Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 33020 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 165(@200wpm)___ 132(@250wpm)___ 110(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33020 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 165(@200wpm)___ 132(@250wpm)___ 110(@300wpm)
“Come here,” he said.
She stepped right into his arms and he kissed the top of her head.
“I trust you.” And the strangest thing of all, he meant every word he said. He did trust her.
“Thank you. I trust you too.” And she went on her tiptoes and kissed him back. “I don’t know what you expected, but I know what it is like to be let down by the people closest to you. I wouldn’t do that to anyone. I swear.”
He stared into her eyes, and all of Trudy’s words came rushing back to him. It was bullshit.
“Come on. I want to take you to dinner,” he said.
Gabriel did have every intention of taking her straight back to his apartment and fucking her brains out, then ordering takeout. However, he knew she was not a big fan of the whole takeout plan, so now he would treat her to dinner and then take her back to his place and fuck her brains out. The plan sounded great to him.
Chapter Seven
Nora didn’t see their relationship lasting long. Sure, the sneaking around was a lot of fun. Gabriel had gained himself a lot of privacy in the last few years of his life. She had heard the gossip around the office about the women he dated, and the wild life he used to live. He was like a completely different person as far as she knew.
Then of course, she expected only to be “flavor of the week.” Only that week turned into two. Three weeks rolled by. A month. Two months. Three months. And they were still together.
When he had to go away on business trips, she went back to her old apartment. The moment he came home, he was there, picking her up, and taking her back to his place. She kept on top of her rent, as she refused to give up her independence.
No one but Trudy knew about their relationship. She had caught them kissing one lunchtime, and Trudy had announced she was back. Gabriel had told her not to worry.
There were several promotions that came open within the company, but she decided to focus on her new job role, which she did happen to enjoy. She didn’t realize how quickly people passed up the job of working in the mail room. There were a lot of people who quit, and others just moved on either in the company, or onto another job.
She was entering four months of a whirlwind relationship.
On Friday lunch, she made her way to his floor, stepped off, and much to her surprise, found Trudy there.
“Hello,” Nora said.
Gabriel tended to send Trudy to lunch, or have her run some errand that would then consist of her eating lunch elsewhere. Nora had felt so bad in the early days, until Trudy had taken her to the side and told her that she loved what was happening.
She had a feeling Trudy had hoped more would come of her and Gabriel. That was not going to happen. She had told the older woman the same thing, but Trudy said she had an eye for this kind of thing, and it was very much going to happen.
“Nora, you’re here already.”
“It’s lunchtime and Gabriel told me to not be late.” She glanced toward his office and paused.
She was not used to Gabriel having people in his office. Being the boss, she knew he had a lot of visitors, but this was one of the ex-girlfriends. A supermodel.
Nora took a deep breath. “He’s busy,” she said.
“No, you don’t have to leave. He will be done in a minute. Don’t worry.”
She was not going to sit waiting for the boss to be done with an ex-girlfriend. Nora couldn’t help but glance at the woman and feel every ounce of insecurity because why was Gabriel with her?
“I’ve got to go.”
After their first kiss, she had felt this panic, this fear. It had slowly died within her, but now, as she truly got a good look at one of Gabriel’s exes, she didn’t get it.
Nora was just a normal woman. She didn’t stop men on the street and have them gawk at her. She certainly didn’t turn heads. Even when she went to that charity dinner, there was no one craning their neck to get her attention.
And yet, Gabriel wanted her. He loved beautiful women, that was no surprise. She knew that when she met him. His reputation for a list of girlfriends was somewhat legendary.
Even though she had attempted to keep her feet firmly on the ground, it would seem, against her will, they had already started to float away.
She didn’t say another word as she made her way toward the elevator, going straight toward her floor, where she was meant to be. She was just an employee. This was just … not even a fairy tale. This was just a crazy way of looking at life and love.