The man looks at me oddly and raises his hand. “You must be Noelle Maven.”
I smile and shake his hand. I was taken aback by his grip. “Yes, but please call me Elle. Nobody calls me Noelle.”
The man nods his head. “I’m Thomas Winters. I’ll be driving you to Mr. Cain’s residence today. Do you need any more time to get ready?”
I wave my head. “All ready.”
“I can help you with your bags.” He says, pointing at my duffle bag on the floor beside the door.
“That’s actually everything.”
He smiles at me again. “You pack light. Nice.”
The driver throws my duffle bag in the trunk of a black Escalade and removes his leather gloves. I have never seen an Escalade in person before, and it’s a pretty hot SUV. It’s not your everyday family vehicle. It looks like it would cost three times the amount of my home, when it wasn’t burnt to the ground.
The thought reminds me of my parents. I sigh heavily. I ask the driver if we could make one stop before we leave town and give him my home address. I sit in the back of the Escalade. It has tinted windows and a beautiful white leather interior. A tinted window blocks the driver’s view from me. I already feel like a queen.
A few rock glasses are arranged in front of a decanter of what looks like whiskey. I wonder how many important business meetings Arthur Cain went to in this car while downing a whiskey neat. A part of me wants to pour a drink just to get an idea of what it would be like for a moment to be him.
I look out the dark windows and smile at the dirty streets that we pass by. A murder took place on one of the streets we passed last year. We pass a playground that looks run down and broken. A swing is missing, and the slide looks like it would cave if you tried to use it.
This could be the last time I see some of these shitty streets. The thought makes me smile. The streets start to become less and less dirty as we make our way through the downtown core. In a wink it seems like you can go from guys in suits buying lattes to guys in jogging pants buying smack.
I look ahead and notice Candice walking down the street. She’s still wearing her... business attire, attracting some of the latte drinking businessmen as she walks by. She must be ending a late night of work and going home. Part of me wants to have the driver honk the horn or something. I remember what Candice said the day before.
I decide right there that she’s right. Don’t look back. Only look forward.
I look around for a button to lower the window between me and the driver but can’t for the life of me figure out where it is. I always see in the movies there’s a way to talk to the driver guy but now that it’s me, I have no clue what I’m frigging doing. I lean over and knock on the glass between us.
The driver lowers the window. “Can I help you Elle?”
“Yes, sorry for bothering you Mr. Winters, but-”
“Call me Thomas, please.”
I try not to be taken aback by a grown man asking me to call him Thomas instead of Tom, or something less boyish. “Sorry, Thomas, can we not go to the address I gave you before? I’d like to go straight to Arthur Cain’s home please.”
Chapter 5
It doesn’t take long to get to the town of Ryland. Unlike the city where you could go from a ghetto to a business sector, out here, the houses just get bigger and bigger, with the distance between them getting longer as we drive. I wonder if rich people consider the small homes on the blocks as ghetto.
Suddenly it feels like there are no homes in sight, as if we’re back in some county full of vacant land, until the driver turns down a long-paved road. After a few moments we pass through an open gate. Some distance ahead I spot a large brick home. The large trees on both sides of the paved road make the ginormous home look somehow tiny. That is until the leafy landscaping ends and all that’s left is the mansion in front of us. It looks like the size of my high school in the city, but much, much nicer. The paved road circles around a large marble fountain. The fountain shoots water up and around marble statues of half naked women wearing crowns.
The Escalade stops in front of the front entrance, and Thomas gets out and opens my door. I take a few steps out, and feel like I’m in a different world, one where I don’t belong. I take a few steps forward and am reluctant to keep moving. I try to imagine how I look right now. Jeans and a white tank top, really? I didn’t exactly have nice clothes to wear that weren’t destroyed by the fire, but I should have managed to find something better to meet a man like Arthur Cain.
I should have just asked Candice for some of her clothes. I was worried all she would have were clothes that yell fuck me. Not exactly a great first impression. Not that my skimpy white tank top gives a less bad first impression.
It was all the stupid motel clerk’s fault for not waking me.
Thomas walks up to me with my duffle bag, waiting for me to move. I look at him as if I have no clue what I’m supposed to do next. How do you walk again?
“Mr. Cain is waiting for you inside.” Thomas says, waving me towards the front door. “I’ll bring your belongings to
