“Thanks.”
“If you do ever come back, you better find me. I have your personal email. I’m going to flood your inbox with gossip and pictures of me at the beach, having a good time.”
I giggled. “I’d like that. You know, planes fly to America as well. You’re welcome to visit. We don’t have the beautiful beaches like you do in my hometown, but we have some gorgeous mountain ranges and rivers that seem to go on forever,” I said, feeling homesick.
“I might take you up on that. I’ve always wanted to travel.”
“I hope you will,” I said. “Thank you again for being kind and willing to give me a chance. I really did have fun hanging out with you. Tell everyone at the office goodbye for me. I feel kind of bad for running away without saying anything, but I think it’s for the best.”
She let out a long sigh. “Does he know?” she asked softly.
“No. Please don’t say anything to him. He’ll figure it out soon enough. I just need to make a clean break.”
She nodded her head. “All right. This is your choice. If he asks, I have to tell him though.”
“That’s fine. Tell him tomorrow—if he asks. I think he’ll be just as happy to know I’m gone as I am to leave. I know Rand will be happy. He warned Adrian about me from the very first day. He was convinced I would ruin the company. I’m getting out before this little thing can become a bigger thing and cause problems in the office. I don’t need the entire world knowing I was a naïve, country bumpkin who fell for the big-city billionaire’s tricks. I’ll have to live with my humiliation, and that’s plenty.” The pain of it still burned in my soul.
She grimaced. “I’m so sorry you feel like that. For what it’s worth, Adrian isn’t like that. At least, I don’t think he’s like that. I can’t say I know him personally all that well, but from what I do know of him, he is a good man.”
“Lucky me. I brought out the rotten side in him.”
“Do you need a ride to the airport?” she asked, changing the subject.
“No thank you. I have a car coming in about thirty minutes.”
“All right. I’ll let you finish packing. Again, I’m sorry things didn’t work out. I’ll miss you.”
We both stood and hugged before I walked her to the door. Once she was gone, I closed my eyes, leaning against the door. I was a mess. Part of me was demanding I stay and talk to Adrian. I knew he wasn’t nearly as bad as I was making him out to be. Then I started thinking about how he’d sat there while his mom said horrible things and his statement that we were nothing, and I was resolved in my decision to leave.
There was no easy answer to make the hurt go away. It was my fault for getting mixed up in a romance with my boss in a place I was only going to be temporarily. I knew better, and I had gone and done it anyway. That was my fault. I could have told Adrian no. I didn’t have to offer to be his fake girlfriend. Hell, he’d rejected the idea several times, and I kept pushing it on him. This one was definitely on me.
I had made the mess, and now I got to deal with the consequences.
Chapter 33
Adrian
As the elevator took me up to the floor where my office was, I mulled over how I would approach her. I was going to start with an apology. That would disarm her and hopefully make her more willing to listen to what I had to say. I’d given her two days to cool off. Hell, I had needed the day to get my own head around everything.
I walked to my office, putting down my briefcase and phone and going over my approach again.
“Hi, can we talk?” I whispered, testing out the way the words sounded.
I’d get her to come into my office so we could have a little privacy. “I’m sorry I didn’t stand up for you. I should have. I’d like to make it up to you.”
The words didn’t sound right. She was pissed because I’d said we were nothing. That required a little more finesse to handle.
“I didn’t mean what I said,” I muttered. “Fuck!”
Everything I said was going to come out all wrong.
Bella was a reasonable person. She would hear me out and understand that I hadn’t meant she was nothing or what happened between us was nothing. I rubbed a hand over my jaw. I had been stewing on the matter since she’d walked out on me. I kept telling myself it was for the best and her leaving me was a good thing. I didn’t want to have feelings for her. I didn’t want to be the one who got hurt when she left me. It was my self-preservation that had me pulling away from her.
Standing in my office, stewing over it, wasn’t going to solve the problem. I had to talk to her. If she told me to get lost, I would accept it—maybe. I walked out of the office, heading down the hallway to the open work area where her cubicle was situated. I didn’t see her and looked around for the other interns. They were all at their desks. She was probably in Cassia’s office.
I changed course, heading for the other office. The door was closed, which told me they were probably already hard at work and didn’t want to be disturbed. Perk of being the boss—I could disturb and not get yelled at.
I knocked once. “Cassia?”
“Come in,” she called.
I put my hand on the handle and mentally prepared myself to see the hurt and anger on Bella’s face. I opened the door and saw Cassia at her desk. She was the only one in the office, which meant Bella must be roaming the halls. I smiled at the thought of her loss and frustrated.
“Hi,” I said, feeling a little foolish for interrupting her.
“Did you need something?” she asked, her tone a little terse.
“I was looking for Bella,” I answered.
She nodded. “I’m sure you were.”
“Excuse me?” I snapped, not in the mood to have one of my employees talk to me in such a way.
“Bella isn’t here.”
“I can see that. Is she in the conference room? Break room?” I was not really interested in roaming the entire floor in search of her, knowing there was a chance I would miss her in passing. The downside to having such a large office and too many damn walls.
