Billion Dollar Surprise: A Billionaire Romance (3 page)

"I can't just tell him." Kylie snapped and then instantly regretted it. "Sorry Felix, I'm just so frustrated." She said quickly.
 

Felix didn't say anything; he just threw his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a hug.
 

The next day though, Kylie had a brainwave, as she looked at her list of errands. She decided she would give it one last shot, at making him remember. As lunchtime approached, she nervously called up the sushi place, which she normally collected Christopher's lunch from and cancelled his order.
 

She then went to the coffee shop which was next to the building that become more of a touchdown place than a workplace. She was often out for most of the day running errands and she struggled to think of the towering office building as the place she worked. Instead she saw the entire city as her workplace.

 
As she walked into the upmarket coffee shop, the lady behind the counter asked her for her order and Kylie requested what she wanted. The woman let out a small laugh but went through with the order. Once it was ready, Kylie quickly paid the woman thanking her, and then she walked back with the bag of food clutched in her hands.
 

She was nervous, she knew this was her chance of making him remember without telling him straight out, and she just hoped that it would work.
 

She rode the lift up to the top floor and as each number lit up, above the door; her heart would skip a beat, until she was finally walking out onto the top floor. Rachel smiled at her as she walked passed and Kylie knocked on the door and waited to be told to come in.
 

Kylie placed the bag of food down on the desk and waited for Christopher to look up.
 

"I've brought you something different for lunch." She said, when he made no attempt at greeting her or even acknowledging the fact that she was there.
 

"Why?" Christopher said, looking at the bag, as though it was dangerous.
 

"I just thought you might like a change from sushi." Kylie said, smiling and shrugging.
 

"Well Kylie, I don't pay you to think, I pay you to do." Christopher said with an angry edge to his tone. He pulled over the bag and looked in it.
 

"What the hell is this?" He asked, the anger in his tone rising.
 

"PB and J sandwiches." Kylie said with a devious grin on her face. Kylie had remembered that when they had been growing up, they had been his favourite. For weeks straight he would refuse to eat anything but peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. She hoped that this little reminder would be the thing to jog his memory.
 

"Do I look like the type of person who eats peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?" Christopher demanded as he pushed the bag away. "I mean are you actually that stupid as to think I would eat that?" He continued when Kylie didn't reply.
 

His words cut through her like a knife, not only did he not remember her, but he also revealed himself to be cruel. Nothing like the boy she grew up with and knew so well.
 

"I pay you to do as I ask, if you want to keep your job, then I suggest actually doing it in future." Christopher said coldly.
 

Kylie could hardly believe what he was saying. At first she didn't say anything, the shock freezing her to the spot, but then as the shock wore off it got replaced with something else, anger. Who was he to make out that she was stupid? He was the one who couldn't even remember his childhood best friend.
 

"Well, Noah, they used to be your favourite." She said slowly, letting every last syllable hang in the air.
 

"What did you call me?" He said, his eyes narrowing into hers.
 

"Noah." She said, waiting for his response. His eyes held hers as the moments slipped by, neither of them had said anything, for what like an impossible and amount of time.
 

Then just ask Kylie was going to turn around and walk right out of the office, a look in Christopher's eyes told her to wait.
 

"Kylie?" He said, almost in disbelief.
 

"You know what Noah, screw your job and your new life and everything that comes with it, I quit!" Kylie said, the words falling out of her mouth, before her brain could even process them.
 

He had humiliated her, scolded her and he was clearly a different person now. In that moment Kylie didn't even care that he had finally remembered her, all she wanted to do was leave. She turned around, as soon as she had finished speaking and stormed out of his office.
 

She could hear Noah calling out her name, as she walked right passed Rachel, who had looked up from her computer screen in confusion over what was going on. She stepped into the elevator slamming her hand on the lobby button. She could feel her whole body trembling with the after effects of what had just happened, as she practically ran into the New York street.

*
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"So let me get this straight. He remembered you. After a month solid of you trying to get him to remember who you are, he remembered and what do you do? You quit." Felix said, after Kylie had told him about what had happened that day.
 

"Yes, that sums it up." Kylie said, screwing her face up, at how ridiculous it sounded.
 

"So now he knows who you are and you are without a job?" Felix said, as though it needed saying again.
 

"Yep." Kylie said, avoiding his eyes. For once she didn't want to hear Felix's voice.

"What am I going to do with you?" Felix said, shaking his head and sighing. Kylie didn't say anything, she could still see Noah's face in her mind, the look that he had had, when he had realised who she was.
 

"So what now?" Felix asked, as though Kylie might have had this all planned out.
 

"I don't know." Kylie said, as she was speaking there was a knock on the door.
 

Kylie looked at Felix curiously, as though he might be expecting someone over and had forgotten to tell her, but he looked just as puzzled as she did.
 

Kylie got up off her bed and walked towards the door. This wasn't an area of town where you just opened your door to random knocks in the night, and the door didn't have a peep hole, so Kylie comprised.
 

"Who is it?" She said loud enough for her voice to carry through the door.
 

"It's Noah." Said the person on the other side.
 

