A Royal Mate

As soon as I got to the office, Joan handed me a bunch of folders that Mr. Preston had dropped off earlier that morning for me to look through. It consisted of brick preferences, wood stain colors and mostly exterior light and security suggestions. I guess with his reputation he needed something to protect himself and his belongings. Once I reviewed all the new additions to the house, I added my ideas to the draft. I also contacted several security companies and inquired about quotes and applied them to the costs sheet.

Next I got to work on the rooms. After shifting walls around and changing roof lines I finally achieved the open space feel he wanted in the living area. The kitchen consisted of commercial grade appliances, floor to ceiling cabinets, a 10ftx5ft island with a butcher block counter top and a customized ceramic tile backsplash. There was also room for a 14ft dinning room table. He opted for real hardwood floors and the other elements like steel and brick were also highlighted throughout the house. The bathrooms featured marble countertops and antique cabinets. As he requested half of them should contain claw foot bathtubs while the rest were to have walk in showers.

After 6 hours of working on the plans I needed a break. I pushed my chair away from the desk and leaned back relaxing into the soft leather. After a few cleansing breaths I could feel someone watching me. When I opened my eyes, there he was standing in the doorway of my office. I sat up trying not to let his looks affect me and said "Good afternoon, Mr. Preston. How may I help you?"

He smirked and walked in, standing in front of my desk he replied "Please, call me Jack. I just wanted to make sure you received my recommendations I left for you this morning."

"Yes I did. In fact I have been working on them all day. Would you like to see what I've come up with?" I said with a tight lip smile.

"I would love to." In three long strides he was standing behind me looking at my computer screen. Just him being so close to me made me body feel strange things. I pushed my chair out of the way and pulled up the program with his draft and started the animated walk through. After it was finished I turned around to see a huge smile on his face and a look of pure amazement. "This is perfect, Anna. It's exactly what I wanted." He looked at me and soon we were lost in each other's eyes. Quickly he looked away, cleared his throat and headed back to the door. "How long will it take for the whole house draft to be completed?" He asked.

"Well if I work on just your plans, probably another week. Of course that is, if you don't have any more additions?" I said with a smile.

He chuckled and said "I can't promise you that I won't. Goodbye, Anna. I'll be in touch." And he walked out the door leaving me reeling again. I closed out the program and opened my email. After reading and replying to different contractors I packed my things up and headed home. It had been a long day and all I wanted was a glass of wine and a soak in the tub.

The apartment smelt heavenly and I knew that could only mean one thing. Val's famous pasta palooza. Freshman year we accidentally created this dish after she wanted tomato sauce with rotini noodles and I wanted a cream sauce with grilled shrimp and rigatoni noodles. We mixed the sauces and threw both noodles into a pot to boil and viola, pasta palooza was born. It was the only dish that could make a bad day better. Every time we made it it brought back so many memories. I grabbed two glasses and a bottle of wine while Val placed everything on the counter. We sat down to eat and soon we were laughing about old times.

"Remember the time the whole 4th floor flooded and we had to evacuate in the middle of the night, after the winter formal? We were so drunk and you came out screaming, where's the boat don't let the boat leave us!" Tears were streaming down her face as she tried to catch her breath remembering my face from that night.

"Hey I seem to remember someone trying to ride down the stairs in the laundry basket because she thought we were at the water park." I couldn't stop laughing and my side was hurting so bad. It felt good to laugh after the tense few days I've had.

After we ate, we found a movie on tv. We ended up falling asleep in the living room. But soon after I woke up to a quiet, sensual grow. It was so low that I thought maybe it was a dream but as soon as I closed my eyes I heard it again. I got up and walked into my room heading straight for the window. I pulled back the curtain and there he was. The black wolf standing in the same spot as he was the night before. With a shake of his head he took off back into the woods. I had to find out what he was hanging around for. I knew he couldn't smell my wolf because if he had he would have definitely tried to to call to her. He was trying to figure me out though, I could tell. He knew there was something different about me but he probably would never find out. I closed the curtain and curled up in my bed.