The Raving Love (Enemies To Lovers)

by Emma Vikes

  “But it’s something on my mind but maybe it’s too early to do it now. I don’t want to rush things with Alexa. A relationship is all new to us.” Everett finished and then shrugged, as if it wasn’t too big of a deal.

  “Why do you always do that?” I couldn’t help but ask him curiously. The thing was, I always felt as if Everett treated his relationship as this fragile thing that would crumble if he took one wrong step. I didn’t think that was healthy but what the hell did I know since I can’t even salvage whatever relationship I had with Audrey?

  “Do what?”

  “Sometimes you make me think that you’re walking on eggshells with your relationship but you’re not because your relationship is surprisingly going in the same direction as Milo’s and Leo’s. But you’re always too keen about not rushing things. It makes me think that you’re not too serious about this relationship if you don’t want to take it all the way.”

  I knew that last comment was rude and uncalled for but I was honestly curious about what he would say. Alexa is Everett’s first girlfriend and that was actually an advantage he had over me. I’d been with so many women but none of them were real and serious relationships, at least, I never took them seriously. Had Audrey given me a chance, she would be the first woman I took seriously.

  But that went down the drain before anything serious could even happen.

  “It’s not that I’m not taking this relationship seriously because I am but the thing is, Jules, we’re only twenty-six and there are bunch of things that Alexa wants to do and I want her to do that. I’m not going to stop her from pursuing herself and what she wants to make out of her life and everything she wants to do for her family.”

  I furrowed my eyebrows, unsure of what he meant by that. “What are you saying?”

  “What I’m saying is that I want Alexa to shine as brightly as I see her and I’m not rushing for her to move in with me or to put a ring on it because I’m not ever thinking of letting her go. I’m not afraid to lose her because I’m confident that I won’t. So she can take all the time she needs until I know that she had done everything she wants before finally asking her to be mine until death do us part.”

  Everett sounded so sure and confident with what he shared with Alexa that I was jealous because Audrey could never see me in the same light and I desperately wanted her to. I swallowed, drinking the coffee that Everett gave me to hide the insecurity that spiked up within me with his statement.

  “Does love really make a person sound that incredibly sappy?”

  “Let’s see if you can still act cool when you’re the one in love.”

  I resisted the urge to tell Everett everything that was going on with me at the moment, from start to finish because I desperately needed to let it out. But even if I tell the whole world about Audrey and I, she wouldn’t change her mind. So, I played it cool and snorted, “As if.”

  Everett merely rolled his eyes at me, finished his coffee, placed the cup in the sink and retired to his bedroom and I followed suit a few moments later. When I passed by his bedroom on the way to mine, I heard him exchanging ‘I love yous’ with Alexa.

  José told me that I better figured it out soon and I knew what he meant. He wanted me to figure out the feelings that I had for Audrey but I was too inexperienced with love to even recognize the symptoms of it. All I knew was that I wanted to be a better version of myself the way that all the women I’d been with thought I could be.

  And it wasn’t because Audrey wanted me to change but because I wanted to so I could deserve her. So maybe if what I felt for her was love…

  Why did it hurt?

  25

  Audrey

  I stared at myself in the mirror and regarded the dark bags under my eyes. The weekend had been rough and I spend majority of it in bed with Amber beside me. I knew that she wanted to nurse my heartbreak but rather than crying my eyes out, I had Theo ask for the CCTV footage in every room in the company during all the time that Julian was within the premises.

  My heart still felt heavy with the pain that Julian’s words brought in that video and the idea that no matter what happened between us and no matter what I felt, Julian will always be Julian and he will always be a heartbreaker. It was why I called him and made it clear to him that I was done with whatever we had. I’d be a fool to let him break my heart even more than it already was.

  To distract myself from my heartbreak, it occurred to me that Julian must’ve been asked about our relationship so I had to figure out who had asked the questions in the first place, which was why I sent Theo on a mission to get me the CCTV footages. Throughout the weekend, Amber and I reviewed the clips until we finally found the ones that we needed.

  “You sure you don’t want me to come?” Amber popped by my side in my reflection in the mirror and I looked at her through our reflection and flashed her a small smile. I was grateful for her staying by my side and how she didn’t pry at my emotions. When I asked her not to answer any of Julian’s- and any member of the band- calls, she did so without argument. The same went for Theo.

