Deals Between Billionaires

Chapter 9: Concerned Parties

Tony's POV

Señor Dominguez and I make eye contact, he stops Charlotte in her tracks. She sees me too and covers her mouth with her hand. His eyes stay on me. I point behind me, where Laurel is standing in line at the bag stand. She admires the Ferris Wheel to her right, and out of sight of us three.

Señor Dominguez nods and turns around, and Charlotte follows.

Why did I do that?

I watch them walk away, still hand in hand. Señor Dominguez says something to Charlotte. He only turns around once. We make eye contact again before they disappear into the crowd.

What were they doing here? Why were they here together? Where's Ms. Joana? f**k. And why did I let him go? Why did I tell him Laurel was here too? If he was cheating, I just kept that secret for him. Scummy move on my part, and Laurel would never forgive me. I facepalm and shake my head, and that conjures up the headache I had earlier. I knew I should have brought an extra aspirin or two.

The sound of janky wheels comes from behind me. I turn around and see Laurel, looking gorgeous as ever.

“Hey," I say to her.

“I got the wagon and the bags. The line was frustratingly long, and so many different people were talking around us, the clerk could barely hear me!" Laurie hands me the receipt and my American Express.

“It's okay, thank you. Here," I reach for the wagon handle. “This is so much better."

“I hope they did not stiff me. Apparently, it costs about sixteen dollars to rent a wagon. I would not know." She says.

“Sounds about right," I say, reassuring her. “What do you have a taste for?"

“I saw the Ferris Wheel. There are food stands around there, let's take a look."

“Sounds good," I say.

Laurie leads me to the food stands she was referring to. She takes everything in as she walks. I've seen Laurie passionate about things before, but that was before the rise of Paper Weight International and Exquisite Essentials, before business got into the equation and her excitement had to be condensed to look “professional."

We look around at the different food stands.

“I cannot choose," Laurel says.

I suggest, “Why don't we stick with the classics. Have you had a coney dog yet?"

Laurel chuckles. “No, I have not."

“Another first. I'll order you one, and I'll buy us a bucket of fries."

Laurie stares at me with an eyebrow raised. “A bucket? Are you sure?" She asks.

“It's not a literal bucket, Laurie. It's just their largest size." I hand her the wagon handle. “Go find us a table." I take my place and line and watch as Laurel finds us a table.

One of the benefits of coming to Coney Island on a Tuesday afternoon: available seating. Laurie finds us a table pretty quickly. She waves at me and I wave back at her. I order our food and try to balance it.

I make it back to our table, which wasn't that far of a walk. I put down the bucket of fries first, then I set Laurie's coney dog in front of her. I sit down with mine, and I take a bite. The flavors swirl in my mouth, and now that I had a chance to actually sit today, I realize how hungry I am.

“Quite the appetite," She comments, taking a bite into her coney dog.

“I worked it up. You know, being your lackey." I joke. “How is it?"

Laurel looks up, with her mouth full. She says, “Divine!" She swallows the food in her mouth and continues, “Connie will flip once I tell her, though."

“Why?" I ask.

“Because she often tells me whenever I eat meat, I am eating death? The pain in whatever animal I eat suffered remains in its carcass." She takes another bite. “Do not get me wrong, it makes sense and I get where she is coming from. But alas, meat is so good. I almost feel guilty for all the amazing tastes."

I only nod. The times where I interact with Connie, I avoid the topic of food entirely for this reason.

We eat in silence, letting the wind's breeze cool us off.

I collect our trash and throw it away. When I return to the table, Laurel is already standing.

“You want to do something else?" I ask her.

She nods and looks behind her to the Ferris Wheel.

I smile, “Yeah, we can go."

“What about the stuffed animals? We cannot just leave them here, unattended." She says.

I chuckle to myself. “Of course, we aren't," I say. I look around until I see Robert. I wave him over.

Laurie sees this and smiles. “Oh, he is good. I did not even know he was here with us." She says.

“James is here too, but he's really blending in," I tell her.

Robert walks up to me. He asks, “Is everything alright, Mr. Williams?"

I tell my bodyguard, “Everything is fine, but I really need you to watch these stuffed animals too. Laurel and I are about to go on the Ferris Wheel."

Robert nods. He turns to Laurie and nods to her too and says, “Good to see you, Miss Dominguez."

Laurie flashes her gorgeous smile. “Hola, Robert! Thank you for watching them for me."

Robert nods. “They'll be here when you return."

