Getting Lucky (A Lucky Novella) (5 page)

My apartment was located in a brand new complex right on the main drag toward the edge of town. It was considerable smaller than Grandma Pearl’s house, but then I hadn’t really had a need for any extra space at the time anymore.

While Noah had remained politely silent for most of the drive, he finally gave his nod of approval as we parked and got out.

“Not bad, not bad at all,” he said standing in front of my building and sizing it up.

“Thanks. Wait until you see the inside. It’s cute, got a loft and everything,” I said as I slid past him and started walking toward the stairs that led to my front door.

I held the door open while Noah struggled to fit himself and our luggage through the narrow frame. Once inside he barely walked two steps before dropping everything he was carrying on the floor and then walking on without the load that had been weighing him down. He had just made it into the living room when I heard him chuckle.

“I can’t believe you kept this couch!”

I strolled in after him and
said,“I can’t believe you ruined my other one!”

There was a moment of silence as we both stared at each other, both mentally contemplating how far we would take this and if it would be worth it. Apparently, Noah realized pretty quickly that it would be in his favor not to pursue the matter because he started moving forward again, gently tapping the armrest as he went by and mumbling, “Enjoy it while you can, your days are numbered.”

I grinned, but left it at that. If Noah wanted to buy me a new couch, who was I to talk him out of it. And if he succeeded in finding another couch as perfect as my old one, all the better. After all, from here on out the only person he would be having sex with on
any
couch would be me. Or, at least that’s how it would be if he knew what was good for him.

Noah didn’t waste much time touring the kitchen or dining area, but headed straight for the loft which doubled as my bedroom. I was in the kitchen getting a drink when I heard him.

“Are you coming up here or what?”

I gulped down the swig of water I had just chugged and called back, “What do you need?”

“You,” he answered simply. I put the bottle of water back into the fridge, a smile stretched so far across my face it hurt. Who would have ever thought the sound of one word could have made me so ridiculously happy. Come to think of it, it would probably be the same person who could have predicted Noah would be the one to say it. And that person had to be one in a million, if they even existed at all.

I lightly threw the refrigerator door shut as I hurried from the kitchen and back out to the hall toward the stairs. Unfortunately, I was far too distracted to take note of the bags that Noah had so carelessly dropped on the floor upon entering the apartment. My foot caught on one of the handles and before I could stop what was happening, I fell face first into the hallway, landing rather unceremoniously on my hardwood floors with a loud thud.

“Son of a bitch,” I cursed under my breath as Noah came flying down the stairs to see what had happened.

“Are you alright?” he asked, reaching for my arm and helping me back up. He had already stripped down to his boxer briefs, an all too pleasant distraction from the stinging pain in the palms of my hands from where I had tried to break my fall.

“I’m okay,” I nodded, feeling a mixture of foolish and flattered. However, feeling like a fool faded all together when Noah slid his other arm under the back of my thighs and lifted me up. He then proceeded to carry me all the way up the stairs and to my bed, where he carefully tended to my wounds…and let’s just say he tended to some other stuff as well and leave it at that. The point is, that being with Noah was already exceeding any and all expectations I might have had, and if it meant tripping over a little bit of baggage from time to time, well, it would be worth it.

Chapter 6

Making Moves

First thin
g
the next morning, Noah and I took off in search of some moving boxes. Unfortunately, the U-Haul place was sold out of the size we were looking for. They had several smaller sized boxes in stock, as well as, mattress packaging, but Noah and I both decided that neither would suit our needs. Having just been down this road not that long ago, I still had a pretty good notion of how much stuff I had and how many boxes it had entailed to contain it all. The smaller ones would have required us to more than double our packing efforts and the prospects of that didn’t appeal to either one of us. So, we took off in search of another U-Haul location or something similar that would have a better selection regarding our moving needs. We drove around for nearly an hour and turned up nothing before I remembered that Lowe’s sold boxes. Not only were theirs cheaper than anyone else’s, they were also located closer to my place than the U-Haul place had been. Not that I pointed either of those things out to Noah who already had enough to say given that he was starting to recognize certain landmarks after only cruising around for one morning.

“Oh hey, there’s another Albertson’s…or is that the one we passed earlier? Wait a minute! We’re just down the street from your house! Have we just been driving in circles this entire time?”

I chuckled and said, “No! I mean, yes, that’s the same Albertson’s but no, we have not been driving around in circles. It just seems that way because we traveled the same two main roads for most of our outing.”

“Are you screwing with me? We’ve been to five different places. We had to have gotten around a bit more,” he insisted pushing the tip of his nose against the window as he stared outside acting as though he were a crazy person looking out from his padded cell.

“We got around plenty, believe me. But around here Eagle Road and Fairview Avenue will basically take you anywhere you need to go…so, you know, you don’t end up seeing much else. For now anyway. As soon as we get done packing up my entire life again, I’ll take you somewhere more off the beaten path so you can get a better feel for the place.”

