Running From Forever

by Ashley Wilcox

  So when Miles said he’d meet me at my desk at twelve, I insisted I’d meet him outside the entrance a few minutes after. He paused before answering, debating his reply. I was sure he wasn’t used to being told otherwise or challenged by women. As much as Miles Blackwell made my skin crawl with delight, I still had a backbone and would never let a man take my voice. I had no problem speaking my piece.

  He was already waiting outside when I exited the building, giving me a short second to gawk before he turned, noticing me. Miles stood broadly; a man of wealth and authority, wearing another perfectly tailored suit—this one navy with pinstripes. I wondered how many he owned. He wore one every day and I imagined his closet looked exquisitely neat with all of his expensive clothes impeccably hung in properly lined rows.

  “Don’t you look stunning today,” Miles greeted me, leaning in to kiss my cheek as his hand held the back of my head delicately, allowing his fingers to slide through my hair when he stepped back afterwards. He really did like my hair down.

  My cheeks warmed, blushing at his compliment. New Kayla wasn’t the flattering type; compliments were something I took easily in the past, but it was always different with Miles. I had a feeling most things would be. His words, his gestures, just the person he was did things to my body I was unsure could happen. Heart palpations, sweaty palms, nervous jitters, adulation…all those things I wasn’t used to. No one had ever made me feel that way. His compliments felt like they were coming from the queen and I tried my hardest not to stutter when I replied to them.

  Eyes glossed with admiration, I sweetly smiled as I answered, “Thank you.”

  Winking in response, Miles ushered me towards the black Suburban waiting by the curb with his hand on my lower back. Even though it was a nice day and I’d have preferred to walk, the SUV seemed more private, so I didn’t offer any resistance. The car smelled of leather and was as large as a small bus inside, with two full rows of seats in the back. I entered first, holding down my skirt to prevent showing the world, and Miles, my panties. He snickered as I did it, doing all that he could not to look, causing me smile. He was definitely different than I was used to. Not the typical college pig.

  I seated myself comfortably in the seat near the farthest window; Miles took the one on the other side. As I fastened my seatbelt, Miles leaned forward to speak to the driver.

  “Basil Leaf, Hank,” he ordered in an authoritative tone.

  “Yes, sir,” Hank answered, pulling out into the New York City traffic.

  “Basil Leaf?” I asked once he sat back. “I’ve never heard of it.”

  “It’s a few blocks down. Great sandwiches and soup.”

  I just gave a pleased grin in response. Unlike last night, there was awkward silence for the first few minutes. I didn’t know what to say, mostly because I didn’t know what we were. Were we dating? I was really jumping the gun thinking this was any sort of date, though it wasn’t really a business meeting; or was it? Nothing had been established—hell, we’d only known each other a few days! Slow down before you make yourself crazy, Kayla!

  “Connie tells me you’re interested in anchoring. Is that right?”

  I looked at him, confounded. He’d talked to Connie about me? FUCK! “When did you talk to her?” I couldn’t help it, the words slipped right off my tongue. I hadn’t seen Connie at all yet today because she had back-to-back meetings and a luncheon with a client. I wouldn’t have known if she was pissed or not. Though, knowing Connie the little amount I do, if she was pissed about something, I’m sure I would’ve heard. She, worse than me, had no issue speaking her mind.

  “We’re partners,” he reminded me with his trademark grin. “We speak frequently about our employees.”

  I wanted Miles to elaborate. I wanted to know how in depth they spoke, but I didn’t want to seem needy, obsessive, Ms. Twenty-One Questions.

  I covered up my previous word vomit and need to know more with a more appropriate, professional reaction. “That’s right. It sometimes slips my mind.” Of course that wasn’t true. Their relationship was at the forefront of my mind, but I couldn’t go digging for dirt just yet. I needed to calm my anxious nerves—he would think I was a lunatic if I didn’t, though I’m not so sure I’m not a lunatic—I am interested in the CEO of my company. I’m pretty sure I was flirting with insanity. Christ, Kayla. Focus! “But yes, it’s true. That’s my goal—anchoring is what I went to school for.”

