Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 73665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
The lounge is packed until the last call, and even then, I have to usher people out. It’s not the kind of place where anyone goes to get fall-on-the-floor drunk. We revitalized the lounge, making it a more welcoming spot for people of all ages. Mika says it’s hip and trendy and has all the good vibes. The people who stay until the last call are just having fun soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying each other’s company.
Bellatrix’s parents are the last in the crowd to leave. They tell their daughter how beautifully she played and then hug her tight. It never fails to make her teary-eyed in a good way. Her parents aren’t huggers, but they know she is.
Mika is the last of the last to head out. She stays to help with clean-up even though there are staff working who are more than happy to do it. She even wipes down the bar for me, then discreetly tells me to “give ‘er balls at that surprise,” hugs me goodnight, and heads out with one of the security guys. He’ll walk her to her car and make sure that she’s in with the doors locked behind her before he comes back here.
Bellatrix is radiant. I’d do anything in the world to make her happy, but she’s told me before that it’s not necessary. She’s taken charge of her own life, strengthening her relationship with her parents, staying in touch with some of her old co-workers, and making sure she’s always there for Mika. She was with me one hundred percent as we changed up the lounge. She’s been my partner in every way, never relying on me to do anything for her just because I’m older or because I have the means to do it. She’s getting used to sometimes being treated with special dinners or a surprise trip to Europe that I mixed in with business, but lavish gifts are out. She’d told me that she’d rather I donate the money. But she has promised me that if she ever needs anything, she’ll just ask.
That’s more than fair.
She knows what she wants, and it’s me rather than my money.
It doesn’t mean that if I want to spoil her in the future, she won’t agree to it, as long as it’s something I can enjoy too.
“What are you thinking about so hard back here?” Bellatrix asks when she finds me locking the cash drawers into the safe in the office at the back.
“Thinking?”
“I’ve been watching you through the crack in the door for at least five minutes, and you’re in that dazed trance state where your brain gets a workout.”
She wraps her arms around me from behind, locking her hands around my waist and kissing the side of my neck—a bonus of her being extremely tall.
“Just let me put these away and lock up. And then I have a surprise for you.”
She practically vibrates against me with excitement. “What is it?”
“If I told you, then—”
“It wouldn’t be a surprise,” she finishes. She pokes me in the ribs, right where I’m the most ticklish. “If you’re going to ask me to marry you, the answer is yes, always yes, but we should at least wait until we’ve known each other for six months. I don’t want my parents to have heart attacks for real. They’ve been so good about our relationship, but if we took a step like that, I’m afraid they wouldn’t be able to handle it.”
I’m lucky the safe is already open, and I can thrust the cash trays in without dropping them. I wheel around to find Bellatrix giving me that look that says she’s both serious and joking. “It’s not that.”
She edges up to the desk and perches on the corner with one long leg dangling freely, the sequins on her black dress glittering.
She wanted the lounge to be classy. The look of it already spoke to the past, so we gave it a Roaring Twenties theme. She has several incredible dresses she alternates between that look absolutely breathtaking on her and are all historical reproductions.
“I can’t believe I ever thought I was invisible,” she muses, completely unruffled by talk of marriage.
It doesn’t freak me out.
Like the other decisions we’ve made, we’ll talk about it together, but hearing her tell me yes, always yes, sends a fizzy shot of adrenaline racing through me.
“It’s kind of horrifying having everyone watch me while I play, but at the same time, it’s so much fun. I always get this super huge endorphin rush after every night, like a killer workout. Not that playing isn’t a workout. It’s a lot of effort to keep going for that amount of time.”
I’m immediately concerned. “We could switch it up.”
She waves the suggestion off, looking like a total glamorous queen with her hair piled up and that dress that hugs her tall frame so elegantly. “I love it. I love it so much.” She slips off the desk and takes my hand. “Hurry and lock up. If my surprise isn’t banging in some new position, then I need you to quickly give me the surprise you have planned so I can have the second surprise that’s not a surprise.”