by TN King
“So, you work at a diner, right?” he prompted, obviously working to bring her attention back towards him. The question didn’t feel forced or anything, but after discussing how he traveled all over the world for business it felt like anything she had to say would only bore him.
“Yeah,” she answered, nodding with a shrug. Nothing exciting there, she had bus fare stories that were more interesting than she did work stories.
“Tell me about that.” He leaned in just a bit, obviously trying to engage her and get her talking about herself as well.
Which was what people did, it was how they got to know one another. Only, there was nothing about her that he could possibly find as intriguing or as aweing as she found what he had been telling her. She didn’t travel, she didn’t have famous paintings hanging in her living room… hell, she barely had anything hanging in her living room at all.
What was there to tell? She took people’s orders, filled them, and then cleaned up the tables once they left. Every once and a while she even got good tips off of doing so. She hesitated before answering, “I’m just a waitress. It’s pretty boring work.”
“Nonsense,” he said, raising an eyebrow in her direction. “You’re in the service industry. You have to be skilled at selling and closing a deal, right? I mean, you have to try and upsell the customer’s order, correct?”
She furrowed her brow because she’d never thought about it like that before. What he was saying wasn’t necessarily false, but it was so far off base from how she would describe it herself that she didn’t even know how to begin wrapping her head around it. “Uh, yeah, I guess. I mean, yeah, of course. I usually try to upsell, so that I can get a better tip,” she said confusedly, her eyebrows furrowing further.
“There you go,” he said with a smile. “We’re not so different. It’s all about using the skills you have.” He put his water back on the table composedly, lifting both brows at her then as if to further his point.
“I suppose you’re right,” she agreed slowly. Ellie shrugged and wondered at the huge chasm there really was between the two of them. Couldn’t he see it? To her, it felt like this huge grand canyon of a gap. Could she even leap it? Keep up with his type of lifestyle? She sighed. What was she even saying? He wasn’t inviting her to. He was just being nice. The man had saved her life…that should be enough to offer in the way of anything. Just enjoy this meal and get as much of looking at him as you can. Then traipse on back to your life in the slums. At least, you never felt out of place there.
Morgan
Of course, he was right. She was selling herself short if she only considered herself a waitress. So many possibilities were available to her if she only realized it. But he sensed that she was timid and afraid to take risks…the complete opposite of him. God, he’d love to turn her into the strong, dominant woman that she was capable of becoming, but he’d love to completely dominate her, himself, first. He realized, however, that he would have to take things slow with her. That meant holding off on the Tahiti trip or anything else he had in mind—at least for now.
He had thought that he would, over the course of the meal, become bored with the conversation. Or even just that he would run out of things that he actually wanted to talk about and have to fall back on conversation starters that he kept in his repertoire. However, he was finding himself actively engaged in the conversation.
“So, I guess the diner’s closed for now?” he continued, his eyebrows furrowing as he realized it. He hadn’t considered that before, not in reality, it wasn’t the sort of thing that he normally had to think about.
“Yeah,” Ellie said shortly, nodding with a sad sigh that he almost missed. One that he would have missed had he not been watching her so intently as he was.
“That upsets you?” He asked, surprised. He hadn’t thought that would be the reaction, especially after their running joke about her vacation days.
“Well...” she began but hesitated to finish, trailing off with a pained look on her face.
“Go on.” Morgan prompted, willing for her to finish the thought. He had already been curious, with her responses, it made him only more so.
Ellie nervously reached for her glass of water and took a sip, her hands just barely visible shaking. Again, something he wouldn’t have noticed at all if it weren’t for how he had been watching her. She hesitated again, seeming to struggle with the choice to actually open up to him or not. “I can’t really afford to take time off, like I said I would yesterday,” she admitted slowly. “I need to find another job, like now. It’s not the most fun thing in the world for me.”
“Hmm. I see,” he said carefully, trying to keep his frustration from his voice. He felt like a dolt. Like the lowest scum of the earth. Of course, she couldn’t afford to take a vacation. That would be his way of handling things. He sometimes forgot that not everyone had the same options he did. He made a mental note to remedy her situation. For now, he would just change the subject. “So where have you gone? Ever been out of the country?”
Her eyes brightened suddenly, relief clouding her features. Obviously, she’d been worried about what they had been discussing, changing the subject seemed to have dispelled that discomfort though. “Once,” she said around a grin. “With my dad. We drove up to Canada to see Niagara Falls. We stayed there the weekend. It was great,” she finished, obviously editing the story.
“Tell me about that,” he encouraged.
Ellie shrugged and smiled. “I was just starting high school and so nervous about it, I’d made myself sick. He promised me that if I got better, we’d go and I’d been reading a lot of stuff on the power of mind over matter, so I convinced myself that I wasn’t choosing to go to high school since I had no say in the matter, so worrying about something that I couldn’t change was pointless. It sounds weird but it worked. I got better and my dad and I went.”
Morgan’s curiosity was definitely piqued. “And your first day at high school?”
