by Shayne Ford
“And this is somewhat better?” she asks.
I hear distrust and disappointment in her voice, the very things I was afraid of.
“I didn’t think we’d end up here. Tiago wanted to tell James next week. And I was supposed to tell you. We were both optimistic about our plan, and encouraged by the fact that you both seemed to have warmed up to the idea of us being together.”
She slumps in her seat as well.
Slowly, she shakes her head.
“I can’t believe you, Eve. You lied to me all this time about Christian, and then, the architect all the while you were hooking up with Tiago right under my nose.”
She seems hurt.
“This is bad...” she murmurs, no longer looking at me. “He clocked those two men in front of everybody. Can you imagine the scandal? James needs to call a bunch of people now to make sure this doesn’t make it to the six o’clock news. Not to say that Kyle and Roy were supposed to sign a contract with James on Monday. I’m sure that dealing is gone. This whole thing couldn’t have surfaced at a worse time. Shit, Eve... I wish you would’ve come to me. We could’ve found a way to get out of this mess. I really don’t know what to say right now...”
“I’ll talk to James.”
She shoots me an incredulous glance.
“I don’t know if that changes anything.”
“Even so, I need to tell him it was all my fault.”
“You didn’t make Tiago lie. He needs to take responsibility, as well.”
“He will, but I started the lie. And I continued to lie because I wanted them to reconnect, and not be estranged because of some stupid misunderstanding.”
She shrugs.
“I don’t know how you could possibly think that it was a good thing. Anyway, do whatever you want,” she says, gesturing faintly.
Honestly, these are the worst words she could say to me, and yet, I pull out of my chair, determined to make things right.
“We’ll talk later,” I say, hoping to see a change of heart in her.
“Okay,” she says deadpan–– no chance to see that change, as she types something on her phone. “He’s in his office.”
EVE
A few minutes later, I slip out the door, walk down the corridor, and take the elevator to the glass tower.
I call Tiago several times without success.
Frustrated, I give up.
Minutes later, I reach James’ office, knock on the door and enter, no one inviting me to.
At first, I glance around his office, looking for him.
“James?”
He walks out of the bathroom a moment later, casually running his hand through his hair.
“Eve,” he says.
He doesn’t seem surprised to see me.
“May I talk to you for a moment,” I mutter, my voice quivering from nerves.
“It’s about time,” he rasps as he slides into an armchair, gesturing me to take a seat on the sofa, not far from him.
He unwraps a pack of cigarettes, retrieves one, and slips it between his lips.
“I thought you quit.”
“I did quit, but now is as good a time as any to make an exception from the rule. Do you mind?” he asks, talking around his cigarette.
“No, go ahead.”
He flicks his lighter open and runs the flame against the tip of his cigarette.
He takes a drag, the little dot of light turning bright orange while I struggle to open my mouth and speak.
“I’m sorry for what happened tonight.”
A cold grin arches his lips.
“Why don’t I have your man here to speak to me?”
“Because what happened this evening was my fault.”
He takes another drag, squinting behind a curtain of smoke.
“What exactly was your fault, Eve?”
I fidget in my seat for a moment, shaking inside.
“I met Tiago last year.”
Relaxed in his seat, he looks at me, his eyes rooted to my face, his expression revealing nothing.
“We met by accident, and at that time, I thought he was the male escort I’d booked through an agency. It was one of those strange coincidences when fate played a hand. He had no idea who I was... And I sure didn’t know he was related to you. That’s not to say I didn’t notice the striking similarities, but the thought itself was too crazy to even consider it. ”
“Why did you lie about him then?”
“I wasn’t sure how Rain would take it. I felt bad that I was attracted to someone who looked just like you. And I thought that telling her that would send the wrong message.”
He observes me through a veil of smoke.
“It made sense to me at that time.”
“Go on.”
“That’s how it all started. The rest of it took on a life of its own.”
For the next few minutes, I relay my story to him, repeating in essence what I’ve already told Rain.
“I know it looks bad, and I know that it affects your business with Ray and Kyle, but honestly, I’ve told them that this was only a joke, and they’ve never taken me seriously.”
I pause, hoping that he’d comment. He doesn’t do it, so I keep talking.
“The real reason I continued lying was that I wanted you and Tiago to be able to get on solid ground, and build trust so that you two could bond with each other.”
A small grin tilts his lips.
“A lie is a lie, baby. How can you build trust with lies?”
“I think that if you push your hurt feelings to the side, you’d realize how important it was for Tiago to have you in his life. How vested he was in making your relationship work, and how much he wanted to succeed so that you see a different side of him. He is no longer the man you met last summer. He’s changed, and he did his best to fit in your world. And so far, I think he’s done a great job.”
“Except he put his fist into my business partner’ faces.”
He breathes out a stream of smoke before he continues.
“I’m not saying that he hasn’t changed, but he’s not ready for my world. He’s too impulsive, and he could hurt someone even worse than he’s hurt these two.”
Silently, I read his eyes for a moment.
