by Audrey Storm
He was heading out when he caught a glimpse of a familiar face, one he knew a little too well. But after the evening he’d had, he was almost too sure that his eyes were playing tricks on him.
“But that voice…” he thought as he looked at the waitress as she turned around and at that moment, he was more sure than ever that he was looking right at Shannon Michaels.
“Shannon?” he called out in a soft voice and the woman turned to look at him. He could see the color draining from her face and even though she looked different, curvier and a little taller, her face was the same. She suddenly turned around and began running towards the door. “Shannon, wait,” he said as he followed her out. He was walking as fast as he possibly could but she seemed to be a little too fast on her feet, faster than he remembered. She was now out of the restaurant and he was running after her, not caring that the restaurant staff were staring at the drama unfolding in front of their eyes.
“Shannon!” Nathan called out as he ran after her. “Will you just…stop for a second,” he said when he finally caught up with her just past the valet. He held her hand and she turned around.
“I have nothing to say to you,” she said in a soft voice.
“Seven years and that is the first thing you want to say to me?” he asked as he looked at her. The valet was looking at them questioningly and Nathan handed him his valet card just to get rid of him. He didn’t need an audience.
“This is my work place, Nate. You don’t get to get all dramatic here,” she said.
“I’m not trying to be dramatic. Besides, we are standing outside…” he started and she put her finger up.
“Exactly. And I am supposed to be in there,” she snapped.
“Shannon,” Nate started in a soft voice.
“I have to get back to work,” she said as she began walking towards the door but he caught her wrist again.
“When do you get off?” he asked as he gently pulled her back to himself.
“I have another two hours…” Shannon started before she sighed, shaking her head. “Actually, you know what? It is none of your freaking business, Nate.”
By this time, the valet had brought his car to where they were standing. The young man got out of the driver’s seat and smiled at Nathan as he handed him the keys to the sleek Silver Ford Mustang.
“Great car, sir,” the valet said, smiling. Nathan looked at him and smiled in appreciation before he turned to look at Shannon.
“You know what? Why don’t you park it again? I decided I am going to stay,” he said.
“What the hell are you doing?” Shannon asked, raising an eyebrow at Nathan.
“I have been here enough times to know that it will be open for another hour and a half, at least.” He tossed the key to the valet. “I will wait for you to get done with your shift.”
“You don’t need to do this. I just want you to leave.” Shannon was pleading now and her eyes were glossy. “I cannot… will not go down memory lane.”
Nathan suddenly stepped forward and held her shoulders.
“I lost you once, Shannon,” he said in a commanding whisper. “I will not let it happen again, even if it kills me.”
Chapter 2
For the rest of her shift, Shannon could not help but shake the feeling that she was being watched, even though Nathan had opted to sit in the same booth he and his partners had been sitting in. She hated that she was being forced to face something that she hoped that she wouldn’t ever have to again. By the time the restaurant finally served its last customer, her heart was almost beating out of her chest. She hated the fact that she was going to miss out on meeting Vincenzo and on her first day no less.
“Listen, Mika,” Shannon started as she grabbed her bag from her locker. “I have to deal with something… someone.”
“Does it have anything to do with that freak-out you had earlier?” Mika asked.
“It was not a freak-out,” she said. “I just…” she sighed. “Let’s just talk later. Tomorrow?” she asked, raising an eyebrow over the other.
“Sure. Call me if you need anything,” Mika said as she headed to the door. She suddenly stopped and turned around. “Wait, your car… how are you going to get home?”
Shannon smiled.
“I’ll pick it up tomorrow.”
“But I was your ride here.” Shannon nodded.
“Trust me. I’m okay,” she said again and Mika shrugged.
“Well, I’ll have an extra shot just for you,” she said before she walked out leaving Shannon alone in the room. She took a couple of deep breaths before she walked out and began walking to the restaurant. The staff had already gathered at the bar and most of them were already toasting to a great night. Shannon could feel her heart pounding harder by the second as she got closer to Nathan’s booth.
“You came,” Nathan said when she stood at the entrance to the booth.
“It’s not like you gave me a choice,” she said in a soft voice. There was a long silence before he finally spoke.
“We need to talk,” he said as he looked up at her.
“Not here,” she said before she walked out of the booth and then out of the restaurant. She toyed with the strap of her sling bag as she waited for him to walk out. She had about a zillion thoughts running through her mind. When he walked out, she watched as he handed his valet card to the valet. When the young valet left, Nathan turned to look at her, his hands in his pockets.
“How are you?” he finally asked.
“Can’t complain,” she said in a soft voice, and shrugged.
“Why didn’t you keep in touch? I looked…” he started before she turned to look at him, a look of disappointment on her face.
“Keep in touch? Are you serious right now?” she asked, her eyes glossy from the tears she was fighting back. “You were the one who left, Nate. Not me.”
“But I had to,” he said in a soft voice. “You know I had to.”
