I Wrote the Letter He Fell For

Three years into being my roommate's errand girl. By then she was the girlfriend of the most powerful heir in Chicago's oldmoney world.

So she came to me with an idea. "Let me set you up with Travis's assistant. Then we can doubledate." Nolan was Ivy League, tall, goodlooking.

It sounded good to me. "Sure." Then came the night I was supposed to stay over at my boyfriend's place. A dim VIP room at a club.

Travis slid the condom out of my hand and clicked his tongue, softly. His throat moved.

He spaced the words out, one at a time. "You'd be better off with me than with him." Chapter 1 Under the lights, Travis leaned against the wall, loose and unhurried. "Be with me and you won't have to suck up to Skylar anymore.

I'll buy you a house of your own. A fivefigure allowance every month. All you have to do is—" As he said it, he came closer. He tore open the little packet in his hand, slowly.

He pressed what was inside into my palm. His voice was cold, and at the same time, somehow, low and coaxing. "Let me have you however I want." I froze where I stood.

I'd almost forgotten how to talk. Before that night, Travis and I had barely exchanged a word. The impression I had of him was a man so quiet it came across as unkind.

Only with Skylar did he talk a little more. And now he wanted me to be with him. Which was another way of saying he wanted me to be the other woman.

I pressed my dry lips together. "Mr. Aldridge, have you had too much to drink?" His brow lowered. "You don't want to?" I nodded. "I have a boyfriend." "And besides.

Does Skylar know you do this?" When I finished, Travis dropped his eyes and looked at me for a long moment.

A man like him had probably never been turned down that flatly in his life. My stomach was in knots. It was a while before his brow smoothed out, his eyes gone dark.

Then, out of nowhere, he let out a short laugh. "Sorry. It was a dare." I blinked. Before I could catch up, a whole group came whooping out of the corner.

Skylar was at the front of it. She was in a paleyellow dress, pretty and delicate. She laughed and hooked her arm through Travis's. "See? I told you Jules is a good girl.

She wasn't going to cave the second somebody waved money at her. Nolan should be thanking me for a girlfriend like this." So all of it had been nothing but a test.

If I'd actually said yes. Standing here right now, how humiliated would I be? I looked down. I bit my lip. Across from me, Travis glanced at me and was quiet for a moment.

But he didn't fall in with Skylar the way he always had. He brushed her hand off his arm. His voice went cold. "You had your fun this time.

I'm not doing this again." It wasn't the first time Skylar had made me the joke. Nothing in her life had ever gone against her.

In school, her father's money and his connections cleared the way. After the Brannock family came down, she hitched herself to Travis, and nobody in this city stood taller than him.

So it was no surprise she'd grown up spoiled. The last time.

She texted me in the middle of the night to say her wallet had been stolen, that she was scared, that I should come find her. Then she dropped a pin. Twelve miles.

I didn't ask a single question. I called a car and went. But when I got there, she wasn't anywhere. I called her. It rang a long time before she picked up.

Chapter 2 On the other end it was loud, and I heard her telling her friends, "You see that? Juliet does exactly what I say.

Whatever I tell her to do, she does it, no fuss." She wasn't wrong. Three years earlier, when my grandmother got seriously ill, I'd gone to Skylar and begged.

We were roommates then, and I knew she had money. She lent it to me, and she didn't ask for interest. The condition was that until I paid back every cent, I'd be her errand girl.

No complaints, on call whenever she wanted. That night the wind cut straight through me, and I stood on the street and couldn't get a car home.

Travis happened to drive past and gave me a ride. I sat in the back seat and cried a long time without making a sound. When I got out, he handed me a handkerchief.

Then he left without saying anything. So in my head I'd always thought of Travis a certain way. Born into all of that, cold on the surface, decent underneath.

Not the same breed as Skylar and the rest of them, who did nothing but eat, drink, and live off their families' money. I hadn't seen this coming. Love, of all things.

It could bring even a man like him around to helping Skylar make a fool of me. Whatever gratitude and goodwill I'd had toward Travis was gone after that.

