Paid To Love

Episode 15

Paid To Love EPISODE 15

Victoria's POV

Henry turned into a fancy estate, the street led to a small road surrounded by trees on the corners. I turned my attention out the window and thought it was odd that there weren’t any houses on the street until my eyes fell across the house at the furthest edge of the street.

I immediately knew it was Henry’s house. He seemed the type to want to be the only house on the street. Amazingly though, it wasn’t some gigantic mansion. It wasn’t small by any means and it definitely looked like someone who had money owned it, but it actually did seem modest. Most of the house stood two stories tall with the exception of one side that was only one story, it was very darkly painted. It had a deep jade cornered roof. With the surrounding woods, it gave off a landscape feel.

The one thing it had that I was expecting was an iron polled see through fence surrounding the property and a big gate to complete the fancy look. It was by no means a big mansion, i would rather replace the word big with fancy, a fancy mansion suited it better. Henry hit a button on the roof of his car and the gates opened allowing us entrance. He drove down his driveway that was lined with cute little shrubs and then came to a stop right in front of the house and shut off the engine. “A little Unassuming, isn’t it?” he commented.

“If you overlook the fact that a twenty-five-year-old bought this, then yes,” I answered. The house was beautiful. But I couldn’t say much until I saw the inside. He could still have a water fall or a gold bathtub.

“Built, actually,” he said and opened his door. “Stay seated, I’ll get your door for you.”

My eyes widened. “What? You built it?” I asked as soon as he pulled open my door. I allowed him to help me out of the car. I figured he was putting on a show for his dad.

“Not by myself. I hired contractors, of course. But the design was my idea. Wait until you see the inside,” he responded, sounding proud of himself and a little excited. “The whole back wall of the side split is glass and overlooks the lake.”

Ah, I knew there had to be something else. A lake. That probably upped the property price by ten percent alone. “Do you have a boat?” I asked.

He looked at me like I was crazy. “Of course and a jet ski. Come here and pretend to look at these flowers.”

I rolled up my sleeves and followed him to a few bushes of roses and other flowers I couldn’t recognize. A few droplets of rain fell on my face and I wiped them off. This was becoming a daily routine for this town “ i feel a slight drizzle. Can we go inside?”

“Just a few more moments. I have a feeling he checks in periodically.”

“That’s... creepy. Inside the house too?”

“No, no cameras inside. Just outside. But he can pull up all of our surveillance on his phone,” he told me. “I can too, but I don’t like how he has access to my house security. Doesn’t he have other things to do? Today it will benefit me though. Sorry for making you stand outside in the rain.”

“It’s fine as long as it doesn’t start down pouring. Are you the only one who lives here?” I asked, touching the soft petals of one of the roses.

“Yes,” he answered, but it sounded stiff. “Let’s go inside now.”

After unlocking the door, he gestured for me to go first. I did and my mouth opened a little in awe. The first thing I noticed was the size of the living room. It was a little bigger than my whole house. At the corner was a long stair way that seemed to go round to the top story, Currently, I was standing in the walk way to the living room, i walked in and stopped but Henry walked past and signalled that we were going up the stairs. I was a little surprised but i followed him up a the wide, metal, round stair way that led up where a vast living room was set up. Two Living rooms? Really. As Henry had said, the wall that bordered the lake was made completely of glass. From where I was standing, I could partially see the water rippling in the rain.

“I like the airy feel of high ceilings in the second living room,” Henry said as he gently pushed me further inside the house so he could close the door. “I also always wanted a place where you could see the floor below from the floor above. The bedrooms, as well as the bathroom, are on this floor if you follow the hall down.”

“How many rooms does this house have?” I asked, looking at the polished wooden floors. I figured they weren’t the usual oak because the colour was a little off.

“That walk way there leads to the living room, which is the biggest room. There’s also a second bathroom and the kitchen on the floor below us and a couple bedrooms. So that makes seven rooms.”

I nodded, trying to take in the place. We were standing on walked out towards his balcony. There was a place to hang coats and what I assumed to be a small closet. Then you could walk down the hall to the other rooms while looking down at the living room. It was pretty awesome.

“Do you want to see my bedroom?” Henry asked with a sly smirk.

“What? No i don’t think it’s necessary,” I answered as I felt a little blush on my face and started walking toward the staircase. I wanted to go to the glass wall and look at the lake.

“Hey! Take your shoes off.”

I paused, looking down at my shoes. “Oops.” I removed my shoes and brought them back over and he placed them on a shoe rack. I couldn’t help but smile at his organization. He also removed his shoes and then escorted me back to the stairs.

“Your place is awesome,” I told him as I scurried down the stairs in my socks. I nearly slipped because they were so smooth. I peeked behind me to see Henry smiling to himself and I found myself smiling too. He was pretty cute when he was proud.

“I’m glad you like it. I don’t get to show it off to people often,” he told me.

The living room was furnished beautifully. It seemed the house had a theme of being open; it almost replicated the forest theme around it. The floor was made of white mahogany and the furnishings were all in neutral colours, but instead of it feeling empty as I thought it would, it felt very warm and cosy. There were multiple flower vases scattered around the room, some with very pleasant smells.

“Your T.V is so big!” I cried as I walked over to where it was posted on the wall connecting to the glass. It was almost as tall as me! “Do you have surround sound?”

He nodded.

“ you must watch a lot of Netflix on it?”

He nodded again.

“Sweet!” There were definitely enough seats around it to watch the television. He had a fancy looking leather sofa that went round almost in a half circle as well as a few sofa-like seats scattered around. There was a small section of couches around a coffee table that looked set up for business meetings. I noticed a couple of game consoles tucked away in the T.V stand.

Moving on, I could see he had a dartboard and lots of art on the walls and that the living room led right to the dining room with a dinner table settled along on a slightly higher ground next to the glass wall. “Wow,” I breathed as I walked up to it. Even in the dreary weather, the view was incredible. The forest broke at the edge of the lake, revealing the huge body of water. There was a dock floating by the shore, a couple of jet skies and some kayaks propped up by the trees. “You really designed this place? That’s really amazing. I’m impressed.”

“I can tell,” Henry said, coming to stand beside me. He grinned. “You’re cute when you’re excited.”

I felt myself blush before I could stop it. Did he have to smile so handsomely while saying that? “Really?.”

“But thank you. I don’t show off my place to many so I appreciate the compliment,” he continued, getting more serious.

“Why don’t you invite people over? If i had a place like this i know I’d be showing it off to everyone.”

“This is the only place I have left,” he said, gazing out at the lake, his jaw tightening. He stayed quiet for a moment and I stayed silent beside him. Something told me not to push it.