  “We’ll have to get you shadowing Charlotte in the near future. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind showing you the ropes.”

  Immediately my heart started thumping ecstatically and my smile grew so big that it reached each side of my face. Charlotte Manning was my idol—the one woman I looked up to; the one person I aspired to be.

  “I’m presuming you wouldn’t be opposed?”

  “No. No, absolutely not!” I practically praised him, elated.

  His laugh echoed from his stomach, causing every last emotion to come alive in me. I wasn’t so sure I would be granted this opportunity if I weren’t in some sort of relationship with Miles, but I wasn’t about to modestly decline. If having a relationship with the CEO meant I inched my way to the top a little quicker, I wouldn’t muster a complaint. We lived in a world of who knows whom and I would use that knowledge to my advantage.

  A few moments later, we pulled alongside a tiny little bistro tucked away on a quiet street. I was amazed when we stepped outside the vehicle and could only hear the horns beeping from afar. I was unaware places so quiet existed in the city.

  I wasn’t sure if he planned it or not, but he met me on my side of the SUV, which was parked alongside the curb. With his hand on my lower back, we entered the small restaurant, which couldn’t seat any more than twenty people at one time. The middle-aged woman behind the counter smiled immediately when she noticed Miles.

  “Miles! How’re ya, love?” she asked, coming around the counter to greet Miles with a hug.

  At first impression, she seemed sweet and caring, not overcome with his appearance at all. I wondered how it was possible, but didn’t complain. Not that I’m the jealous type, but having other women ogle the person I was seeing definitely wasn’t appealing.

  “Doing well, Truly. How’s the business treating you these days?” he asked, seeming genuinely interested.

  “I’m still here, honoring my blessings,” she smiled.

  “Good to hear,” he grinned, but it wasn’t the one I received repetitively and on a daily basis. It wasn’t suggestive, but a genuine, happy, engaging smile.

  I looked up at him, noticing a different man; a different side to the Miles Blackwell I knew. A tender one. One not so economically and dominantly driven. It warmed my heart to see, but also left me intrigued. Who was this woman? It obviously wasn’t a love interest or an ex, that was obvious enough, but she was someone that knew Miles, that touched his life somehow, that had broken through his tough-shelled façade. She was brilliance in my eyes.

  There was a second of silence until the focus turned to me. Truly stared, smiling. She wanted to be introduced.

  “Oh yes,” Miles said, his hand sliding from my lower back up to my neck, cupping the nape loosely with his hand.

  My body instantly melted under his touch. And as his thumb slowly caressed my skin, I felt a rush of heat fill my body. I was enamored by the sentiment I felt through his hand; the interest, the protection. I tried hard not to shiver.

  He looked down at me and smiled. “This beautiful woman is Kayla.”

  Lord, was I sinking. I was engulfed. Drowning into the sea of this man.

  “Kayla, this is Truly.”

  “It’s truly a pleasure,” she told me, happiness radiating from her smile and soul.

  I loved her. She didn’t look like your typical New Yorker and was far from business-attired like Miles and I. She was short and slightly overweight, but had warm brown eyes that sparkled and short curly hair that flowed crazily in every direction. I had no clue who she was, but I loved her an
yway. Her heart was pure, and she had a connection to Miles that was both warming and intriguing. She was unique…different.

  She went back to business mode, ready to take our orders. “What can I getcha both?”

  Miles looked to me, letting me go first, but I was so consumed with the situation that I hadn’t even glanced up at the menu yet. “Go ahead, I haven’t decided,” I told him, gesturing with my hand for him to order.

  “Uh…I’ll have the tomato, basil, and mozzarella pressed Panini with a cup of your beef barley soup, if you would, Truly?”

  Everything on the menu board sounded amazing, but so did what Miles just ordered. “I’ll have the same, please.”

  As we waited for our food to be prepared, we grabbed a seat at a table towards the front.

