax against him.
He reaches for the remote and says, "Hm?"
"Why don't you have any pictures of your family in here?"
"I don't have anyone important enough to me to want to have pictures of."
My heart feels so sad for this man. He has all the money in the world but he's so lonely.
"I thought you had a dog?"
"I do."
"Where is she?
"He. He's in the bedroom. Gloria cleans, walks him when I'm not here, and puts him away."
I stand and walk to the bedroom, looking for his dog. I search the closet, everywhere, when I see these little eyes peering out from under the bed.
"Aww, come here," I say and kneel. He wags his tail and scoots out from under the bed and starts licking my hand and face. "Aren't you sweet?"
"He likes you," Alexander says.
I glance back at him, leaning back on the door frame with his arms crossed.
"Why did you have him locked in here?"
"He likes being in here. He always stays in here until I get home."
"But you're home now. Bring him out."
Alexander starts walking and whistles for his dog to follow. The love his dog has for him shows me a softness I wasn't sure Alexander was capable of and I like it.
We sit down on the couch together, and as he's browsing TV choices, I text Jenna.
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Alexander looks over at me so I slip my phone away and look at the TV to see him watching football, which is actually kind of cute since it's such a normal guy thing to do.
"Who's your favorite football team?" I ask.
"Giants."
I want him to tell me more about his likes and dislikes. I want to learn him and who he is, but I fear he's not the type to open up to people easily. I stretch my legs out and lay my head on his lap, waiting for Jenna to text me back, when the woman who was there when we first arrived walks by, angering him.
"Gloria, I told you to leave," he says.
"I was just finishing up," she says.
"Don't finish up. Go. Go now. You may finish tomorrow."
She does a small curtsey before she gets on the elevator.
"Why were you so mean to her?" I say.
"I wasn't."
"You were."
"How was I mean?"
"I don't know. You could just learn to be gentle with your words. I mean, would it kill you to say please? Thank you?"
He smiles and kisses my forehead.
Jenna texts me back.
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"Can I order you some dinner?" he says.
"Um, yeah."
"What do you want?"
"Tacos."
"Perfect."
He grabs his phone and opens an app.
"What do you like?"
"Just regular tacos is fine, but oh! Get queso!"
He smiles and places the order.
"How do you get delivery here?" I ask.
"They hit the buzzer on the elevator downstairs and I can unlock the elevator from my phone."
"Oh. How do you know who it is?"
"There's a camera."
He flips through the channels for a few minutes, relaxing back on the couch, but I'm worried about paying my bills, so I ask him about the job.
"Hey, you said you would give me a job. Is that still gonna happen?"
"Of course. Do you need money today?"
"No. But my funds are getting low, so I need to start as soon as I'm able."
"Start tomorrow. Come to the office first thing in the morning."
"Um, I can't."
"Why not?"
"Your building is too far for me to walk and I don't have the money for a cab right now."