Cassia looked down at her hands on her keyboard. “She isn’t here,” she said again.
I scowled with frustration. “I get it. Where—”
Then it hit me. I felt like I’d been bowled over. In an instant, I felt a sense of emptiness, like a part of me had been ripped out.
“I’m sorry, Adrian,” Cassia said in a soft voice.
I knew she and Bella had become friends and had spent time together. That meant Bella had likely confided in her. I trusted Cassia to keep what she knew to herself. “She’s gone?” I asked.
She nodded her head. “She left yesterday.”
I closed my eyes, praying for self-control before opening them and finding her watching me. “She left yesterday,” I repeated.
Cassia nodded again. “I’m sorry.”
“Thanks for letting me know,” I mumbled and walked out.
I walked back to my office, barely seeing anything or anyone. My sole focus was getting to the privacy of my office. Then, and only then, would I allow myself to feel. I slammed the door behind me, put my hands on my hips, and sucked in a deep breath, blowing it out and repeating the action. It wasn’t helping. I was pissed! Furious with myself, the situation, and her for leaving me without so much as a “fuck off.”
I stared at my tidy desk and grew even angrier. I stomped across the plush carpeting and picked up the pen holder, throwing it against the wall. Pens flew in every direction. I grabbed the stapler and threw it where the pen holder had landed. It was one thing after another. Throwing hard and watching the objects shatter, just like my life.
“Woah, Adrian, slow down,” Rand said.
I stopped, mid-reach for the laptop that was sitting on my desk. I turned to face him. “Go away.”
He walked toward me and quickly picked up the laptop, moving it out of my reach. “What the hell is going on?” he asked.
“Get out. I want to be alone.”
“Obviously, you’re in no condition to be alone,” he said. “Sit. Tell me what happened.”
Rand was a big guy, and I knew if he had to, he would bodily force me into a chair. I exhaled and flopped into the chair on the wrong side of my desk. I didn’t feel like being the guy that sat on the other side.
“She’s gone,” I muttered.
“Who’s gone?” he asked calmly, taking the seat next to mine.
“Bella. She left.”
“Left the company?” he pressed.
“Left Crete. The company. Me.”
He groaned, leaning back in the chair and rubbing his hand over his face before looking at me and shaking his head. “I warned you.”
“Stop. I don’t want to hear that bullshit.”
“Why did she leave?”
“We had an argument,” I said, glossing over what really happened.
“An argument? About work, I hope?” He grimaced.
I slowly shook my head. “No. I took her to my parents’ house on Saturday. She was supposed to be pretending to be my girlfriend. It didn’t go well. My mother refused to talk to her, and then when she did, she kicked her out of the house because she wasn’t welcome.”
Rand was nodding his head. “And Bella is mad at you?”
“Yes.”
“You’re leaving out some really big chunks of information. What did you do to piss her off so badly that she ran away from a damn good job?”
“As you know, we spent some time together last week,” I said, without giving him all the dirty details.
“Against my very good, sound advice? Yes, I know. You slept with her. You wined and dined her.”
I glared at him. “It wasn’t like that.”
“Get to the part where she jumped on a plane and fled the island,” he said, clearly frustrated.
“My mother said some things, and Bella didn’t feel I said enough to defend her. After we left my mother’s house, I told Bella I didn’t say anything because she wasn’t really my girlfriend. I wasn’t going to get into a big thing with my mom and the rest of my family defending a woman who wasn’t my girlfriend. I said we were nothing.”
He sucked in air through his teeth. “Ouch. That’s not good. What the hell were you thinking?”
“I know, I know, but I didn’t mean it to sound as callous as it did. I only meant we weren’t really together and getting into a big fight with my family didn’t seem worth it. She was going to be going home. She wasn’t going to stick around and be my real girlfriend. Do you get it? Do you see why I didn’t want to start a war for a woman who would be out of my life in a few weeks?” I hoped he would tell me I had done nothing wrong.
“She isn’t like that,” he said in a low voice.
“What? Who?”
“Your girl, Bella. I didn’t even know her that well, and I could tell she wasn’t the kind of woman you spent a few days locked up in a hotel room with and walked away unscathed. I saw the way you looked at her. You were drawn to her because she was different. She was innocent and wide-eyed, and she was into you. You led her on,” he said bluntly.
My mouth dropped open. I wanted to argue with him, but it would have been futile. “I didn’t lead her on. Not intentionally. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. It just happened.”
“I told you to keep your distance.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you told me. You were right. Fuck that. Tell me what to do! How do I make this right?”
“It’s over. Let it go.”
I shook my head. “I can’t! I don’t want to let her go. That’s the thing. When I said there was nothing between us, I lied. There is, or there was. I didn’t want her to leave, but I don’t want to ask her to stay and give up her world.”
“Let it go, Adrian. You’ll move on. No good can come from this.”
I stared at him. His words rang true, but I couldn’t believe them. I wasn’t the kind of man who sat back and let life happen. I wasn’t the kind of man who found a beautiful woman who checked all the boxes and then let her go. “I can’t.”
“She’s gone. Let her stay gone. Let her move on.”
