Page 60 of Chase

“Yeah it’s always been like that. You know he has groceries delivered to Chase’s every week?”

“No, really?”

“Yeah, Nat would never take money from him, even when things were really bad financially. So, Arden started the grocery delivery. He argued that it was only fair because we ate there almost every night.”

“How’d she take that?” I ask as we get out of the car.

“Not well at first. She didn’t want us to wear that burden. But she stopped fighting it after a while.”

“Arden’s just full of surprises,” I say as we round the corner and walk towards the building.

“THIS WAS NOT PART OF THE AGREEMENT!!!” Arden yells from inside one of the ground floor apartments.

“It was. We told you that Ella stays in her apartment.” An older voice I don’t recognise responds to Arden in a calm soothing voice.

“I paid over the asking price. I thought that made it clear that I wanted the ENTIRE building,” Arden responds. It’s evident he is irritated. I look at Ally and she shrugs. We make our way inside the apartment, not bothering to knock.

All eyes land on us as we enter the room. Chase finds me and smirks, coming over to give me a quick kiss. “This is a nice surprise,” he whispers in my ear, making me smile.

I notice Rhys look in Ally’s direction before quickly averting his gaze elsewhere.

“We decided to surprise you and to talk Arden out of the waterfall.”

“Thank god you’re here,” Arden says from the other side of the room. In a typical Arden dramatic tone.

“What’s going on?” I ask noticing an older couple standing opposite of Arden.

“Apparently the apartment building comes with a tenant.” Arden says with extra agitation in his voice.

“That’s not a bad thing,” I say in response, still not fully understanding what the problem is.

“It is, because I was planning on turning that apartment into the sauna and gym,” Arden says. He’s close to breaking point, but the amused look on both Chase and Rhys’ faces tells me they are enjoying this a little too much.

“I’m sure we can find somewhere else for the sauna; can I see the plans?” I ask him.

He heads towards the table in the middle of the room. The entire apartment is empty except for this table. I follow him and can’t help but gasp when I look at the paper in front of me.

“You designed this?” I ask shocked. I was expecting a blueprint I could barely understand. But that isn’t what this is. I can see his plan for each floor, the details are incredible.

“I did.” Arden says.

I look over the plans, taking it all in. He wants to knock out almost all the internal walls. The top floor is split into five sections, each identical. They are open plan, kind of like penthouse apartments. There is a room that looks like it is designed to be a spare bedroom or office. There are also large walk-in robes and bathrooms. Then an area for the bed, a small kitchenette and a spacious living area.

On the third floor, there is a dedicated apartment that spans down to the ground floor that looks like it has been designed for the staff. Similar to the setup at Arden’s dad’s house in Canary Bay. The rest of the space on the third floor has an entertainment room and spare bedrooms.

The second floor has some more rooms and a large open space. I’m not sure what Arden has planned for that space.

The ground floor it over-the-top. He’s put in a sauna, a gym, open plan living, kitchen and dining area that opens out on to a large patio area. The more I look at it, the more I see the similarities to his current home.

“This is incredible Arden. But the waterfall in the dining room needs to go. If you need to put one in, install it in the pool.”

“No,” he argues.

“Yes. There is no need to have one in the house.” It’s a ridiculous concept and the constant running water will make me want to pee every time I’m in that room.

“But I want one,” he says and stomps his foot like a demanding toddler.”

“Should we vote?” I taunt, fully aware that everyone will agree with me.

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