Chapter 22

ARIA

I open my eyes, and my mouth drops open.

Jett’s large balcony has transformed into an incredible, romantic dinner for two.

A curtain of string lights covers the opening between the roof and the railing all the way from one end to the other, so it’s impossible to see in or out of the balcony. A beautiful candlelit table, draped in a white tablecloth, sits right in the corner.

All along the glass windows and the railing are hundreds and hundreds of lavender-colored roses arranged in various vases and lit with more small lights.

It’s the most beautiful scene I’ve ever laid my eyes on.

“Do you like it?” he asks.

“How? I—I just… I can’t believe you did this,” I say, words completely escaping me. I turn around to face him. “Why did you do this?”

He smiles at me again, and my heart positively melts.

“I know you don’t want to be photographed or written about. They rarely can see onto the balcony, but I thought this way you would know for sure no one is spying. I want you to be able to fully relax tonight,” he says.

I shake my head but smile, then kiss him. He pulls back.

“Let’s sit,” he says.

After he pulls my chair out and I sit, he walks around the table and sits opposite me. A waiter appears next to the table.

“Good evening. Your choices for dinner this evening are homemade pasta with fresh mozzarella and grilled chicken in a creamy pesto sauce, or a mushroom parmesan risotto. We also have a Caesar salad or Caprese salad to start. What can I get you to drink?”

“Wow, um, red wine?”

The waiter nods and turns to Jett.

“I’ll have the same thing,” he says.

The waiter turns and leaves.

I can’t stop looking around at everything; even with a highly paid team of people, I can’t believe this is the same balcony I walked past earlier.

“So, did you and Louise have fun?”

I look at Jett, his eyes flickering in the light.

“Yeah, I really think you made her day,” I say.

“And you?”

I smile and nod. “And me.”

“Good,” he says. “Plus, I tried my first patty melt today, so that was interesting.”

I laugh. “How was it?”

“Surprisingly good,” he says. “I appreciate that she let me join you there. That must be a special spot for her?”

I nod. “They used to go there all the time—her second husband and her. After he passed away, a lot of her community would meet her there. Some of them still do,” I say as I watch the waiter serve our wine.

After we give him our salad and dinner orders, he leaves again.

“So, she still has a group of friends, then?”

I nod. “Yes, though several have moved away or died. Being so close to her, I’ve learned that getting old isn’t for the faint of heart. You either die young or watch everyone around you go first.”

“That must be tough,” he says.

“It is. She hasn’t had an easy life, and I just want to make the rest of it as good as I can,” I say. “She’s done so much for me.”

Jett chuckles.

I narrow my eyes at him. “What’s so funny about that?”

“Well, she said almost exactly the same things about you,” he says.

“What? When?”

“When you were trying something on. She said you’ve had a lot of challenges in your life, and she just wants you to be happy. She wishes she could do more for you,” he says, and my heart drops.

“She’s done so much for me already. She took my mom and me in and then raised me after my mom died. She came to every game, every event. She bought me clothes and food and anything else I needed. It’s my turn to help her,” I say as if I’m trying to convince him.

“Your dad wasn’t around?”

I look at Jett. His hands are folded in front of his face as he listens intently, but those text messages are suddenly burning at the back of my mind.

“No, he…left when I was very young. The courts contacted him when my mother died, but they either couldn’t find him or he didn’t want me. I’m not really sure which,” I say, taking a gulp of wine. “It didn’t matter. I wanted to be with my grandma. She gave me a wonderful home.”

“Then, I’m grateful for her too. You said that she took you and your mom in?” he asks.

“Yes. We went to live with her after my mom’s boyfriend…um…” I hesitate as memories of that night resurface; his fists, Mom on his back, screaming at me to run.

I blink, refocusing on Jett. “After he kicked us out,” I say.

“Ugh, that’s really shitty.”

“He was abusive, so I was glad to get away. We lived in her car for a few months before she finally confessed everything to her mom. Grandma peeled her for taking so long to admit we were homeless. After that, she took us in.”

Jett leans back in his chair and rubs his face, which is etched in anguish.

“Wow, that’s terrible. I’m so sorry you had to deal with all of that. Especially as a kid.”

I can tell he is genuinely shaken by the ugly reality of my childhood.

I shrug and lean forward. “It’s okay, really. Ultimately, I had a loving home, a supportive parent, and a happy childhood. It just had a few dark spots. That’s more than most people get in this life, I think. Though…”

I pause and nibble on my lip, thinking of the text messages again. Jett raises his eyebrows. This conversation is wading into dangerous territory, but I feel his warmth and trust.

“My…dad contacted me recently.”

Jett’s eyebrows go up even more. “Really? What did he have to say?”

