The Proposal (Forever Bound Book 2) (3 page)

“I’ll get my keys,” he reluctantly agreed.

He walked over to a shelving unit and grabbed his keys, then turned back to her.  She grabbed her luggage, but he quickly took it from her.  “Thank you!”

They left his house and reached his car.  She leaned back against the chair, as a Keith Urban song came on the radio.  She glanced at the passing vehicles and allowed her mind to just wander.  Derek came into her thoughts, and she couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing at that moment.  She’d ignored all his messages, and she felt good about that, but that didn’t mean she was no longer feeling something for him. 

She barely noticed when he turned into her apartment complex, but when he parked she was jolted from her thoughts.  She turned to him and smiled.  “Thanks for bringing me home!”  She leaned over and kissed him, brushing her hand across his cheek.

“No problem.”  He started to open his door.  “I’ll help you with your suitcase.”

She quickly stopped him.  “That’s completely not necessary.  I can get it.  Besides, if I get upstairs I may never let you leave.”  He laughed as she winked.  He nodded his understanding and she got out of the car and grabbed her suitcase from the backseat.  “I’ll call you later!”  She waved and headed up the stairs.  The moment she reached her apartment door, she spotted the notice.  She dropped her suitcase on the ground and ripped the notice from her door.  “You have to be kidding me?” she mumbled, reading over the notice.  It gave her two weeks to move out, and it had been up for a few days already.  She stuffed the notice into her pocket and opened her door.  She picked her suitcase back up and went into her apartment.  Her apartment had been vacated so quickly on Friday night that she worried she’d left dirty dishes and clothes around to clean up.  However, she wasn’t greeted by nothing but the quietness.

She carried her suitcase into her bedroom and left it next to her dresser.  She glanced at her watch, it was nearly seven o’clock.  Richard wouldn’t be in the office, so she needed to go to his apartment.  She passed through the living room and grabbed the eviction notice from the floor, where it had fallen once she got in the apartment.  She opened the door and left the quietness to go to where she could talk to Richard.  She already had another job to look for, and she didn’t want to have to add searching for a new apartment.

Richard’s apartment was located behind the office, and when she reached his door, she loudly knocked.  He didn’t immediately come to the door, so she knocked again, then a third time.  Finally, he got to his door.  He opened it up, and his mouth hung open.  “Charity?  What are you doing here?”

She pushed through his door.  “Why do you think I’m here?”

He turned around, and his mouth continued to hang low, then he suddenly smiled.  “You decided that maybe you could grant me my one wish?”  He closed the door and turned to face her.

She rolled her eyes.  “Get over yourself, Richard.” 

He inched closer to her.  “I’m surprised you came here at all.  Is your bodyguard around?”

The moment he asked the question, it dawned on her.  He was right.  It was a stupid mistake to come there, but she couldn’t back down now.  “I’m afraid of you, Richard because I know you wouldn’t do anything to hurt me.  What’s this?”  She held up the notice.

He laughed.  “I think that’s pretty obvious.  You have a week.”  He pushed past her, and she turned around to look to where he headed.  He stood next to the kitchen and shrugged.  “Anything else?”

“If it’s about the rent I still owe you, I’ll get the money.  In fact, I’ll call my friend right now and ask her for a loan.”  She didn’t want to do it because she started dialing up Ana’s number. 

“It’s not about the money, Charity.”

Charity stopped dialing and stared at him.  “It isn’t?”

He shook his head.  “Your security guard paid your tab.”

She frowned.  Seeing that Derek was the only guy Richard called her security guard, she knew that’s what he meant.  “Derek paid my rent?”

He nodded.  “Yes,
Mayor Worthington,
covered it.”  He emphasized when he said, Mayor Worthington.

It didn’t make any sense.  He hadn’t said a word to her, and it had to be for the same reasons he wanted to get her into his bed.  She wasn’t going to fall for any more of his antics.  “So, you’re evicting me because of Mayor Worthington?” she asked, making sure she didn’t say, Derek.

“I’m evicting you, for my own safety.  He has a mean hook, and I can’t have to worry about him taking me out again.”

Charity sighed, realizing she would be wasting her breath to try to convince him otherwise.  “Fine.  I’ll be out in a week.”  She turned away and left his apartment.  The minute, she was outside she dialed up Derek’s work number.  She headed back to her apartment as his phone rang.  He wouldn’t still be at work if he had gone in for the day, so she was safe to bet she would get his work phone answering system.

