Free Recourse (The Arrangement) by Amy Silva Page B

me with those beautiful baby blues, “Thanks L. It’s just that I don’t even know if I got into Berkley yet. They’re taking forever to check every little thing about me. It’s driving me nuts.”

    “You’ll be fine.” I stated. “Remember the bird.” I leaned in and kissed his cheek, inhaling his sweet musk deep inside my lungs, “And happy graduation to us.”

    He stretched out his arms and wrapped them around me. He lifted me up as if I weighted nothing and spun me around, shouting “College, baby! Bring it on!”

    The following summer passed way too quickly. Chase got the acceptance letter from Berkley and moved shortly after. I started school and we ended up losing touch soon thereafter. A few years later I heard he got engaged to a girl from a good family and settled down.

THE RIDE

    The exquisite Rolls Royce was gliding effortlessly along the smooth country road. I guessed we were about an hour outside New York by now. Good thing I charged double for this one. The guy smelled like a whale, a high roller who knows exactly what he wants. I’ve had a chance to meet a few before but none were so agreeable as to send a personal car with a chauffeur to come and get me. I started wondering who it might be. Royalty was definitely out - this wasn’t Dubai or London. Celebrities were unlikely too. Given the mansions growing in size along the road I guessed this was a well to do financier. New York City had a history for minting those, and typically they bought houses away from the chaos they worked in to gain back a piece of sanity in their lives.

    I studied the interior as it completely enclosed me in a soundproof box. T his car is spectacular . The large soft leather seats drowned me in comfort as soon as I sat down, making me feel like I was in a first class of the airplane. The hand crafted wood paneling radiated class throughout the salon. Champaign bottle cooled itself in the arm rest next to me. I looked above at the ceiling, which was the best part. A starry sky made up of hundreds of tiny LED lights danced over me.

    “We are almost here, miss.” The chauffeur said. Poor guy hasn’t been able to take his eyes off of me since he pulled up in front of my place. I was wearing my favorite black laced cocktail dress, the one with the low cut I brought out for special occasions. He almost tripped over himself as he rushed to open the door for me.

    The car turned off the road into a private driveway. We drove for a good minute through a heavily forested area before arriving at the big guarded gate. It was something straight out of a scary movie - a huge mansion in the middle of the woods with a tall fence around it. The gate opened and we drove up past the trimmed trees to the house. It stood out like a large mountain against the backdrop of the forest. Made out of dark brown brick it had huge windows and a giant front door which looked as if it was brought in from a medieval castle. The clock tower on top was a nice touch. “Who the hell has a clock tower?” I thought as I studied the place. It didn’t matter. Within an hour I’ll be on my way back home, ready to climb into my soft Egyptian sheets and forget about everything.

THE MEET

    The chauffeur opened the door and gracefully pointed towards the house. “Miss, please head inside. The front door is unlocked. Walk up the main stairs and turn right into the study. Your host is expecting you.”

    Jeez, that didn’t sound creepy at all. I looked at his poker face however he no longer seemed at all interested in talking further. I stepped out of the car and planted my feet on the road which was made out of huge stone blocks. Something felt slightly off in my gut, so I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. I turned to my suddenly cool companion.

    “Aren’t you going to come in?”

    “My orders were to bring you to the front door only.” He said indifferently.

    “And wait for me, right?” I raised my eyebrow. There was no way in