Once they'd all cleared out. I threw the thing in my palm straight into the trash. A second later, my phone buzzed. I looked.

A text from Nolan. [Jules, are you there yet?] Nolan was Travis's assistant, and my boyfriend. We'd been together a little over three months. I'm not stupid.

I understood perfectly well that there was a little humiliation built into Skylar setting the two of us up. I was her errand girl. Nolan worked under Travis.

A hundred years ago we'd have been the maid and the doorman. I took her up on it anyway. Because the way I saw it, Nolan had already done well for himself.

He hadn't started with much, and he'd gotten where he was one step at a time. A respectable job. Two hundred forty thousand a year. I liked him.

Barring something unexpected, we'd probably have gotten married. And I'd already told him I'd come over that night. After that scene, I wasn't in the mood.

So I looked down and texted him back. [Something came up. Can we do another night?] Nolan answered fast. [No problem. Mr.

Aldridge just asked me to run some paperwork over to him anyway. Says he needs it right now.] Mr. Aldridge. Just those two words. My eyelid twitched.

My palm went hot. [Okay.] Nobody but me seemed to give that night another thought. Skylar went on the way she always had, calling on me for something every few days.

I didn't complain. I owed her, after all. One day she came across a lakeside resort online. She decided she wanted to go with Travis. Travis never told Skylar no.

To clear the time, he worked several nights straight. Even Nolan was worn down to nothing. He called me. "Your boyfriend's been working this hard.

Doesn't he get a reward?" I checked my watch. Nine already. I thought about it. "Have you eaten?

I'll come to you, we can have dinner." By the time I got there, Nolan was nearly finished. [Wait by the door downstairs.

I'll be right down.] But the wait went on more than twenty minutes. Outside, it started to rain.

It came down hard, and I was looking for somewhere to get out of it when an umbrella appeared over my head. Gray. With a single hibiscus flower on the canopy.

Chapter 3 I ducked my head, smiling, and turned around and threw myself against his chest.

Pretending to scold him. "What took you so long?" But after I said it, Nolan didn't say anything. I tipped my head back and saw a face with hard, clean angles. It was Travis.

He looked down at me, his voice low. "Juliet." I stepped back fast. It was awkward. "Sorry, Mr. Aldridge.

I didn't know it was you, I thought it was—" He cut me off, perfectly level. "It's fine." Then he handed the umbrella straight over to me. "Nolan's got a few things left.

He'll be down in a bit. He asked me to bring this out to you." Just then a car pulled up beside us. The driver got out and opened the door. Travis got in.

Through the rain, he looked at me, and then he actually said something. "If it were me, I wouldn't leave my girlfriend waiting that long." He didn't wait for an answer.

He turned his eyes away. And the car pulled away.

That night, after dinner, Nolan drove me home. "Not going to invite me up?" I'd been out in the rain earlier, and my head felt light. "Next time." Before Skylar left for the resort.

She dragged me out and bought a pile of dresses and nightgowns. Her face went pink. "This time I'm getting him." They'd been together a good while.

And still hadn't gone all the way. Two days later, she and Travis left. That night I had dinner with Nolan. Halfway through, he got up for the restroom. His phone rang.

The screen said Mr. Aldridge. I was afraid it was something urgent, so I picked up for him. The line connected, and his voice came through low. "Nolan, that letter from before.

Something about it doesn't sit right with me. It doesn't read like Skylar. Look into it again for me." The letter… For a second my mind went somewhere far off.

I'd almost forgotten about it until he brought it up.

A year earlier, Skylar had taken on a child from a poor part of the country, onetoone, through a sponsorship nonprofit called Cedarbrook. She'd said, "I've figured it out.

Give a poor kid like that one nice thing and she'll be grateful to you forever." The girl wrote to her constantly. Letters, handwritten, one after another. Skylar never wrote back.

But I thought about who I used to be, and I asked her, "Can I write one back for you?