“Was great, actually. After I accepted that I had no power in the situation, I just let it happen, so to speak. I approached it as something I had to do, so I just did it.”
“Interesting.” He now rested his elbow on the table with a fist under his chin and leaned forward as he listened to her speak with such passion about this time in her life, where she completely gave herself over. He wondered if she knew that she’d just described herself as a submissive. The fact that talking about this event was the most animated that he’d ever seen her was telling. It filled him with anticipation. Here was an innocent. A woman so held within herself. I bet she never came as hard as I could make her—he halted that kind of thinking. He needed to reign in his lust. This kind of distraction hadn’t happened in a long time. A woman causing him to become hard while just carrying on conversation with him.
The waiter appeared silently once more, with a huge smile and their eggs. Ellie turned and smiled back at him, the man leaning over the table and passing their plates and the rest of their order over carefully before half-bowing away with another smile. “Thank you,” he elucidated, waving the man off and trying to return to the conversation that they had been having.
He was intensely interested in what she had been giving away about herself, those tidbits that she probably didn’t even realize were so captivating to him. “So, do you do that often? Just, give in like that?” He asked, leadingly. He couldn’t help it, he couldn’t stop himself from at least trying to find out.
Ellie furrowed her slender brows, obviously trying to figure out why he was asking her that question. “I guess I do. I mean, I kind of did that coming up here,” she continued, only obviously just catching what all she had just revealed there at the end of her sentence. She closed her eyes and cursed under her breath, her cheeks heating a dark red all over again.
He focused carefully on her, amused that she’d tripped up, especially so easily.
“I mean, I was nervous coming here because I wasn’t sure what to expect,” she hurried on to exp
lain, almost tripping herself up with her words. She shook her head and picked up her fork. “I didn’t think you’d remember me,” she finally confessed softly.
He felt the broadest grin spread across his face at her admission, unable to bite it back any at all despite the fact that he probably needed to. “I’m harmless,” he laughed. “And I have an awesome memory, especially when it comes to pretty girls.”
She laughed, cheeks pinkening again, as she looked up at him.
Dammit, she was damned cute. His gaze sought hers out, waiting until she fully met his gaze to wink at her pretty, baby blues. “And what about after high school?” He asked her in continuation of their earlier conversation. “Any plans for college? Did your strategy work there, too?”
Ellie’s gaze dropped again, looking down at her food as she pushed it around her plate with her fork. “Well…” She hesitated again, obviously trying to find a way to explain it again. “Plans, yes. But—I never saw them through.” She shrugged, trying to pass it off. “Just wasn’t meant to be, I guess.”
Morgan sensed that she was holding back part of that story, but decided he didn’t need to hear the details. He’d gotten enough information to formulate his own strategy from her high school story. That’s what a good businessman did ‒ gathered information before making a move. He felt confident that he’d done just that. This would be all the more interesting but he needed to tread carefully. He would build this and he had more patience than most. It took time to build something spectacular and this ‒ Ellie, he knew would be the most beautiful thing when he finally got her where he wanted her. He smiled and picked up his fork. “Now, let’s eat, so I can show you my balcony.”
Ellie
The eggs were great, just like Morgan had promised, and she was going back up to his room with him to see Philadelphia from his balcony. She couldn’t help but pretend that she’d just accepted an illicit proposal from a handsome, rich, stranger, and was now on her way to complete the task. Fantasy was the spice of life, after all, and after this, she’d probably never see him again, so she might as well get the most out of it. She would retrieve this memory later, while she was in the shower, long after she had said goodbye to him for the final time.
After all, that was reality, at least it was hers anyway. Fantasy. She had needed it to get through the bad times, the worry. The lonely existence she’d been leading. All of the stress and the turmoil, especially this past year. So if he wanted to unwittingly, provide her more material to use after he disappeared from her life… who was she to stop him?
He opened the door and stopped just within it to hold it open for her. She hesitated for only half of a moment before stepping in, marveling once again at the exquisite luxury of the penthouse he got to call home on random occasion. She didn’t think she would ever get used to that kind of grandeur that he seemed to just embrace, closing the door after them, and passing her carefully.
Morgan stopped in front of his plush leather sofa, bending to pick up the remote that laid on the marble table there in front of it. He glanced up at her with an excited grin, pressing the button and forcing the rich, gold drapes to part slowly, revealing a beautiful view just beyond the glass doors. “Come,” he prompted, tilting his head towards the balcony beyond.
Ellie didn’t even have words, her purse falling from her fingers to the leather sofa to her side and her feet dragging as she followed him out. There wasn’t much of anything, she suddenly realized, that she wouldn’t agree to if he proposed it. She was also sure, that just that in itself, was something that she should second guess. It was a dangerous attitude to take, but she also couldn’t seem to help herself from doing so.
