Page 133 of The Bet
How’s your car?
Been replaced, will show you later. Gotta go
Later that afternoon, once she had explained the reason for her absence to her college tutor, and managed to get the notes for everything she had missed, she jumped on the subway.
A part of her felt slightly on edge. She wasn’t sure how to be around Xavier, not after the last time. Things might have been different if she’d seen him the next day, afterthatevening, but a lot had happened since then and everything between them seemed new again, at least it did for her.
It would be awkward.
“I can’t stay long,” was the first thing she said, when she walked in. Because as soon as she walked into his apartment, she was reminded of what Cara had told her, that the kind of place he lived in must have come with a multi-million dollar price tag.
People like Xavier had no clue about the types of pressures people like her were under. Life wasn’t fair. Some had it easy, and some didn’t and some, like her father, had tried to do better and had been cheated out of building a better life by someone who probably hadn’t been too different to the Stones.
“Oh-kay,” he said slowly. She could tell by the way he looked at her that he was puzzled by her demeanor. “How’s your dad?”
“Better.” A part of her wished she hadn’t told him. Wished he’d been as ignorant as Cara.
“Better?” He looked at her, as if he could see through her hesitation.
He had his hands in the back pockets of his jeans. All the previous times she’d seen him he’d normally worn a hoodie and sweatpants at home. Today he was in jeans and a t-shirt, and she wondered if he was going out, because he usually didn’t look so smart for working at home.
“Because you had me worried there, rushing home like that,” he told her. She walked towards his huge windows and stared out.
“You shouldn’t have worried. He’s fine.” She stared out of the windows at the views over a park. It was a stunning view. A multi-million dollar view, from a multi-million dollar apartment. It must be wonderful to wake up and have the city and its sunshine streaming in. It was a stark contrast to their windows, a fraction of the size of these, overlooking a street with broken street lamps, and the sound of police sirens which penetrated the silence at least once a day.
He was leaning against the brickwork, his shoulder resting against the wall, and with one foot over the other. He looked relaxed and casual. As if he didn’t have a worry in the world.
“Are we good, Izzy?”
She looked at him, not completely understanding why she felt the way she did. Why coming back from home, from dealing with her father, had suddenly made her feel a touch of hostility towards Xavier.
She had to forcibly remind herself that he wasn’t like the others. “I’m sorry. I got back late last night, I’m a little tired, and cranky, that’s all.”
That seemed to please him, made his mouth turn up into a smile, and then she saw the twitch in his jaw. A tiny little movement that told her that maybe she hadn’t totally convinced him.
“You’re not regretting what happened the other day, are you? Because I’m not.”
Trust him to allude to that straight away. “The other day,” she said, raising her hand to move her bangs away from her face. “That was … that was … something unexpected.”
And he was putting her on the spot. She couldn’t come back from that darkness with her father and step into the light with Xavier. “Your car,” she said, turning to face him, and relieved to have something neutral to talk about. “Did the insurance pay out?”
He didn’t seem to like it, the way she’d casually moved away from discussing them. “I bought something safe and sensible like you recommended. A runaround.”
“You listened to me?”
“Believe it or not, I listen to you more than I listen to most people.”
His words made her smile. “What did you get?”
“A BMW.”
She almost choked in shock. “You’re calling a BMW a runaround?” Their worlds couldn’t be further apart.
“It’s safe and sensible, you can’t argue with that.”
“I was thinking maybe you’d get something like a Ford.”
“Can you see me in a Ford?” he asked, grinning. “I mean, that is so not me.”
No, a Ford wasn’t Xavier at all.
She started to melt, then. Started to ease slowly. It had been a huge switch, going home and dealing with everything there, and then to come here and be with Xavier, but he had a way of making her feel better, and that was what she needed after the draining few days she’d had back home.
