A Billionaire's Secret Baby - Chapter 9

That weekend I felt happy, for the first time in a long time. I played with Macy, and we went out with Sara to the park. On Saturday, I treated her to pancakes for breakfast, and cooked an enormous bowl of spaghetti carbonara in my kitchen for Sara, her uncle Sebastien and her son, Raul. It had been so long since I’d had the money to have people over for dinner, and Macy and I made a real occasion of it. I dressed her in a princess dress and she and Raul sat playing with their toys. And that evening, I put Macy to bed, and played Frank Sinatra on my stereo, and relaxed with a glass of wine. What had come over me?

I knew, deep down, that it was Alex. Something about him had made me alive and alert to the world. His kindness hadn’t gone unnoticed. I couldn’t forgive him for his past actions—for leaving me and Macy when we both needed him. But now that they’d been in the same room, it felt easier somehow to separate them. Alex had seemed so uncomfortable, so awkward at Macy’s presence that I knew he could never be a father—had no interest in being one. It made it easier to let go, for now, anyway.

The next week, I went into work, cheerier than usual. I was happily humming away a Cole Porter tune as Andy and I worked the bar. And I looked up every time the door opened, checking if it was Alex.

Eventually, he came in, and I waved at him. He waved back, and for a moment, I thought I saw a glimmer of a smile play on his lips. He sauntered over casually.

“How are things?” he said.

“Pretty good,” I said. “We’re running a little low on our French stock. I’d like to see Pierre next week with Andy, so we can pick up some new stuff?”

“That’s good,” he said. “Any time you see a problem like that coming, you go for it. I know you’ll manage.”

I felt warm and fuzzy receiving his praise, but tried not to let it show.

“I, uh, wanted to thank you for last week,” I said.

“There’s no need,” he said.

We stood in silence for a little while, and I wiped the bar.

“Are you free on Thursday night?” said Alex, quietly. He kept his eyes trained on Andy, who was around the other side of the bar, out of earshot.

“Well, I can be,” I said. “Why? You need me to come in?”

“No,” said Alex. “No. I was wondering if you’d like to do something.”

“What?” I said, surprised.

“You know. Go out. Or…maybe, just get something to eat?”

“Something to…eat?” I said.

“Yeah?”

“Like a date?”

“Not a date, no. Just…as friends.”

“We’re friends now?” I said skeptically.

“Sure we are.”

“Um, okay,” I said. “I’ll call Sara and see if she can watch Macy. I can’t stay out late, though.”

“Sure,” said Alex. “Great. Let me, uh. Let me know.”

He vanished up the stairs.

***

“It’s no big deal,” I said to myself. “No big deal at all. He just wants to go out as friends. It’s not a date. Not a date. You hear me, girl?” It’s not a date.

“You talking to yourself in the mirror?” said Sara. But as I fussed with my hair in the mirror, and adjusted the straps of my dress, I realized that while Alex Lowe was not taking me on a date, I certainly wasn’t acting like it.

“Crap,” I said. “I think this thing is from my pre-baby years. It’s definitely a size too small.”

“Baby,” said Sara, in the bathroom doorway. “Get out of here! You’re gonna be late!”

“Okay,” I said.

“Besides, you look beautiful! He’s gonna be so impressed! And if he isn’t, I’m gonna knock his block off.”

“I told you,” I said, for the thousandth time. “We’re just going as friends.”

But Sara wasn’t having any of it. “Honey,” she told me. “When I go see my friends, I don’t spend an hour getting ready.”

“Well, we are friends, but still. Is Macy going to be okay?”

“She’s fine, sweetheart.”

After finishing my shift, I’d run home to pick up Macy and give her a snack. Then I’d got dressed and sent her over to Sara’s. I’m not sure I could have dragged myself away from her, except for the fact that she loved it there. Sara’s spicy home cooking and the music she played in her apartment. And Raul, her kid, who was Macy’s best friend and classmate. They loved doing their homework together and drawing on anything and everything with colorful crayons.

“GO!” Sara said, shooing me out of the door of her apartment.

She shut the door, and I sighed.