Kylie looked over at Felix with a panicked look in her eyes, but all he did was shrug. Kylie glances around the tiny apartment, for the first time since she had moved in, wishing it was bigger and better. She opened the door slowly and looked at Noah, who looked incredibly out of place in his expensive suit.

"What do you want?" Kylie said, refusing to meet her eyes with his.

"I wanted to apologise." Noah said, his voice was quiet and it had a gentleness to it, which reminded Kylie of the boy she had once known.
 

"You shouldn't have bothered." Kylie said, not inviting him in.
 

Noah looked sheepishly into the apartment and saw Felix.
 

"Oh, sorry I didn't realise you had company." Noah said quickly.
 

"He's my roommate." Kylie said, looking back at Felix and then turning to back to Noah again.
 

"You both live here?" Noah asked, sounding confused.
 

"Well, we're not all billionaires like you." Kylie said flatly.
 

A moment's silence passed between them.
 

"I didn't mean to offend you, Kylie." Noah said with his gentle tone back.
 

"Well you did." Kylie said, this time looking him directly in the eyes, so he knew that she was being serious.
 

"Can I take you out for dinner, so I can at least explain myself?" Noah asked, as sensing that not much would get sorted, while standing at Kylie's threshold.
 

Before Kylie could speak or even process the question, she heard Felix behind her say "She'd love to."
 

Kylie looked back at Felix and glared at him.
 

"Do you want to grab a coat first?" Noah asked, apparently taking Felix's answer as a yes.
 

Kylie shook her head, she couldn't believe what was happening and her mind wasn't helping her process it either.
 

"I'll be back soon." Kylie said to Felix, as Noah stepped to the side to let her walk out of the door.
 

"You take your time." Felix said, flashing her, a wicked grin, as she closed the door behind her.
 

Noah led Kylie down to the black SUV where the driver opened the door for her. They rode silently together in the backseat all the way to the restaurant.
 

Once there the waitress had seated them, Kylie glanced around feeling out of place in her casual attire at such an upmarket place. Kylie turned to Noah with an expectant expression.
 

"So? You said you wanted to explain yourself?" Kylie said, not wanting to bother with small talk.
 

"I did." Noah said, passing her a menu. She scanned the page and put it down.
 

"So then, explain yourself." Kylie said, holding his stare.
 

"I never forgot about you, you know?" Noah said.
 

Kylie almost laughed, up until today he had had no idea of who she even was.
 

"I just didn't recognise you, you were a child when I left Kylie. You've grown up a lot you know?" Noah said looking sheepish again.
 

"So that's it?" Kylie asked, wondering why he couldn't have just said that at the door.
 

"No that isn't it." Noah said.
 

"Then what?" Kylie said, pushing him to continue.
 

"You noticed the bluebottoms in the lobby, I chose them you know?" He said, half questioningly and half stating.
 

"So?" Kylie shot back at him.
 

"Do you know why I chose them?" Noah asked, trying to hold her gaze.
 

"They remind you of home I guess?" Kylie said, shrugging. Noah laughed.
 

"I've done nothing but try to forget about that place since I left." He said, as though that explained everything.
 

"Then why did you choose those flowers?" Kylie asked, confused.
 

"Because they reminded me of you Kylie, they reminded me of a happy time in my life" He said, trying to hold his voice steady.
 

Kylie didn't say anything. She didn't know what she could say.
 

"You know I never wanted to leave you behind don't you?" Noah said, reaching his hand across the table and placing it on top of Kylie's.
 

She had the urge to pull it away, but his touch was like fire against her skin and she couldn't quite bring herself to move it.
 

"Then why did you?" She whispered, looking him in the eyes as she did.
 

"I had no choice, after my Mom died and my Dad... well, you remember him right?" He said, as though that it explained everything.
 

Kylie thought back to their childhood. Noah had lost his Mother when he was very young and his father turned to alcoholism to forget his problems.

"What about him?" Kylie asked, almost understanding what Noah was telling her.
 

"I never told you are the time, but he used to beat me. My Aunt found out about it, she forced him to let me go live with her. I refused Kylie, I didn't want to leave. Even though my life was hell there I didn't want to leave you. But I had no say. I was just a kid." Noah said his voice wobbling a little, as his eyes showed the memories he was reliving.
 

"I had no idea." Kylie said softly.

"No one did." He said in a comforting kind of way.
 

"I get why you had to go." Kylie said pausing as she thought about how she would word her next question. "But, well, why did you never come back? Why did you never try to find me?" She asked.
 

He hesitated for a minute, not knowing how to answer.
 

"For the same reason that I changed my name." He said, as though that it explained it.
 

"Which is?" Kylie asked, pushing him for a real answer.
 

"Because I didn't want to go back to the past, I couldn't face it. By the time I was old enough to go out on my own I had vowed to never return to Texas or to go by my old name again." He said.

Kylie could tell from his tone that he was being honest and she felt a pang of guilt hit her in the stomach. She had spent years wondering why he hadn't come back for her. She had spent years, in a way, resenting him for it, and all the time it had been because it had been too painful for him.