Chapter 19
“He was here,” I admitted.
Blaine was glaring down at the phone, before turning up to face me. “When?”
“A few hours ago.”
“Before or after you texted?”
“After…” I whispered loud enough for him to hear.
My mom chose that moment to walk through the door. Her umbrella was already closed up, but she was wearing a coat. I cleared my throat loudly, mostly to catch her attention. She hadn’t noticed Blaine and me standing there.
“Oh, you’re here,” she said, smiling between Blaine and me. “Blaine, it’s good to see you.”
I still couldn’t get used to Blaine and my mom getting along. It was a good thing, but definitely strange to witness.
Blaine had been frowning before my mom arrived. As soon as she spotted us, it was like Blaine had an entire transformation of character. He smiled at her, a small smile, typical for Blaine. He walked towards her and kissed her cheek—strange, but something I had to get used to.
“When did you get back?” my mom asked. She was walking down the hall towards her room, I assumed to dump her things.
“I got here in the morning. You were gone.”
“I was with June,” she replied. June was Alan’s mom, who I hadn’t seen around in a while, not since I’d returned from Russia.
“At her place? Was Alan there?”
I took a seat on the kitchen table because my mom was coming back. She opened the fridge and started taking things out—either she hadn’t eaten or she was going to prepare something because Blaine was there.
“He was there in the morning. He took off with Lara around midday.”
Blaine was standing behind my chair, one of his hands resting on my shoulder. He was tense, which meant he was still upset. I appreciated that he wasn’t trying to argue with me about Vitaly in front of my mom.
“You should sit down, Blaine,” my mom told him.
I turned up to look at him. I felt like he was trying to keep cool. He was definitely still mad at me.
“Actually, can we be excused? Blaine needs me to fill up some things up for the scholarship,” I told her, totally lying.
I knew as soon as I mentioned anything school related, she’d understand. My mom had been extremely supportive all throughout school. Alan was my best friend, and even he thought I wasn’t always in the best of moods when I was concentrated on something. School had been my only priority. My mom had done anything she could to make it easier on me.
“Oh, sure, of course. How are things going?” she asked, looking up at Blaine.
“I’m getting it sorted. Everything should be ready before the fall semester begins,” Blaine told her, giving her another reassuring smile.
It really was no wonder why my mom liked him.
“I’ll call you when the food’s ready,” my mom told me, excusing us.
Blaine looked uncomfortable or mad walking with me towards my room. “She doesn’t mind, you know,” I told him.
“I do. I don’t want her to feel like I’m disrespecting her home, or that I’m trying to take advantage of her trust,” he said.
I shook my head at him. Once we made it to my room, Blaine made sure to leave the door wide open.
“You don’t want my mom to feel like that, but you don’t think she’ll assume other stuff every time I sleep over at your apartment?”
“It’s different,” Blaine said. It wasn’t, but he didn’t see it that way.
I offered him a chair, but Blaine shook his head. “You could at least sit down.”
“Why was Vitaly here?” He kept his voice quiet. My guess was that he wanted to know, but he didn’t want my mom to hear us arguing.
“He wanted to make sure I was okay. Vitaly thought you might take it out on me,” I replied.
“He thought I was going to hurt you?” Blaine asked, looking both shocked and upset. “For fucks sake, Madeline!”
He raised his voice, my mom heard him, and she came to check up on us. All she found was Blaine standing by the door—door wide open, very parent approved—and me sitting in front of my computer, facing him.
“Sorry about that. I think I surprised Blaine,” I told my mom, waving her off.
My mom looked between Blaine and me, cocking an eyebrow. I felt like we were both teenagers in high school, and my mom was being the worried parent, making sure we weren’t doing anything bad.
My mom had hardly ever babysat me. Her long hours at work had forced me to handle myself a lot younger than other people around me. That and how nerdy I was all throughout middle school and high school. She trusted me, mainly because I had never given her any reason not to.
