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Chapter 4 - I Knew You Were Trouble Part 2

My relationship with Doug ended after a crazy night of love, he asked if I wanted to date him, I said yes and then I disappeared for two weeks. When I got back, he didn't even want to look at my face, and a week later we had the big scene, a drunken Doug swearing love at the wrong apartment door.

"I liked the outfit, Ella." Says when I walk past him. "You know you can call me whenever you want, don't you?" I run to the safety of my car. Doug might even be an option if he wasn't too mellow.

I start the car and head out to my new apartment. The traffic is clear because it's a nice Sunday morning, which makes me quickly arrive at my new address.

As soon as I get to the building, I use Jebe's old code to get in, but the code is denied, I type it again and it appears denied again, I reverse with the car leaving the garage and stop in front of the building. I can't wait to see the doorman's face when he sees me in my pajamas.

I get out of the car grabbing my bag and documentation from the apartment. I make my way quickly to the building's gatehouse. As soon as he sees me, the doorman opens the door.

"Good morning, Miss Ella." He greets me smiling in a friendly manner. "No need to say, the code was changed by Mr. Kross.

"Is he already in the apartment, John?" I ask looking at the man. "Did the carrier put everything in the apartment?

" He arrived this morning and Alice received everything. " He speaks, looking away from my pajamas. "Miss must want the new password, don't you?

"Yes, if possible." I say smiling as John makes a call. Five minutes pass before I have the new apartment code in hand and can enter the building.

Jebe had a total of seven parking spaces, today they are all occupied, I take a deep breath looking at the car that occupies half the space. I'm not going to get into John's little game, it was time for him to know that two could get into this war. I maneuver my car and get into the parking space pushing the other car until I can park mine. As soon as I do, I grab my stuff and get out of the car. I walk to the elevator and type in the code for the penthouse and soon I'm climbing. I'm thinking about calling Patrick, but I'll be with him Monday, so I'll request a change in the apartment code and the removal of four cars from the building's spaces. As soon as the elevator stops, I get out and go straight to Jebe's room, well, it's certainly not his room anymore, I open the door and see all my boxes scattered around the place. Everything is different, it seemed impossible for Debbie to have changed the wallpaper in less than a day unless she already knew what was going to happen. I put my bag on the bed and look around, the new wallpaper is in a very light pink shade with delicate white lilies, some white wooden shelves came out of the wall near the fireplace, curtains in a white and pink shade fell in front of the window, in the center of the room there is a four-poster bed, larger than Jebe's old one, behind it a provincial-style dressing table and a door that should lead to the closet, on the other side, the bathroom door is open. It all feels strange and familiar to me.

I grab the bag with the muffins and go to the kitchen, I smell fresh coffee and as soon as I see Alice, I smile, I approach sitting at the counter, watching the woman work, she must not be more than 55 years old, her blonde hair lives tied in a bun and her gray uniform always shows up clean and starched.

"I thought after Jebe's will, you and Vincent would leave. " I speak seeing Alice giving a little cry of surprise and turning around smiling.

"Miss Ella, you scared me." Alice turns around the counter and hugs me. "We can't leave you two alone, Mr. Kross is already here, he had a fit when he saw the room you chose.

"Alice, first of all call me Ella." I speak smiling as the woman steps back behind the counter. "Secondly, I don't care about him, if he wants me to stay with another room, that's mine.

" He stayed with the other suite, after all we have five others besides the master. " Says Alice with a smile on her face. "Do you accept some coffee, Ella?

" Yes I did, I brought some dumplings that my mother made. " I nodded, placing the dumplings on the marble counter. " Has it been a while since he arrived? " Alice hands me a cup while I choose one of the dumplings.

" He arrived at seven in the morning and locked himself in his room, his things coming almost along with his own.

"I hope he stays there forever, so I won't have to deal with him." I point, taking a generous bite of the dumpling. I head towards the kitchen window, where a counter has been set up as a table in front of the window overlooking the city. I pull up one of the benches and sit down, enjoying the incredible view of Central Park. The open weather makes the view seem even more surreal and majestic. I drink my coffee eating one more piece of the delicious dumpling.