Then his voice came on.  “You’ve reached Mayor Derek Worthington.  I’m sorry I’m not available to take your call.  Please leave your contact information and reason for calling and I will call you back as soon as I get back.”

When the phone beeped on the other end, she left him her message.  “It’s Charity.  I just wanted to let you know that I need some time off.  I’ll try to keep in touch, but for now, I won’t be back.”  Before she hung up the call, she continued.  “I’ll be sure to pay you back what you spent on my rent.  I’m sorry you had to waste your money on me.”  She quickly hung up the phone as she got into her apartment.  She collapsed onto the couch and felt herself crying before it was too late.  She missed him already and didn’t know how she could possibly take away that feeling.

It was nine o’clock when Derek headed towards Ana’s parent’s house.  He didn’t want to get there too early, but he also didn’t want to miss seeing Ana.  He found this to be a good time to show up and when he pulled down the street, he was relieved to see a couple cars in the driveway, including the one that he recalled as being Ana’s.  He parked in front of the house and headed up to the front door before he could change his mind.

He knocked on the door and heard shuffling in the house, followed by footsteps coming down the stairs, then the door opened.  A woman, mid-forties, stood at the door.  Her mouth opened.  “Mayor Worthington…hello.”  She shook his hand and held a smile on her face.  “I didn’t expect you at my door.”  She glanced around like she was looking for something…or someone. 

“I’m sorry to bother you so early, Ma’am.  Is Ana available?”

Her eyes widened, and he could imagine what she was thinking in her head. 
Why would the mayor need to see my daughter? 
She cleared her throat, straightening up, then turned to the stairs.  “Ana?”

He waited until finally, Ana appeared on the steps.  Their eyes locked, and she just stared at him, before he broke the silence.  “Good morning, Ana.”

She slowly walked down the steps.  “Good morning.”  She glanced at her mom, who happened to still be smiling.  “Will you give us a minute, Mom?”  When she didn’t budge immediately, Ana nodded and urged her mom to leave, just by staring at her.  Derek waited as her mom mumbled something to her and Ana proved how irritated she was by her words.  “Mom?  Seriously?” she hissed, whispering, but he heard.

When she was gone, she turned to Derek.  “What’d your mom say?” he asked.

She rolled her eyes.  “Nothing important.”  She paused then asked him the obvious question.  “Why are you here?”  He hesitated, before pressing on.  “How’d you get the address?”

He already decided not to throw Jesse under the bus, so he put a spin on the truth.  “Jesse told me you were here, but I found the address in Charity’s desk.”  She opened her mouth to argue, as he proceeded.  “I’m here because I need you to help me.”

She frowned and was faced with two choices.  She could kick him out, or stand back and let him talk.  He sighed with relief when she didn’t kick him out.  “Let’s sit down.”  She led the way into the living room, and he spotted some luggage in the corner.

“Are you going somewhere?” he asked, pointing to the luggage.

She laughed.  “Uh…no.  My parents are taking off to some other vacation in a couple days.”

“Oh.”  He took a seat when she offered him one. 

“I’m probably betraying my best friend by inviting you in here.”  She looked down at the carpet, and he saw how torn she was over it.  She looked up and sighed.  “So…why are you here?”  For the first time, he realized he didn’t have any idea what to say to her.  He bit his lip as she awkwardly looked at him.  They stayed in that position for a few minutes until she stood up from her chair.  “Well, this has been fun.”  She started to exit the living room when he found his voice.

“Wait.  I’m here because I have to find Charity, and you’re the only one that can help me.”

She turned around and glared at him.  She moved closer to him, and he thought it was because she suddenly thought it was a great idea to help him out, but then he realized it was only because she wanted to lower her voice so her mom wouldn’t hear her anger towards him.  “You screw my best friend, she gets angry with you, and you want me to help you out?”

He tilted his head.  “So, you realize she’s angry with me, then you must’ve talked to her.  Where is she?”

She rolled her eyes and looked away from him.  “Hell, yes, I know she’s upset, but I don’t need to talk to her to know that.”  She moved further away from him, and he watched her every move.  When she was a short distance away from him, she turned around and looked at him.  “We’re besties, Derek…Best. Friends.  I know her thoughts almost before she does, but no…I haven’t seen her, and I haven’t talked to her since you f’ed up her life.”

