The next morning Elle was lounging on her phone after having breakfast when Adam came up to her and tossed her his keys."I found a place for you. Interested?" He asked.
Elle grinned. "Of course."
She quickly got dressed and they drove over to one of the most expensive and exclusive buildings in the city. When ranked it was second only to the building Adam currently lived in.
"Here?" Elle asked incredulously. "They don"t even openly list their vacancies; how did you hear about it?"
"After all this time you still doubt how far MK"s reach is?" Adam asked playfully. "More than one of our connections lives in this building, it wasn"t hard to arrange."
The unit was stunning of course. It was on one of the higher levels giving it a stunning view of the city. There were two bedrooms and even an additional room to use as an office s.p.a.ce. The rooms were large and flooded with natural light.
"It"s perfect. It"s more than perfect." Elle exclaimed as they walked through it. They entered the kitchen and she popped up onto the countertop. "I can cook dinner for you while you relax in the living room. It"ll be wonderful."
Adam smiled. "You"re sure you like it?"
"What"s there not to like? Besides, if I don"t like this place I would never find anything."
"Good. I"ll look over the contract for you in the afternoon."
"You don"t have to do that. I can do it myself."
"It"s better to do it quickly. Besides don"t you have a lunch to get to." Adam asked as he checked the time on his watch.
Ah, right. She was meeting with Abby today. Once they were finished at the building Adam dropped her off outside the restaurant where they would be meeting. Elle kissed him goodbye and entered the restaurant to find Abby waiting for her at a table by the window.
"Long time no see." Elle said sheepishly as she went over to greet her.
"Yea, long time." Abby replied as she gave her friend a hug. "Was that your boyfriend?"
"Yea. He just dropped me off."
"You should have told him to join us. I haven"t gotten to meet him yet."
"He"s busy, he was just dropping me off." Elle said apologetically. "Maybe next time."
"Maybe."
"How"s your work going? Have you settled in nicely?" Elle asked, quick to change the topic.
"It"s alright. Some days are more interesting than other"s, most days are too slow for my liking. But my coworkers are all great."
"That"s good. It doesn"t matter so much if the work is boring if the coworkers are nice."
"I guess. The professor I"m working under has a big conference coming up that I"m looking forward to."
"That"s nice."
Lunch was awkward to say the least. The next hour went by the same way, it was mostly filled with awkward and forced conversations.
"I"m thinking of moving out." Elle said, trying her best to inject some life into their conversation.
"Really?" Abby asked, looking up in surprise. "Why? Because of Jacob?"
"What? No. Why would you think that?" Elle asked, equally as surprised.
"No reason, I just…Anyway tell me more. Have you found a place?"
"I did. I didn"t sign anything yet but I really like it." Elle told Abby about the place they had just gone to see.
"You"re going to move there?" Abby asked incredulously. "There are so many influential people living in that building. So much eye candy. You have to invite me over for a house warming party once you"re done moving."
"My boyfriend is handsome enough for me, but you"re more than welcome to come over." Elle agreed lightly.
After a few more minutes they both made their excuses to leave and returned to their respective homes.
"How was it?" Adam asked when he heard Elle come in.
"Not bad. Just a little awkward. It was hard to keep a conversation going."
"It"s normal. She"s been away for so long, you two just need to fall into the same rhythm again."
"That"s the problem. I feel like in the years that she was overseas I grew up and she didn"t. We don"t have anything in common anymore. We"re just old friends, we only have the past in common."
Meanwhile at her house Abby was conveying the same to Jacob over the phone.
"She"s back from her vacation now, have you had a chance to talk to her yet?"
"Not yet. She hasn"t returned home yet. Or to work." Jacob replied.
"Did you know she was thinking of moving out?" Abby asked.
"No. Did she tell you that she was?"
"It looks like you two have more to discuss than I thought. You should ask your sister out for dinner after work some time this week."
"Your sister". Those words sounded so foreign to Jacob. He had never thought of Elle as his sister before. Neither of them treated the other like family at all.
"Yea, sure. Maybe I will."