We get out of the car. Edward leads us to a balcony well furnished with sofas and a table. The racing ground was clearly visible from here. I look around like 2 year old looking at a new world. I have never seen something like this before.
"Wow, this is amazing," I say to Edward.
"Thanks. You betting on something Nathan?"
"Maybe. Are you?"
"Yes. That 12 number horse is mine." he points.
"Sweetheart," Nathan calls, it takes me a minute to realise he is taking to me, "Baby." he comes near me grabbing me by my shoulders so gently it feels like feathers are touching me.
"Yeah, yes." I say.
"Pick a number." he says.
"What?"
"Pick any of those numbers." he points at the horses.
"Umm, eight." I shrug.
"Okay." he kisses my forehead and asks Edward how to bet. A man approaches them and Edward asks Nathan to give him the money.
"Two thousand dollars on number 8, please."
"What?" I say and grab his hand as he hands the cheque, "Are you crazy? I just randomly picked it, I don't know anything about horse racing." He looks at with amusement filled eyes.
"It's okay. I don't know either. Don't worry about it." he says.
"But..." I protest.
"Shh, I don't want any further discussion on this. Come on, let's enjoy." he says in his authoritative tone.
"Okay," I give him a small smile. We sit on the sofa, Nathan between me and Edward. He keeps an arm around my shoulder and pulls me into his chest. I let go of resisting and rest my head on his chest mainly because I am very tired. He places a light kiss on my forehead while stroking my hair. He is so nice at playing a good husband. The race starts in 20 minutes. The boys look at their horses through the binoculars. My eyelids become heavy so I try hard to keep my eyes open.
"Sleep love. I'll wake you when we leave." he whispers removing a strand of hair from my face. I close my eyes savouring this moment, enjoying the warmth of his embrace before he goes back to being a monster again. He pulls me closer and taps my head lightly, within no time I fall asleep.
"Grey, wake up. We are home." a voice wakes me.
"Hmm..." I say not opening my eyes.
"Oh my God! What happened to her?!" I hear a shrill voice coming from some distance, "What did you do to her? Did you drug her?" This voice is so familiar.
"Excuse me? Who are you and how did you enter the premises? Gaurds!" I hear Nathan. Finally I open my eyes and see Amy standing there.
"Amy?" I say in a sleepy voice.
"You arrogant son of..."
"Amy!" I cut her off before the war starts between them, "What are you doing here?" I sit up completely and get out of the car.
"April!" She smiles at me and hugs me. The next moment she pulls away and slaps the back of my head, "Bitch, why is your phone off? Did he do something?" she points a finger at Nathan.
"No, battery dead."
"Who is she?" Nathan asks again.
"Oh I am your worst nightmare, Walsh." She says and turns back to me. Amy hates Nathan more than anything, "What are you doing in the same car as him? Where were you?"
"I uh, went on a lunch with him and his clients."
"Oh, you are working for your father again? That's a good thing, but babe you don't have to hang out with him." she gives Nathan a dirty look to which he rolls his eyes.
"No, no. Just this one lunch. Anyways what are you doing here?"
"We are going shopping. We have to buy loads of things for our trip to Goa for New Year's!"
"You are going to Goa and you didn't think I should be informed?" Nathan asks me in his usual authoratative tone.
"I am going to Goa?" I give Amy a confused look.
"Yes, I am taking you." Amy says.
"More like stealing." Nathan eyes her.
"Oh hello! She belongs to me and I can do anything I want with her." Gosh, she sounds so much like Nathan right now. I cringe at the thought, "Come on, let's go April!" she grabs me by the elbow and starts walking but Nathan jerks me towards him causing me to crash in his chest. His scent fills my nostrils, God, what perfume is this? He smells like a meadow.
"What the hell?" I hear Amy say. I realise I got too lost in his scent.
"Oh my God!" I pulls free from both of them, "Stop it the both of you! I am not an object that belongs to either of you! Nathan I will be going on shopping with Amy and will be taking one of your cars." I state.