I'll copy your handwriting." She didn't care one way or the other. "Sure." And somehow that letter had made its way to Travis.

He'd tracked Skylar down. "You're Douglas Brannock's only daughter?

Would you consider dating me?" It looked like Skylar had let something slip on this trip, and Travis had started to wonder. I hesitated, and in the end I spoke up. "Mr.

Aldridge, it's me. Nolan stepped into the restroom." He was quiet for a moment. Then I heard a lighter catch. "Juliet?" I hummed a yes.

He didn't go around it. "You've been at Skylar's side a long time. The letter I just mentioned.

Do you know anything about it?" I turned it over for a good ten seconds or so, and in the end I shook my head. "I don't." Besides, it was one letter. What could one letter mean?

He and Skylar were so good together. It wasn't as though they'd break up over it. On the other end, with the cigarette in his teeth, his voice came out a little muffled. "Mm.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it. Don't mention this to her." Skylar was back within a couple of days. I went over to clean her place. Designer things all over the floor.

She sat on the couch, on the phone with a friend. I bent down and picked them up one at a time.

Chapter 4 Halfway through, she got up all at once, came past me, and knocked into me by accident. I lost my grip. The bracelet in my hand hit the floor.

Skylar frowned, picked it up, and looked it over. She was angry. "That's the one Travis bought for his mother." "He's coming by to pick it up. What am I supposed to do now?

This is your fault." I looked at her. "If you hadn't run into me, it wouldn't have broken. Half of this is on you." There was nothing I wouldn't do for her.

But what wasn't mine to take, I didn't want to take. Skylar gave a cold laugh. She came at me to slap me. I caught her arm. And pushed her back. Right then the door opened.

Travis was standing outside it. He took in what was in front of him, and his voice dropped. "What's going on here?" Skylar was in tears instantly.

She went to Travis's side and retold the whole thing, exaggerating every detail. "All I did was ask how she was going to pay for it and she shoved me." "And I've been good to her.

If I hadn't lent her that money for the medical bills back then—" The room went dead quiet. I held my ground. "That's not what just—" I didn't get to finish. Travis cut me off.

He put a hand on Skylar's shoulder and turned his eyes to me. Nothing in his voice gave anything away. "Enough." "Leave your number.

My lawyer will be in touch with you about this." Something jammed in my chest. It wouldn't go up and it wouldn't come down.

Skylar spoke up beside him. "I have her number, I can just give it to your lawyer—" Travis went on like he hadn't heard her, his eyes on me. "Leave the number and you can go." I left Skylar's place.

In the back of the rideshare, I checked my balance. Forty thousand dollars. Six months out of school, and that was everything I'd managed to put away.

And back then, Skylar had lent me sixty thousand. I'd been counting on another three months or so to have the whole thing paid off. And then Skylar and I would be square.

Then, out of the blue, this. It sat badly with me. Right about then, Nolan texted. [Jules, are you not home?

I knocked and nobody answered.] I wrote back. [Almost there.] He'd brought it up before, actually. Offering to pay the money back for me.

But I know the hardest debt in the world to clear is the kind you owe a person, and I already owed Skylar. I didn't want to owe anybody else, so I'd told him no. I let out a breath.

I wasn't going to think about it for now. I got home. Nolan was waiting at my door. Holding food he'd cooked himself. It wasn't the first time he'd brought me a meal.

But every other time, once we'd finished, he'd clean everything up and leave on his own. That night. Maybe because I was feeling a little sorry for myself.

I was the one who said it. "Do you want to stay?" Nolan's face stilled. Beside me, my phone flashed a lowbattery warning. Then it shut off. I let it.

And then, for no reason I could name, I pulled back. "Never mind. You should go…" I didn't get to the end of it.

Nolan had already crossed the room, bent down, and kissed me. "Too late," he said. He was gentle. The window was open, and the wind came in. His hand found the buttons of my shirt.

My hair blew loose across my face. He tucked it back behind my ear, a little at a time. One. Two. On the third, the doorbell rang