Royalty

Nineteen

"Come inside quick, Mr. Styles!" Albert waved as I ran up to the building.

The moment he had seen me coming from across the street, he immediately opened the door and tried ushering me inside. I closed the umbrella, shaking it off outside before wrapping it shut. My shoes were leaving wet foot marks everywhere, and I tried my best to wipe them off on the welcome mat. 

"It's crazy out there," Albert remarked, trying to look up at the sky from the doorway. "It's only supposed to get worse from here. Although, I think the weather channel said it will be all gone by the morning."

"It's like it came from nowhere," I shivered. The air conditioning in the building mixed with partially wet clothes was not the best combination.

Albert nodded his head before grabbing a plastic bag from the side and putting my umbrella in it. He set it to the side of the wall, "Just another one of those weird weather days. Is Ms. Lutes coming down, or shall I send you up?"

Lutes. So that's what he had said that one time. Just another factor of confirmation for me to know that it isn't Addison. I really needed to ask her what was going on.

"Um, you know what, it'd be really great if you could just send me up."

He nodded his head and led me over to the elevator. When the doors opened up, he pulled out a card from the inside of his jacket pocket and swiped it before pressing the top floor button. I waved a thank you to him as the doors shut and the elevator car began to move.

It was unusually longer than I remembered it being, and I wasn't sure if it was because I was staring at the screen with the floor numbers or because I was nervous. Either one was a plausible reason. It's like those microwave minutes. Those are the longest minutes ever.

When I finally reached the penthouse, the elevator buzzed before the doors opened up. I could hear the television on and footsteps running towards where I was standing in the hallway. Summer's head peeked out from the other room and a smile graced her features.

"Hey! I didn't know you were here. I would've gone down to get you," she walked right up to me, standing on her tiptoes to give me a kiss.

"Ah yeah, well Albert offered to let me up."

"Oh, okay. Well I don't know if you're hungry or anything, but there's a pizza in the kitchen."

I followed her in to the main living space, seeing all the windows clear of any curtains. The sky outside was dark gray and ominous. I could hear the thunder rolling in the distance before it started growing louder. Every once in a while the sky would light up from a bolt of lightning, and it was one of the coolest sights I'd seen in a long time.

"It's neat from up here, isn't it?" Summer spoke, looking out the window.

I nodded my head as I kept my gaze straight ahead of me, "It really is. I've never seen anything like it."

She took my hand in hers and led me over to the couch. I sat down with her leaning into me, grabbing the blanket on the back of the couch and lying it over us. We just sat there together, watching the storm outside and enjoying each other's company. It was actually really peaceful, and I understood why she said she loved doing this. Hell, if I had a place like this, I'd never leave during a storm.

Just watching the rain fall from the sky and the lightning strike in the distance had this weird calming effect. Even when the thunder was right over us and subtly shaking the building, I felt relaxed and at ease. I really could've just fallen asleep right there.

But of course, in the back of my mind, I couldn't stop thinking about this whole Lutes thing. It was such a silly thing to be so caught up on, but I just really hated being lied to. I inhaled a deep breath and just went for it.