Shades Of Submission: Fifty By Fifty Part 82

"I think you should try this one on first, the blue-green goes perfectly with your hair," Suzie told me, holding out a fancy c.o.c.ktail dress, knee length with a princess cut. I was instantly in love with it.

"Wow, that's really nice," I replied, reaching out for the fabric.

"I'm glad you like it, it's from this year's winter collection, we only got it in stock yesterday."

I went into the change room and started to get changed. On a whim, I had a look at the price tag. If I was living in a cartoon, my eyes would have popped out of my head with a whacky sound effect to go with it.

I calculated it in my head. This dress that I loved cost just over three times my monthly rent. I suddenly started touching the fabric much more gingerly, like I was afraid to tear it with my clumsy poor people hands.

"Are you doing ok in there?" Suzie asked through the door.

"I'm fine, yes, just one more minute," I replied, and decided that I was going to have to put the dress on. I couldn't refuse just because it cost too much. To my horror, I also realized just then that it meant that in all likelihood, all the other dresses on the rack Suzie had cost just as much as this one.

Slipping the dress on as quickly as possible, I left the change room and made my way towards the three full length mirrors on the other side of this room seemingly a private changing area, which I didn't even know was a thing that existed.

"Well if that's not the definition of fabulous, I don't know what is," Suzie told me as I looked in the mirror. And I had to agree. At that price, it had d.a.m.n well better look fabulous, even on me, and it did.

I felt like a princess as I spun around, the soft fabric billowing out then falling back into place. For a few seconds I forgot about the price tag and just enjoyed the dress. Then, falling back to reality, I decided to try on a few more, hoping I could find something in a more reasonable price range.

Unfortunately, Suzie hadn't picked anything any more reasonable, and when I'd finished trying on over a dozen dresses, most of which were absolutely gorgeous, I settled on that first one, the gorgeous blue-green c.o.c.ktail dress, and tried not to think about the price tag. I knew Blake was paying, but still. That was way too much to pay for a dress, no matter how amazing it made me look.

I thought we were done, but to my surprise, we were only beginning. Three hours later I was finally finished, and Suzie sent me out into the world with thousands of dollars worth of stuff that I knew I was going to treasure forever.

The gorgeous dress by Oscar de la Renta, Jimmy Choo heels and a cla.s.sy Prada clutch that matched the shoes perfectly to finish off the outfit was what I came back to the car with. I was amazed that I'd spent that much money on an outfit, but I couldn't wait for Blake to see me in it.

I spent the rest of the afternoon at the apartment curling my hair, deciding to try and make it nice for our night out. I was excited. A nice restaurant! I mean, I had my definition of nice, and Cay West was above that, and I had a feeling this would be even cla.s.sier than that.

When Blake came in just after five and found me in the bathroom curling my eyebrows, he whistled in appreciation.

"Wow, I like your hair like that," he told me as he came over and kissed me, wrapping his hand around the back of my neck before running his hand through my hair.

I would have replied, but I was just way too into his kiss to do so. I closed my eyes and enjoyed his embrace. When he pulled away from me, I could see the hunger in his eyes.

Half an hour later my hair was definitely not as perfect as it had been when he came in, and we were going to be late for our reservation, but I couldn't have cared less. I made my hair look nice again in the bathroom and then put on my new clothes. When I came out of the bedroom, Blake gave out a low whistle and a blush crept up my cheeks. I felt like a million bucks, but to have Blake looking me up and down like that, I knew he thought the same thing.

"d.a.m.n," he confirmed a second later, looking me up and down once more. "You look amazing."

"Thanks," I replied, twirling in place for him. I knew it was super expensive, but the dress could have made an ogre look amazing. It flattered my curves perfectly and showed off my body in all the right ways.

He offered me his arm as we headed down the elevator to the lobby, where Mike was waiting with the car once more.

We drove for maybe ten minutes before pulling up in front of the restaurant, which I'm pretty sure I'd read about in the papers in Columbus. It was owned by a celebrity chef from England, famous for his temper. I remember reading in the article that reservations as the restaurant took months!

"How on earth did you get a reservation here in less than a day?" I asked Blake as we left the car and made our way past the throngs of paparazzi, evidently waiting for someone more famous than us. Still, a couple flashbulbs went off as we moved towards the door, and in my surprise, I tripped against the edge of the sidewalk. It was like everything next happened in slow motion.