“Even if that’s the truth, I think he deserves a second chance. He needs you as much as he needs me. Whether we like it or not, you and I are the pillars of his existence. He has a deep admiration for you.”
“And he’s deeply in love with you.”
My cheeks warm up with a blush.
He studies me for a moment before he puts his cigarette out, slides his fingers through his hair again, and leans back into his seat.
“If there’s anything I can do to fix things with you, I’ll do it. Just don’t push him away. Please.”
“Have you talked to him?”
“He doesn’t answer his phone. He must be in the hotel somewhere. I know he booked a room so that we could spend the night together.”
He stays silent for the next few moments.
“If I need to resign from my job, I’ll do it. I just don’t want to see him hurt. ”
He fishes out another cigarette. He doesn’t light it but rather plays with it for a few moments.
He lifts his gaze to me.
“You know... Of all the men, you could’ve ended up with, Tiago was the last man I would’ve thought of.”
I can’t tell if what he says is good or bad.
He continues.
“And yet, he couldn’t have found a better woman.”
My eyebrows go up as I wrestle with surprise.
“That’s, um... a nice thing to hear.”
“It’s the truth. And I have to give you credit for helping him to turn his life around. I’m not saying that you knew what you were doing, or that you followed a plan or whatnot. All I’m saying is that you are the best woman for him, and that’s despite the fact that I would’ve never imagined you ending up with someone like him.”
; “He’s not a bad choice.”
He laughs.
“I never said he was. But for the longest time, he was an accident waiting to happen. In a way, what went down tonight was not that big of a surprise.”
I wait for him to elaborate.
He lights his cigarette and takes a drag.
“Frankly, I never thought he’d fall in love a few short months after I met him. Had I learned he hooked up with you–– especially behind my back, I would’ve unleashed hell on him. But that was then... Luckily, something else happened.”
I look at him, intrigued.
He pushes up to his feet, walks to his desk, retrieves something from a drawer, and comes back.
A thick envelope lands on the coffee table.
“Take a look,” he says, pointing to it with the hand holding his cigarette.
Hesitantly, I take a peek inside before I retrieve a bunch of papers and photographs.
“What is this?” I murmur, spreading them in front of me on the coffee table. “Oh... “ I murmur, shifting my gaze to him, washed with disbelief.
He watches me intently.
“You knew about us? All this time...?” I breathe out, suffocated by the sudden revelation. “But how could you...?” I mutter. “And you’ve never told Rain?”
He slowly shakes his head.
My eyes go down to the pictures again as panic claws at my chest. Our whole story is there, captured on the glossy pieces of paper.
Everything.
Except what happened between the walls of my apartment, or Tiago’s for that matter.
“I didn’t ask my PI for the saucy details,” he says as if he reads my mind. “The information that I gathered initially had nothing to do with you two as a couple.”
He locks my eyes as my lips brim with questions.
“Before I go into this story, I need you to understand that this will stay between us. You want to protect Tiago, and I want to spare Rain from getting dragged into this story. ”
I slacken in my seat as I try to make sense of these things.
James and I will share a secret?
As mysterious, inciting and flattering this is, I’m a bit frightened by the idea.
He lets out a soft stream of smoke before he speaks.
“When I got the call from my mother that he entered the country last September, I had no desire to deal with him. He needed to find his feet and swim or sink. My mother knew all that, so she didn’t ask me to do anything. A few weeks earlier, when I met him, he was fighting for the mob and then he was about to enroll in the French Legion, so being here was a step forward, in a way. I expected him to run into trouble. Oh, yeah...” he says, tapping his cigarette above a small glass ashtray. “I didn’t think he’d last long. And I expected to get a call from my mother or the police at any given moment. But then...” he says and interrupts himself as he inhales smoke and pushes it out, “I reconsidered my stance on it because I realized it wasn’t wise. I didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. For sure, I didn’t want to hold his hand while he was clearing his head, but seeing him in jail was not my idea of teaching him a lesson. So I called my people and asked them to track him down and put him under soft surveillance. I wasn’t interested in his hookups, not a damn bit. What I wanted to know was that he stayed out of trouble. I also wanted to know what he was doing for a living, and if he slipped into another dangerous situation, that sort of thing.”
He takes another pause and brushes his hair with his fingers before he continues.
“When he started to go out with you, I had no idea that he was assuming someone else’s identity. Again, I didn’t ask my PI to tap his phone conversations. All I wanted to know was that he was doing okay.”
I swallow hard.
“I’m going to tell it like it is.”
“I understand,” I say.