“I apologize. Madeline is…” Blaine said.
My mom waited for him to continue. When I laughed, she just rolled her eyes at me and finally walked away.
“She just wants to know that we’re good. You don’t have to get all serious,” I told Blaine.
“We should go to my apartment,” he said.
“I already told you that-”
“Not that one. I meant the one down the hall,” Blaine interrupted.
“We’ll start arguing as soon as we’re alone.”
“I deserve an explanation,” Blaine stated.
I sighed, and looked down at my lap. Maybe he did. I tried to put myself in his shoes. I would have questions if he was hanging out with someone I didn’t like. But I didn’t want to start fighting with him.
“My mom is going to expect us to come back to eat,” I told him.
“That’s fine,” he said.
I wasn’t ready to tell my mom that Blaine had gotten an apartment down the hall from us. I wasn’t sure how she was going to take it.
I ended up telling her that Blaine and I were going to the store—to call when the food was ready. Lying was so not the way to go. She ended up giving me a list of things that we needed at our place.
As soon as we stepped out into the hall, Trevor was waiting for us. “Bring it to my apartment,” Blaine told him, handing over the list my mom had given me.
“I feel bad for him,” I said, looking at Trevor walk away.
“Why? It’s his job,” Blaine said, looking at me like I was weird for even thinking about it.
“You’re so… you,” I told him, shaking my head.
Even angry Blaine wasn’t angry enough to want to be away from me. I definitely liked that. The walk to his apartment was short, but he still took my hand in his and led the way.
The apartment had a similar setting to ours. It was small—the living room at the entrance, open kitchen to the side, a hallway that had a room on one side and one to the other. The only bathroom in the apartment was down the hall, just like in ours.
Having money, though, really made a difference. The apartment was the same, sure, but Blaine’s place looked sleeker—elegant but simple.
“Here,” he said, handing me a key ring with several keys as soon as he closed the front door. “It’s for this apartment and the one in the city.”
I looked at him with wide eyes. I was definitely not expecting that. I thought that as soon as Blaine closed the door, the shouting would start.
“You need the password for the elevator, but the keys open several rooms,” he said, talking about his apartment in the city.
“We’re also not going to discuss this?” I asked, dangling the keys in front of my eyes.
“Did you think I would hurt you?” Blaine asked instead, going back to the conversation we’d been having in my room.
“No. I thought you were going to dump me,” I told him.
He took a step back, and narrowed his eyes. “Why would you think that?”
“I don’t know, Blaine. With you, I don’t know what to expect. Sometimes you are so sweet and lovely, I feel like I want to spend all day kissing you. Then you disappear or don’t text for an hour, and I have no idea what to think,” I said. I definitely hadn’t let go that he’d taken forever and a day to text back.
“I don’t want you to think like that,” Blaine said, frowning.
“Sure, because it’s that easy. Let me just tell myself that you said not to think like that, and I’ll turn off my thoughts.”
Blaine glared. “You could have told me he was here.”
“I just want you to keep in mind that both times I have seen Vitaly, he’s the one that looks me up.”
“I know that.”
“I guess you do, but you don’t seem to have it clear enough. I don’t look for him, Blaine. He comes to me. What am I supposed to do?”
“How about tell me that he’s here, and I can take care of it,” Blaine said, as if his solution was the easiest thing in the world.
“And then you and Vitaly start fighting because of me.”
“Vitaly shouldn’t be stalking you.”
“He is worried. I was worried about him too. I’m happy that he is doing fine.”
My words ticked Blaine off. That wasn’t what he wanted to hear. I didn’t know why he was still asking me about Vitaly if he knew what my answers would be.
“We are going to Justine’s dinner party this Saturday,” Blaine announced, abruptly.
“Umm….”
“Do you want to find a dress or would you like me to have someone find a dress for you?”
“Blaine…”
He kept doing that. We were jumping from topic to topic, and I wasn’t sure he was ever satisfied with my answers.
