Page 25 of Forbidden
After the lastmovie we return to our separate bedrooms. I can’t sleep and I can’t stop thinking about Lorenzo in the very next room. Even if it is a heck of a long shot, I’ll need to raise my game to ever have a shot with him.
I turn on a light, skim read various romance eBooks on my Kindle, and I nerd out and take notes.
My mind processes, and one part of me tells me to be careful and not play with fire. The other side tells me to do this…
Tease…
Flirt…
Seduce…
I turn the light off, roll over in the huge bed, and I look up at the ceiling. I am nervous and I’m unsure. I cover my face with my hands, and I sigh long and hard.
8
LORENZO
Instead of feeling obliged to shower a woman with expensive shallow outings in The Hamptons, or with shiny treats, it’s refreshing to just relax.
To be light, and actually how I was before… Before I built the empire. Before I had to protect the empire, and before I had to do avoid gold diggers.
Storm and I have done none of the things I’ve been encouraged to do for the last decade. Things that are not me.
Over the top lunches at famous restaurants, where there is little to no privacy. Being seen at the right places, drinking champagne, dressing up, and not being me.
The real me.
It is refreshing and it feels natural. It is also uncomplicated, like how life is supposed to be.
Storm makes me feel younger, and more human.
I guess it’s her uncomplicated, and playful energy. Also, her refreshingly young sense of curiosity.
Ever since I started my first company, and later, after my first billion, I’d started to feel old. Like an old man, and that I had to be serious.
At least serious enough to outsmart my ruthless competition, and defend the wealth I was accumulating.
Looking back, it feels like I’ve gone from being fifteen, to fifty, overnight.
Growing up alone, was one thing. Growing up poor, naturally pushed me to seek wealth. To gather or gain it for survival.
Likely way younger than most men, I became serious. After, I became cold, controlling, and remote, unlike the old, original, or true me.
Storm was somehow making me human, or my old self, again.
I have become good at analyzing what will entertain the world. Also, what it should cost. In addition, I can ascertain what risk there is, and what the upside should be.
That is how I turned ten thousand into a million. Then that into five hundred million. And later, that into billions.
Understanding situations, and predicting outcomes, is what I do.
As Storm and I walk along the beach, the crazy young thing turns, and she kicks water towards me.
“Oh, another thing. I’m calling you Loren. Lorenzo is way too long.”
“My name is Lorenzo, button pusher!”
“It’s actually Grumpy,” she says. “But I’m calling you Loren.”