“You were the one who should’ve stayed in touch,” she said.
“I tried… I looked…” he started before she put a hand up.
“I can’t, Nate. I just can’t,” she said as she turned away from him.
“Shannon, I tried. You have to believe me,” Nathan said in a soft voice.
“I don’t have to believe anything,” she said as the valet drove up with his car. He held the passenger door open for her and looked at her.
“Just come with me. I can explain everything,” he said in a soft voice. As she looked at him she could not help but wonder if she should trust him. She still had a lot of bitterness and trusting him was not exactly something she intended to do. “Please, Shannon,” he said in a whisper. She reluctantly walked to the car and climbed in before he got into the driver’s seat.
“Don’t forget to buckle up,” he said as he started the engine.
“Where are we going?” she asked in a soft voice.
“Somewhere we can talk,” he said as he drove away from the restaurant.
****
“When you said that you were taking us to a place where we can talk, I thought you were talking about a coffee shop or something,” Shannon said as the car drove into an underground parking lot of one of the luxury apartment buildings in Virginia Beach.
“I have gourmet coffee at my place,” he said as he parked the car. “And we need a nice, quiet place where you can’t walk out on me.”
“So, this is a kidnapping?” she asked. He turned to look at her as he unbuckled his seatbelt.
“You can leave whenever you want,” he said in a low voice. “But I know that you won’t.”
He climbed out of the car and walked round to her side and opened her door. She was quiet as they rode in the elevator to his penthouse. She wanted to leave, but at the same time, she wanted to hear his side of the story. Why he had left without a word, why she had sat at the breakfast table one Saturday morning waiting for him to wake up and join her only to realize that he was not coming. When they got to his penthou
se, she could not help but be impressed with his black and white themed penthouse. She walked up to one window and hugged herself as she feasted her eyes on his perfect view.
“Great view you have here,” she said without turning around.
“Thank you,” he said in a soft voice. “Can I get you a drink? Coffee? Wine?”
She turned around and looked at him as he loosened his tie and took off his jacket.
“I thought we came here to talk over coffee,” she said.
“Coffee it is then,” he said before he walked to the kitchen. She followed him there and her eyes grew wide when she saw his coffee maker.
“That’s a commercial grade coffee machine,” she said in a voice that screamed ‘I’m impressed’. “You can get lattes and espressos at home?” It was more of an exclamation than a question. He looked up at her and nodded.
“Well, I got tired of having to make a coffee run every time I needed a decent cup of coffee,” he said with a smile. “Plus I didn’t want my assistant to badmouth me behind my back. I mean, she was already getting my laundry and everything.”
For the first time, Shannon smiled.
“I wouldn’t blame her,” she said.
“Actually,” he started as he grabbed two cups. “I have a male assistant.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“I was not expecting that,” she said before she looked around
“A lot of people didn’t.” He looked at her and she felt her cheeks flush. It was the same look he used to give her when they were younger. The same look that always brought color to her cheeks.
“Do you have something I can eat? I’m kind of hungry,” she said, surprising herself with her honesty.
“I had some Thai takeout last night and I barely touched the chicken cashew,” he said as he walked to the fridge. She took a seat at the counter as he stuck the food container in the microwave. When he walked back with a takeout food container and opened it, she looked at it and then up at him.
“I thought you said you barely touched the chicken,” she said.
“By barely touching I meant I didn’t. I was all about the fried rice,” he said as he handed her a fork. “And I might have been a little more tired than I would have expected to be.”
Shannon shook her head. Too tired to eat? That never happened to her.
“And that is how my body size doubled in five years,” she thought as she took a bite.
Nathan poured them two cups of latte and pushed one towards her. She took another bite of her chicken and looked at him as he sipped on his latte.
“So, I’m here,” she said as she looked at him.
“You are,” he said in a soft voice. “Something I never thought would happen.”
Shannon wanted to roll her eyes.
“Well, you are the one who decided to cut me out of your life.” She looked up and for a moment, she could see the pain in his eyes.
“I did not walk out on you, Shan. I walked out on Dad.”
“Well, you left me at his mercy.”
“I wanted to come back for you. If I could have I would, but I just couldn’t.”
Shannon took another bite and then put her fork down. She shook her head and tried pulling away but he held her hand. “I wrote to you too and you sent the letters back.”
“Wait, what?” she yanked her hand away. “I never got any letters from you, Nate. Not one!”
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t write,” he said and she shook her head again.
“After all these years and you brought me to your house to lie to me?” she asked as she climbed off the stool. “This was a mistake.”
“Shannon,” he called out but she was already walking towards the elevator.
“I can’t do this, Nate. Not now,” she said without turning around.
“Shannon, wait,” he called out again but she still didn’t turn around.
“You were a selfish guy then and I think you are still…” she started saying as he walked towards her.