“Why are we talking about this right now?”
“Will you pick your dress or do you want me to have someone pick it for you?” he repeated, completely ignoring me.
“I thought you didn’t want to go,” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. I had no idea how we went from talking about Vitaly, to dresses and Justine’s birthday party.
“I didn’t, I don’t,” he replied, defensively.
“So why are you talking about it now?”
“A lot of people attend these dinners.”
“Okay…” I muttered, not sure what else to tell him.
“You pick it or someone picks it for you?”
“Blaine, I don’t even think we should be talking about this right now. What happened to being mad about Vitaly?”
“Do you want me to be mad?”
“Are you?” I asked, taking a few steps toward him.
Blaine closed the distance between us, and wrapped his arms around me. “I want you to tell me when Vitaly approaches you.”
“Blaine, I don’t want you two to fight,” I told him, snuggling against his chest.
“We won’t, at least you won’t be seeing that from me. I simply want to know when he comes. What if he tries to take you out of the country again? I have every reason to be worried.”
“Fair enough,” I said. The conversation felt far from over, but Blaine started showing me around the apartment after that. It was his way of saying that our conversation was done.
The entire place was mostly bare. He had just moved in. One of the two rooms was his, and the other was used as an office.
“Vitaly keeps coming back because he wants you,” Blaine said, suddenly.
“The way you keep changing the subject and bringing up topics all of a sudden—what do you want me to say?”
“I wanted to let you know the real reason he’s here.”
“Okay, now I know.”
“Good,” he snapped. I just rolled my eyes at him.
We had been in his office. I was sitting on his desk, my legs dangling to the side of where Blaine was sitting on his chair. He tried to pull me closer, but I shoved him away.
“Are we good? I don’t even know now,” I told him.
We weren’t really talking. I mean, we were talking, but I felt like we weren’t saying what we had to say to each other.
“I didn’t know that we weren’t,” Blaine said, looking amused.
“So you’re not mad that Vitaly came over?”
“I am mad that he is trying to be alone with my girlfriend. I am mad that my girlfriend feels the need to keep those things from me. But I’m happy that you texted me after he left. You were thinking about me. That makes up for some of it,” Blaine said, smirking at me.
This time when he pulled me into his arms, encasing me, I welcomed his embrace. “You’re still wet,” I told him. “Isn’t the suit uncomfortable?”
“I’m going to change before we eat,” he replied, settling me on his lap. My hands were resting on his shoulders, and his were holding onto my backside. It was a comfortable position.
“Alexander won’t mind that you’re spending all your time here?” I asked.
“I’ll come and go every day for the rest of the week,” he explained. “I might get back here late every day. It’s a long drive, and I do have a lot of work to do.”
“I know,” I told him, running my hands through his hair, softly massaging his head.
I had just pressed my lips against his when someone knocked on the front door.
“That must be Trevor,” Blaine said against my lips, but he continued kissing me.
I giggled, tightened my arms around his neck, before pulling away. “We should go. The food is probably ready,” I told him.
“I haven’t had time with you today,” Blaine complained, nestling his head against my neck. “I missed you.” He was peppering kisses all over my skin, tickling me. I couldn’t complain though. I was enjoying every second of it.
“I love when you’re sweet,” I told him, biting his neck playfully.
Blaine pulled away and looked at me with curious eyes. “That’s all that you love?”
I grinned at him and raised an eyebrow. “I love you,” I told him, leaning in to kiss him once again. Being on his arms was my haven. He tightened his hold on me, and pressed me flush against his chest. I could’ve stayed like that, cuddled up in his arms.
We kept Trevor waiting a few minutes longer. I felt bad, but he didn’t complain. He handed the bags over to us and then walked away.
“You don’t mind coming over, right?” I asked Blaine. His arm was around my waist. He was happy now. Blaine was cuddlier when he was content.