"That's not happening in a million years. I will call a driver for you."
"No, that will take time. It's fine we'll just take a cab. Ames you wait I'll just grab my powerbank from upstairs." Amy gives me a thumps up and takes out her phone to call a cab. I pace into the house and go upstairs. Changing my shoes, I take the power bank and move downstairs again. I am still a bit sleepy but I want to go out with Amy. It's been so long that we have spent time together. I wonder why Nathan is still standing there with her, he could go inside and get on with his business.
"Let's go?" I ask Amy.
"One second. Why does this damn app not accepting my coupon?" I shake my head at her and turn towards Nathan who looked in deep thinking.
"You can go inside, I'll manage her." I say to him.
"It's okay, I will drive you." He said looking at me and then at an irritated Amy. He gives her a weird look which makes me laugh.
"Are you sure? You must be tired, it takes a lot of energy to handle my girl here." I put an arm around Amy who is still on her phone.
"I handle you, I'll be fine."
"What does that mean?" he smirks at me and gets into the car. Amy and I follow.
"Why is it not accepting?" Amy is still on her phone in the backseat.
"Amy we don't need it anymore." I say to her.
"I'll need it on my ride back home. Man, I should have brought the car, we wouldn't have to drive with him."
"I'll drop you home." Nathan says and starts the car. I smile at him but he doesn't notice. Thank God he is being nice to Amy. We reach the mall with Amy's chatter entertaining us all through the ride. I missed her.
"You guys go ahead, I'll be in the car." Nathan says to me as he parks the car outside the mall. Amy nods her head and continues to walk but I stop her.
"You should come with us." I say and Amy gives me a questioning look, "Umm, you'll get bored in a car." Her eyebrows furrowed more, she is not happy but I can't leave Nathan alone like a driver.
"Okay, considering she would hate it I would love to do it." He looked at an annoyed Amy and winked at her. 'Why?!' She mouths at me and I shrug.
"So what do you want to buy first?" I ask her as we reach the shop.
"Duh-uh, we are going to Goa we need new bikinis!" She says as a matter-of-factly. I nod agreeing with her. But do I want to try bikinis in front of Nathan? No I don't. Look behind at him following us into the shop on his phone talking to someone. Maybe he won't even notice. Amy and I enter the bikini section and the sales girl started assisting us.
"Excuse me sir," another one approached Nathan, "If you want you can sit on the couch over there." She pointed at a couch in front of the trial rooms.
"Thank you very much." He moved away from us and sat down, still talking to someone. Amy choose a black halter neck bikini set for me. But I liked the white one with a dark blue cover up. I choose to try that one and Amy tried the one she picked for me.
"Amy how's this?" I ask when I come out, instead I am greeted with Nathan's eyes racking my body from head to toe. I suddenly feel very conscious and I refuse to look at him. Inviting him wasn't my best decision. I hear the sound of a whistle from behind, I turn to see Amy standing in her black bikini.
"Not bad, April." She complements me, "Your Nigerian boyfriend would be very happy to see you. What was his name again?" She teases me.
"Her what now?" Nathan stands up and approaches us.
"Oh he's just April's fuck boy whenever we go to Goa." I can't believe she just did that!
"He is not my fuck boy!! Ames I can not believe you are doing this to me! He was just a damn rebound!!" I turn red from embarrassment. I hear Nathan laughing behind me. Oh God, why did I have to invite him?
"Grey, you are on fire!" Nathan says, laughing out loud. he is so enjoying this. I can't believe Amy just told him that! I groan and enter the trial room again changing back to my clothes. We both buy those bikinis and two more. Next stop dresses.
While I try the dress Amy gave me, she made Nathan a hanger, he had dresses on both his shoulders and when sitting on the couch. He was not bothered so who cares. I try on a few more dresses as Amy sits beside him.