I'm so mesmerized by the view that I only go back to the real world when I hear a muffled giggle. Before I turn around, I finish my dumpling and my coffee, and get off the bench. John is leaning against the center counter in the kitchen, watching me as he smiles mischievously.

" I could think of several things to tell you now, but no doubt it's better to point out how ridiculous you are in this outfit. " He points as I walk past him heading straight to the kitchen sink where Alice is.

"Would you like anything else, Ella?" Alice asks, looking at me sympathetically. I answer no and just ask him to put away the dumplings while I turn around and look at John from top to bottom.

" Are you enjoying the view? " He asks mockingly.

"The only ridiculous and pathetic thing I'm seeing is you." I stare at him steadfastly as I walk towards him. " What you find ridiculous, for many is luxury article, trying to explain what is really good for a man who is used to worthless things is to waste time. " Smile. " Look a lot, record every detail so that when you're with your skeletal models, gnawing on the bones, remember that there's a better guy than you eating steak. " Before he can answer, I turn around and leave the kitchen confident.


After the brief meeting with John, I decided to pack my things, which took me all morning and part of the trade. I was tidying up my closet when I heard a knock on the door.

" Come in! " I yelled from inside the closet, arranging the last pairs of shoes.

"Ella, lunch is ready." Alice announces, smiling.

"I'm going to take a shower and I'm back." I say getting up. "Thank you." Before heading to the bathroom, I choose a simple summer dress and grab my towel along with my necessaire and go take a delicious shower in the shower. The bathroom of my new house is huge, all white marble and with the same glass windows as the rest of the house. Facing the wider window, an oval-shaped white porcelain tub rests like an otherworldly item. I take off my pajamas and put them in the laundry basket, climb into the glazed box and turn on the shower, letting the cold water run down my body. Fifteen minutes later, I head into the dining room, where unfortunately John is already sitting at the head of the table with a tablet in his hand. Without saying a word to him, I sit down in the other place to his left, Alice quickly serves lunch, a green salad and grilled salmon in herb sauce with a broccoli rice. As soon as Alice serves me, I start eating, delighting in the wonderful food made, she places a jar of orange juice on the table, I pserve myself with some juice and watch to eat totally ignoring John.

" You know what I find very funny? " Asks John, breaking the silence, I don't answer. "I'll talk anyway." He says, when he realizes that I don't pay attention to him. "You think that while I'm with a woman with the perfect body I'd be jealous of a guy who's with a fat one.

" Did it take so long to think about that answer? " I ask rhetorically. "Of course, you have to choose between being a cretin and having a brain." I laugh when I see the ugly face he makes. "John, it really amazes me how you can be such an idiot." I say before I finish my salmon and juice, I fill the glass again and get up. "If you'll excuse me." I speak going to my room.

Night had already fallen when I finally finished packing everything up with Alice's help. As soon as I was done, I grabbed some papers from the company and went into the living room to read. I turned on the tv and put it on some movie channel, went to the kitchen and brewed some jasmine tea, went back to the living room to sit on the couch and started analyzing the leaves. It was already past eleven when I finished with all the papers, I started going from channel to channel until I found a movie that caught my eye, Marilyn Monroe is on the screen sensualizing about the air outlet of the subway. My mother had chosen my name in honor of her, since we shared the surname, what harm would it have been to have the same name? Thank God, my father in a surge of consciousness chose Ella as his middle name in honor of Ella Fitzgerald, the same Ella who sang Dream A Little Dream of Me, the song that he said was his and my mother's song. I turn up the tv, paying attention to the dialogue that follows in the scene.

"Who's that? You didn't say you were married. I'm ripped out of my bubble when a shrill voice screams, I put the television on mute and turn around to see a thin, tall blonde looking at me from John.

"She's nobody, let's go straight to the bedroom." John speaks, dragging the woman out of the room as I watch the scene. If you think I'm going to allow him to turn Jebe's apartment into a motel, you're sorely mistaken, starting tomorrow he'll find out who's going to call the shots here.

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