Page 12 of Promise Me Nothing
He quickly shows me the theatre room, which consists of several massive couches and a projector screen. “Any gaming system you could possibly want,” Lucas boasts. “And a pretty decent movie collection.”
Then the gym, which is floor to ceiling mirrors and filled with workout equipment, yoga mats, exercise balls and weight sets. And the wine cellar, “which isn’t really a cellar as much as a massive fridge room.”
“You have an entire room of chilled wine?” I ask, raising an eyebrow and holding back a laugh. “Part of me feels like you’re not even a wine drinker.”
He crosses his arms in what I can only guess is fake displeasure. “You don’t know. I could be a connoisseur of wine.” But then he winks at me and heads back towards the stairs.
“You saw the main floor. Kitchen and dining over here, living space on the left,” he says when we hit the floor we came in on, but he doesn’t stop walking, just continuing up to the top floor.
“There are four bedrooms up here. The two masters belong to me and my mom, though, like I told you before, she’s almost never here,” he says, rolling his eyes. “She’s dating this total dick who lives near her office and she stays there a lot. So you won’t have to worry about seeing her around much. But feel free to pick from the other two. They’re pretty identical. Both have access to a balcony that faces the street, and the rooms share a bathroom.”
He leads me into one, filled with white furniture and peach bedding, then walks me through a massive bathroom with a walk in shower and oversized claw foot tub. Then we go to the next guest room. It’s basically a mirror of the other one, but with blues and teals instead.
“It doesn’t have a beach view from these rooms, but…” Lucas says, leading me out to the small space that overlooks the road. Then he points at a spiral staircase in the corner that leads up. “…it does have roof access. And there’s a beach view up there. Plus a Jacuzzi.”
My eyebrows lift. “A Jacuzzi on the roof, huh? I think you’re not being completely honest when you say you only have a few parties a year.”
I’m teasing him, but he actually blushes. It makes me want to laugh since we clearly both got that trait from my dad.
Our.Ourdad.
“Well, okay. Maybe I have people over a lot.” He shrugs. “I’m a people person.”
I smile at him. Possibly my first real smile of the day. “I can definitely tell that you’re a people person.”
He chuckles and leads me back inside and downstairs.
I look around again, hoping to take in more this time as I absorb everything about this place. This new house I’ll be calling home for the upcoming few months. Until I figure out what’s next.
“Your house is amazing,” I say, knowing my words are inadequate. It looks like something out of a magazine. Or something I might see on HGTV. “I can’t believe you live like this.”
“Oh yeah? What was your house like?”
He’s not saying it maliciously. I can see the genuine curiosity on his face. But I’m starting to realize that Lucas could never understand the situation I came out of. What I’ve been through. How I scraped by, just barely.
I shrug and look away, though my mind thinks about the apartment I just moved out of. The one in the bad neighborhood, with a broken A/C unit and hardly enough room in my bedroom for a twin bed. “Smaller,” is what I settle on. “And not as clean. Which Iloveabout this place, by the way. I’m a bit of a neat freak.”
He groans. “Ugh. Thalia’s gonna love you, then. She normally hates when I have guests because they’re so messy.”
“Who’s Thalia?”
“Our maid.”
I laugh for a second, then stop abruptly, realizing that he’s serious. “You’re serious.”
He nods. “Yeah. It’s pretty common around here, I think.”
I nod back. “Cool.” I feel thankful that I’ll be in a house that’s kept clean, but also, I can’t help but feel slightly awkward at the idea of someone cleaning up after me.
I’ll need to think that one over.
“I’d say let’s get you settled, but we should head outside first, enjoy the last little bit of daylight,” he says. “Come on.”
Lucas leads me to the floor to ceiling windows that overlook the ocean, the sand, and what he referred to earlier as The Strand, a long stretch of path where people are walking and running and riding bikes. Then he opens a sliding door out to the balcony, letting the ocean air rush in.
I step out, lean on the railing and look out at the beach, at the ocean in the distance, so large it could swallow anything whole.
Suddenly, all at once, all of the emotions I’ve been feeling all day long – a rush of exhaustion and anxiety and stress – hit me in one fell swoop.