“Good. So when the pictures that I got started to indicate that you’d become part of his life, I was quite surprised. Rain didn’t seem to have the slightest idea that you were caught in an affair with him, I didn’t know what to believe about your sudden secrecy, or what was going through your head. Again, my goal wasn’t to dig into people’s private lives. I found the twist of events rather interesting, and I was curious to see where it was all headed, so I waited for what was about to happen next. I could see that he was trying to build a new life for himself, and everything seemed to be on track. He didn’t get into trouble, and I was pleasantly surprised to realize that he had taken my advice and started to make money in a smarter way. The fact that he was seeing you made me nervous, not so much for him but for you, yet my gut told me that I should wait. Then, you two pulled away from each other. I suspected an argument that led to a breakup, and to me, that worked too. I knew I hadn’t seen the end of it. At the time, I didn’t know you just found out he was someone different than you thought he was. Then, we all met at the Christmas party. That was a true surprise for me as well. I had no idea he’d show up. By that time, I started to get more acquainted with the idea that he’d become a different man. Even if he wasn’t ready for big, bold things just yet, he did make a noticeable effort. But Tiago is a very smart man who learns fast and needs to constantly be challenged. And that’s exactly what I did. Once you two ran into each other, I gathered from your reactions that you had no idea who you’d been dealing with. It was a shock for both of you, and honestly, I didn’t think you’d go ahead and play the secrecy game with him in front of all of us. I could see the tension between you two, the resentment, and that to me signaled that I had a great opportunity to begin to test him.”
“Is that why you got into an argument with him about me?”
“Exactly. It was curiosity more than anything else. I just wanted to know if he changed his ways when it came to women as well. If you mattered to him or not, and how much value he placed on you if any. To my surprise, he seemed determined to fight for you. It was a good sign, but nothing more than that. The fact that I argued with him didn’t deter him from pursuing you. Quite the opposite, and frankly, I was hoping that he’d react that way. At that point, I didn’t want to intervene. I wanted to let things follow their natural course and see where they were about to go. It quickly became apparent to me that you two were a good match.”
My mouth opens in surprise.
“How?”
He smiles.
“You are one of the most loving and loyal women I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. And if I know anything about Tiago, he needs someone like you. Someone to keep him anchored, and give him purpose, to make him feel valued and loved. If that someone comes in the shape of a beautiful woman, it’s even better. Honestly, I didn’t think he had it in him to fall in love so deeply, but you were more than a beautiful love story to him. You were there for him through thick and thin, and you adjusted to his pace and learned from him rapidly so that you two could have something real. All those years you’d been looking for someone you either offered too much or not the right thing to your guy, and here comes this man, in the form of a young, rebellious, wild version of me, who can’t get enough of what you have to offer. That’s why I thought that you were a great match for him, and life proved me right.”
“But...”
He looks at me, smiling.
Not saying a word.
“Why didn’t you stop us? Make us confess?” I ask.
“There was something else.”
I take a deep breath, waiting impatiently.
“Call it my protective side, if you wish...”
I toss him a questioning look.
“As I got a better understanding of his life, I learned that, at his core, he was nothing but a normal man, way better than I was at his age. Wiser, in a way, and believe or not, more solid. With you, he regained a sense of normality, something that my mother couldn’t instill in him. And he thrived because of what you’d given him. And you know me... I can’t let an opportunity go to waste.”
He pauses for a moment, tipping his eyes down.
“I knew he was ambitious...” he continues as he lifts his gaze and locks my eyes. “But I also knew that he was a very proud man. Had I asked him to come here, and join me in my business dealings he would’ve said no. For one, he wouldn’t have left you.”
His words make me struggle with guilt.
He gestures softly as he puts his cigarette out.
“I know what went down at my party in New York as much as I knew that the woman he had brought with him at my place was a decoy and an escort. I knew how attached he was to you... Anyway, back to my story. So, had I talked to him directly, he would’ve questioned my intentions. That’s why I thought he needed a solid reason to make a move. And you were that reason. When I learned that you told Rain that you were missing this place, I made you the proposal. I didn’t want to press you into making a decision right away. I wanted you to choose wisely and on your own. I knew that if you’d say yes, he’d eventually follow you, and he wouldn’t necessarily see it as something that would hurt his pride. When I spent time with him in New York, I talked to him about him coming here as well, get an idea about this place. You’d already said yes, and although you two had pulled apart from each other because of that, I knew you two would eventually work things out. He said he’d think about it, but I wanted more from him. I wanted to see if he’d pull that off, so I told him that if he ran Red’s successfully, he’d get everything in the end. All he needed to do was prove to me that he had the brains and gut. As it turns out, he has both.”
“And yet, all he proved tonight was that he has a short fuse.”
He laughs quietly.
“He had a good reason to act that way. Had I been in his place, I would’ve done the same thing.”
I search his eyes for a moment.
“Kyle and Ray brought escorts with them. They were indeed after you. Besides, Tiago was right. It was my fault they started to pursue you, to begin with. They had it coming though if you ask me. They knew you weren’t interested and yet, they couldn't stop harassing you. They got what they deserved. ”
“What about your business with them?”
“I’m sure they’ll look at it with fresh eyes in the morning. The deal is too sweet to back out of it because of a brawl. They’re not stupid. They just can’t keep their dicks in their pants. I’m also sure they’ll have a newfound respect for my brother. And from this point on, nobody will bother you with as much as a glance, now that they know who they’re dealing with if they cross that line.”
