Page 28 of House of Desire

“You look lovely,” I tell her as she nears. It’s not a lie. She is lovely. But I’m not overly attracted to the woman, despite her beauty. Other than her incredible singing voice, she hasn’t stood out to me.

“Thank you,” she says, and I lean down to give her a hug. “You look great. But you always look great.”

The rosy blush of her cheeks as she tries to keep herself from babbling is cute.

“Are you ready to go on an adventure today?” I ask.

She looks at the riot of color behind me and smiles. “I’ve always wanted to go in a hot air balloon.”

“Let’s go make your dreams come true.”

Lucy threads her arm through mine, and I lead her to the balloon. The chevron pattern is done in the colors of the rainbow and glowing beautifully.

The operator steps up to us as we get closer, reaching his hand out to introduce himself, first to Lucy and then me.

“Hi, folks. My name is Jim. I’ll be handling your flight tonight. We don’t want to waste any time, so if you’re ready, we’ll go ahead and get started.”

He opens the door on the basket and holds a hand out to Lucy. Once we are all settled in, his assistant goes around and unties us from the stakes in the ground.

The roar of the fire above our heads is deafening. Lucy squeals and wraps her arms around my waist, the balloon beginning it's assent. Attached to the ropes leading up to the balloon are cameras, ready to catch every minute of our date.

"You have to see this," I tell her, awe in my voice.

She pulls back before spinning around in my arms, my hands settling on her slim hips and she gasps. “It’s stunning,” she says and I can hear tears in her voice at the sight of the sunset and the glowing balloons.

If this was a movie, I would be staring at her and say something like “It is,” her thinking I’m talking of the view, but the audience knowing I’m talking about her. When she looked up at me, our eyes would lock and we’d be trapped in a passionate kiss soon after. But this isn’t a movie, despite the circumstances of our situation. Luckily, Jim steps in before my silence can linger for too long and he begins pointing out different landmarks on the horizon.

Twenty minutes into our flight, I pull the champagne and glasses from the basket in the corner provided by production. I know they are probably tearing their hair out watching the live feed during, what I'm sure is, the most awkward date on the planet.

“How did you get into signing,” I ask, picking an easy topic.

“My parents pushed me into the child beauty pageant circuit when I was three. When I won, they pushed me into even more. As a teenager, I had to pick a talent.” Sympathy blooms for the younger Lucy and growing up being judged for everything about her. “It quickly grew from a love of singing to writing and composing my own songs.”

“You have a beautiful singing voice. Do you have a record deal or anything?”

She snorts. “No, I don’t. I’ve had a few over the years, but they dropped me, typically due to low sales. The industry is crazy difficult to get into.”

“I met a record executive when she hired me to design and build her home. To say she was the most hardworking person I’d met at that point would be an understatement.”

She looks at me, sharp eyes taking in my face. “What was her name?”

“I can’t really tell you that. Discretion is part of our business.”

Wheels turn behind her eyes and I watch her scrutinize me to determine if there’s a chink in my armor she can exploit for this information and it makes me think of Mary Ella’s warning about how not everyone is here for me. She must sense I’m not going to be backing down.

“I wouldn’t want to make you compromise your morals. That’s one of the things I like about you.”

Her hand is warm on my forearm, but it doesn’t feel as natural this time. Not wanting to shake her off, but needing the contact to end, I busy my hands with tying my hair back out of my face.

“Lucy,” I start, “you’re a great woman. Anyone would be so lucky to call you theirs.”

“But you don’t want to, right?” She looks up at me with a mixture of understanding and disappointment.

“I just don’t think this would really work out. For either of us. I’m sorry.”

She sniffles with unshed tears, blinking rapidly trying to keep her emotions at bay.

“It’s okay. If you don’t feel it, you don’t feel it. I think I could have loved you, with time, but I’d rather know now than get to the end and be sent home.”

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