  “I feel like we’re hiding out,” I told him once we were seated.

  He chuckled. “Why’s that?”

  “Because I can almost forget that we’re sitting just outside of Times Square. I feel like we’re sitting in a bistro in Italy or somewhere.”

  His smile matched the sparkle in his eyes, stealing the beat in my heart. He was amused by my statement. “This is my little slice of heaven in the world of crazy that I live in.”

  “Well, thank you for bringing me here. I’d have never known it was here otherwise.”

  He nodded his head. “It’s my pleasure.” He wet his lips and leaned further back into his chair, bringing is right foot up to rest on his left knee. “I enjoy spending time with you. You’ve been a pleasant entry the last few days.”

  A pleasant entry? Who says that? Miles. Only Miles could say something so sophisticated and strange but still have the same heart-throbbing effect. I blushed. Of course I blushed. It seemed to be the norm around him. It was like he knew all the right things to say to make me weak; to cave into his intoxication.

  Luckily, I didn’t have to respond. Truly interrupted, delivering our meals. “Anything else I can get you guys?” she asked after placing our dishes and silverware in front of us.

  Miles looked to me, but I shook my head. “I’m good, thanks.”

  “All set,” he followed up. “Thank you, Truly.”

  “Alright. Well, holler if you need anything else.” She smiled. “Enjoy.”

  Miles had me back to the office within the hour lunch break that I was allotted. Like he knew where I stood with making our relationship public, we walked into ETV like two normal coworkers that just had lunch together would. No back touching, hand holding, or sly gestures of any kind. It was a different story in the elevator, though. Miles’ hand immediately found the back of my neck just as it did in the restaurant and gently caressed my skin until the elevator car stopped at his floor.

  His hand slid slowly down my back as the doors opened and he leaned in, whispering, “I’ll see you later,” into my hair before exiting and not looking back after he did.

  I wasn’t frozen this time, like I expected to be. I was relaxed; relaxed with happiness flowing within. I was starting to become more comfortable in my skin around Miles. I learned a new side of him this afternoon; a side that probably most don’t see…he was calm. Genuine. I had only seen him in executive mode, even at the bar. Out of the office today, around Truly, he seemed more relaxed. Miles Blackwell was starting to become the whole package—successful, incredibly attractive, professional, charming, and now soft. I had a feeling as I rode the rest of the way up to my floor that my original plan when moving here, the plan to lead the single business life, was going to have to take a detour that involved not being single; a detour that involved a man and maybe a future with him.

  I could see it all nicely served on a silver platter. I could see a future with Miles Blackwell, and even though it wasn’t the future that I had been thinking about when I put my plan in motion not more than a week ago, it was a plan that I would be more than okay with following. Leading the life of the wealthy, in a relationship with one of the biggest executives in Manhattan…yeah, I was okay with that, especially when he made me feel like the person I had always yearned to be—alive, pure, and important, as opposed to cheap, used up, and incompetent. Here, I was someone new, the person I had always pictured myself being. So, was I good with this detour? Fucking ecstatic, actually.

  The rest of the day was pretty humdrum. Connie had me doing random errands, I did my usual requirements, chatted with Sami for only a second, and then was out the door, dragging my feet to my apartment just after six.

  I was chatting on the phone with Leah, bringing her up to speed about Miles, when I walked into the apartment to an unusual sight—my sister cooking dinner and my apartment filled with loud music to boot. The dinner I was okay with, but the music, not so much. Not too long ago, that would have matched my personality to a T, so I didn’t fault my Maddy there (she was acting her age, after all), but I had neighbors that paid good money to live here. And I didn’t want to get kicked out after only being there a week.

  “Leah, let me call you back,” I said. I wasn’t able to hear her over the music anyway.

  “Yeah!” she shouted back, laughing before saying goodbye and hanging up.

  I put my phone in my purse and stalked over to my stereo, turning the volume dial to a reasonable level. This got my sister’s attention, making her turn quickly to face me.