“That was never my intention, Ana.  She won’t talk to me.  She won’t return my calls, and she didn’t come to work yesterday.  I’m worried about her.  I went to her apartment, and she wasn’t there.”  He hesitated, deciding not to bring up the whole eviction notice thing.  “I thought if you knew where she was, then you could help me out.  You really haven’t talked to her?”

She shook her head.  “I haven’t, but honestly…I might not tell you the truth if I had.”

He sighed.  “I realize that right now you hate me and right now you hate Jesse.  In your eyes, we lied to you, and we lied to Charity, but I wasn’t lying.  Yes, I didn’t tell her about the inheritance, but I never thought we were heading for a relationship.  Then over the weekend, something changed.  The inheritance was never on my mind the entire time Charity, and I was together.  I didn’t have sex with her so she would want to marry me, have my child, and share ten billion dollars with me.  When he called her two days ago and told her everything, I was on my way back to the room to tell her that I love her.  I just never got that chance.”  His face fell, and he walked over to the couch.  He took a seat, feeling the same pit in his stomach he felt when Charity walked out on him that day.  “I don’t run around telling every beautiful girl I see that I love them.”  He looked up, and Ana headed around to the front of the couch, where she took a seat next to him.  “I know we don’t know each other all that well, but I would not intentionally hurt your friend.”  He paused, before adding, “Jesse would not intentionally hurt you and frankly…he shouldn’t be punished for my family tree.

Ana shook her head and looked away from Derek’s eyes.  “Um…” she cleared her throat.  “You love her?” she asked, turning back to face him.

He sighed, smiling, as he slowly nodded.  “I didn’t expect it to happen, and I didn’t want it to happen.  I told Jesse a year ago that I didn’t care about the inheritance and that truth still remains.  I care about Charity and if I lose her…” he took a deep breath, just a mere thought of that frightened him.  “Let me put it this way, I would give up all my money if she would just give me another chance.”

“Wow!” Ana breathlessly stated.  She then realized how that came out, and her face went red.  “Um…so, you really feel that way?” she asked.

He didn’t even need a millisecond to answer that.  “I’ve never been so strongly about anything.  I love her.”

Their eyes connected and he saw that he got to her.  “I’ll try calling her, but I don’t know if she’ll listen to me any more than she’s listened to you.”  She paused, before continuing, “As far as Jesse goes…I’m just hurt he didn’t tell me.”

He nodded.  “I know, but it wasn’t his fault.  Plus, in his defense…he wasn’t dating you back then.  Don’t fault him because I asked him to do this.   You two belong together.  I’ve never seen Jesse happier.”

She barely made eye contact as he tried to convince her to talk to Jesse.  Finally, she just shrugged.  “I’ll see, but in the meantime we have to get Charity to listen to you, right?”

Derek wanted to say that there was no reason they couldn’t all be happy, but he couldn’t bring himself to focus on Jesse and Ana when he did want to get things fixed on his own end.  “So, will you call her today?”

She nodded and stood up from the couch.  Derek shook her hand, as he stood to his feet.  “Thank you, Ana.  I appreciate this.”

She nodded slightly.  “See you later, Derek.”  She walked him to the door, and he left the house.  He felt like perhaps he was that much closer to getting Charity to talk to him.  At least, he hoped so.  He went to the office as he had some responsibilities to deal with and when he got to his office, he noticed a message flashing on his phone.  He leaped towards the phone and grabbed it, dialed in the passcode and waited for the message.  It was Charity’s voice that came on the other end.  His face fell as he listened to her message.  Not only was she not coming right back to work, but she was also telling him she would pay him back for the rent.  She didn’t need to do that.  He hung up the call and dialed up her number, but again it eventually went to her voicemail.  He sighed but remained listening to her recording so he could leave his message.  At the beep, he did just that.

“Hey, Charity…got your message.  Your job will remain available for as long as you need to take off.  You don’t owe me back for the rent, as I am happy to do it.  I miss you, and I beg of you to call me back.  Please.  Bye.”  He hung up the phone and heaved a sigh.  Now, he had to figure a way to get through the rest of the day.

