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NATHANIEL
I wouldn't say I liked Fall. It was the season when all these ridiculous holidays popped up. The first one begins with Halloween. It was an excuse for society's weirdos to express their inner strangeness. It was also the time of year the station got overly busy because people ended up doing some dumb shit that found them in trouble.
But this year, Xander and I had Thanksgiving off, meaning we would spend the day at his house. I didn’t want to return to Braven. His parents and siblings were all out of town.
Xander had two older brothers. Yes, he was the family's baby, which, to be quite honest with you, explained his childish tendencies. His older brother Matthew was a surgeon at Chicago General. And his second brother, Caden, was a hotshot tech guy in Silicon Valley. He made an app during his senior year of high school and sold it for over 10 million dollars. If he wanted to, Xander could have quickly become one of those stuffy guys on Wall Street. The guy was a super genius when it came to numbers. But he was passionate about being a firefighter and following in his grandfather's footsteps. But that never stopped the guy from making a killing in the stock market. The man had money, but he rarely spent it. But his home was an indication of just how well off he was.
He lived in a penthouse deep in the heart of the city. It wasn’t the most lavish penthouse, but with oversized floor-to-ceiling windows, light hardwood floors, and new white furniture, this place reeked of money.
I sipped on my friend's expensive whiskey and looked at the skyline. It was yet another gloomy day in Chicago. The clouds had rolled in, and I did not doubt that the temperature had dropped drastically.
“You’re brooding,” Xander knocked me out of my reverie. He came up beside me with a glass of whiskey in his hand. “If you keep frowning like that, your face could freeze, and then you will have no chance of ever finding a woman.”
“I don’t want a woman,” I said as I side-eyed him.
“Oh really?” Here we go again. “Last I checked, you had your tongue down a certain brunette’s mouth not too long ago.”
I clutched onto my glass, hoping I wouldn’t have to punch my friend in his home.
“Come on, man. I can see it on your face. This girl has you all wound up, and you don’t know how to deal with it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. That is Jake’s girl.”
“Correction, she was his girl. And last I checked, you and your brother aren’t even close. The girl has the hots for you like you have the hots for her.”
“Just drop it, Xander.” I downed my drink and went to pour myself another. “And when is the food going to get here? I can’t keep drinking like this on an empty stomach.”
“Should be here any second now.”
As if he summoned it himself, the doorbell rang.
“Oh yeah, I invited Amelia and Selena to dinner.” Then he rushed down the hallway to answer the door.
What the hell?
He could not be serious right now.
I had been trying to avoid this woman like the plague. It was bad enough that I lived a few doors down from her, but now I needed to endure this dinner with her.
I hadn’t seen her since she ran out on me from her bathroom. If she hadn’t been the one to break away first, I would have kissed her again, if not more. And I wanted more. Dammit, I wanted it all.
The thing about me is that I am a greedy asshole. I want it all. I need it all. That kiss outside the bar was a simple taste. Now, my only goal was to have it all.
I heard the voice in the hallway, but they still needed to round the corner. My heart fluttered in my chest, something it had never done before.
The footsteps drew closer and closer, and then she appeared. She wore a long white dress that hugged her figure, and her dark brown hair cascaded down her back. She was a true vision in white.
Her lips were split into a smile as she listened to Xander and Selena bicker with each other like children. I had no interest in their conversation. My sole focus was on Amelia.
When she finally turned her head in my direction. The smile slipped from her face, her lips parting ever so slightly.
The atmosphere shifted to something more electrified and alive. Her eyes connected with mine, and I froze. In this lighting, they seemed bluer than they did green. Her face had the slightest hints of makeup, just enough to highlight her beauty—and my God, she was beautiful. She was a far cry from the girl she had been that night. Scared. Alone. Bloodied.
Immediately the bubble that had encased itself around me popped. I moved my gaze to the two bickering adults, sipping my dark liquor to suppress whatever confusion was ripping through my body.
“Okay, let’s call a truce. It’s Thanksgiving, Lena. Bring it in.” Xander opened his arms and moved to Selena, who was backing away with a scowl etched on her face.
“You called my pie deformed and radioactive.” She threw the pie she was holding in his face. “I put effort into this thing, dammit.”
