SEVEN

CHAPTER SEVEN

Charlotte.

I really said I was going to marry this weird stranger.

I was going to die soon anyway, what did I have to lose by embarking on one last great adventure? To be fair, this would actually be my first great adventure as I had spent most of my life just trying to survive, trying to build a future it turns out I was not even going to be a part of. Ha!

"One year. I can't give you two years, I can give you one." I told him, being at least halfway honest with that.

His eyes seem to light up but the rest of his face was as blank and bland as ever.

"So, you're going to marry me?"  He asked, his voice alternating between nonchalance and excitement in a not so graceful manner.

"Do I have to spell it out for you?" I turned and started walking again without him, and for some seconds, I didn't hear his footsteps, so I figured he wasn't following me, but just like he did before, he was suddenly beside me.

"To which address do I send the paperwork?" He asked.

"Oh you really want this home address, don't you?"

Sneering contemptously, he said, "It will interest you to know that we live in a digital age now, and when people say address, we generally mean email address."

"It's so funny you making statements about living in modern times yet you speak like a fucking Victorian era lord."

"You will come to learn that I am not much different from them."

Was that supposed to be a flex?

"Clearly."

"You haven't responded to my inquiry."

"Do you talk like that all the time?"

He rolled his eyes. "I have an education, I'm sorry."

"Oh and I don't?"

"I didn't say that."

"No, then what did you mean to say? I'll have you know, I spent four years studying engineering! Four good years, and you have the nerve to tell me- Tch." I hastened my steps and walked off, not particularly sure why I was so upset. In my subconscious level, I knew it had something to do with my own feeling that my education had all been futile because of the death sentence that had been passed on me.

He did not follow me this time, I realized when I turned back to check after walking off for a while. What an asshole. I know my reaction was needlessly dramatic but... what a freaking asshole.

"Guess our wedding's off." I said to myself and chuckled.

I had come out of the park and was trying to hail a cab when some guy approached me. I was NOT in the mood.

"Hey, sexy." He said, his irritating confidence filling the air around me and almost choking me. "Hey, why the long face?"

I sighed and kept my eyes on the road. Why did taxis always seem to disappear when I needed to get away from strange men?

"Hey, I'm talking to you." His voice took on a slightly sharper edge, a reaction to being ignored.

"I'm just trying to get a cab." I said, unwilling to even meet his eyes.

"That's no reason to ignore me now, is it?"

I said nothing.

"Hey, don't fucking-" He took a malevolent step towards me and panic flashed through me, but before he could lay a hand on me, he was on the floor, his legs half raised in the air. Noah stood behind him, his hands in his pocket, tapping the foot with which he swept the unsuspecting dude of his feet.

"You shouldn't just run off on me like that."

"Hey? What the hell, dude?" The guy on the floor yelled.

"Run off? I just walked like I was doing. You got an attitude and left." I said, practically gaslighting Noah.

The way we talked over him must have felt like adding insult to injury because the guy sprung up, desperate to redeem himself and his pride, and charged at Noah with a clenched fist. I was a little panicked, but for some reason, not so much. It was like I knew how the situation would end even without me having any serious knowledge of the two men. It is the same way once I saw it was Noah behind the guy, my fear left me. Why? He was just as creepy as this dude, wasn't he?

Noah's expression was hard to read. On the surface, I could see his glowing smugness and something that looked like boredom printed on his face, but in his eyes there was a fire. He dodged the guy's punch with a quick, sudden step to the side and slammed his knee into the guy's ribs. He fell to the floor, wincing in pain. Noah looked down on him with the same smugness, but his hands trembled slightly. He licked his lips and made a small movement towards the guy, but suddenly, he stopped, looked up at me, and ran his fingers through his hair.

"I got an attitude?" He said, taking us back to a conversation that I had very much forgotten by now.

"Uh- uh..."

"All I said was 'I have an education' and you just want full ballistic on me."

I cleared my throat and looked away, not wanting to seem to impressed by his ability. The guy's groanings rose to our ears.

"You should get that checked out." Noah turned to him and said at the same time a black limo pulled up right in front of us. A man stepped out and I recognized him from the first time I met Noah.

"Mr. Anderson." He said respectfully.

"Green." Noah replied in a way that felt both polite and condescending. "Say, do we have any of the briefcases around?"

"As always, sir." Green went back to the car and retrieved a black briefcase while I took precautionary steps away from them. He held the box in both hands while Noah opened the latch and brought out to wads of freshly printed money. "Here." He flung them at the man on the floor. "Say you got in an accident or were sparring in the gym or something."

What the hell was even happening? I was watching them while still slowly backpedaling. Why was Noah's simple knee to the ribs so devastating to this physically fit man, and why did it seem so normal to Noah?

"Charlotte. I would like to have lunch with you. Get in."

Whether it was fear or intruige, I was not sure, but my backward progress froze, and my legs carried me obediently into the car.