“Your mom is entertaining. I’m just happy she welcomes me with open arms after everything that has happened,” he said.
“She thinks you’re a good guy,” I told him, tugging on the collar of the polo shirt he was wearing.
He had changed into something that he considered more casual. Slacks and a polo weren’t exactly what I would call casual, but I didn’t argue with him. He looked great. That and Blaine never cared for how terribly underdressed I was most of the time.
After eating, Blaine took off. My mom assumed that Blaine was going back to the city. I was waiting for him to be gone before approaching my mom. She had retired to her room right after she was done eating. I knew it was because she wanted to give Blaine and I some alone time.
“Hey, can I come in,” I told her.
My mom was opening letters on the bed, and she had a notepad in her hand. Her glasses were on the edge of her nose. She looked funny, as always. She looked way too young to be wearing glasses that way. I always teased her about it, but she just laughed it off.
“Come on, help me with this,” she said, handing me a stack of unopened letters. “I haven’t sorted these out. Dump the important ones in this bin, and the ones you think we don’t need in this one.”
I already knew the process. That was how she divided important mail and trash—yet she never wanted to get rid of either.
“Is it cool that Blaine came to eat?”
“You know that it is.”
“Cool,” I nodded.
I stayed quiet, just helping her sort out the letters. My mom was looking at me expectantly, but I tried to avoid looking up at her.
“Is something wrong?” she asked. I’d gotten her attention. She pushed her glasses on top of her head, and pushed her hair to the side.
I was sitting on her bed, with my legs crossed and a stack of letters on my lap. “Nope, just asking,” I said, as casually as possible.
My mom raised her eyebrows, but laughed it off. “I prefer when you two stick around the house. I like knowing what you’re up to. How was the sleepover?”
“It was relaxing, for the most part. Blaine worked late. He usually does,” I shrugged.
“He’s a busy guy,” my mom said.
“I know.”
“You don’t look too happy about it,” my mom told me.
I shrugged again. “It’s kind of what I wanted to talk to you about,” I told her, feeling the nerves surfacing full force.
“Oh, okay. What is it?”
“You really don’t mind that I go stay with him? I mean, it’s not like this is something we talked about. I guess it was easy for me to decide that it was okay. I mean, after the time I spent with him in Russia. I mean, we don’t do anything you need to worry about,” I mumbled, incoherently.
My mom looked amused. She was smiling teasingly. “Do I mind? Only a little,” she replied, nodding. “I like that you tell me where you are, but I trust you. You take care of yourself well. Where would I be if you didn’t,” my mom said, and all of a sudden, she was tearing up.
Somehow we ended up talking about our life before Blaine came into it. My mom told me about a thousand times that she was proud of me. And I felt like the reason I could get away with so many things was because I’d behaved for so long, my mom probably thought there was something wrong with me.
“You’re acting your age, nothing wrong with that. I’m happy—Blaine is a good boy,” my mom finally said.
“Blaine got an apartment down the hall… like super close down the hall,” I quickly said.
My mom was shocked for a few seconds, before nodding and looking down at the yellow notepad in her hands. “Okay,” she slowly said, under her breath.
“Okay?” I asked.
“I’m still trying to process what you just told me, Maddy. Give me a second to breathe,” my mom replied.
“Oh, right, sorry.”
The way her expression had changed—I couldn’t tell what she was thinking.
“The sleepovers, the road trip, the way he looks at you,” my mom said, cocking an eyebrow. “So this is serious—serious, serious?” my mom asked.
And she had me there. I didn’t know what to tell her.
After that, I tried to reassure her as best as I could. The way I talked, she had to know how I felt about Blaine. To me, it was so obvious I was crazy about him. I focused on that. It was easier than to think about how Blaine felt.
That was where we left the conversation.
When I went to bed that night, I couldn’t stop thinking about Blaine. He was right there, so close to me. I was tempted to go to him. Before going to bed, he had texted and invited me to sleep over if I wanted. I turned down the offer. I really wanted to go, but I didn’t want for my mom to think I was going to be coming and going without taking into account her opinion.
