Page 77 of Purchase Power
Chapter 22
By Tuesday afternoon Lucy was back in New York, much to her sister’s surprise.Then again, it’s not like I really told her what I was doing while I was gone.Right now, she told Lacey that she was on a small leave of absence from her new contract job in another state. Lacey, who was a full-time student at one of the local universities, practically jumped out of her skin when she walked into the apartment and found her sister home. It didn’t help that Lacey had brought a special guest with her. While Lucy was gone, her sister had found some physical excitement of her own.
The boyfriend was briefly introduced and sent packing with a rain check. Lacey proceeded to fling her arms around her sister’s neck and squeal in excitement that they were now together again.
Being back in New York reminded Lucy what real life was like. She was no longer cooped up in somebody’s house all day. Hell, somebody’sroom.As spacious as the guest suite in Gabriel Manor had been – and in truth, it might have been bigger than her Brooklyn apartment – it had still been a prison. Now, after two weeks of that foolishness, Lucy was back in the great big world and enjoying life as it was meant to be lived.
“Let me get that.” Lucy reached forward with her debit card, offering to pay for the soup and sandwiches they purchased at a local brunch spot. Lacey didn’t have class until two in the afternoon that brisk Wednesday, leaving the pair plenty of time to sit together in a cozy booth and down their food and drinks like it was any other day.This place isn’t cheap, though.Yet she thought nothing of paying for her sister’s share. Not after seeing the pile of money slowly dripping into her bank accounts, spread across the world. Her personal checking account was already at the maximum before automatic reports to the IRS. The club had done its due diligence ensuring that “talent” like Lucy didn’t have to worry about the feds knocking down her door because she made such an uncharacteristic amount of cash. She still wasn’t used to it yet, though. Theoretically, she had more coming. Enough to set her and her sister up for years in a cozy Manhattan apartment, if that’s what they wanted.
She didn’t bring it up. She still wasn’t sure how to talk about it.
“So…” Lacey was always a better conversation starter than her sister, anyway. “Tell me all about this fancy job of yours. You said it was making you feel like Jane Eyre.” She chewed with a giant smile on her face. “Which part? The governess part? Or the TB part?”
“Excuse you,” Lucy gently chided. “That would beconsumption,thank you.”
“Ah, right. Well, sorry. I’m not the English major. I’ve barely read about ol’ Jane beyond that BBC drama you rewatch every few weeks.”
I rewatched it last week, too.In between reruns of “Friends” on TV, Lucy had binged on Noah’s BritBox subscription.So many historical dramas… I can’t decide what to watch yet, so I’ll probably rewatch “Jane Eyre” again.She could recite the lines from the drama as well as she could from the book. Too bad it gave her too much pain now.
“There aren’t any kids, I’m afraid.” Lucy picked at the lentils in her soup.I better hurry up and eat it, though. Don’t want my sister thinking something’s up.Lucy loved lentils. She loved lentils in soup. She loved the way this place cooked lentils into soup. If she was picking at it, something waswrong!Wrong, wrong! “I’m helping out around the estate. There’s this woman who works there as the head steward, I think. Her name’s Candace. I keep calling her Alice Fairfax in my head.”
It took Lacey a couple of minutes to get that. “Oh! From the book!”
“Yup.”
“Are you a maid, then?”
“No…” Lucy had already thought ahead about this, but struggled to see the validity in her stories now. “I’m… I’m assisting around the house, but I’m also helping the family with some of their administrative work. The head of the family works from home. He’s this big CFO for his family’s company over in the city. So I’ve been helping out with that.” She kept her eyes low while she ate, lest her sister see the lies in them.
Lacey looked at her all the same.Looking at me like I’m not telling the whole truth.Lucy wasn’t. She contained a hundred secrets inside of her, and each one might be more dangerous than the last.If my sister knows what kind of relationship I have with Noah… she’d judge me for the endless sex every day. She wouldn’t mean to, but she would judge me. Now, with the money…Lacey wasn’t supposed to know about this… ever… maybe. Lucy had planned to publish her article under a pseudonym to protect her identity but still have it credited to her behind the scenes. It was the only way to push her career.
Now, she wasn’t so sure…
Why? Because she thought she was falling in love with Noah Gabriel? The thought, which had excited her not too long ago, now filled her with dread.He is the worst man to be in love with. I can’t confess to my sister. She can’t ever know!Lacey looked up to her big sister. Lucy had always been a role model, guiding her sister through middle and high school before giving her the confidence she needed to apply for college. Lacey got into a great undergrad program because of Lucy’s help. Lacey now talked about going to grad school to study chemical engineering. How could Lucy act so uncouth in front of her sister now?I’d basically be telling her it’s okay to throw away her education and all of her dreams for some guy with money…Lucy may have had her ulterior motives in the beginning. This was for hercareer,after all! But what did it look like now that her heart and body begrudgingly belonged to a man who probably didn’t appreciate it whatsoever?
“What’s a CFO?”
That was how Lacey broke the uncomfortable silence.Thatwas how she brought her sister back to Earth!
“Chief Financial Officer. Like a CEO, but instead of being in charge of… like…” Lucy had to think about it. WhatdidCEOs control? Besides everything? “They are in charge of a company’s overall finances. Making sure shit gets spent where it’s supposed to, I suppose.”
“Blech. Guy who does that must be so boring your face melts off from the horror.”
Lucy would have laughed under any other circumstance. Under this one, however, she merely bit her lip and swirled her spoon in her soup. Glancing up, she beheld the sights and sounds of their corner of New York going about their daily lives. People kissed each other on the cheek. Clapped one another on the backs. Offered to buy lunch and asked how the babies at home were doing. Lucy lived for this type of environment. The energy. The excitement. People going about their lives, however they felt about it. Nobody did it like New York City. Not even the humble city Noah lived near could come close tothis.Staying inside his guest suite, watching the world go by… it really didn’t compare. Not one bit.
Lucy should have been ecstatic to be home right now. This was what she had been craving those two whole weeks locked up in a room with nothing but a blank Google Doc and a TV replaying “Friends” over and over.
…And a bed full of Noah Gabriel.
Don’t think about him. He’s nothing to you. Like you’re nothing to him.
“You okay, sis?”
Lucy dropped her spoon into her soup. “I’m fine,” she insisted. “Glad to be home. Things got pretty lonely at my job.”
“You’re going back though, right?” Lacey looked at her from across the table. “You still have to finish your contract, I’m assuming.”
That was difficult to tell. Lucy would have assumed so until she got fed up enough to high-tail it back to New York. After texting Noah that she would wait for him there, she hadn’t heard back from him. Which was both comforting… and absolutely mind-numbing.Doesn’t he care? Doesn’t he at least miss me? What’s going on in that thick head of his?Wasn’t that the point? Lucy knew nothing about the man. And he didn’t know enough about her to care.