  Shaking my head, I turned to face her. “You can have all of today for yourself. You can even stay out the night. You’ve done enough, Amber.”

  She made a face and shook her head. “There’s no way I’m letting you be by yourself at this state. You act like you don’t care and unbothered but I know it hurts like hell, Audrey. You don’t need to pretend with me, I’ve told you that a million times.”

  I didn’t pretend because I didn’t want her to witness my heartbreak. I pretended that I didn’t care for my own sake. I figured that after I made it clear that things were done between Julian and I, it was easier for me to move forward if I pretended that nothing happened between the two of us. It wasn’t a healthy approached but all I really wanted to happen was to be able to function past what I felt.

  Fully facing my best friend, I placed my hand on her shoulders and shook my head. “I’ll be fine. Theo will be with me during the meeting. I have every evidence I need with me.”

  Amber pouted and then resigned the argument with a sigh. “You better make it clear to them that you’re Audrey-fucking-Finch. You played by their rules when they said they wanted you to sign Born from Ashes within a month’s time despite the conflict that the company has with the band after your Dad rejected them. But you make it clear that they’ve given you the position now and they can’t just strip you off of your power.”

  I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “They haven’t really done so, Amber. At least, not yet, which is why I’m bringing this up before they could.”

  We both heard a honk outside and Amber and I looked at each other and she pulled me in a tight hug. “You better come home with your head held high because if they trample on you, I swear to God and all the saints that you’re helping me bury bodies.”

  I cracked a smile and let out a small laugh before checking myself in the mirror one last time and then grabbing my purse and heading out of the house. Theo was waiting for me in his Range Rover and he reached the passenger side to open the door for me. “How are you feeling?”

  “I hate that you and Amber worry about me as if I don’t know how to handle this. May I remind you that I am fully capable of what I’m about to do. My father didn’t train a wuss.”

  Theo chuckled as he stepped lightly on the gas. “That’s not what I meant, Audrey. I know you can put Anthony and Dick in their rightful places. What I’m worried about is your heart.”

  I bit my lower lip. I just had the same conversation with Amber and had managed to navigate my way out of it and fully got away with it because Theo came but now I had to face the conversation and my only way out of it was if I jumped out of the car. I didn’t think that would be a good idea.

  “My heart’s fine, Theo. It’s still beating and pumping blood to supply my body so I could function. There’s no need for you to worry,” I answered wryly and Theo looked at me when we stopped at a red light.

  “No one’s goin
g to judge you if you show the world your heartbreak.”

  “I’ll judge myself,” I whispered and heard Theo sigh when I turned away. Closing my eyes, I rested my head against the window of his car. I asked him to drive me to work because I didn’t think that I could reach the office if I drove myself. Theo wanted me to speak but he knew me well enough not to push me to so we drove in silence until we finally arrived in the office.

  We headed to the conference room right away because I already had the board of trustees and Anthony called in for a meeting. The moment I came in, the chatter died down and they were all looking at me. Anthony looked smug as if he had won and I could finally be eradicated out of my position and he could fully claim it as his. As if.

  “Thank you all for coming on such short notice,” I said, greeting everyone with a firm nod before sitting in my seat at the head of the table. Dick Carson sat by my right and I could feel him glaring at me in disgust. Theo positioned himself behind me, standing upright as if he was my bodyguard.

  “Are you here to twist what that article said?” Dick demanded beside me, narrowing his eyes. “I’ve always known that it would be no good putting a woman on that chair. You lead with your body, not with your brain.”

  I pursed my lips and turned to him, flashing him the daintiest smile I could muster. “I haven’t said my piece, have I?”

  Dick’s eyebrows shot up in surprise by my approach but his face remained stoic and the smugness on Anthony’s face remained. I faced the 14 other members of the board. “I’m sure you’ve all gotten hold of the rumour involving me and Julian Hudson.”

  “Is it true? You didn’t release a statement stating otherwise. You know how it can affect our name, Audrey,” The lady in red, Beth Hausen, quipped.