***

Charity stared at the list of advertisements for jobs on the internet.  A box of figurines laid on the table, as she had already started packing.  She only had a week, and she hoped to be packed and with another job in hand as soon as she possibly could.  She didn’t have a moment to spare on either part.  “Daycare Attendant needed.”  She read aloud, then settled on reading over the job descriptions.  It sounded promising.  She clicked on the button to apply and started to fill out the online application when her phone rang again.  She groaned, expecting another call from Derek, but then discovering Ana’s name on the phone.

She stopped filling out the application and answered the call.  “Hello?”

“Hey, there.”

“Ana…I should’ve called you when I got back in town.  Sorry about that,” Charity quickly started to apologize.

Ana laughed on the other end.  “No worries.  I was wondering if you could maybe meet me for lunch today. Unless, you’re too busy with work.”

Charity stared at the cursor on her computer screen and chuckled lightly.  “Definitely not too busy at work.  I can make it.”  They set up a schedule to meet at the restaurant and decided to meet in twenty minutes.  She had enough time to quickly submit her application, get out the apartment, get to her car, and head to the restaurant.  By the time she got inside, she had noticed that Ana was already there.  She waved at her from the door and made her way to one of the booths. 

“Hello,” Ana said, as Charity approached the table.  She stood up, and the two women hugged.

“Hello,” Charity replied.  They then both took their seats and Charity sighed, reaching for her menu.  “I’m starved.”

“Me too,” Ana agreed.  When the waitress came, they placed their orders and then the waitress left to get their drinks.  Charity took a drink of water because she knew that Ana would instantly start grilling her, and she was right.  “So, how have you been?” Ana asked.

Charity put her water glass down and smiled.  “How’ve I been since you talked to me on Monday and told me the news about Derek and his inheritance.”  Ana’s face had a hint of pink on her cheekbones, and she nodded slightly.  “Great…considering.”

“Considering?” Ana asked softly.

“Well, it’s every girl’s dream to know that the guy she slept with is only using her to benefit himself.”  Charity took another drink to drown out the lump in her throat. 

“But the sleeping together thing didn’t mean anything right?” Ana asked.

“Right!” Charity quickly said, looking down at her glass of water.  She continued to stare at the glass like something was swimming inside of it.  The waitress brought them their drinks, they thanked her, and she was gone, all while Charity continued to stare at the glass. 

“Charity?” Ana started.  Charity lifted her eyes up to Ana’s.  “It meant nothing, right?”

Charity started to nod again, but then suddenly stopped, and she lifted the glass of water to her lips.  She took a long drawn out sip, as Ana continued to watch her.  Finally, Charity had to make a choice…drown from all that water or confess the truth.  “Fine.  Maybe the sex didn’t mean nothing.  Perhaps, it meant something.”  She swallowed the lump in her throat and reminded herself that her best friend was staring back at her.  She didn’t need to have secrets from her.  “Okay…truth is it meant everything.  I wanted him, despite telling myself I didn’t.  When you called, I was upset and hurt because I thought it meant something to him.  He bought me condoms for heaven’s sake.”

Ana nearly spat out the soda that she just drank.  “What?” Ana asked, chuckling. 

Charity shrugged.  “He wasn’t expecting to have to need them.  He stopped at the store and along with buying me the charger that I forgot at home, he bought a box of condoms.  I thought it was romantic, only to find that he had an ulterior motive.”

Ana sighed, taking another drink from her glass.  This time, she got it all down, then she said.  “Have you talked to him since you’ve been back?”

Charity raised an eyebrow.  “Uh…no.  Why would I?  Shame me once, shame on you, shame me twice, and shame on me.  I’m not going to let him get to me again.”

“Would it hurt to just talk to him?” Ana asked quietly.

Charity opened her mouth to argue, but the waitress came back with their food.  “Need anything else?” she asked, placing the trays down in front of them.

They both shook their heads and the waitress left.  “Now, I’m a bit confused.  You’re the one that told me about the inheritance.  You seemed angrier than even I was.  So, why the sudden change of attitude and telling me that I should talk to him.  It doesn’t make sense.”

Ana looked down at her food and started eating, while Charity continued to gawk at her.  There was clearly something unusual in Ana’s demeanor, and Charity couldn’t pinpoint the strangeness.  Finally, Ana dropped French Fry to her plate and looked up.  “He stopped by today to see me.”  Charity raised her eyebrow and didn’t even need to ask the question because Ana answered it for her.  “Yes, at my parent’s house.”