I shook my head. “No. I’m going after her. I have to make things right at least. If we can’t be together, I’ll have to accept that, but I want her to know it wasn’t nothing to me.”
“This is a mistake,” he warned.
“Maybe, but the real mistake is letting her go and allowing her to believe she meant nothing to me. Even if she rejects me, I have to tell her the truth.”
“For her or for you?” he asked.
“Both of us. I need her file with her address in the states.” I jumped to my feet.
“I’m sure HR has it,” he said, making no move to get up.
“Get it for me. I need to get my jet ready. You’ll be in charge while I’m gone.” I was already pulling up the number for my pilot.
“Adrian, stop and think about this. You’re not thinking about the consequences to all this. She left you. She left the company without so much as a thank you for the job. This girl is not one you want to get mixed up with. Let her go. I know it might be hard to do, but in a week, you will have forgotten all about her. You can get back to doing what you do, and you can work things out with your family. You said your family doesn’t like her. Do you really want to invite that kind of drama into your life? Do you want to be with someone your mother will never approve of? Do you want to be with someone who lives on another continent? She doesn’t want to live here. You need to think about this all the way through before you make a rash decision.”
“I have. Get her file.”
“What a fucking disaster,” he protested in Greek before stomping out of my destroyed office.
As I listened to the phone ringing on the other end, I looked around at the mess I had made. Housekeeping was not going to be happy with me. I was a little embarrassed by my behavior, but it had made me feel a little better.
Chapter 34
Bella
I was exhausted and couldn’t wait to take a nap in my own bed. I was relieved to find my dad was still at work when I got home. He would have a lot of questions, and I had no answers. Facing him was going to be rough. I knew he would support me no matter what, but it was still going to be hard to admit I had failed.
I dragged my luggage into the tiny bedroom, already missing the spacious hotel room, and left it in the corner. I would unpack later. I kicked off my shoes and walked into the kitchen, happy to see it was neat and tidy. I opened the fridge, looking for a snack and scowled when I saw the leftover pizza, a box from one of the local restaurants and a myriad of other junk food.
“Dad, Dad, Dad,” I griped, grabbing a slice of the pizza and taking a bite.
I’d lecture him later about his eating habits. I quickly stuffed the pizza in my mouth and walked back into my room, closing the door and crawling into my small bed. It wasn’t quite as luxurious as the one at the hotel, but it was mine, and it was what I was used to. The familiar smell of the sheets and the weight of my blanket felt good, even on the warm day. Another thing I was going to have to get used to was the lack of central air. The house was old and didn’t have central air. I threw off the blanket, turned on the fan in the corner, and got back into bed, pulling just the sheet over me.
I closed my eyes, trying to push out all thoughts of Adrian and Greece and all that I had left behind. I felt like I was running away. I was running away. I had dug a big hole for myself, and instead of dealing with the mess I had created, I’d bolted. I ran back home to my daddy. I let the exhaustion brought on from being up almost a full twenty-four hours take me away into oblivion, where I didn’t have to think.
“Bella?” I heard my father’s voice from far away.
I moaned and rolled to my side.
“Bella, wake up!” my father demanded.
I opened my eyes and found my father standing in the doorway of my room. “What time is it?” I asked.
“It’s five,” he said. “What the hell are you d
oing here?”
I yawned and sat up, smoothing down my hair. “I came home.”
He gave me a dry look. “No kidding. Get up. We’re going to have a conversation.”
I sighed, knowing there was no avoiding the talk. “I’ll be out in a minute. I need to change.”
He left, closing the door behind him. I pulled open my dresser drawer and pulled out a pair of shorts and a loose tee. I grabbed the scrunchie off my dresser and put my hair up on my head before rubbing my face, trying to wake up.
When I walked into the kitchen, there was a hot pizza sitting on the table. “Dad,” I said.
He shrugged. “I didn’t know you would be here.”
“I can see that. Enjoy that pizza, mister. It will be your last for a while.”
“Sit down and tell me why you are home,” he ordered.
“It wasn’t working out,” I said nonchalantly.
He raised his eyebrows, his forehead wrinkling. “It wasn’t working out? When I talked to you a few days ago, you sounded happy. You said you helped secure a big account, and the boss was talking about having you work with him. To me, it sounded like it was working out very well.”
“Things changed.”
“Bella, I know you, and I think you’re leaving out a big part of your story.”
He wasn’t going to accept anything but the truth. I knew my father was an understanding man and wouldn’t hold my mistakes against me. Telling him might even make me feel a little better.
“I got involved with the owner,” I confessed, letting the hurt out. “Things were going great between us until I met his family. They hated me. Not that they actually spoke to me or gave me a chance at all, but they hated me. His mother most of all. She asked me to leave her house. She doesn’t want her son with a money-grabbing American, or something along those lines. She was so insulting, Dad. What she said was bad, but it was his lack of defending me that really hurt. He let her talk to me that way and didn’t try to defend me or us at all. He told me he didn’t bother because I would be going home soon anyway. He made me feel like I was insignificant and didn’t matter.”
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