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“Just leave the number on my desk. I’ve got a meeting in an hour, but I will get to it then.”
“Thank you so much, Kaden,” she says in a small voice.
I nod, rubbing between my eyes as she closes the door behind her. I sigh, thinking that I need to get out of the office before the actual meeting. I could at least stretch my legs, breathe some fresh air. An hour is plenty of time to get my mind settled.
I take my blazer and slide it on, making sure I look presentable in the mirror. Departing the office, I remind Joan again to leave the number on my desk. I step outside into the cool spring air, taking a fortifying breath.
I walk to a nearby cafe that has a calming serenity to it. I let my mind slow down as I purchase my coffee, then turn to spot something that is nothing less than extraordinary.
The entire mood of my morning changes. My headache is instantly forgotten as I spot Amber Coleman, a young woman I had aided financially five years ago. She is strikingly beautiful, just as she was back then. When I move towards her, she is lost in thought and does not see me right away.
When recognition finally clicks in, her hazel eyes are startled. They glisten with a mixture of wariness and eagerness as she regards me. Though it has been years, I can read her expression to tell that finding me here is not an entirely painful experience.
It’s the same way I feel about running into her. It is as if no time has passed, like she is still as comfortable to be around as a dear friend. I ask her to sit in the booth with me.
I never had the chance to say goodbye all those years ago. It had been a business deal, no doubt about that. But through our interactions, something had sprouted in me. Something that I have yet been able to replicate or tamp down in her painful absence.
She sits down opposite me, reluctantly clutching her coffee cup close. When I remind her about the debt, she pulls even further inward.
“I only make enough money for rent, my mother’s medications and such. There’s no way I could pay you back all that now,” she says uneasily.
I wave my hand in the air, scoffing. “Money isn’t what I’m here for,” I say, resting my eyes on hers. “I’m thinking about something that will be mutually beneficial to both of us. What do you say?”
Amber has her dark brown hair straightened, sitting on her shoulders as neat as a mannequin wig. Her blouse is buttoned all the way up, looking stylish and rounding out her immaculate breasts like the clothing was painted on. Her good looks are just as intimidating as mine in their own way, that penetrating stare able to bring any man or woman to their knees. Something I know first hand.
Maybe this is what I like so much about her. Hardly anyone is able to make me nervous. Over years of applying mindful habits, I have built up a confidence that I have been told radiates like the sun.
And Amber isn’t very different from me. She is always composed, sitting up straight, a vision of dignity and proactiveness. Even now, when I hear the tinge of nervousness in her voice, she never lets too much out. It’s subtle and contained in her regal persona.
Her hands come from her coffee cup to rest gently against the table. The cafe around us has an easy din about it, but it starts to fade as she looks at me straight on. My heart picks up the pace in my chest, a bird wanting to be free.
“I will have to see what your proposal is first, Kaden,” she says, her glistening lips curling into a grin. “I wouldn’t be a very smart woman if I said yes too quickly, would I?”
I chuckle, unable to hold it in. I feel like I am glowing, a sensation that isn’t surprising when Amber is around. But the lack of it through the years of our disconnect makes me subsequently mournful. I haven’t exactly excelled in my dating life in the past five years. I can’t help wondering what might have been if we had never been separated.
This is what I’ve been searching for, this feeling that was lost to me before. Amber reminds me that there is more to feeling alive than running a billion dollar company. A simple gaze from her, one that isn’t afraid to look deeper behind my well-kept aesthetics, tells me to try more, to reach higher than ever before.
At this moment, I feel a dull, dropping sensation in my chest. It makes me think about my mother, for the first time in a very long time. It is the same feeling I had when she passed away, that feeling that nothing would ever be the same again. It is a painfully human sensation that I have run from for too long in my need for control.
I blink slowly then lean forward on the table. Amber doesn’t move away, even when our hands nearly graze one another. She is listening still, ready and capable.
There’s a fearless glint in her eyes that tells me she’s ready for whatever comes next, and it makes my heart race as if her excitement for life is contagious.
3
AMBER
Kaden has always been captivating. He has a way of looking at anyone without wavering, never giving away what his true intentions are. I am an intuitive person, so I find it easy to pick up subtle movements that indicate the truth behind most people’s veiled requests. People rarely say what they really mean and hardly ever ask for what they really want.
But Kaden is different. Maybe because his eyes are so arrested, they distract me from interpreting any micro-expressions or movements. I never know what he is thinking underneath the surface, and the mystery has always intrigued me.
Even five years ago, when he was a skinnier man, wearing mostly gray sweatpants and sweatshirts that hid away his small frame, he took my breath away. He did everything then with conviction, so it doesn’t surprise me now that he is wearing what looks like a luxury three-piece suit. It likely costs more than the rent in my apartment.
“In what way would it be beneficial, Kaden?” I say, feeling my mouth go dry.
He is leaning forward on the table, his head dipping to my eye level. God, those eyes. I could swim in them and be glad to be lost.
He speaks with the speed and firmness of the lash of a whip. “Marry me.”