After tossing and turning for an hour, I finally got up. I grabbed a jacket, the key ring Blaine had given me, and quietly walked out of my room. I felt like I was committing a crime by sneaking out.
I made it to his apartment without anyone catching me. I wasn’t sure why I felt like my mom, Alan, Yurik, or Vitaly would suddenly appear and chastise me for sneaking out to see Blaine.
I slipped in the key and quietly made my way into his apartment.
I took off my jacket and dumped it over one of the black leather couches. I definitely was not a fan of those. His apartment was cold. Even while wearing a pair of long pajama pants I felt cold—the tank top was probably not much help.
I expected for Blaine to be sleeping. He wasn’t. The light in his room-turned-office was turned on and I could hear him typing on his laptop.
That was where I found him. He was concentrated on his laptop, his forehead creased. I had no idea what he was working on but it must’ve been important. He wasn’t wearing a shirt. Just looking at him, it made me tingly all over.
“Isn’t it a little late?” I asked him.
Blaine didn’t even jump in surprise. He turned up to look at me, and smiled.
“You’re here,” he smoothly said.
I walked over to him. He was already pulling out his chair, I assumed so that I could join him. I smiled and climbed onto his lap. “I’m sleepy,” I told him. And I was. I was comfortable in his arms. He was warm, and his skin felt good against mine.
“It’s late,” Blaine agreed, looking at his watch. He was still wearing it—the one he always had with him. He only took it off to sleep, and always left it near him. “Come on. I should get some sleep too. I have to be up early tomorrow to make the trip into the city.”
Blaine picked me up in his arms and carried me over to his room. He was snuggling his face against my neck, kissing me lightly. I definitely liked that.
Blaine placed me over the bed and got in right next to me.
“Good night,” he said, snuggling himself against my back.
Blaine squeezed my waist, and lightly pushed me on my back. He was looking down at me expectantly. I stared back at him, waiting for him to say something. He never did.
“Good night,” I replied, finally.
Blaine nodded, and then continued to stare.
“I love you,” I whispered, and pulled myself up to kiss his lips.
When I pulled away from him, Blaine nodded, and finally let me go back to the position we had been in before. He was spooning me, and his arm was wrapped around my waist, pressing my back comfortably against his chest.
Convincing Alan to stay cool about Blaine’s apartment was the hardest thing of all. He was not happy. He thought Blaine just wanted to contaminate my life and keep everyone out, and that was why he was trying to be everywhere.
I just told Alan that he was jealous. Alan admitted to being jealous, but he still didn’t like how quick things were moving. We had been in the middle of talking about it when Lara and some of Alan’s friends arrived at my place to hang out.
Alan asked them about it, and they all thought Blaine and I were moving too fast. Lara just looked at me and then at Alan, and shook her head.
“Some guys move too fast and some move too slow,” Lara said.
Alan blushed at her words, while his friends all started making fun of him. I assumed it was around the time I realized that something was going on between Lara and Alan, which was weird. Up until that moment, I thought that Lara had been Alan’s most stable girlfriend.
“Our relationship has nothing to do with what’s going on with Maddy. Blaine is a paranoid billionaire. The dudes got money, and that makes it easier to put you in a bubble,” Alan said to me.
“I like being in a bubble,” I admitted.
Alan just rolled his eyes. “You would.”
And I did. Given, there were things that I didn’t like, but for the most part, I liked how things were going.
I liked that I could say how I felt with Blaine. He didn’t necessarily understand, but he still listened. I liked that he was now prioritizing me. Even if a part of me was a little freaked out about the apartment, I liked that he had thought about it all on his own. He wanted me to be there. For a guy who was scared of commitment, he was really committed to me. I couldn’t complain.