Once we had a solid plan, getting boxes and bringing them back home took all of fifteen minutes. Naturally by then we were ready for a break. After walking through the apartment and strategically dropping off several boxes in each room, we found our way back to the kitchen. I didn’t have much there since I had planned on being out of town for several days and more importantly hadn’t been expecting any company upon my return. It took some improvising, but I finally managed to throw together a pretty decent breakfast using yellow cake mix to make waffles, which we topped with some butter and cinnamon and sugar, in lieu of syrup, which I didn’t have. The milk had been on its last leg and was beyond consumption at this point, which wouldn’t have bothered me if I hadn’t needed it for my coffee. Thankfully, Noah had the brilliant idea to stir in some instant hot cocoa packets which turned out to be surprisingly delicious and completely eliminated the need for sugar, which as it turned out, I was out of as well after using it as a topper for my waffles.

A little while later and completely hopped up on sweets and caffeine, Noah and I decided we were ready to tackle the beast that was moving. Splitting up the job made sense, so I headed upstairs to pack up my bedroom while Noah started on the living room. He had managed to fill half a box with nothing but my CD collection (yes I still listen to those!) when he took one look at Grandma Pearl’s old China cabinet filled to the top with utterly useless and incredibly fragile trinkets I had collected while traveling in my early twenties, and said, “Screw this!”

I peered down over the banister when I heard him. I was just in time to see him throw himself backwards into my couch, which screeched loudly, voicing its dissatisfaction. After turning back to
give the sofa a dirty look, Noah pulled his phone from his pocket and began tapping away at the screen. A moment later I watched as he put the phone to his ear to make a call.

“Hi! You guys do out of state moves? Florida. Cool. Then I’m calling to get an estimate from you guys. Yeah…It’s just a basic one bedroom with living and dining room. No, no breakfast nook or office or anything like that…Uh, let me check. Lucky, you haven’t acquired any patio furniture since you moved, have you?”

I had started walking down the stairs already to see what he was up to when I stopped and leaned over the railing to answer him, “No…what are you doing? Who are you talking to?”

Noah just held up his hand, basically telling me politely to shut up for a minute. Then he continued his conversation on the phone, “That’s a no on the patio. Okay. Walk in with dresser. That’s it? Yeah, let’s do it! Great. As soon as possible. Wednesday at 8am works. Alright, I’ll do that, thanks!”

He hung up.

“Care to explain to me what just happened?” I asked, now standing in the center of my living room.

Noah stood up and clapped his hands together in a celebratory fashion.

“I just made our lives a hundred times easier! Moving company will be here the day after tomorrow to take care of everything!” he announced proudly.

“Noah, don’t you think if I could afford a moving company I would have employed one months ago when I did this the first time around?” It’s not like I didn’t appreciate the gesture, or the sentiment in which it was made.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m paying for it. And before you go crazy thanking me, or as would be more your style – refusing to accept, I did it more for me than you anyway. There’s no way I can go through the mind numbing process of wrapping all your little gizmos in umpteen layers of newspapers again. Once was enough.” He reached out and gently rubbed my upper arms with both of his hands to try and soothe away the tension that was quickly building in my shoulders.

“How are you going to pay for that? You don’t have that kind of money either.” It was hard to remain stern when my upper body was already turning to Jell-O in his hands. To make matters even harder, he leaned in and kissed the top of my head.

“Just let me worry about that, okay? I may have more money than you think.” Then he winked at me and slid his left hand down my arm until he reached my palm and took it into his.

“Now, what do you say we find something a little more enjoyable to do?”

I didn’t even have a chance to answer before he was leading me back up the stairs and to the bed, still a mess of disheveled sheets and blankets from the night before. I glanced at them briefly as Noah began to pull me down toward the mattress and wondered if they’d ever have the chance to lay prim and proper over my bed again. At the rate we were going, it wasn’t likely. Not that I was complaining.

It was nearly evening by the time we finally decided to come out and greet the world again. Since Noah had been nothing if not skeptical of the place, I thought it was high-time I showed him some of the highlights of my temporary residence. There was a fondue place I had heard a lot about from some of my co-workers, but given that it had a certain romantic tone to it, I hadn’t yet ventured out to taste their delicious food. Now seemed like the perfect time to do so. The more I thought about it, the more excited I became. Not just because I had been told that the chocolate fondue dessert was to die for (although I won’t deny that that played its part), but this would mark Noah and I’s first official date. Well, provided one didn’t count our breakfast outing at the diner…or the countless other meals we had shared as friends, which I didn’t.

