Secret Strangers in Love novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Thirty-First Floor

The storm hit Chicago at six, and by eight the thirty-first floor was empty.

Rain ran sideways down the glass walls, and the city lights wobbled.

I carried two boxes of noodles into Mr. Stanhope's office with my shoes in my hand.

"I didn't order that," he said.

"You haven't eaten since the elevator."

"That was Monday."

"It's Thursday."

He looked at the clock and then at the noodles, and he laughed under his breath.

"I have a lot of excuses and none of them are good."

He cleared a space on the desk and sat on the edge, and I sat in the guest chair with my feet tucked under me.

We ate with the lights off, because the storm had taken half the floor with it.

The only lamp left burned low on his desk, and the thunder came in slow rolls.

"What's that on your thumb?" he asked.

I looked at the old burn scar, a shiny crescent on my left thumb.

"I was twelve. My mother was teaching me to make caramel."

"What happened?"

"I didn't wait for it to cool."

"Did she scold you?"

"She kissed it and told me the best cooks have scars." I turned the thumb over. "She died two years later."

"I'm sorry."

"She and my father, in a car. I was fourteen."

He put down his chopsticks.

"My father died when I was eleven," he said. "A stroke, at his desk."

"I'm sorry."

"My mother couldn't stay in this city afterward, so she took me to Zurich."

"Did you come back?"

"Three weeks ago."

"Is it what you remember?"

"It's smaller." He rubbed his jaw. "My grandfather looked at me at the airport as though he were checking a delivery for damage."

"Is he kind?"

"He is a man who peels oranges and lets you wonder."

I smiled, and so did he.

Then neither of us was smiling.

The thunder rolled again, nearer, and the lamp flickered.

"Lexie," he said.

"Yes."

"I can't promise you anything this month."

"I didn't ask."

"I'm tied to a decision I haven't made yet."

"So am I."

"Then we should sit on opposite sides of the room."

"We should."

I stood up instead, crossed the carpet and stopped between his knees.

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