I take Laurie's hand and lead her to the Ferris Wheel.

***

Our legs touch as we sit down in the Ferris Wheel cart. Laurie sits close to me; I can feel her hand trembling on my arm.

Before the ride operator straps us in, I ask her, “Are you okay? We can get off if you want."

Laurie smiles up at me. “Do not be ridiculous. I want to see the view!"

“You're shaking," I remind her.

“Hush," Laurie says.

The operator straps us in, reminds us that our hands and feet need to remain inside the cart at all time, and some more safety rules and guidelines. He closes the door to our cart and we slowly ascend.

Laurie holds on to me but doesn't say anything. She continues to look out the cart each time we ascend higher. She giggles to herself and I just watch because the breeze that hits her hair makes her look like a scene out of a romance film. I try not to be obvious, but when beauty is in front of you, front and center, you need to take time to appreciate it.

Meeting her eleven years ago has made me appreciate my shitty childhood for all that it was. When my parents fought, I'd text “white rose" to Laurel and she'd invite me to her house, just to get a good night's sleep.

When Laurel was going through her dating phase, she texted me a rose emoji next to a white heart emoji. I picked her up from her Godawful dates within ten minutes' time.

She and I were thicker than thieves when Señor Dominguez took me under his wing. For payment of his hospitality and quite frankly, everything he's done for me, Laurel has been off-limits. The best thing I could be for her is her friend. I didn't want to risk being anything but.

But now with everything that's been going on, I want to risk it. I want to step over that boundary. Hell, I already have when I asked Laurel to be my wife. But only because of her father. I always believed in Señor Dominguez and his process, no matter how grimy it was. He never turned to anything illegal, which is something I respected him for. But when I reached out to him because Exquisite Essentials is on a financial decline, he immediately helped. Just, not in the way I expected.

I unconsciously hold Laurie as I think about how trapped I actually am.

“Are we in a cuddling mood?" She asks. She holds me tighter. “It has been a long while since you cuddled me, you know." She says.

“Sorry I've been lacking," I say.

“Your apology is accepted, for now." She teases me. “Do you want to hear something ironic?"

“Sure," I indulge her.

Laurie leans against my chest. “When I asked you to plan a date for us, I imagined we would go to a steakhouse or some type of restaurant. Then I would have brought up our meeting with Daddy next week. I wanted to discuss our story and have it straight so that when we face him, everything will be clear cut."

“What changed? Or, do you still want to talk about it?"

Laurel looks up at me with a smile on her face. “You took me to Coney Island."

I smile back at her.

“And I forgot all about it. I remembered because I could have sworn I saw Daddy from up here."

I pray my heart didn't skip a beat. Laurie's up against my chest, and if she felt that, she'd know.

“I think it is best that we do not have set terms. The only terms we could agree to is just the marriage itself; being married for a year, then dissolving it. I take PWI back. Everything else, we can just make up as we go along."

Listening to Laurel, I remember what this was actually about. The marvel of beauty I was admiring has a one-track mind. I try my best to hide the disappointment.

“Except for the brewing-love-story. The one you made up last night." Laurie says.

I let out a chuckle. “You liked it?" I ask.

“It was so sweet. It was authentic, right? There was some truth to it?" She asks.

I don't answer, but I do smile at her cleverness. Laurie isn't dumb, by any means.

“Yeah, there was some truth to it," I admit to her.

Laurie squeezes me and tickles me on my sides, a place she promised a while ago to not tickle, ever again.

“Stop! Stop! We can't move the cart!" I yell amidst my laughter.

Laurie stops her tickle attack and laughs with me. Then she hits my shoulder. “Tonyyyy!" she says.

“Laurieeee!" I say back, teasing her.

“Why did you never tell me? Why did you keep this to yourself?" She asks.

I give her an honest answer, “We made great friends—"

“Amazing friends."

“Perfect friends," I smile. “Laurie, I thought we were just that. I didn't even think that us becoming anything more was a possibility... And we have such a great thing going; can you imagine a breakup? After seeing how you treated your exes, no thanks." I joke.

Laurie hums. “Do you think that it would have been fun to try, though? A relationship?"

Her question catches me off guard. She looks at me expectantly with those brown eyes of hers.

I shrug. “I don't think the fun would be worth the heartache, honestly. I can't imagine my life without you. You're my best friend."

“As you are mine." Laurie smiles at me. “I have another question, if you do not mind?"

I nod at her. “Shoot," I say.

“When did your crush on me go away?"