Page 42 of Lovestruck at Sundown
We walked the last few blocks talking about my plans for tonight with the Sjöberg family to celebrate their mom’s birthday. But when we approached my apartment building’s main entrance, we spotted four men with cameras standing under the green shade. Senad was shooing them away unsuccessfully.
I thought it was a cruel joke from the universe because I’d mentioned to Nina moments before we arrived how being in a relationship with William felt like dating any other guy, and now we had paparazzi standing outside our apartment building proving me otherwise.
The law of attraction sucks.
The photographers became aware of our presence, and by the time the flashes got to us, Aaron was already covering Nina and me from them and herding us quickly inside the building.
“What the heck was that?” I spotted a young, petite woman with thick, brown, curly hair pulled up into a stylish messy bun, hugging a laptop by the elevator. She was wearing an all-black ensemble with black sunglasses, which she hadn’t removed yet. On her shoulder, a chic leather designer bag hung from a thick strap, the kind you pay extra to enhance the bag. “Is she famous?” Maybe the paps had followed her here.
“I don’t think so.” Nina frowned and shook her head. “Not anyone I recognize, at least.”
The woman’s sunglasses didn’t allow me to determine her age, but my guess was early 30s.
Nina and I stood next to her and said good morning. She said good morning back as we waited for the elevator to arrive. Aaron remained silent.
We stepped into the elevator, and Aaron clicked numbers 3 and 9 and asked the woman what floor she was going to.
“Nine, please,” she replied, looking at her phone.
Huh. She was here to see William, no doubt about that. I wondered who she was.
“Excuse me, miss,” Aaron said, trying to get the woman’s attention, but her gaze was still glued to her phone’s screen. “Who are you here to see?”
She looked up at him through the thin crevice between her frames and her eyebrows and lowered the sunglasses down the bridge of her nose with an elegant finger. “That is none of your business, big guy.”
She looked tiny beside Aaron’s massive frame. But her attitude matched his height.
The door opened on the third floor, but Aaron didn’t step out. Instead, he allowed the door to close so the elevator would continue moving up to the ninth floor with him inside.
Jesus.
Pressing my lips, I closed my eyes because I knew if I even glimpsed at Nina with my peripheral vision, I was going to start laughing at the woman’s sass directed at Aaron.
“Itismy business, miss,” Aaron replied, his voice deeper and laced with threat and suspicion. “And I’m gonna need to see some ID if you plan to step onto the ninth floor.”
She scanned him from head to toe with a snort of disgust. That’s when I spotted the Star of David necklace hanging around her neck from a delicate gold chain.
The plot thickened.
I was still refusing to look at Nina, fearing she would elicit a reaction out of me when I wanted to be as invisible as possible during this tense exchange.
“Ah.” The woman rolled her eyes, seeming unimpressed. “Bodyguard?” She tilted her head to the side, staring at the curly earpiece attached to Aaron’s ear. An earpiece that wasn’t even operational. Aaron didn’t have a partner anymore, so technically, he didn’t have to wear it. Still, he did, because he wanted people to know he was a bodyguard, just as Caleb explained to me once upon a time in Paris: security should be obvious. He insisted it allows people to think twice before trying anything.
Aaron replied with a quick nod.
“Yeah, I don’t do bodyguards,” the woman said in a dismissive tone, returning her attention to her phone’s screen.
Nina snorted, and I pressed my lips even harder to swallow back the laughter that was building up in my chest. She was a feisty little thing, and even if I didn’t know who she was, where she was going, or what she was here for, I already liked her.
It was funny, though, that she was meeting Aaron in running shorts and a hoodie when 99% of the time, he was in a perfectly tailored black suit. So maybe that’s why she wasn’t taking him seriously.
The woman seemed harmless, but Aaron was gonna be Aaron. And I’d learned not to meddle in these types of situations, but he was exaggerating, and he knew it. The caffeine probably hadn’t hit his nervous system yet, so he was taking it out on her.
Ugh. I was going to have to meddle.
“I’m sorry. He’s a bit cranky today,” I said as the doors slid open on my floor. “Are you here to see William?” Aaron blocked the exit, clicked the door close button, and pulled the emergency stop switch.
Goodness.
