Pretty Woman

Edward had never felt so much joy. His life had long been filled with limousines and fancy hotels, but this… this was different. He could hardly sit still in the backseat of the overstretched car with tinted windows. For a fleeting moment, he couldn’t help but realize how hard he worked to keep people away from him - from the dark tinted windows and closed barrier between him and the driver to the suits that he wore, which screamed, “people do what I tell them.” For all the successes he had experienced in life, the loneliness was always louder.

But things were changing. For the first time in his life, Edward felt true happiness. I mean, when was the last time he took a day off before her? His lawyer, who had always been as lonely and as cold as him, also sensed the change. They even had a few spats about it, with his lawyer insisting that she was some sort of corporate spy. He had some wild theory that she was actually working with the owner of the company Edward was working to dismantle. As if Edward wasn’t deserving of this kind of love.

Love. He supposed the word had been bouncing around in his head for weeks now, but this was the first time that it came to a stop at what felt like his forehead. Edward was filled with such anticipation, that he could barely keep hold of the bouquet of roses that he held in his hand.

“Almost there, Sir”, called the driver through the intercom.

This is it. His knight in shining armor moment. “Turn the music up, Daryll”, replied Edward.

As they approached her apartment, Edward opened the limo’s sunroof. With one hand still grasping the flowers, he used the other to pick up the umbrella off the floor. He wasn’t quite sure why he grabbed it, but it felt right in his clasped palm.

As Edward pushed his head out of the sunroof, he felt the sun envelope his skin. It was as if the world knew he was in love. As he looked up at the old apartment building, his breath nearly stopped at the sight of her. This was more than love. Whatever it was called, he was sure now more than ever, that he had made the right choice by coming to find her.

Edward pushed himself all the way through the sunroof and jumped off the top of the car. He had never behaved in this manner in his entire life. He was invigorated. Upon moving closer to the building, he had a momentary terror rise from his stomach as he realized the path to her balcony on the top floor was an old fire escape ladder and a sketchy metal stairway. Edward hated heights. But how could he show up here pretending to be her knight in shining armor and then ask to use the elevator? No. He would brave anything for her.

The fire escape ladder was just out of reach, but Edward, the problem solver he was, used the curve of the umbrella handle to pull the ladder down. It screeched on the way down as if it hadn’t been used in a decade. Fuck. He tried to refocus on the love that had consumed him only moments ago and ignore the fear that was rising from his gut.

He gained purchase of the handles and began climbing. His vision was starting to blur as he ascended, but Edward kept his eyes on her. Just seeing her waiting at the top ate away at the fear. It was a roller coaster of emotions as Edward continued his climb. One moment, he was staring at the giant holes in the metal grates of the stairway landings, nearly fainting, and the next he was looking into her face and climbing like a kid in a tree.

Finally. The last landing before her apartment. He held his arms up high towards her, as if requesting an embrace. She smiled at him and started to make her way down the last flight of stairs towards him. Edward almost felt as if he might die from happiness. Her smile melted him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a movement from one of her balcony windows. He turned his head to get a better look. Her demeanor changed at that moment. Her facial expression went cold as she tried to gain his attention. But Edward was certain now that he could see a face behind her window. Something else now was rising from his stomach, but it wasn’t fear of heights.

Flashbacks of his argument with his attorney came rushing into Edward’s head. Fuck. Edward’s brain and heart battled for what felt like hours. The face that he saw in the window was most certainly the face of the man that he had been working to buy out. But his heart was certain that she loved him the same as he did her.

Unfortunately, Edward’s brain had had much more experience than his newly discovered heart. He had walked away from buying out that company because of her. He and his attorney were set to make millions of dollars, but he ended the contract because of her. She had convinced him that it was the right thing to do. All those days off and late nights, just to distract him?

She continued to move towards him, but Edward couldn’t stand the thought of hearing the truth. He backed away from her. Normally, his fear of heights wouldn’t have allowed him to miss something like a shredded hole in the metal landing. But this wasn’t normal. Edward had missed lots of things over the past few weeks.

As Edward stepped backwards, his right heel landed perfectly on the missing piece of the landing. The hole was slightly smaller than his shoe, but instead of preventing his leg from falling through, it forced his toes upwards until they nearly touched his ankle.

Edward felt as if he were falling in slow motion. After his ankle snapped, his right leg continued down through the hole. Eventually, his descent stopped once the edges of the broken metal grates had struck the bone in his thigh.

As he looked up, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of joy that she was still walking towards him, albeit not with as much haste as one might expect in a situation like this. She knelt beside him and gave him a look of pity.

“Edward, Edward, Edward. You really shouldn’t have come here”. She cast a glance downward at the maroon liquid that poured down his leg. It was dripping through the grates of the lower landings and had begun to pool on the sidewalk below.

“It’s not too late for me to make the deal. One call to my attorney and your whole plan is ruined”. Edward tried to sound brave, as if he wasn’t currently facing bleeding to death. He should’ve pleaded for help, he knew, but he also wasn’t one to accept losing.

Just then, she stood up. Smiling, she said, “Oh, Edward. Don’t you know when it comes to bargaining, you’ve got to have some leverage? You’ve probably only got a few minutes before you bleed to death, you really want to spend that time making empty threats?

With that, she turned around sharply and headed back up the stairs to her apartment. Edward took one last look at her as she climbed back into the window of her apartment. She placed her hands on the window, winked at him, and slammed it shut.