“Um, he said he saw my photos in the paper, and he wanted to reach out to me,” I say. “I tried to ask Grandma about him, but she was pretty defensive.”

“I get that. Is there anything I can do?” he asks.

“No, no… I will let you know, though,” I say. I lean forward and grab his hand. “Anyway, enough about me. What about you? What was your childhood like?”

Jett shrugs. “Uneventful. My parents traveled often, so I spent most of my time with my nanny when I wasn’t in boarding school,” he says.

“Oh, I didn’t know you went to boarding school,” I say.

“Yeah, it was the same one my dad and his brothers went to, sort of a family tradition. I hated it at first, but I got used to it,” he says. “Eventually, I preferred being there instead of home.”

I furrow my brow. “You preferred boarding school to being home? I thought kids usually felt the other way around?” I say, half-laughing.

He pauses, looking me in the eyes then back down at the wine glass he’s twirling.

“Home was sorta lonely. I wanted for nothing…except friends or siblings. My parents were always busy or traveling. I had lots of activities, tutors, and private lessons, but very little in the way of true friendships or even human interaction. Most nights I ate dinner alone or with the nanny,” he says.

Suddenly, I have a much clearer vision of all the factors that went into making Jett the way he is.

His hard exterior, his fierce independence, his motivation to succeed—all forged from parents who wanted their son to be the best and paid others to make him so.

But how often did they hug him or say they were proud of him? What would he be like if they’d told him he was enough and spent their own time building him up?

“I’m sorry. Your mom seemed so warm to you when she visited. I just assumed…” I trail off.

“She…was different when I was a kid. She and my father were socialites. They were all about appearances and making the right connections, but…I’m not really sure they wanted to be parents. I think they just had a kid because that’s what everyone else was doing.”

“But most of your success is because of your decisions and work ethic. I’m sure your father would be proud of you,” I say reassuringly.

He shrugs. “He was a tough man to please, but I’m sure he’s happy that my mom is taken care of. Apparently, she’s seeing someone now. She still wants to dictate my life, but she knows I will always do what I prefer.”

I suddenly remember how much Eleanor was pushing Jett to reach out to his ex-fiancée, and a knot in my stomach tightens and twists.

“I’m not complaining, really. I had a very privileged childhood,” he says quickly. “We all have things we would change if we could.”

I nod. “Sounds like we both know what true loneliness feels like.”

A heavy silence hangs between us.

The waiter appears and drops our salads off before he leaves again.

“Let’s shift to talking about the future. What did you hope to achieve by staying at DYAD?”

I laugh. “Is this an interview?”

Jett smiles and shakes his head. “No, no, I’m just curious what you want out of your career. I know you’re good at what you do; I just want to make sure you’re in the right position at the company,” he says.

“I really didn’t expect to stay at DYAD this long. I met Tim at college, and he offered me a gig as soon as we graduated. It didn’t pay much, but it was exciting to be involved in something at the ground level.

“Before I knew it, we grew like crazy, and five years had flown by. I think I was hoping for an IPO so I could finally make some serious improvements to my grandma’s house and caregiving hours. Plus, I wanted to own my own home,” I say.

“You just used a lot of past tense words,” he says. “Do you still want those things?”

I sigh. “I don’t know. The last couple of months have shown me that I might be living a little too much in the past—and the future. Plus, I was in a relationship with a master manipulator for longer than I should have been. I think some of my goals were shaped by him.”

“The guy from the gala?” he asks.

“Yeah.”

I see Jett’s jaw clench.

“That guy seems like a huge prick,” he says. “And that’s coming from someone who occasionally acts like a huge prick.”

I laugh. “It’s weird. I really thought I was happy. Gray was this intellectual musician. It felt like I was breaking the cycle of picking terrible men. But after we broke up, I realized how much he was trying to mold me into what ~he~ wanted.”

“Why did you break up?”

I down the rest of my wine. “He had an emotional affair with someone else,” I say. “The woman he was with at the gala, actually.”

Jett’s face twists in disgust. “What a shithead. How did you find out?”

“That’s the dumb part. There were signs everywhere, but it wasn’t until his texts appeared on the iPad I was using to cook dinner that I was forced to face reality,” I say. “Honestly, I was so blind; he really did me a favor.”

“And yet he still had the balls to grab you and bother you at the gala.” His fist clenches on the tabletop. “If he so much as looks at you again, I swear to god—”

“Hey, hey, it’s fine. I mean, he’s her problem now. I’m just grateful it’s over,” I say, startled by Jett’s sudden aggression.

“You’re a much better person than I am, Aria,” he says as he pours me more wine.

“Are you trying to get me drunk?”

“No, I’m perfectly capable of seducing you without alcohol,” he says matter-of-factly as he winks at me.

I raise an eyebrow at him as I take another sip of wine.

~Damn, he’s right~.