Alex had sent a car to pick me up, of course. But I was surprised when I got into the back of the silver Bentley that had been waiting for me downstairs for the last ten minutes. Because Alex wasn’t there.

“Where’s Alex?” I said.

“Mr. Lowe asked me to pick you up and take you to Ferry Point. That okay, ma’am?”

Ferry Point? That was the park at the tip of the South Bronx, just over the bridge from Queens. It was a weird place to meet. South Bronx wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I decided to say yes to Alex’s invitation.

“All right.” I shrugged.

We drove over the bridge and past the park, to my surprise. There, we turned off to the right and drove. I couldn’t imagine where we were going, until we got to the marina. We turned off and drove through a gate that automatically locked behind us.

I got out. It was evening, and the sun was a burnished bronze over the water.

“He’s just over there, ma’am,” said the driver. “You have a good night now.”

“Thanks,” I said, and tottered over in my best pair of heels. I prayed Alex hadn’t decided to put me on a sailboat. I wasn’t going to fare well in my shoes.

But when I turned the corner, I gasped.

I could see Alex—the dark shape of his shoulders, in a dark suit. He was standing, looking out over the sea.

And right behind him, was a helicopter.

“Oh my God,” I said. “Is that…”

“I thought perhaps you’d like to see your neighborhood from a different angle,” he said, smiling. “Come on.”

He led me towards the helicopter. It was bigger than I’d imagined, with a pair of long blades in a cross that drooped down.

“It’s great to see you,” said Alex. “How was your day?”

“Oh, fine,” I said. “The usual. You know how it is. How was yours?”

“I was in Toronto, actually.”

“Toronto?”

“Yeah. Flew down this morning by private jet. I was seeing some clients up there.”

“Clients?”

“For the hedge fund I run.”

“You’re a banker? I thought you were a club owner.”

“I am. But I wouldn’t have been able to get half as rich as I am without investing my profits. And along the way, I guess it turned from a hobby into a full-time job.”

“You became a billionaire…from your hobby?”

“I guess you could put it that way,” Alex said, and in the sun streaming down on us as we walked together, I thought to myself that I’d never seen him look so handsome. His soft, clear skin was glowing in the light, and I could see his sharp features and his fulsome lips more clearly. In the six years since we’d first met each other, I would have thought that he’d look older, a little less gorgeous than when I first met him. But if anything, he looked fitter and stronger. I guessed he’d used his wealth wisely.

We got into the helicopter, and he fastened my seatbelt. Then, he gave me a pair of headphones with a microphone attached to a headset.

“For the blades,” he said, and right on cue, the pilot switched on the engine, and the blades began to spin noisily overhead. But the headphones were soundproofed, and so it wasn’t too loud.

Alex strapped himself in, and then, before I knew it, I felt a slight jolt. I didn’t know what it was, until I looked down over the side of the helicopter.

We were rising off the ground!

I was amazed at how smooth the journey was, as we lifted into the sky and I saw as the shape of the land began to mark itself out. Before long, I could see the whole of New York from my side of the craft, the city below me, and the blue Atlantic ocean stretching out beyond.

New York from above looked different. Its gleaming skyscrapers and stadiums stood out and drew the eye in the evening sunlight. It felt so strange to imagine what it would be like to stand in the shadows of the buildings. From here, I could fit them between my thumb and forefinger. And the streets were long, wide, white lines running across in a delicate pattern, with tiny cars rushing back and forth. Like ants running along a trail.

As we turned to the west and began to move closer to Manhattan, the sun began to catch my eyes. Alex handed me a pair of shades, and motioned to a switch on the headset.

I turned it on, and suddenly I could hear his voice. “There’s Jackson Heights!” he called, and slowly we were looking down over the Long Island Sound, towards a tiny, green patch of land which I identified immediately.

“That’s St. Michaels!” I said. “You can tell by the shape of it!”

“Can you see the bridge yet?” said Alex.

I looked out, and there it was. Brooklyn Bridge, gleaming, a few traces of mist and cloud at its top, burning golden in the twilight sun.

“This is amazing!” I said.

“Wait till we get into Manhattan,” said Alex.