The complaining came Saturday morning. Blaine definitely wanted to attend Justine’s birthday dinner party thing—whatever it was. I thought he was going to forget about it, but he had no intentions of doing so.
He woke me up at eight in the morning. He had already talked to my mom, who had been happy with how much time Blaine was spending at our place. My mom had assumed that Blaine getting his apartment so closer meant that I was going to be holed up in his place the entire time. That hadn’t been the case, and my mom was happy with that.
I was going to leave with him for the weekend. It was a deal breaker to what we had agreed on. All Blaine said was that we would decide something else later on.
Since he wanted me to go to the dinner and it was going to be an extremely fancy thing—I had to get a dress. He was driving us to his apartment and I was going to pick a dress from the ones he’d already previously selected.
“How did you narrow down the choices?” I asked him on the way back. It was a long drive. I was sleepy and grumpy, but also curious.
“I had someone show me several gowns. I picked the ones I liked the most.”
“When?” I asked, feeling slightly suspicious with his answer. He was always working. I was wondering when he snuck time in to go to the mall, or wherever he’d gotten the dresses.
“I paid someone to show me the dresses while I was at work. He was very helpful,” Blaine said, emphasizing the ‘he’ part. I wasn’t necessarily asking, but I didn’t mind that he shared.
“So how many are they?”
“I picked ten, but I’m returning the ones you don’t use.”
“Cool,” I told him.
That was the end of that conversation until we reached his apartment. There was people there—several of them. I was thrown off, but Blaine was already giving orders.
“I’m not sure what she wants. I have work to do. Talk to Madeline about it,” he said to them.
Blaine took my hand and pulled me towards his room. Once we were there, he closed the door and lightly pushed me against it.
“If you don’t want anyone to help you get ready, it’s fine. Someone at work thought you might want some help. I’m fine with whatever you decide.”
“What are they doing here? Who are those people?” I was still a little confused. Some of them were carrying shoes, and others had beauty products in their hands.
“I wanted to give you something like a special day for you?” Blaine said, sounding extremely uncomfortable. “I don’t know if you will like it. I’ve never really done this before. I don’t know what you want. If you don’t want them, I can have them out of the apartment.”
“No, it’s fine. Isn’t it a little early to be getting ready, though?” I asked.
I appreciated that he’d thought about it. Even Blaine looking uncomfortable was cute.
“They are only here to help you pick out what you want. You can also choose the dress right now. They will be back later in the day. We would’ve done this earlier, but you didn’t want to come to the city,” he reminded me.
I smiled, and reached out to kiss him. Blaine wrapped his arms around me and pulled me closer, his hands sliding down my back.
“I love you,” I whispered against his lips. Blaine smiled down at me, and brushed his lips against mine.
“You should go. They’re waiting for you,” he said, squeezing my waist once again.
The next two hours were a crazy blur. The people Blaine had hired were only supposed to stay for half an hour, an hour at most. I was only going to pick my dress, the make-up, and the hairstyle that I wanted.
But Blaine had hired five people to do only those three things. I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to do with five people. It was like I had my own little crew to pretty me up for a night—a night I hadn’t thought was such a big deal.
They had set up camp in the spacious living room. I wasn’t sure if they had brought the two tables, or Blaine had set that up for them. He had locked himself up in his office, and stayed there the entire time.
One of tables, for sure, had been set up Blaine’s people. The table was filled with drinks and snacks, all expensive stuff. The other table had all of their things—organized, looking fancy and nice.
It took me about three seconds to pick out the make-up—I wanted it as natural as I could keep it. It turned out that there was a long process in order to get a “natural look”, whatever that meant. The little entourage included two girls and three guys, different ages, but all dressed very posh.
Picking out the dress was difficult. It wasn’t because I was struggling. The gowns were all beautiful. Blaine had good taste.
At first, I’d been all set on the silver, floor-length gown—it dipped down my lower back, it had some cleavage but kept it classy, and had dainty crystals on the straps and cleavage area. It was stunning.
