Chapter 6

• Unfortunately for me, Poppy is out with her friends and can't help me get ready for the night so I'm on my own. I still have the rest of the afternoon but if I'm doing it on my own I don't have any time to spare. I begin to raid my wardrobe looking for the perfect thing to wear, or something close enough to it. After much deliberation; I settle on a mid-length black tulle skirt and a white top, it's perhaps not dressy enough so I decided to be brave and wear a pair of high-heeled boots to accompany it.
• Now that that's out of the way, I spend an hour on my makeup after having to redo it twice when it doesn't turn out the way I want it. My hands are shaking as I apply my mascara, I'm so terrified. I don't know anything about this guy and I'm agreeing to go on a date with him. It would be less scary if it was just a blind date set up by a friend, but this feels like a job interview and a date all rolled into one. If this date goes well, this guy will basically end up renting me to be his girlfriend for goodness knows how long. This is by far the strangest and most uncomfortable situation I will be involved with in my whole life, and if it didn't go well I'd have to do it again with a completely different man. If I didn't need the money so badly I'd cancel and hide under my bed for three days until the shame of even considering doing this wears off.
• I slide my boots on and jump out of my skin as I hear a heavy pounding at my door, I check my phone, 6:45pm on the dot. I pace nervously over to the door and open it, and my stomach drops. Who the hell is this?
• "Good evening Miss, my name is Ambrose, Mr Whitlock' personal driver. I'll be bringing you to meet him, are you ready to go?" I breathe a sigh of relief, I thought I have been seriously catfished for a moment. This man is much older than the photo I was shown; he's balding and his nose takes up around half of his face. I smile and nod and take my bag from the table and walk out the door, locking my apartment after me and following him down the stairs. We walk in silence as he leads me to a large black car and opens the door to the back seat for me.
• I slide in and place my seat belt on, taking in the interior of the car. It's impeccable, not one spec of dirt or crumbs in the entire back seat; he takes exceptional care of this car.
• "Any music ma'am?" Ambrose asks as he reverses the car out of the parking lot, I shake my head.
• "No thank you, and you can call me Amelia" I tell him gently, hearing him call me 'miss' or 'ma'am' just feels straight up wrong.
• "I'm not allowed to be so casual with you ma'am, it's in my contract" he replies, but I feel that I can see the ghost of a smile on his thin serious lips. Wonder if it's in my contract too.
• I relax my body into the seat and watch the inner city come into full view. I feel incredibly out of place in this car with a formal driver on the way to a date with a millionaire, I should be out there, walking to the bus stop or at home eating leftover takeout. A fresh new wave of nerves descend over me as we drive down the city streets, surely to pull up outside his hotels at any moment. What sort of conversation do you even have with a millionaire? What the hell are we going to talk about?
• "We're here ma'am" Ambrose breaks the same out of my thoughts as he pulls into the valet area of a very upmarket hotel. I remember Lory telling me he owns hotels, I didn't quite realise that they would be quite this fancy. A well dressed valet and Ambrose meet at my door as they open it for me while Ambrose offers his hand to help my climb out. I take it and place my feet down onto the ground, turning to thank the valet before following Ambrose inside the hotel.
• As if I didn't feel out of place in the car, I feel even more so in the hotel lobby. A great crystal chandelier hangs over the marble floor, a grand staircase stands directly in front of me. There's a bank of sleek black elevators to the side of it with men in suits standing by ready to push the button for you. Ambrose ushers me down a long entryway to a dimly lit bar and restaurant area, filled with fresh flowers and people in fancy dress. Soft piano music fills my ears as to the right a man sits at a black grand piano, though he isn't gathering quite the crowd he should be, his playing is remarkable.
• "This way ma'am" Ambrose leads me over to a secluded area of the restaurant where I see him sitting at a table set for two, scanning over some documents with a pen in hand and a pair of glasses sitting on the bridge of his nose. A well dressed woman in a pencil skirt stands by waiting for him. He scribbled something down as we approach and speaks softly but sternly to the woman.
• "Of course I wanted this done last week but no mind; ensure we have it ready by Friday in time for the event" he hands off the papers to the woman without looking up to acknowledge her.
• "Of course Mr Whitlock, my apologies" She takes the pages from them and hurried past us, an undeniable look of panic and fear in her eyes.
• "Mr Whitlock" Ambrose clasps his hands in front of him and waits for a moment. "Miss Amelia Kendrick" He introduces me and Rhodes finally looks up from his phone, first at Ambrose for a moment before he rests his eyes on me. Ambrose pulls out the seat opposite Rhodes for me and I mumble out a breathy thank you as I sit down, placing my bag on the back of my chair.
• "Thank you Ambrose" Rhodes says without looking at Ambrose, his eyes laser focused on me with a soft smile on his plump lips. Thank god he looks like his photo, he really is quite handsome, and he doesn't look very old either.
• "Anything you need me to do Mr Whitlock?" Ambrose asks as he helps me slide my chair in. Rhodes finally raises his head to speak directly to him.
• "Link up with Simon; we've had some business come up in Seattle and I need to organise my schedule to go within the next three days. I will also need you to take Amelia home when we are finished here" I take the opportunity while the focus is elsewhere to steady my breathing, trying to relax into the seat and give myself a pep talk.