The rest of the ride went like that. Like four old friends just laughing and reliving some good times. Audra would interject occasionally as her attention was divided between our conversation and looking out the window to see everything. When we pulled up to McKenna’s building, Audra’s eyes bulged out of her head. Mackey lived in The Sheffield on the 54th floor and had views of the city while being two blocks from Central Park. It was a location people would die for.
“I wish I could invite you up, but I really have to go. I’m meeting my friend for her final wedding dress fitting, and we have our final bridesmaid fitting, too.”Ah—that’s right, I thought. Olivia was getting married to her finance bro boyfriend, and McKenna was in the wedding. Olivia was as high society as they came, so naturally, not my favorite. I wondered what Kenna would think about the gal group back in Savannah Springs. I think when she got the chance to experience it, she’d like how down-to-earth it was. Hopefully, she’d get the chance soon.
“Audra, I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to meet you. I had no idea who Donovan was going to drag here, but you are incredible. And I haven’t seen my brother smile and laugh so carefree like that since … well … since the DJ Wright Way days.” She reached over and hugged Audra. “And Van, I missed you so much. It means the world that you showed up for this. Thank you. I love you.” And she hugged me. “Miles, as always, I love seeing you! Colton will be here in about an hour!”
“Tell him he owes me five bucks, Mackey Mae,” Miles laughed. My sister’s driver was Colton, who also happen to be Miles’ brother. Though McKenna and I had shitty biological parents, we ended up with a different kindof a family.
Then McKenna turned back to us, “So for real though, want to meet sixty to ninety minutes before the shit show begins tomorrow?”
We agreed, and Miles took us to my apartment. It was only a mile and a half from McKenna. We pulled up, and she still had that awestruck look on her face. “What is this place?” She asked incredulously.
One thing I put a stop to years ago was Miles opening my door, so I got out of the car first and reached my hand to hers. “I bought this apartment when I was eighteen, and I’ve had it ever since.” Sticking my head back in the car, I let Miles know we were going to drop our things, freshen up, and be back down in thirty, while she just stood there, completely amazed.
“Donovan, this is … wow.”
“I think you’ll like it,” I said, smiling at her. Grabbing all our things, I took us up the elevator and stopped outside my door to fiddle with the key. My favorite part greeted her when the door opened.
“Holy shit,” she gasped.
I loved everything about this one-bedroom place, but the view when you entered was postcard-perfect, and I knew it. There were floor-to-ceiling windows, and the views included some of the big landmarks like the Empire State Building and the East River. Miles was actually the one who found it for me. One of his friends drove the previous owner, so he connected us. The day after I turned eighteen, I bought it. The guy was nice enough to wait five weeks for the deal to happen. For the second time, Audra couldn’t seem to quite wrap her head around my real estate portfolio. She pulled away to explore, and landing in the living room, she did a couple of 360s. “So let me get this straight. You’ve had this place just sitting here for…”
She paused so I could answer. “I bought it when I was eighteen.”
“So you’ve had it for ten years. You haven’t been back since you were … twenty-five? You just pay monthly for this? On top of the beautiful place you have in Savannah Springs? And who knows where else? I … Donovan? What do you do? Like, actually do. How can you fund all this? I can’t fathom it. This has to be at least a million dollars. How did you have that when you turned eighteen? Why are you still keeping this place? What did your parents do? It’s past eight in the morning, so can we have hard conversations now?”
