It was late at night after a long day at work and I knew I should wait until morning to go talk to her, but I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep. So, I threw on my jeans, boots, and my leather jacket over my white tee-shirt and hopped on my bike. It was a racing motorcycle and the fastest thing in my garage.
Gwyneth lived across the city up on the hills overlooking the ocean, but I got there in a matter of minutes. I was so excited; I was out of breath as I rang the doorbell. I caught my reflection in the window and quickly ran my fingers through my short-cropped hair, trying to clean up my appearance.
I heard the sound of yapping dogs as someone approached and as I heard the locks being turned. I tried to think of exactly what I could say to Gwyneth to get her tell me where Kayla was. To my surprise, it was wasn't Gwynn who opened the door, but Kayla herself.
She looked absolutely stunning, with no make-up on her freshly washed face. Her blonde hair was pulled back into the braids she liked to sleep in, and she was wearing a short, white, silk nightgown beneath a matching robe with her feet bare. I thought I'd never seen a more beautiful sight in my entire life and I longed to pull her into my arms and kiss her.
"Ethan! What are you doing here?" she gasped in surprise. For just a moment, her eyes flew open wide and her pupils dilated, like she was happy to see me, too; but it only lasted for a fraction of a second before they narrowed into a suspicious frown. "How did you find me? Did my mother talk? I'll kill her."
"Nobody talked. I actually just came here to talk to Gwynn."
"Well, she's not here, so you can leave." Was that a look of disappointment on Kayla's lovely face?
"The only thing I wanted to talk to her about was if she knew if you were alright."
"I'm fine. I quit R.E.B. Jay is such a sleaze, he wouldn't stop hitting on me; but that doesn't mean I'm coming back to you. I have my career to think about, and I won't just give up on my ambitions to lay around living off of your money."
"I know. I respect that. Please, can I come in? I just want to talk for a little while."
She hesitated for a moment, so I gave her my best puppy-dog eyes, and she finally let me in.
"You can only stay for a few minutes," she warned as I followed her into the kitchen.
"Is Gwyneth coming home soon?" I guessed, but she shook her head.
"No. She's moved to New York city with Vick, so I'm leasing the place for a month until I figure out more permanent arrangements."
"So, you're positive you don't want to move back in with me." I couldn't keep the hurt out of my voice.
"One day, when we get married, we can buy a place together that is all ours; but until then, I need some space of my own. I need to be independent and live within my own financial means."
"You still want to marry me one day?" All my hope had been restored.
"Of course, I do. We're committed to each other, and I still love you with all my heart. I just needed some space to get my priorities straight, and I figured you needed some perspective, too. Now that we have that, we can start talking about dating again."
"I'd like that. I'd like that a lot," I said and meant it. I moved in to kiss her, and when our lips met, it was even better than I remembered it being. She tasted so sweet and her lips were so soft, like the petals of a delicate flower. I wanted to make love to her right then, but we had more important things to discuss. "So, what are your conditions for dating? I'll do anything you want."
"I like the way things were. You live at your place, and I'll live at mine. We'll each work our se
parate jobs during the day and then meet up at night. Sometimes you can sleep over at my place, and sometimes I can sleep over at yours, and when we're both ready, we can make the step of moving in together and getting married."
"What if we worked together?" I asked with a mischievous grin, and she looked startled.
"I'm a model. I'm not going to take a job as an office secretary or steal some executive’s position based on nepotism."
"No, of course not; but what if Speed Motorcycles hired you to model for us again?"
"I already posed for the cover once. I know your magazine hires a new girl every month."
"Yeah, but now we want to hire just one girl to be the face of a whole new advertising campaign. Billboards, magazine layouts, television commercials. Everything you've ever wanted. I figured we could shoot pictures for the bike I'm designing for Tommy in Milan, and I want to make a version of the All-American called The Tour that we photograph in France and Germany. It will require that you go on an extended trip across Europe, but as CEO of the company, I would oversee the entire project and travel with you."
"Are you serious?" Kayla's bright-blue eyes lit up with excitement.
"Absolutely. I had Keith draw up contracts and Steve is prepared to cut you a check for any amount you want to get you to take the job. We'll let you have any bike in our fleet to keep, pay your travel expenses, and give you a monthly salary, plus bonuses.
“It's the deal of a lifetime and worthy of a top model. I want that model to be you, Kayla. It will make you the household name you've always wanted to be."
She looked so happy, I thought she was certain to say yes, but then she surprised me by shaking her head no.