I could feel Blake holding onto my arm trying to keep me upright, I could see my other hand move towards the ground to do the same thing, and my other foot moving forward to try and keep me stable, but nothing worked.

Landing on the concrete with a dull thud, all of a sudden a thousand bulbs went off. They weren't there for us, I was pretty sure of that Blake was famous but not that famous but I'd just made us photo worthy.

Embarra.s.sed, humiliated, mortified. There weren't enough words in the English language to describe how I felt at that moment. I scrambled back up, avoided Blake and practically ran into the restaurant, trying desperately not to cry.

He was instantly next to me, his arms wrapped around my shoulders as they heaved. I was trembling, I was so embarra.s.sed.

"I'm so sorry," I muttered. Here Blake was taking me to a nice restaurant, and I'd totally ruined it. It was all my fault. I'd tripped and fallen in front of all those paparazzi. Ugh, what was wrong with me? I didn't belong in places like this. I belonged in places where I could trip over my own two feet and not have any worse than random pa.s.serbys notice.

"Oh sweetie, you have nothing to be sorry for," Blake whispered into my ear. "Are you alright?"

I nodded weakly.

"Yeah. Just a huge bruise on my dignity and ego, that's all. I'm just going to go to the bathroom for a sec to get a hold of myself and clean myself up."

"Sure, of course. I'll be right here."

I went into the ladies room and ran my hands under cold water. Dabbing away a small sc.r.a.pe on my knee, I looked at myself in the mirror. My eyes were gla.s.sy from trying not to cry, but other than that, I still looked perfect. Maybe it wasn't the worst thing in the world after all.

Sitting down in one of the chairs in the little waiting area of the bathroom, I forced myself to take a few deep breaths. Finally feeling better, I decided I wasn't going to let one embarra.s.sing moment ruin the whole night, and I went back out to Blake.

The smile he shot me when he saw me again made me wonder why I was ever embarra.s.sed. It was so obvious he cared for me, and that was all I needed to know. Who cared what anyone else saw, what anyone else thought?

"Are you ok?" Blake asked me, taking my hand softly. I nodded and smiled.

"Yeah. Sorry about my mini meltdown."

"If that was a meltdown, well you might just be the calmest person I know," Blake replied, motioning to the manager that we were ready to be seated.

"We're ready for our table," he told the man, and we were motioned to follow him.

As we were led through the dim lighting past booths and tables, I suddenly realized why all the paparazzi were waiting outside.

"Is that Jay-Z and Beyonce?" I hissed at Blake as we went past their table.

"Yes, they're regulars here apparently."

I couldn't believe I was breathing the same air, letting alone eating at the same restaurant as two of the most famous people on the planet. I tried not to stare as we walked past their table. I was literally inches away from one of my favourite singers. I could have smelt her perfume if I wasn't holding my breath, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. The last thing I wanted was a repeat performance of what had happened just outside.

Blake and I were led to our table, a private one towards the back of the restaurant. Again, I wondered how on earth Blake managed that one on such short notice.

I quickly forgot as we were brought menus. My eyes bulged at the prices, but now that I knew Blake could afford it, I felt comfortable not necessarily ordering the absolute cheapest thing I could find. That said, I still veered far away from the steak section, where some of the offerings ran into the triple digits.

When the wine arrived I had a gla.s.s.

"Maybe I shouldn't drink too much, otherwise I might do the same thing for the paparazzi on the way out," I joked.

"Don't worry about it, get sloshed and we'll leave out the back," Blake joked with a wink, and I took a big sip of my wine in reply. G.o.d, I could get used to wine that cost more than $10 a bottle.

Luckily for me, when we did leave out the front door later that night, I not only managed to make it back to the car without falling over, but even if I had the photographers were gone. I a.s.sumed that meant Beyonce and Jay-Z left before we did.

"Thanks for tonight," I told Blake as I leaned against his shoulder in the car.

"No problem. It was my pleasure. I enjoy taking out a beautiful woman, and the conversation is pretty good too."