  “What are ya doing? I love that song!” she pouted, looking at me like I was out of my mind for respecting the noise level for all who lived in my building.

  “Maddy! I have neighbors.”

  “Yeah?” she looked at me, confused.

  I found it ridiculous that I had to elaborate as it should be the obvious, but I did. “You have to keep it down. I’d like for them not to hate me, please.”

  She scowled and it dawned on me: Maddy doesn’t know any better. She was coming from the same shit scenario I grew up in. Respect was the last thing on anyone’s mind in Mom’s house—I wasn’t quite sure if my mom actually knew what that word meant. I realized I was going to have to take a step back when dealing with Maddy; I was going to have to rewind to four years ago and remember the person I was entering my first year in college…fresh from the fucked up world I was used to.

  “It’s a quiet building,” I continued in a more explanatory tone. “Blasting music isn’t something they encourage here.”

  She looked at me, confused for a moment longer, before answering in the same ditzy manner I did so many times that it actually made me chuckle when she did it. “Huh?” She even tilted her head to the side when she said it.

  “Oh, Maddy…” I said, coming up beside her and wrapping my arm around her neck. “You’re entering a whole new world, and it’s much, much different than you’re used to…” I began to explain how differently people live here, in the real world, than Mom does back home. The part I ended with pained me to do because even though I’m not the person I used to be (and not regretting getting that all out of my system), I couldn’t have that behavior there—while she stayed with me, she was going to have to respect that. I was on a different level now. I was a responsible adult. If she wanted to stay with me, she was going to have to catch up to where I was and where I was heading.

  “Wow,” Maddy answered, looking genuinely shocked. I wasn’t sure exactly how she was grasping it. She seemed lost, still trying to understand what I just told her. “Well…” she shrugged her shoulders. “Since I have nowhere else to go, I suppose I should start seeing how respectable people live.”

  There was attitude on her last statement, making my stomach turn that I hurt her feelings. I knew I offended her, but I had to be honest. The way we were brought up wasn’t the high life at all. Or the regular life, for that matter. My mom had wealthy assholes coming and going, yes, but they weren’t among the riches that New York City had to offer. They were sleazy gamblers, getting money all the wrong ways, but Tina, my mom, didn’t care. All she saw was dollar signs. We grew up with money, but it was handled much differently and we didn’t see much of it. There were parties every
night in our house, guys slumming around that couldn’t care less how young the girls they were screwing were, all in a neighborhood that welcomed such behavior. We had no rules. We had no one looking out for us to explain how normal people functioned in society. That was our normal. That was our society. We hadn’t known any different until we were old enough to see a comparison.

  “I didn’t mean that—” I started.

  “No, K, don’t worry.” She cut me off with tears in her eyes, putting down the spatula she was using to cook. “I get it. That’s why I left. I guess it’s just going to take some getting used to,” she added before walking past me to the bathroom, the only room in my apartment with a door that you could shut and hide.

  ***

  My mood was less than stellar going into work the following day. On top of it being gloomy and ugly outside, last night’s discussion with my sister was still bothering me. Even though she said that she understood, she was still short with me for the remainder of the evening. We ended up eating the dinner that she’d prepared then popped some popcorn and watched a movie, but it was quiet. Stiff. You could’ve cut the tension in the room with a knife.

  All was forgotten, or at least put on hold, when those infamous elevator doors opened, revealing Miles inside. Seeing him was just what I needed.

  “No meeting this morning?” I asked, a smile replacing the somber look on my face as I took the space next to him.

  “Not that I’d miss our ride for,” he answered, pulling me into his side to gently peck the top of my head. It was sweet, just as sweet as his comment. “Are you joining the others in Thirsty Thursday this evening?”

  “I had planned to,” I admitted. “Were you thinking of hanging with the commoners again?”

  He chuckled. “I just may. That is, if I’m invited?”

  “Since when do you need an invitation?” I looked at him, puzzled. Were the higher ups not invited to happy hour?

  “I received a few curious looks last time. I just wanted to confirm my welcome.”