In honor of the celebration, I pulled out all the stops. Starting with the fact that I sent him downstairs to wait in the living room the moment he was dressed and ready to go. A task that took him all of fifteen minutes while I expected to dedicate at least an hour and a half to my preparations.
Disgruntled by being booted from the room and left to his own devices and possible boredom, Noah shuffled his way down the stairs. I watched him go the entire way and then listened for the TV to go on, just to make sure he didn’t try to sneak back in. Not that I would be engaging in any sort of top secret activities, but the idea of walking out completely transformed for him to ooh and ah over really appealed to me in the moment. I knew this particular scenario would be somewhat hard to accomplish given how long we had lived together previously and the many different occasions and wardrobe changes and hair style make overs Noah had witnessed over the years, but I was going to give it my best shot anyway. Maybe things had changed enough between us for him to see me in a whole new light. How did that song go again? Every time is like the first time? It was a stretch, but then most fantasies are. That’s what makes them so appealing.

The good news was that with no friends and nothing much to do, I had spent a lot of my time in the first few weeks after moving here wandering the halls of the mall. There had been something comforting about the experience. Maybe because no matter where you go or how big or small the mall is, the feeling is the same when you walk in. The hustle and bustle of masses of people moving past you as you try to follow the stream of traffic. The distinct scent of the food court that carries through the open spaces and being greeted by the same storefront banners reminds you that everything can be familiar if you look close enough.

Anyway, while making my countless trips to walk and people watch while still in the comforts of the one thing that reminded me of home, I did a great deal of shopping, too. It seemed sort of futile not to purchase anything the more I walked past the display windows and found tons and tons of amazing new stuff. I realized a little too late that I was really just trying to fill the empty void in my heart with things that lacked the depth required to fill it, but in the meantime, I scored some gorgeous new clothes, some of which would come in handy right now.

I chose a strapless fuchsia dress with an umpire waist. Its lovely structure lent itself nicely to showing off my new and improved body. Exercising had been another way to pass the time. To add a little bit of flash, I tied a silver metallic belt high around my waist line and paired the ensemble with matching silver peep toe heals. I had bought the shoes specifically for this dress just because the sole consisted of a deep pink that matched the hue of the dress completely.

Once I was dressed, I moved on to doing my make-up, which was still as much of a struggle as it ever had been. Determined to make it all come together, I did my best to create a smoky eye job I had seen done in a magazine and added a rose tinted lip balm, mostly because nothing else had survived the move and it was either that or just straight up chapstick.

For my hair I decided to get a little bit more creative. I had seen some of my students wear different variations of the pompadour pony tails and had been tempted for quite some time to give it a go myself. My favorite had entailed a French-braided section on top instead of the traditional pouf and I was fairly confident I’d be able to make that happen. And I was right. I couldn’t feel my arms by the time I was done because they had gone numb from holding them over my head for such an extended period of time, but the result had been more than worth it. My hair looked, well, awesome! With my ears exposed and shoulders bare, I reached for the longest,
dangliest and most sparkly ear rings I owned and hooked them into my lobes. Feeling still lightly unfinished I slid a silver cuff bracelet over my left wrist and added a simple silver ring to my right index finger. Closing my eyes and holding my breath I stumbled a few steps over until I was standing within the general vicinity of my full length mirror. Now there was nothing left to do but look.

I exhaled and peered up at my own reflection. Then I smiled. It had all come together exactly as I had imaged it. In all the years I had planned the perfect ensemble in my head and then tried to apply it to reality
that
had never happened!

After taking several more peeks at myself in the mirror and examining the various angles from which Noah would likely see me throughout the evening, I eventually took a moment and glanced at the clock. I had slightly over-shot my hour and a half and judging from the sounds coming
from my own stomach, it was likely that Noah was starving by now as well. It was just as well really. This way he would have two reasons to be excited to see me.

I grabbed my purse (a fancy black clutch I had scored on sale before I had received my first credit card statement and became aware of my problem) and made my fashionably late entrance down the stairs.

The moment my heels hit the steps they created a quiet clanking sound that slightly echoed as I moved down the stairs. I was just a few steps along when I heard the TV go off and the screeching of the couch which let me know that Noah had stood up.

He was just coming around to meet me when he caught sight of me and stopped in his tracks. His face seemed to transform in slow motion as it went from unexpected to
stunned to the biggest smile I had ever seen him have. He was looking at me the way I had always dreamed a man would look at me someday and it felt better than I could have ever imagined. Noah adored me. And if I ever had a moment of doubt again all I would need to do was look in his eyes. It was all right there. I couldn’t believe I had never seen it before.

“Wow,” he said as he held out his hand for me to take. The moment my palm landed in his, I felt a gentle pressure in my hand as he gripped it with a tender force and led me straight to him until my chest was pressed to his. Our legs intertwined with one another and our lips met in a deep kiss that seemed to reach me at my core, bringing to life emotions I had stuffed away so long ago I had forgotten they even existed. Never had I felt as vulnerable as I did in that moment. And never had I felt so safe at the same time. Against all odds and in spite of every vow I had made to remain in control of myself and my heart always, I had done the unthinkable and given it to Noah. He held all the power in his hands. With my every essence in his grasp to do with as he chose, I clung to him tightly, knowing he would protect what I had given him with everything he had.