But I wasn’t invisible with Ezra. He saw me. And I was enough for him.
I couldn’t speak or reply or even think straight. Words sat on the tip of my tongue that I didn’t think I was ready to say yet. I felt them. I felt them all the way to my bones. Ezra had been this life-changing event that had shaken up everything I’d convinced myself that I knew about the world, dating, and men.
He didn’t come into my life gradually or delicately. He swept in like a wildfire, consuming every single thought and word and thing until there was only him and me and it was like we were always supposed to be this way.
“Thank you,” I told him. Those simple words containing so much raw emotion that I could barely even whisper them.
He brushed his thumb over my bottom lip as he stared at my face, looking for the words I couldn’t or wouldn’t say. “I’m taking you back to my place,” he said gruffly. “Yeah?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“I just need to grab some things.”
“Okay.”
Before he let go of me, he bent down and kissed my forehead. His lips were warm and soft, and so perfectly gentle that tears flooded my eyes again. “It’s going to be okay, Molly. You’re going to be okay.”
He let go of me for just a minute to gather his computer and phone, and I was left reeling with wonder that I believed him. I had no idea what I was going to do tomorrow or the next day, or if I even still had a job. Or if I wanted that job. But I had Ezra and this new sense of inner strength that I couldn’t seem to scare away.
I was still shy. I was still meek in some instances. But I had this deep sense of worth too. My life plans could change, maybe I really would have to resort to busking portraits to pay the rent, but I was still me. I still had all the things that made me Molly.
And I had Ezra too. Despite how I felt about us before, about past relationships in general, or anything else, I realized I wasn’t going to lose this man easily. He wasn’t going anywhere, and I wasn’t in any hurry to make him leave.
“Ride with me?” he asked as we walked out the back door of Bianca, not really waiting for an answer. His Alfa Romeo glistened in the twilight, looking pretty in the golden light. A spring breeze danced over my skin, and the air smelled like budding flowers and freshly cut glass.
I had just had to face one of the ugliest moments of my adult life. Yet, holding Ezra’s hand in the employee parking lot of Bianca made today feel oddly like one of the most profoundly beautiful days of that same life. It was a strange dichotomy that I had trouble reconciling. I had to admit it had everything to do with this man next to me.
There were so many bad people in the world, so many people that would rather hurt and harm and crush. But the good people were the ones that made life worth living, that made searching for them worth every bad relationship and heartache, worth the pain, suffering and potential heartache of finding them. I would never want to relive any of the bad dates or guys or lonely nights that I had been through before Ezra. But I also wouldn’t give them up either. They led me to him. And that was all that mattered.
He held the door open for me and I climbed into his fancy sports car feeling more at home than anywhere else in my life. We listened to good music and talked carefully about things that weren’t important. He held my hand whenever he didn’t need it to shift.
By the time we reached his apartment building, my chest felt less pinched and my eyes were completely dry. He parked in an adjacent lot and then led me into a renovated turn of the century industrial building.
I had been expecting sleek and modern, simple lines and smooth surfaces. Instead, his fourth-floor apartment was all exposed brick walls and insanely high ceilings. The only thing that screamed modern was the kitchen with its cement countertops and floating shelves. The appliances were all shiny stainless steel and state of the art.
But the rest of the apartment? Surprisingly warm and masculine, but not overly so. His bedroom was an elevated loft with a cedar and iron staircase. The rest of the main floor was a mixture of different living spaces. A giant TV hung on the wall surrounded by rich, chocolate brown leather couches. A desk and computer were tucked in another corner. I was surprised with his large dining table, a massive statement piece of iron and wood that matched his staircase.
“Big enough table?” I set my purse down on it and smoothed a hand over the top.
“It’s a good table,” he answered. “I like to have people over.”
In the time that I had known him, he had never had me over or that I was aware of, anyone else. I faced him again, raising my eyebrows expectantly. “Really?”
Half his mouth lifted in a smile. “You know, when I have time.”
“Oh, so never.”
He didn’t take my bait. Instead, he jerked his chin and beckoned me over to him. “Come here.”
I did.
His arms wrapped around me again and his forehead dropped to mine. “I’m sorry for what happened to you today. You deserve so much more than to be treated like that. You deserve so much more than assholes, bad dates and crappy jobs. Molly, you’re brilliant. The most brilliant person I’ve ever met. You don’t need that job. And not just because of that dickhead that molested you. But because they never recognized your fucking genius.”
I chuckled at his devotion to me. “There are other good designers there. I’m not the only talent.”
“You’ll never get me to believe that,” he said without laughing. “I checked out the company, remember? Even if I hadn’t been trying to get in your pants, I would have picked you. For the sake of my business. You’re good at what you do, Molly the Maverick. The best.”
Wait. What? He hired me because he was what? “I need you to start from the beginning,” I told him.
He smiled. It was devastating and relaxed and everything I had never even known to hope for. “Did you really not know?”
“That you hired me because you wanted to sleep with me? No. No, I did not know that. Also, so far it’s backfired because there has been no sleeping or other bed-related activities.”
His hands slid down my back, coming to rest possessively on my butt. With a firm tug, he pulled me flush against his body, hard and muscled and unbelievably tempting. “Don’t be fooled by the long game. When you’re serious about a girl, you can’t make your move too quickly. You get her to care about you first, fall for you. Then you take her to bed and show her she can’t live without you.”