Before I knew it, my two weeks in New York were coming to an end. Having promised to spend Christmas with my sister, I had to beg back to Columbus the next day, Christmas Eve. I had visited Karen at the cupcake shop a couple of times, she and I would have a chat for a while when the store was empty while sharing a cupcake that was "accidentally" ruined. I saw all the main sights of the city with Blake, though he insisted that we wait until my next visit before we do a Broadway show, as he wanted to take me to a spring showing. I also got all my Christmas shopping done, and was going to have to borrow one of Blake's suitcases to get all my stuff back to Columbus.

The day before I was supposed to leave Blake was going to take a half day, and I wandered around in the morning. I bought a copy of the paper and went into a coffee shop to people watch and read, pretending to be a real New Yorker.

I sipped my coffee while I read the paper. After a couple of minutes, a light snow began to fall. I smiled as I watched the flakes. .h.i.t the street.

Then, as I turned the page of my paper, my face fell. I was on page 6. And there, in the bottom right hand corner, was a picture of Blake and I getting out of the car, and then, inset, a picture of me falling on my face a couple of seconds later.

I stared at the picture, mortified, as if staring at it would make it disappear. Was that really me, at my worst, on page 6? Yes. Yes it was.

Forcing myself to read the article, I braced myself for what it said.

Luckily for me, it was nothing much. Just a blurb about how it seemed billionaire Blake Andrews had found a new mystery woman in his life, would this one last longer than the others. Blah blah blah. It was only a small mercy that they didn't know my name; my face was in full view in the first shot of us getting out of the car.

I threw out the rest of the paper without reading it, but kept the page 6 article to show Blake later. I was mortified. I couldn't believe it. I mean, I knew there had been a risk, and I supposed I should be glad my face didn't end up in People magazine or anything, but still. Who wants to see a picture of them falling into the sidewalk in the least elegant possible fas.h.i.+on on Page 6? I silently cursed myself. If it wasn't for my acrobatics, it was likely the editors wouldn't have cared about Blake at all. Then my photo wouldn't have been in the paper in the first place, and I wouldn't have to look around the coffee shop, subtly wondering if anyone recognized me from the article, and hoping against all hope that wasn't the case.

Sure, I was falling in love with Blake. But I didn't want to be a celebrity. I didn't want to have my photo in the paper. Especially not like that.

When Blake came back that afternoon, I showed him the photo.

"s.h.i.+t, that sucks Julia. I'm sorry you have to deal with that," Blake told me when I showed him the photo and the article. "Unfortunately page 6 is one group where if you call them to try and stop them contacting you in the future, it just makes it worse."

"It's ok, I'm getting over it. I think I was more surprised than anything. I just thought you should know too."

"Thanks. I've given up on caring where my picture shows up. From time to time the odd paper will do a story on me. Sometimes they let me know, sometimes they don't."

Moving on, Blake and I decided to spend our last night this trip inside, with some Chinese food and the whole night for ourselves. After all, we had no idea when we would next see each other. Sure, Blake was going to come over in February for a business trip, and maybe tack on a day or two at the end, but apart from that, we didn't really know what was in our future.

When I left for the airport the next day, I couldn't help but cry a little bit. I had to admit it, I was falling in love with Blake. Everything about him was absolutely perfect, I couldn't imagine my life without him. I could barely remember what my life had been like before he was in it.

We kissed pa.s.sionately, like we did in the Caymans, before I got into the car with Mike. At the last second, Blake jumped in with me.

"I thought you had to go to work," I told him as he told Mike we were both going to the airport after all.

"Work can wait, some things are more important in life," Blake told me as we sped off.

My heart fluttered at his words. I couldn't believe someone like that, someone so rich, so important, so powerful, was putting off what was most likely really important stuff for someone like me. I was just so... plain. Just a normal girl from Columbus. Karen at least had plenty of stories to tell about how she and her friends would go exploring deserted buildings when they were kids and found a body once, how she danced in a go-go group when she was 18 to make money, all sorts of crazy stuff. I had none of that. Just a broken past, and, I liked to think, a nice heart.

We had a teary goodbye at the airport. Well, my tears, although I could tell that Blake was hurting too.

