Marrying Her Older Billionaire

Chapter 5

Angie sat with Richard and they talked as they waited for his chauffeur to bring the car around. They talked about politics and favorite TV shows, in many ways they covered the entire length and breadth of everything that people tended to talk about in the ten minutes it took the chauffeur to bring the car.

When the car came around, they got in and started to drive to the shopping district. “I think this street would probably serve all of your shopping needs,” said Richard. “What do you need to buy?”

“Oh just the usual,” said Angie. “I just need to get some clothes, some furniture and decorations for my room, and maybe some new sheets for my bed. I’d rather not use the silk sheets that my dad put on the bed for me. I mean, they are nice and very silky but I’d rather have cotton sheets. After spending ten years in a village in Kenya I’m not really used to this level of comfort, I need to feel a little more grounded, a little more Earthy if you know what I mean.”

“I think I know what you mean,” said Richard. “So what are you thinking of getting exactly? Where should we go first? If you need a recommendation of some kind perhaps I could help you out with that.”

“I need to get clothes first,” said Angie. “Something that suits New York weather. I left Kenya in such a rush that I wasn’t really able to get anything done before I left. I think it would be a good idea to tackle that problem before anything else.”

“That makes sense,” said Richard. “We can go to Stuyvesant Clothing and Tailor, you can get all of the best clothes there.”

“That sounds crazy expensive,” said Angie. “I don’t think I would be able to afford that.”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Richard with a smile. “Your dad will pay for it. You don’t even have to ask him. I know him very well, probably better than you know him right now because I spent the last ten years by his side. He thinks it is a given that you will make him pay for everything that you want. He doesn’t realize that you might feel awkward doing something like this, that you would want him to be a little more forthcoming about what he expects. Suffice it to say that if you do not use his money to buy whatever it is that you want to buy, he is going to end up getting very upset indeed.”

“Really?” asked Angie. “Well… in that case I guess I’m just going to use his credit card. I wish he would have told me that he wants me to use his money to buy everything that I need to get. I mean, I spent ten years away from him, I’m obviously not going to expect him to pay for everything that I need.”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” said Richard. “And don’t worry about it. Matthew is just like that. You spent so much time away from him, you don’t know how he’s changed. He looks at you as his prodigal child. Whatever it is that you want, whatever it is that you need, he wants you to let him pay for it at least in the beginning while you are getting on your feet.”

“Alright,” said Angie. “I guess that’s okay. Let’s head to the shop that you were talking about, we might as well splurge if my dad is going to be the one paying for it.”

“Atta girl!” said Richard. “We’ll head to the shop immediately.”

They went to the shop and found a number of things that Angie would really enjoy wearing. She was glad that she had Richard with her. He was very good at predicting what it was that she might like. She was surprised that this was the case. She was surprised that he was so utterly understanding, that he understood her so well that he would be able to predict what it was that she might like or dislike. Angie had never really been understood so well before.

“How do you know me so well?” asked Angie. “I mean, we haven’t met in ten whole years, yet it seems like you know everything about me. It’s so weird because we were never that close before I left.”

“We weren’t close,” said Richard, “but I’ve always been very observant. I was always able to tell what you liked and disliked and was able to help you out based on this. I think it’s a good idea for me to be able to tell what you like or dislike. I mean, you’d probably be swamped if you had to do it on your own.”

“Alright,” said Angie, “I see that you have a point here. There are so many clothes in this shop, how is anybody able to figure out what it is that they want when they have so many choices! I can’t believe I lived in this city for nineteen whole years before moving to Kenya. Everything seems so foreign to me, it feels so alien. It feels like I’m in an alien world, a world that is completely new. I… I can’t remember anything about stuff like this. Isn’t that weird? I should know about stuff like this shouldn’t I?”

“It’s okay,” said Richard. “Don’t think about this too much. You have been away for ten years, and these were ten of the most important years of your life. These were the years where you grew up, where you started to like the things that you liked instead of the things that your parents told you to like. These were the years where you started to finally become your own person. That’s why you don’t remember as much of New York as you feel like you should. It’s because you did all of your growing in a completely different country.”

“I suppose,” said Angie. “It’s a very disconcerting experience nonetheless. I don’t really know how to feel. I feel like… I don’t know. I feel like I have been doing things wrong, you know? I feel like I might have made a mistake by moving to Kenya. Was that really the thing that I should have done in that moment? It was such a selfish thing to do. My father was here all alone. He didn’t have anybody except me and I… well I only thought about myself and ran off to a far away country so that I wouldn’t have to deal with reality. Wouldn’t you agree that was a ridiculously childish thing to do? Wouldn’t you agree that I did something really terrible by simply abandoning my father at a time when he would probably need me the most?”

“I absolutely do not think that,” said Richard. “You did what you had to do. There was nothing else you could have done in that situation because how you felt about the death of your mother would not have allowed you to feel any other way about the situation. You could sense that your father was going to end up becoming a rather toxic influence on you.