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“You already have,” I said. “You don’t need to do anything else.”
“No I haven’t, and yes I do,” he said sternly. “If you’re uncomfortable with letting me do this for you, then let me at least do it for me. It’s wonderful that you’re feeling better, but I need to feel better too, for what I did to you.”
I sighed and closed my eyes for a moment. When I reopened them, he was grinning at me. Moving closer, he stooped down and kissed my ear. The scent of his cologne drifted into my nose. “I’m going to make you some hotel reservations so you can stay a little longer,” he said. “And I’ll get you a driver to take you wherever you need to go throughout the day. I have some work to finish up here, but when I’m done, we’ll go out to eat. I’ll text you the time and place.”
He kissed my temple, and then I felt his hands slide around my body, warming me back up.
If this was what my life was going to be like from now on, it was definitely going to take some time to get used to. By the time I left Tobias’s office, he had provided me with a driver who’d been instructed to take me wherever I wanted to go.
“Do whatever you want,” Tobias had said. “Just make sure to pick up a dress for tonight. We’re going someplace special.”
Just for a moment, I had almost allowed myself to get swept away into the glamour of it all. But then I got a text from my job, which I had been neglecting for far too long. It was enough to send me crashing right back to reality as I stood before the department store mirror, wearing a long and elegant ball gown that managed to perfectly flatter my figure, baby-bump and all.
In the dressing room, I stared at my reflection and sighed.
“Is everything all right in there, Ms. Scarlet?” one of the store employees called out to me. She had been happily spending her afternoon helping me pick out dresses to try on.
“Yes, I’m fine.” I took a deep breath. “Just have to remember what’s important,” I muttered to myself, although I knew that whether I wanted to fully admit it or not, Tobias had become one of the most important things to me. Cold feet couldn’t change that.
“Here you are, Ms. Scarlet,” my driver said to me as he opened the car door for me. I stepped out, my eyes widening in shock as I looked at the extravagant hotel in front of me.
“W-What is this place?” I stammered.
“The Langham Hotel,” he said, bowing.
“This is too much,” I said. But the driver ignored me, retrieving my bags and then escorting me inside.
I had never seen anything so luxurious in my life. Halfway thinking this had to be some kind of mistake, I hesitantly approached the front desk, where the receptionist grinned widely at me.
“Welcome to the Langham Hotel. How may I help you?”
I swallowed. “Uhm…Do you have a room for Scarlet Kale?”
She typed my name into the computer beside her. As I waited, I held my breath, halfway preparing myself to hear that there had been a mistake. But the receptionist looked back up at me and smile. “We sure do. You’ll be staying in one of our Club River suites. You’re going to love it!”
The hotel suite was beautiful, but excessive. The whole time I was getting dressed, I couldn’t help but think about who Tobias Gentry really was. It had been apparent to me long ago that the man was quite well off, but I didn’t anticipate it to this degree. Clearly the money he’d previously spent on me had been nothing in comparison to what he was spending now to make such fancy accommodations for me.
The inside of the hotel suite looked like a house in itself. The furniture was modern and beautiful, and it had all the comforts of home, and then some.
I showered and slid into the new dress I’d bought, it was on sale and I bought it with my own money, at least that was something. As I was curling my hair and applying my makeup, my phone buzzed. I retrieved it, seeing that it was a text from the man himself.
Be ready by 7pm. The driver will bring you to Alinea. See u soon.
I’d stared at the message for a while, trying to figure out what Alinea was. A quick google search revealed that it was one of the most expensive restaurants in Chicago. Glancing through the menu, my eyes bulged at the prices of the dishes served there.
If Tobias had wanted to prove that he was sorry for jumping to conclusions about me, he had more than proved his point.
Similar to the first time I had gone out to dinner with Tobias, it seemed as if he had practically rented out the place for us.
“I think there was a pretty sufficient restaurant in the hotel you put me in, you know?” I said, sitting across from him at the table and taking in our surroundings.
Tobias shrugged his shoulders. “I figured you’d like to go out instead of staying in. You know, get a chance to see the finer side of Chicago.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered to me.” I paused for a moment. “I don’t know how else to say this, but Tobias, this is all too much. You didn’t have to do all of this for me. I feel like you’re trying to impress me. But you’ve already done more than enough. I don’t need all this…fancy stuff.”
His brow furrowed. “I just wanted you to know that I was sorry. I want you to know that I stand by everything I initially said. I’m here for you.”
“I already know that. You didn’t have to go the extra mile.”