She had barely stepped onto the balcony itself before the warm wind began whipping at her long hair, wrapping it softly about her neck in a way that she couldn’t just ignore. She laughed easily, unwrapping her hair and tucking it over the shoulder the opposite of the gusting wind. “I’m sure the view is awesome, but this…” her words faded, her hair finally removed from obstructing the view, and her feet carrying her near numbly the rest of the way to the banister, mouth falling open.
“What do you think?”
Ellie gaped, her heart thudding dully in her chest. “It’s amazing,” she said finally, staring out at the view in awe. “I feel like I can see forever from up here,” she whispered, as if afraid that raising her voice to a normal decibel would somehow disrupt the view. Her balance shifted, her feet moving and her hands grabbing a hold of the railing in front of her. She hated that feeling of falling she got every time she went up above a certain height. It was like being on the Ferris wheel and watching the earth tilt back and forth below you. She could love the adrenaline that she got from it and still hate the drop in the pit of her stomach.
“Yeah,” he agreed, his voice not much louder than hers. “It was the main thing that I loved about this suite,” he admitted while placing his hands on the rail right next to hers.
For a few brief moments, all was well with the world. It felt like perfection. High up in the air, with the world at their feet. Her eyes closed, disappearing inside of her own mind for a moment to recover from the awe of seeing the view. No matter how far she drifted though she was still overly conscious of his body next to hers.
Her body drifted too, shoulder brushing against his and she could feel his hand lift off of the balcony rail, arm reaching towards her and- then his phone went off.
Ellie’s eyes shot open, standing upright as she recognized the ringtone from yesterday. Only yesterday, it had sounded in her kitchen, alerting her to all of the events that had just passed.
Morgan glanced at her in apology and then reached inside his pants pocket to pull the phone out. His lips thinned after looking at the screen, frustration clear in his features before acknowledging her once more. “Sorry,” he apologetically interjected, “I have to take this.” He pulled another face and retreated indoors, answering the phone as he went.
Ellie had no choice but to stay on the balcony and enjoyed the view. It wasn’t like she could scale down the side of the building and make herself disappear. So, what was next? Would he invite her to lunch? Dinner? A trip to Tahiti? She sighed, remembering that she had promised herself she would be satisfied with breakfast and not expect anything else from this kind, sexy, stranger who’d saved her from a burning building. This was more than she could have ever hoped for. In reality, if she hadn’t braved the burning building or this building, she would not have even had this much. ‘Take the little that you’ve got,’ her dad always said. But what if it was just too little? Too far and in between. Never quite enough?
She was in too deep and she knew it. Only a handful of hours with Morgan and she was already more emotionally invested then she had intended to let herself become.
“What the hell do you mean?”
She almost jumped, turning her head around to look at the closed glass door. She didn’t know what Morgan was saying after that one exclamation, but even without hearing what he was saying she could hear the annoyed tenor to his voice as he spoke even with the door closed between them. She wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, at least not intentionally, but then she couldn’t help it when his voice rose. Again, even louder, a goddammit! She didn’t bother trying to pretend not to turn around that time, not with him standing at the glass door already looking at her.
He seemed agitated, his lips moving too quickly for her to read as he finished the phone call, locking the phone once more and opening the door to the balcony.
His fist fell from his hip, stepping back outside and scrubbing his hand down his face in aggravation before speaking. His face cleared somewhat, lips pulled as he looked her over. “Ellie, I apologize,” he said as he came and stood next to her once more. “I thought I might have more time here today, but it turns out, I have to drive back to New York immediately.”
“Is everything okay?” She questioned, looking at his face to try and gather some sort of clue as to how she should respond to h
im, or if she should be making her excuses to leave.
He shook his head, sighing again. “It’s my fault, really. I never called my secretary yesterday after my meeting with the Yamato group to have her send them over the contract. I’d told them they’d have it before the close of business. They’re very particular about these kinds of things.”
Ellie nodded as she kept up with his story trying to look like she understood it, and honestly trying to. She just… didn’t get what he was saying. And it wasn’t the financial divide this time that was separating them. It was the business side of things.
“Anyway, they’re there now at my office signing the contract but they want me to sign it before they head back to Japan. Technically, I can sign it whenever, but it’s one of those things,” he said and waved his hand in the air as if trying to dismiss it.
“So, can’t you just fly there?” She asked. It made more sense to her, certainly it would have been faster than what he was suggesting now.
Morgan grinned, his eyes dancing with not-so-secret mirth. “Yeah, but I drove down, so I’ll be driving back. I can be a jerk, too.” He smiled blithely. “They can wait a few hours.”
Ellie put a hand up to her mouth and giggled, trying not to snort around her laughter.
Morgan chuckled. “So, did you drive here?” he asked, turning to lean back against the balcony railing as they spoke.
She laughed at the idea and shook her head. “No.” She’d splurged on that cab ride, but she knew that she would be on the bus on the way back. Maybe it would even provide her with more anecdotal stories for her to store up on.
He looked concerned, obviously taking a moment for him to figure out any way in which she could have arrived without having driven herself. “Well, let me get my driver to take you back home. It’s the least I can do for this huge inconvenience.”