It was the look of awe my helpers were giving me that got me curious. I almost had a heart attack when one of them shared that all of those dresses were well over ten thousand dollars.
From there, it skipped to the topic of Blaine, his brother, Justine, and the Hale family in general. It was both entertaining and annoying.
When they finally left, I still hadn’t chosen a dress, heels, or my hairstyle. I’d only picked the make-up, which was probably the least important thing.
I was sitting on Blaine’s comfortable sectional sofa, staring at the ten dresses hanging from racks—the way they’d been set up on display for me to view them. That was where Blaine found me. He had left his office as soon as everyone was out of the door.
Blaine had changed into some sweatpants and a white t-shirt. He walked over and sat beside me, intertwining his hand with mine.
“You didn’t pick a dress?” he asked.
One of the guys was supposed to take the other nine as soon as I picked the one I wanted. Same thing went for the twenty pairs of heels all neatly set up on the floor, in front of the dresses. Much like the gowns, the heels were all priced seven hundred and up.
“Did you like them all?” Blaine asked. “You can keep them. We can have someone come tailor them for you. I guessed your size.”
I was still in shock with the prize, and Blaine talking so casually about those expensive gowns was making me feel weird.
I rested my back on the couch, and closed my eyes. “They are so expensive,” I said.
Blaine stayed quiet.
“All of them. Even the heels,” I said, pointing down at them.
“You don’t like them?” Blaine asked.
I sighed, and shook my head at him. He didn’t understand where I was coming from. I could see the confused look in his eyes. “It’s not about that, Blaine. The gowns are beautiful.”
“You like them but you think they are too expensive?”
Blaine had been looking at me. After I nodded, he turned towards the dresses, looking thoughtful. “If you don’t pick one, what will you wear?”
I had no idea. I didn’t tell him, though. I simply shrugged and looked away from his gaze.
Blaine sighed loudly, and then wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer to his side. “You can wear whatever you want. You can take jeans and a t-shirt. I won’t mind. But every girl in that place is going to be wearing a gown—one as expensive, maybe by more or less. It’s your call,” he said, before placing a kiss on my cheek, and getting up to leave.
He was letting me choose. I knew that if I got there wearing jeans and a t-shirt, something I was obviously not going to do, I was going to feel uncomfortable and out of place. I already felt out of place as it was.
But the gowns were too much. It was all too much—the people that Blaine paid to help me, the accessories, the make-up, and the shoes.
I stared at it all feeling weird.
I hadn’t realized that I spent almost an hour just looking around. Blaine came out of his office again—I assumed that was where he ran off to after talking to me—and stood in front of the dresses, gazing at them.
“How about I call everything off and we go out to dinner instead,” Blaine offered, turning to face me.
His hands were in his pockets. His hair was disheveled, like he’d been running his hands through it. There was no doubt he had been doing work—on a Saturday. That was his life, and what it took to run such a massive empire. I shook those thoughts away.
“You would do that?”
“I didn’t think this was going to be—a big deal to you?” Blaine asked, sounding unsure.
“You’re way rich,” I stated. It was not the first time I had done that.
“I am,” Blaine nodded.
“It really is intimidating,” I admitted. “I’m not used to it. I think the most expensive dress I’ve bought was nearly a hundred dollars. I have that dress. It’s my go to dress for fancy stuff because the day I bought it, I cringed all throughout the transaction. That felt like too much. Imagine how a ten thousand dollar dress makes me feel. That’s like someone’s income right there. Some of this stuff…” I mumbled.
Blaine smiled at me. “Okay, we have to ease into it.”
“Yeah, because that’ll help.”
“The money I have—it’s not going to go away, Madeline. If I told you right now how much I made every day, every hour—probably sharing how much I make every minute would scare you. This is something you have to get used to.”
I closed my eyes and threw my arm over them to cover myself up. I didn’t even want to think about it. I felt stupid for making such a big deal about it. But it was something that was there, bugging me.