"We'll see each other soon, Julia. I promise you that. I'm not going to let us drift apart, I swear it," he whispered to me as I leaked silent tears onto his suit worth more than my rent. I nodded, then we broke apart and I went through security. I looked back and waved just before going through the X-Ray machine. Blake was still there, seeing me off. G.o.d, I was falling in love.

Christmas was coming up quickly, and two days before Christmas Eve I was at Anna's house, helping her decorate the place for Christmas dinner. She always held a dinner for all the single friends who didn't have anywhere else to go, or any families that also wanted to join. When Anna found out that because I'd sworn to spend Christmas with her I didn't stay in New York, she was horrified.

"Jules, you're the worst! You have a boyfriend! And he sounds amazing. And super rich. You've spent every Christmas with me for the last twenty four years. The least you can do is have one of your own at some point."

"It's nothing Jules. I mean sure, I'd love to spend Christmas with him, but I'd already promised you. He understands."

Anna snorted in reply.

"My a.s.s he understands."

The next thing I knew, Anna had gotten up and grabbed my phone from the table where I'd left it.

"h.e.l.lo, is this Blake?"

"You're calling him?" I screeched. "Anna, you can't do that!"

"I'm Anna, Julia's big sister. I just wanted you to know that I know this is late notice, but you are absolutely more than welcome to come to my Christmas dinner here in Columbus. Julia really wanted to spend Christmas with you, but she already promised me, and you know how she is... always keeping her promises and all."

I sat there with my hands covering my face. I couldn't believe Anna was doing this. Just straight up calling Blake on my phone like that? She had the kind of guts I could only dream of.

"Sure. Awesome, we'll see you soon!"

Anna hung up the phone a minute later with a huge smile on her face.

"We're going to have to set the table for one more!" she exclaimed, thrilled. And I had to admit, I was secretly super thrilled as well. I mean sure, it wasn't going to be a thousand dollar a night plate, and Blake would probably think her three bedroom apartment that she shared with two roommates was a hovel, even though I always considered it huge until I saw Blake's place, of course. Still, despite my apprehensions I knew deep down that Blake wouldn't mind.

Forget the Grinch, I was the one who felt like my heart grew three sizes that day. I was worried that I wouldn't see Blake for another couple of months perhaps, and here it was only a week before I'd been with him in New York, and now he'd be here in Columbus for Christmas!

A couple hours later I got a text from Blake with his flight details, he was arriving in the evening the next day. Begging off from helping Anna for the rest of the afternoon I went home to try and organize my apartment just a little bit. I did laundry and picked up the clothes I'd left on the floor of my bedroom. Instantly, everything I had felt inadequate. I couldn't believe Blake would be here tomorrow!

The next day, after a trip to a completely packed mall to buy Blake a gift (I gave up and went to a local market to get him some local cured meats and cheeses) I jumped into my car realizing my twelve year old Corolla had nothing on the Mercedes Mike drove me around in, I at least managed to change the air freshener. Hopefully Blake wouldn't notice the ripped seats.

I'd never actually had to wait in the arrivals area of the airport for someone before. I was on tenterhooks, watching the screen that updated each flight's status. Finally, Blake's fight status changed to "landed", and a few minutes later he came out of the sliding doors. My heart leaped in my chest as I ran over to him and jumped into his arms.

"I'm so glad to see you," Blake whispered into my ear as we embraced. I took him out to the car before our public display of affection got us kicked out of the airport, and as I started to drive back to the apartment, we slid so easily into conversation, it was like we were never apart at all.

"So what was up with your sister calling me?"

"I was telling her about how I wasn't spending Christmas with you because I'd already promised her I'd spend it with her, and she told me how ridiculous that was, and just grabbed my phone and called you."

"That's hilarious. I can't wait to meet her. She sounds great."

"Yeah, she is. She's my rock. She's gotten me through a lot, even though we're really quite different."

"Sorry about my apartment," I told him as we pulled up to the building. "It's not exactly the same as yours."

"Don't ever apologize for that," Blake told me, grabbing his suitcase from the trunk. I opened the door and gave him the tour, and we quickly fell into bed soon afterwards.

I can't overemphasize how amazing it was spending Christmas with Blake. He had brought over a couple nice bottles of wine for the party, which was spent with a dozen or so of Anna's friends, coworkers and acquaintances that had nowhere else to go.