"What was that about her working for Mr Grey?" I hear Nathan ask her through the door. My ears pop up and stop zipping the dress. Why is he inquiring about me?
"None of your business." I hear a simple reply from Amy. Thank God she is not telling him.
"I'm just asking. Small talk, you know?" He says casually, "She could be of help now as well."
"Listen," Amy deepens her voice as if about to lash out at him, "You think I am going to buy this crap of yours? I know you think she is a gold digger but honestly I don't care. If you can't tell in three months after living with her that money is the last thing she cares about then that means you are the most delusional person us ever. I just want her to be done with you and move on which is one of the reasons I am taking her on this trip."
"I do get that she doesn't care about money. I can see it but then why will she work for her father? These are two contradicting statements. I am just trying make sense of who she is."
"You think earning money is the only thing that can come out of working for her father?" She accuses him, "No Mr Walsh. Learning business ethics, healthy competition and many more things can come out of that. Anyways it was just a summer internship that she did there."
"Internship? In her own company?"
"Oh My God! You are such a prince! Her father never just handed everything to her like yours. He wanted her to learn the value of hard earned money. Instead of paying for her tuition he paid her as an intern so that she can learn from ground level and never disrespect her subordinates when she would take over the company. She did two summer internships, one at her father's company and other at another company. Then she got bored of that and did a side job at a Cafe. If you think she wants your money you are stupid because she had earned a lot on her own. Since she was on scholarship so didn't have to spend much on education and a lot went to savings. She has no greed because her parents made sure of that. When she told me what you think of her, I laughed my ass off at how stupid you are. But as she says, you are not stupid you are just shocked from how fast your life turned around. I honestly get it, it is hard. But what you don't get is that it's not just on you it's hard on her as well." After Amy was finished I was so flattered by her words. I wanted to see the expression on Nathan's face so badly.
"What happened?" Amy continued, "You don't have anything to say? That's fine but you better respect my friend from now on. April," I hear her footsteps approaching the trial room, "What's taking so long babe?" I fix my dress and finally go out.
"Uh-I, the zipper got stuck." I answer.
"That's fine. Have you decided?" I nod and we go to the billing counter. By the time we are done shopping its almost 8 in the evening. I am so tired. Nathan drives to Amy's house.
"Bye babe!" She hugs me goodbye, "Man, I missed you."
"I missed you too. I can't wait for our trip!" I smile at her.
"Yeah, I'll mail you the tickets in a few days." I nod and thank her, "Thank you for driving me Nathan." She glances at her and he gives her genuine smile. Wow, her lecture actually worked.
We leave her house shortly. The ride home is silent. I feel my eyes getting heavy. My head drops to the side and I feel a cold palm gently push it back in the seat. Soon my seat start moving backward and darkness takes over me.
When I next open my eyes I am in my room comfortably covered in the blanket.
"Nathan," I get up rubbing my eyes. No reply came back. I turn to my side to find a tray full of food on the coffee table next to the couch and Nathan sleeping on the couch. Why is he sleeping on the couch? It's midnight so there is no use waking him now. I approach the couch and cover him with the blanket upto the shoulders. He shifts in his sleep and briefly opens his eyes. He wakes up completely as he sees me.
"What are you doing?" He asks sleepily.
"Uh- I...just... I was covering you with blanket."
"Oh. You want me to heat that up for you?" He points at the food, "Mary would be asleep by now."
"No, I'll do it. Uh, you don't have to sleep on the couch. I am comfortable here." I look down at my hands. Why do I feel bad for him?
"No need. Don't worry about it."
"Why are you sleeping here? I have a wall of cushions."
"You want me in the bed?" He smirks at me and I turn crimson.
"No, I didn't mean that! I just feel bad for you."
"Eat your food. If I am not able to sleep I'll come back, okay? Don't feel bad." He keeps a hand on my shoulders, gently squeezing them. I nod and pick the food tray and move downstairs.