The Mischievous Mrs. Maxfield

Chapter Eighteen: Swimming With Sharks

I didn’t really have a set of high school friends, and Aimee, who was pretty much my bestfriend/big sister, had her plate full working as a nurse and being a single mother. 

The few times I went to the beach in my entire life, it was mostly with a practical purpose. I never got to just frolic along the shore, barefoot, my face lifted to the sun, smiling and laughing.

But that weekend with Brandon, I got to do all of that and more. 

We made our meals together, cuddled by the living room in the evenings, talked the time away, made slow sweet love well into the night, and did it all over again the next day. He'd used some extra protection, saying that the pill wasn't reliable at all in the first week or so, but that he'd been too far gone to care that first time we made love.

The possibility of having a baby stumped me at first, but Brandon just smiled and kissed me, saying that as much as he'd love to see little Charlottes and Brandons, he would prefer if we waited. 

"I want you to see the world first," he said. "Live and enjoy the life you're long overdue to have. We have a lifetime ahead of us, love, and you're still very young. We can have babies later."

"But what if I got pregnant?" I squeaked, worried that the decision might already be out of our hands because I was naive.

"Then we'll have the baby and we'll see the world and enjoy life together—the three of us. I'm ready whenever it's meant to happen. Fortunately, we have the luxury of living comfortably even while starting a family. I'm mostly just thinking about you."

The thought of a family with Brandon warmed me all over and yes, I would love to, but he was right. 

I wasn't ready quite yet. 

I had a lot of growing up to do first, despite the fact that I already felt too old for my years. 

I had no parenting skills except for the base knowledge that I should do anything but what my own parents did. 

I still also wanted to make something of myself. Nothing big—just something I could proudly claim as an accomplishment that meant something.

With those doubts smoothened out of the way, the rest of our stay had been pure heaven. 

When Sunday came, it was tough to summon the will to leave our paradise and head back to the city the next morning. 

At least, it’s not like you’re leaving behind a weekend of passionate, reckless abandon. You’re returning from that moment in time to a reality that has been altered to match what was only once your secret fantasy.

Brandon and I didn’t just escape to indulge ourselves away from any reminders of our situation—to go where we could pretend that we had more than just our arrangement. 

We went away to where we could lay bare our hearts and souls. 

We were returning to make the lie into the truth. 

I was free to know that what we had was ours, and not just merely borrowed moments. 

“It looks like you’ve been sorely missed,” Brandon remarked dryly as he pulled into the driveway in front of the entrance to Grand Hills.

There were a handful of paps loitering around on the sidewalk, keeping a good distance from the front doors where the building security banned them.

I rolled the windows down and grinned at some of the paps who started taking their cameras out at our arrival. 

Familiar faces smiled back at me.

"Hey, you guys!" I greeted them as I stepped out of the car just as the valet came over to help Brandon. "Were you planning on hanging out around here all day to wait for me? Or has some other more famous celebrity moved into the building while we were away?"