I was poor, middle class at most. Blaine was way past just being rich. Every time I did something with him, like a dinner party—I’d always have to use his money to buy what I would wear. If Blaine and I were going to eat somewhere, there was never a chance for us to split the bill because I’d never be able to afford it. If I ever wanted to buy a present for Blaine, I wouldn’t know what to get him. He had everything. What he didn’t have, he could afford and I couldn’t.
“Madeline,” Blaine said, pulling my arm away. He cupped my cheek and made me face him. “Don’t think about this.”
“You don’t know what I’m thinking about,” I said, snappily.
“You’re thinking about money,” he said, flatly.
“I’m thinking about your money,” I clarified.
“What can I do?”
“Be poor?” I suggested, and Blaine laughed. It was a light, cheery laugh, and it made me smile.
“Come on,” he said, getting up and holding out his hand for me to take.
“Where are we going?” I asked. I got up either way, and took his hand.
“To change into something else, and then we’re going out. There are still a few hours for the dinner.”
I was wearing black skinny jeans and a gray printed shirt. Blaine told me I was fine with what I was wearing. I thought he was going to put on a suit, which would’ve been a total bummer. He looked great in track pants.
I was happy when he came out wearing dark denims and a simple white shirt. It was very unlike Blaine. It wasn’t the first time I saw him wearing jeans, but it had been a while.
“So it’s casual for today,” I said, and Blaine just shrugged.
“We’re going to my father’s house. There’s no need to dress up.”
At the mention of his father, the smile wiped from my lips and the nerves started bubbling up inside. “Why are we going there?”
“I want to show you something,” Blaine replied.
All the way to his father’s home, I was a nervous mess in my seat. Blaine kept telling me to calm down, that it was going to be okay, and that no one would tell me anything.
He was wrong. I knew at least one person who was going to say something—Justine. I had no idea how it was possible for me to dislike her so much after meeting her just once. Well, I had a fairly good idea—she had kissed Blaine. But I still felt like I disliked her more than what was normal.
Blaine was driving fast. He almost looked excited. I wanted to see what it was that he was so anxious to show me. I had a bad feeling about it.
When we arrived, I realized that Blaine had not been kidding when he’d told me calling the celebration a ‘dinner’ was an understatement. There were a lot of people walking in and out of the house. Even on the small road that led to their home, we saw cars coming and going.
“Justine’s birthday is an event,” Blaine explained, shaking his head.
I raised an eyebrow, agreed with him from what I was seeing and kept my real thoughts to myself.
“Why did you change your mind about coming?” I asked, wishing he had stuck to that idea.
“I don’t enjoy these things. Justine likes the attention. She will have all kinds of people here—the kind that care too much about my family’s life, enough to post about it on some magazine or newspaper.”
“I thought you told me not to listen to everything they said,” I told him, narrowing my eyes.
“What can they say if I’m walking around with my girlfriend? It’ll be the first time they get a good picture of someone on my arm.”
“You want them to know? Weren’t you the one who said those things were toxic?”
“Sometimes they’re a necessary evil. With any luck, Vitaly reads the morning paper,” Blaine said, before getting out of the car.
The situation was worse when we walked inside the huge home. There was a lot more people. Some lady was giving orders and complaining about flower arrangements. One look at her, and I knew who she was—Eleanor Hale, Blaine’s step-mother.
Her eyes landed on Blaine first. She gave him a huge smile, her blue eyes lighting up when she saw him. She looked genuinely happy to see him. It took her a moment to notice that Blaine’s hand was attached to someone—me. That smile quickly morphed into something else. Her face reminded me a lot of the way Justine had looked at me the last time I had been there.
Right at that moment, I wanted to punch Blaine for taking me there. I felt inadequate and the party hadn’t even started. Whatever Blaine wanted to show me, I was telling myself that he had better make it worth.
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