“Will you just shut up for one minute, Shan? God damn it!” He said cutting her short. He was now standing right in front of her. He stepped into the elevator and slipped an arm around her waist to pull her close to himself. “Come back in. Ten minutes is all I ask for. At least I know that will be enough time to finish your diner and coffee.”
“Five minutes,” she said in a whisper. He was looking right into her eyes and for a minute, everything felt normal again. She was almost having a feeling of déjà vu, being in his protective arms.
“That’s all I need and if I cannot convince you that I tried everything to come back to you, then you can leave,” he said. She pulled away from him and slowly walked back into his penthouse. She took a long deep breath as she walked to the couch.
Nathan looked at her for a long minute before he walked down the hall to what she assumed was the master bedroom. She was not very sure what he had in mind but she sure was intrigued. When he came back he had a small box in his hands.
“What is that?” she asked in a whisper.
“All the letters I wrote to you in the first three years after I left New Jersey,” he said as he handed the box to her. “They were all sent back to me.”
She shook her head confused as she looked through the letters.
“I… I never got these…. any of these…” she shook her head again. “Nate… I never…” her voice trailed off as a tear rolled down her cheek. Nathan reached down and brushed off the tear before he pulled her into his arms. “I never got them,” she said again as she leaned her head against his chest.
“I know,” he said in a whisper.
Chapter 3
The night had flown by faster than Nathan had hoped for but in three hours, he was sure of one thing: Shannon’s mother had been hell bent on shutting him out of her life. It was like she was punishing her for his father’s mistakes. But in one night, he had managed to undo every damage his stepmother had done over the years.
It was a little after seven when he woke up. The two had fallen asleep snuggled up on the couch in front of the TV and he was trying as hard as he could to pull away from her without waking her up. When he finally managed to pull away, he looked at her for a long minute, a smile on his lips. Everything he had felt for her as a teenager was still alive in him. He knew that reconnecting with her would not play well with Keisha, the model he had been hooking up with, but he was going to cross that bridge when he came to it.
He was still looking at her when her eyelids fluttered open.
“Good morning,” she said in a groggy voice.
“Morning. Did I wake you?” he asked as he looked down at her and she pulled herself up and shook her head. “Give me a minute to freshen up and I’ll make us breakfast.”
Shannon forced out a laugh as she pulled herself up to a sitting position.
“You cook?” she asked in a cynical voice.
“What is that tone supposed to mean?” he asked and she shrugged.
“Nothing, Nate. Nothing at all,” she said in a soft voice.
“There is a guest room down the hall. Why don’t you go in there and freshen up?” he asked. “Or did you still want to catch up on some sleep?”
She shook her head no and got up from the couch.
“I’ll be right back,” she said before walking off. He could not help but look at her curvy body as she walked down the hall. Sure, she was a little different than she was when they were still ‘family’ but in his eyes, Shannon had always been the most beautiful woman he knew. Maybe that was why no relationship had ever worked out for him, because he had always been trying to replace Shannon. He wanted to follow her to the bathroom. He wanted to hold her as he had always dreamed of doing but he knew he had to have boundaries. After all, he didn’t want to lose her so soon after getting her back.
By the time she walked back to the kitchen, he had just served two plates of scrambled eggs and crispy bacon. He poured two glasses of orange juice before she
helped him carry the food to the living room. As they ate, they caught up on the few happy moments they had while still living together in New Jersey and what their parents had been up to. Nathan felt guilt overwhelm him when she said that her mother had passed away when she was twenty-one.
“Hit and run,” she said as she took a sip of his juice. “Drunk driver.”
“Did the police make an arrest?” Nathan asked as she put her plate on the table.
“They did, eventually.” She shrugged. “But I really don’t want to talk about that right now.”
“Of course,” Nathan said, feeling uncomfortable. “I’m sorry I brought it up.”
“How about you? Let’s talk about how you went from being the hot-tempered man I knew as my brother to…all these,” she said as she looked around the room. “Apparently you are a real life Christian Grey.”
Nathan smiled.
“Whips and chains don’t excite me that much,” he said.
“I meant the billionaire aspect of Christian Grey, Nate. Keep your pants on.” She took another sip of her juice. “And by the way, I am really concerned you know the details of that book.”
“Come on Shan. The whole world knows what Christian Grey is all about,” he said smiling.
“Yeah, I guess they do,” she said and then stretched pout to put her glass on the table. “So, how did you go from being the simple guy from New Jersey to one of the richest men in this country anyway? I’m super curious.”
“I don’t know…one day I was looking for something to make me a quick buck and I thought that it would have been a great idea to find someone who was looking for a person like me. And just like that, I had a chat with a friend of mine and that was that,” he explained.
“Seriously? That was it?” she asked as she looked at him.
“That was it. That was how we launched the gofer app, FAM.” He took a long deep breath. “Everything else just sort of picked up from there.”
“Wow,” she said under her breath. “I never pictured you for the software development kind of guy.”
