29
Alexa
I’m living in a dream and I hope I never wake up. Every night I fall asleep in Leo’s arms and every morning I wake up in them too. I’m falling even deeper in love with this new Leo. This new Leo who smiles every day, a dozen times a day. Who takes me out to lunch, or during the days he’s busy orders in lunch and makes sure we eat together without a word about work. This new Leo who talks about his brother, and anything I ask him about without reservation. Then there is the way he makes sure to include me in his lunches with Drake and Dmitri, complimenting my insight, my questions, my desire to learn more.
As if all that weren’t enough we linger in a bookstore for hours then leave with far too many books. We go see movies together then talk for hours in the coffee shop about the movie we saw or about his favorite movie or anything at all. The man who used to live to work is no longer, he’s still working ten hours a day and there are times at night when he goes back to his laptop at home but he’s no longer always on.
I’m still a little shocked at how comfortable we both are in my small condo. He does like to spend time on my balcony. We’ve managed to get matching chairs for it where we spend time reading or working on our laptops. Leo doesn’t even mind about not having a dining table. For dinner he’s content on the couch but he’s also spread out a blanket and we’ve eaten on the floor in a repeat of that day in the hotel, complete with me eating naked. Felix isn’t his friend just yet but at least he’s no longer the enemy. Maxi adores Leo and I melt when I see how he plays with her and cuddles her.
The lone moment of contention comes when he suggests going to watch the Cubs play. In that moment I was stunned. Leo liked baseball? Then I was sad, because he liked the Cubs and I was raised on the White Sox. The debate lasts long into the night, we never make it to the game. Instead we wind up in bed after a very hot attempt to top one another to prove which team was best. We call it a draw when the haze clears without remembering what it was exactly we were fighting over.
I think that’s the best part of all. We don’t fight, at all. Leo doesn’t get angry, he never seems to get frustrated or annoyed at me or Maxi or even Felix. Even when he’s mad at work or frustrated at work it’s because of work and he never takes it out on me. Gone are the days of the slamming door or him saying fuck twenty times a day. His office door is open, unless I’m in his office with him. Yes, our lunch usually ends with my idea of the best dessert ever, his cock in my mouth or in Leo’s idea of the best dessert, his mouth on my pussy. It isn’t every day, sadly, but if it isn’t it’s usually because the night before or the morning was too intense.
It has only been a month since he moved in but I really thought by now the newness of it all would have made it at least a little less amazing, that the shine would wear off a bit. Only it hasn’t, every day feels better, every touch feels sweeter, every smile he flashes still makes my breath catch and my heart flutter.
There is a cloud in the sky, as much as I wish there wasn’t. The time Leo was due at Ria and Drake’s house for their monthly chat on the market and business Leo declined when Ria told him to bring me. He didn’t go and leave me at home he just didn’t go altogether.
I found out about it from Ria when she told me at the lunch, Elise, Ria, and I were having together. I tried to play it cool at first, but I was in tears before it was over. Both women were insistent to give it time. They were right, already Leo was doing things I never thought he would. Ria admitted it might have had something to do with her also wanting to invite Elise and Dmitri and their kids too.
Elise kicked Ria under the table. Of course, something like that would make Leo flinch. As Ria rubbed her leg she sheepishly admitted it was a bad idea. If it would have just been Ria and Drake like normal he would have probably said yes. Only I wasn’t so sure.
As amazing as the last month has been I know I’m not completely forgiven. I know he wants to, I know there are even moments when he thinks he has let it go. But then there nights when I wake up to find him on the balcony sipping scotch with Maxi on his lap and he’s far away from me. Or when he comes back from lunch with Victoria and he’s not quite as happy as he was when he left.
It plays over and over in my head, how to do it. To just tell him, to go down on my knees and tell him that I’m sorry I hurt him but I’m not sorry I lied. That if I had it to do over I wouldn’t change a thing. Because I fell in love him the moment I saw him and telling the truth meant never seeing him again. Only I’m too much of a coward, for the same reason. How could someone like him really love me? How could I know that if I told him I loved him he was ready to say it back, to believe me, to trust me again?
***
Leo
It’s finally time to go look at the house. I ask Alexa if she would like to come and give me her opinion.
“You bought a house?”
“Yes, a few weeks ago. Drake has only been able to work on it in between his own projects. He will fix it up, and maybe I will move in when he finishes.”
“Maybe?”
“I’m not sure yet about giving up living in the city. I like opening my door and having the city readily available, delivery, dinner out, my office only minutes away. Then again, every place I move into eventually feels small and claustrophobic. I end up moving every few years. I’m wondering if having an actual yard and land around me might help.”
“Have you felt claustrophobic with me?”
I barely have to think before shaking my head. Not once have I thought about my place. Even when Maxi walked over my laptop and reports to crawl onto my lap for a cuddle, I gave in and did my best to work around her. I liked looking up and seeing Alexa at her desk working or heari
ng her in the kitchen cooking or going on walks with her. “No.”
Drake and the architect, Ben, are waiting. In person, the years of neglect are glaring.
“Oh wow, Leo this place is huge. How many bedrooms are there?”
It’s Drake who answers. I take the print out from Drake, fuck, five pages of repairs that needed to be done. “This place is ten thousand square feet, to the inch, the original build was precise. There are eight bedrooms, two masters one in the left wing and the other in the right wing. I’m guessing they had one of those marriages. There are eleven total bathrooms. And then there is a separate staff apartment with a small living area, bedroom, and a private bathroom. It needs a new roof, no doubt about that. Do you want to go with shingles or keep the shake it has now?” Drake asks as he points to the roof.
I shrug. “I trust your opinion on what is best. Does it make a difference?”
“Not much, no.”
“Leo, keep the shake. It will look amazing with the brick underneath all that ivy. You’re going to cut all that back, right Drake?”
“I hadn’t planned on it actually. You don’t think it gives the place a nice air to it? What do you think of the French colonial look, Alexa?”