Page 33 of Open To Negotiation

“Do you own the building?” I assumed based on his descriptions of what they did that they would own properties, apartment buildings wouldn’t be a surprise.

He nodded. “The rest of the guys have penthouses in other buildings we own nearby.” He was very particular, he only answered the direct question asked and didn’t offer more. On one hand it was infuriating, and on the other it made me more interested in figuring him out.

We stepped out of the elevator into a hallway with only two doors. We went left as he entered a code into the keypad, opened the door and stepped aside to let me in first.

“Wow,” I said as I stepped in and looked around.

The whole back wall was two story windows, looking out over the city. The trees were just starting to become that crisp spring green even though in the daytime you would still be able to see snow covering the Rocky Mountains in the distance.

A big sectional couch was nestled on the left side of the room and a hallway with closed doors beyond that. If you went straight, there was a black spiral staircase that, as I moved in, I could see led to a second level. His kitchen was behind that, sleek black cabinets with white counters that looked so clean I wasn’t sure anyone ever cooked in there.

“The view is even better from the balcony.” He tilted his head toward the door that led outside, it was hard to see amongst all the windows. “I’ll order us food, feel free to look around.”

I watched as he moved to the kitchen, pulling out his phone as he went. I looked around, large shelves framed a fireplace in the living room. There was a vase and some candles but most of the shelves were empty.

There was a throw blanket on the couch and coasters on the coffee table but otherwise there wasn’t even a remote. It felt like a show home or a hotel room. If he hadn’t told me this was his place, I wasn’t sure I would have been able to tell someone lived here.

I decided to head out on the balcony so I could get a better look at the view. You could practically see the whole city from up here. It was a warm night with only a little breeze. I loved the start of a new season, each day the air was just a little warmer than the last.

“Not a bad view,” Theo said as he stepped outside beside me. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been staring, I’d gotten distracted by the lights.

“It’s beautiful.”

He made a sound of agreement, and I looked over to see him watching me, not the view. I smiled and tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear as I leaned my arms on the railing in front of us.

I felt his eyes on my face for a few more moments before he spoke again. “What do you think of my place?”

Looking over my shoulder at the space, I evaluated it for a moment before looking back at him. “It’s a little… impersonal,” I said tentatively.

“What were you expecting?” I could hear tension in his voice, his grip tightened on the railing. “Photos of a big happy family that I was hiding.”

“No, I just feel like I don’t know all that much about you. I talk a lot, I know that about myself especially when I’m nervous and you make me nervous, but you don’t really tell me anything aside from stuff about the guys and knowing what brought you back here.” I bit my lip nervously, looked over at him and saw the tense set of his jaw. “You know what. Never mind. I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m tired, I don’t think well when I’m tired. The place is great. Very modern. Very clean.”

As the silence grew, so did my desire to leave. Maybe I could say I wasn’t hungry anymore or I could pretend someone had an emergency I needed to tend to.

Would he believe me if I just said I was too tired to eat and just wanted to go to bed?

Maybe I had been misreading this thing between him and I, and he was just being nice or something.

“It’s not because I don’t want you to know me, I’m not very good at sharing.” I turned my head to look at him, but he had refocused on the view. I didn’t want to push so I gave him a minute to decide what he wanted to tell me. I didn’t want to put pressure on it, but I really hoped he shared something other than that he ran for fun. “I told you I lived here with my mum for a while.”

“Yeah, you mentioned it was why you decided to open an office here.”

“My dad is wealthy, has been since before I was born. But my mum refused to spend his money on anything for herself when she started getting money for me. She got me into a good school and a decent place for us here, but put the rest away for me, which I still haven’t touched. Noah’s parents didn’t either when I moved in with them. Told me they needed nothing from him.

“Anyway, she got us this small two-bedroom condo that was run down and in desperate need of repair, but she loved the neighbourhood. It was the last ‘affordable’ building in the area. Everyone else had big yards and porch swings and kids playing in the street. Every night she made us take a walk after dinner. I hated it when we started and always complained.” He smiled at the memory and so did I.

“I’m sure an eleven-year-old boy wouldn’t want to walk with his mom every night.”

“I sure didn’t, but she didn’t care. She forced me. We passed this house one day and she fell in love. It was this beautiful white house set back on the lot with her beloved porch swing. She looked down at me, squeezed my hand and said, ‘We’re going to buy that place one day, baby, just you and me.’” My heart broke for the little boy who seems to have lost his mom not long after. “After that night, we walked past the house every day. We made up what the inside would look like, how I would decorate my room and the dog we would get with the big yard. Obviously, it never happened for us.”

I didn’t know what to say and he looked like he needed a minute. So instead of saying anything I took a step, closing the gap between us. When I pressed myself against his side he didn’t move, he didn’t look at me but at least he didn’t step away. He had bent forward to rest his arms on the railing, my head came up to his shoulder with him bent at that angle.

Before I could overthink it, I put my head on his shoulder and looked back out at the view with him. He let out a breath and I knew I’d made the right call.

“About two years into my business I was making more money than I knew what to do with. I’d been up late one night and for some reason I thought of that house that my mum used to walk us to. I reached out to a realtor here on a whim and paid him a monthly fee to keep an eye on the property and call me if it ever came up for sale.

“Five years ago the relator called, his friend had just met a couple looking to sell. Turns out it was my mum’s dream house. I paid well above asking so the thing never even hit the market. I visited it to sign the papers, and the outside had been refreshed but looked the same. I went inside for the first time and it wasn’t anything like my mum had pictured it.