Page 69 of New Girl in Town
Chapter Fourteen
“What’s that?” Melinda asked, looking down at the box sitting in front of my apartment door. On the smallish side, it was about as wide and thick as a book, wrapped in silver paper with a cheery red velvet bow.
I crouched down at it and considered it for a moment. “Looks like a gift.”
“Well, duh,” Melinda said, joining me in my crouch over the box. “I mean, who would leave that here?”
“Beats me.” I picked up the box and gave it a shake. Something inside rattled, and I exchanged a curious look with Mel. “Let’s go inside and find out.”
I gave a quick look over at Mrs. Reynolds’s door, half-expecting her to bound out to see what was in the box. The old woman and her little comments had me on edge as it was. The last thing I needed was her inquiring about the mystery gift. I let Melinda inside my apartment, and after we pulled our coats off I deposited the box on the kitchen table beside the still-blooming bouquet of flowers.
“Those are gorgeous. Where did you get them?” she asked leaning towards them and giving them a delicate sniff.
I gave her a look and pointed to the floor, indicating that my flowers were indeed from Grant. Her eyes widened, and she gave the flowers an appraising look. “Oh,thesearethoseflowers?”
“Yep.” I sighed and gave the box a glare. “And now there’s this…”
“You think he did that too?”
“Who else?” I asked, hands going to my hips. Maybe agreeing to dinner and a movie was a bad idea. I’d known that when I agreed without thinking. But the appearance of the small silver box was proof that it was a terrible idea.
“Open it.” Melinda jabbed a finger at the box and gave me a puppy dog face. “Please, I have to know what’s in it.”
“Fine,” I sighed, and set about ripping the paper and bow off with all the finesse of a child on her birthday. When I finished, we both stared down at a telltale red box that simply had one word word engraved in gold on the front:Cartier.
Melinda’s eyes widened. “Oh, wow, shit.”
“He did not…” I breathed, hands shaking as I eased back the lid of the box to see a delicate gold chain with a small gold circle pendant inlaid with diamonds.
“He did,” Melinda gasped, coming to stand close to me. She looked down the box in awe. “He got you a Cartier necklace.”
“But how? I mean, why would he spend this kind of money on me? I agreed to a movie and dinner at his place. I thought that meant pizza and a beer, not this,” I hissed, gesturing at the necklace.
“Wait, you did what now?” Melinda held up a hand and leaned back, giving me an incredulous look.
I ran my hands through my hair and started pacing. “What the hell am I going to do?”
“Hey, excuse you. What did you agree to now?”
“Huh?” I looked over at Melinda to see that her staring at me.
“That thing you said about a movie night. What did you agree to?”
“I just—I mean, he asked if I wanted to hang out and I said—”
“Yes? You said yes, after all the hemming and hawing you’ve been doing about needing space from him?”
I gave a weak nod. “Well, yes.”
Her eyes fluttered closed and she breathed out a deep sigh. “Aurora, I’m going to murder you.”
“What? Why?”
“He’s rich as sin! This is romance to him. We see expensive jewelry, but this kind of spending is nothing to him. Of course he got this for you. You said he’s been sending you flowers daily since he got back, and if they look anything like one,” she said, nodding at the bouquet on the table, “then he’s spending major cash to do that too.”
“Oh.”
She shook her head at me. “Yeah, oh.”
