AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He was waiting for me in the lobby and when I saw him, I smiled. He looked so good, sitting on one of the sofas, his arm stretched on the back, his leg crossed over his knee. He looked like he belonged in this hotel. He looked like a billion dollars and for a moment, it made me self-conscious about my humble origins. I glanced down at myself, at my sundress and sandals, at my bag, but I caught myself. He'd seen me in a bikini and sweatshirt for the past eight months as we crossed the oceans on The Phoenix. He accepted me for what I was. A surge of pride filled me that he was willing to fight his mother over this. He wouldn't be the man I loved if he hadn't stormed over to her house and gave her a piece of his mind.
"There you are," he said when I walked up. He stood and came to me, his hands on my shoulders, pulling me in for a kiss. "I wish we didn't have to deal with this. It was so much calmer out in the middle of the ocean surrounded by thirty-foot waves."
I laughed and he took my hand, leading me over to the restaurant. "It was."
We were seated at a booth in the back of the restaurant next to a window, and we sat side by side instead of across from each other so we could be close.
"So, tell me about your encounter with your mother."
He shook his head. "Nope. Not going to. Suffice to say that I gave her the third degree and told her she could keep her money. End of story. I don't need her money."
"But half her estate would give you a lot of money for your Mars project."
He shook his head. "There's lots of seed money out there, and people excited about the future of commercial space travel and industry who want to invest. I have absolute certainty that I'll get lots of people interested in funding our project. Honestly, Alexa," he said and leaned closer. "I have enough money for the two of us to live on for the rest of our lives plus invest in the new project. We could go to the Bahamas and moor The Phoenix off the coast and never work for a living ever again."
"I don't want that," I said. "I want to do something useful in my life."
"I know, I do, too. I want to build something that will outlast me and become part of the future. I'm just saying that I'm not at all concerned about her money. It just burns me that she'd even think of blackmailing you to break up with me. It's a terrible thing."
I nodded and leaned back. "You're such a good man."
He smiled. "It's easy to be good when you have my life. I have you. I have the new project. I have John as a business partner. The world is my oyster."
"Good. It's settled. Your mother can plot and scheme, but she can't do anything to break us up."
"That's right. Nothing."
We spent the rest of the day lounging around the hotel room, looking over apartments to buy in Manhattan. It felt like a dream to me, to be looking at such expensive properties. It just drove home how much different my life was from Luke's. He thought nothing of showing me an apartment for $2.5 million dollars on Park Avenue.
"It's three bedrooms, which would mean you could have an office plus a spare bedroom for when we have visitors. When we had a child, we could convert the spare room into a nursery."
I glanced at it. The apartment was lovely. It had a nice view, too, including a patio door to a rooftop patio.
"That's nice. How much would the mortgage be?"
He shrugged. "I could buy it outright. Who needs a mortgage?"
"You can just drop $2.5 million on an apartment?"
"I can," he said and leaned over to kiss me. "Get used to it. Whatever you want. Whatever we need."
"That's so much money. An apartment in Portland would be in the hundred thousands of dollars, not millions."
"But we live in Manhattan. You go to school in Manhattan. So, we need a place in Manhattan. Besides, I have a thousand times that amount from the sale of Chatter."
I sighed. "It boggles the mind."
He laughed and showed me a different apartment. "Look at this one. It's half the price and is in Brooklyn. You could commute if you really don't want to pay that much."
I checked it out but had to admit that it would be much nicer to be half an hour from Columbia than Park Slope in Brooklyn.
"Look, don't worry. We'll find a place even closer to Columbia. We have time."
I smiled and continued to search for apartments that were close to Columbia but didn't cost so much.
"Here's an apartment in a co-op near Riverside Park. It would be much closer to Columbia," I said, showing him a two bedroom with a small balcony.
"It's kind of small," Luke said and frowned. "We need three bedrooms. I want a patio, not a balcony. Here," he said and showed me one closer to Central Park. "This is nice."