I laughed at her barrage of questions. “Ok, I’ll try to answer all of those. I’ve kept this place because until I came to Savannah Springs, I never really felt settled and wasn’t a hundred percent sure where I would end up. And I love this apartment so much. I love the view, the building, the kitchen, the rooftop, everything about it, so I wasn’t ready to give it up. How was I able to buy it when I turned eighteen? I know I alluded to the kind of relationship I had with my parents, but it was always shit. Part of my teenage rebellion and ‘sticking it to the man’ was taking money from them. I’d always overestimate the cost of things, and I started stashing money when I was in, like, the sixth grade. Anything under fifteen thousand didn’t even register with them. And that was just for big things. I had a card for the everyday kind of stuff. I started doing it to try to get attention from them, but I’m not sure if they ever noticed or not, so I just kept going. If they did, they never seemed to care. Just like when I did anything. Unless it made them look good or they could brag about it, they just didn’t give a fuck. As for what I did besides juvenile money laundering,” I knew that disclosing that not-so-fun fact made me look shady as hell, but it was what it was. I harbored no guilt or regret, though Iguess I could have kept that a little closer to my chest until we knew each other better. No matter, she didn’t look mortified, and Audra was pretty easy to read. “I designed, launched, and sold a travel app that did very well. You may have even heard of it, Pinny Travel.” At that, her eyes bulged out of her head again.
“I use that app to plan the vacations I want to take one day! I love it!” She pulled her phone out and showed her home screen to me. Sure enough, it was there.
“How funny is that? You loved me before you knew me,” I teased, and she swatted at my chest. “Well, it was mine before I sold it for a large amount of money. That’s where my first huge payday came from. I spun that into successful investments, a healthy portfolio, and then I came into my trust when I turned twenty-five. Plus, I never stopped app development. I do it in my free time, and I’m actually working on an app right now. Without getting too much into it, I currently live off of those investments, dividends, and returns, but I still dabble in development and real estate.”
“So, you’re as rich as Cora.”
“I’m not sure what her financial situation is.”
“Fucking loaded,” she stated.
It was my turn to snort with laughter at her blunt response.
“I mean,” I shrugged because I didn’t know how to answer that, and money talk made me uncomfortable, “but more importantly, we are losing time.” I moved in close to her. She was still standing by the window, looking out over everything, seeing what she could see.
“Van, this is really spectacular,” she said as if she still couldn’t believe it.
My nickname on her lips stopped me in my tracks. I lost all my focus because it spoke to me on sucha different level. She was one of the few people who could call me that, who earned the right to call me that. Erasing any distance between us, I held her face in my hands. Her breath hitched, and she held it while she waited to see my next move. I pulled my head down to right in front of her lips.
“I like it when you call me Van, Audra. A whole fucking lot.” And then I closed all the space between us. It wasn’t a desperate kiss; it was chaste to start, as I just brushed on her lips. I was going to pull away, I swore, but I didn’t get far because she met my kiss, and opened her lips ever so slightly. I took the opportunity to tangle my tongue in her mouth. Her arms went around my neck, and mine went to her waist, but I put my hands under her shirt and stroked the silky skin above her pants with my thumbs—it was so smooth. I pushed her back onto the window to continue making out. It took zero seconds for my dick to be screaming for release from my pants. This woman. It was obvious she was as into it as I was, and after I felt her rock in my hands, I traced my hand up her side, felt that sexy as fuck lace bra from earlier, and no longer wanted to do anything with sight-seeing outside of this apartment. Brushing my thumb over her nipples, she moaned the tiniest bit, and I lost it.
“Audra, what do you want me to do right now?” Because I wanted to strip her clothes off, taste the sweetness between her legs, and drive into her until neither of us remembered our names.
That broke the spell, however, because she snapped out of the moment. “Van, I—can we take a breath?” I cursed myself for not just letting things play out because I knew where they were headed. Even though I’d been inside her four hours ago, I just couldn’t get enough.
“Of course. I was just asking because I’m ready to take yourclothes off and fuck you in front of the Empire State Building.” Bending over first to gently nip the lobe of her ear, I moved to the sensitive spot right below it. “I just want you to know that we can go quick,” I murmured.
Her face flushed up, “I’m concerned that if that happens right now, I’m not going to see any other part of New York. And though your apartment is great, I do want to be a tourist for a little.”
At that, I kissed her deeply again. “I’m going to hold you to that, Chaos.”
“I can’t wait until you do.” She looked up at me with a knowing smile. I couldn’t wait to see Miles while sporting a raging boner. “Until then, show me your city, Van.”