  I flashed her a small, thin-lipped, smile. “No matter what I say and no matter what the truth is, the public will always believe what their version of the truth is. A lot of those people who will spread hate are die-hard fans of Julian who will want to paint me as the villain but most of those people are young girls who are too caught up in celebrity drama to think rationally.”

  “So what are you trying to say?”

  I signalled Theo to play the video that we had. I watched as he opened a laptop that he brought, put in the drive, and then had the video on pause shown on the white screen. “What I’m trying to say is the people in this room aren’t young girls incapable of thinking rationally. I wondered why Julian would say what he did and he wouldn’t if no one would dare ask. I also wondered how the video made rounds online.”

  Standing up, I motioned at the white screen and had Theo play the video. Thankfully, the CCTV cameras in the company could record sound too so although the audio wasn’t all too audible, it was good enough. I allowed all of them to watch Julian interact with the four ladies first and watched how they reacted when Anthony came into the scene.

  Apparently, Anthony was the one who started it all. Although the ladies did ask Julian about his answer to the question, all they wanted was to know who he meant. Anthony, on the other hand, put a name to Julian’s answer and brought out the fact that he saw Julian in my house that time he came unannounced despite the fact that we weren’t doing anything wrong at that time.

  Anthony scoffed loudly and shook his head. “Julian said it without anyone pressuring him to or ordering him to say that. It was all him. I don’t understand what you’re trying to do here, Audrey. Just admit that you used sex to your advantage just so you could remain in that position.”

  I wanted to lash out at his comment but I also knew that he would say that. Although the video showed that Anthony was the one Julian was talking to, it still didn’t explain how the video became viral and how it was acquired by the media. Rather than responding to Anthony’s statement, I had Theo pause the video.

  “As you can see, one of the four has her camera pointed to Julian and is clearly recording the video.” Just as I said that, Theo opened the door again and pulled in the woman who recorded the video. She was looking down on the ground and I knew that she might’ve felt like she was going to lose her job for simply recording a video of a guy that she must’ve idolized.

  Anthony snorted but there was a slight panic in his eyes when he saw her. “What are you going to do with her? Fire her because she recorded a video and you’re assuming that she was the one who sent it?”

  I scoffed. “I’m not stupid, Anthony, and I know she isn’t either. Before we confronted her, we already knew who posted the video. We also didn’t want her to pay for a mistake that she did not even commit and besides, she doesn’t have any reason to post the video online because she’s aware what the repercussions might be.”

  “So why record a video?”

  I looked at the lady and she swallowed and finally spoke, “I was already recording the whole thing before Mr. Carson came in. It was my first time meeting Julian Hudson and I didn’t think the conversation he had with Mr. Carson would pan out that way.”

  “And why didn’t you delete the video?”

  Her eyes fell on Anthony and she quickly looked down. “Mr. Carson noticed me recording the moment Julian left and asked to see me in private.”

  Anthony sputtered beside his father. “You have got to be kidding me! Why the fuck would I do that? She’s making that up! Audrey paid you to say that, didn’t she?”

  But the lady refused to look at her and I signalled Theo to play the other clip we found. Anthony’s office had cameras, just as every other office in the company. It must’ve slipped his mind that his dirty transaction with our employee could be recorded or maybe he didn’t think that I would be smart enough to remember that there were cameras around our company for me to figure it all out.

  “The video depicts Anthony talking with her. Although the audio is more inaudible than the previous one, you can see him handing her money and her transferring the file to his computer. So it’s clear to everyone that the person who handed that video to the media was someone of our own, the person who could’ve caused the downfall of the company was him.”

  Anthony was shaking. “Why would I even want to do that?”

  “You want my position, Anthony. You always did. You and your father, you want Finch Records to yourselves. You thought that since I was a woman, it was easier to remove me from the position.” I was looking at the father-son duo straight in the eyes.

  “Then what are you going to do, Audrey? Remove my son from the position for damaging the company’s name by publicly sharing what you’ve done just for a band to sign with us? You’re not even denying the allegations so it must be true then, you let Julian Hudson fuck you just so you could get him to damn sign!”

  I narrowed my eyes at Dick who was glowering at me. “What’s going on with my private life isn’t something that I will disclose with you. But your son blatantly exposed something that wasn’t his to do so, just so he could gain position. Now, if I was to do the same thing, how would that reflect your family name?”

  Anthony clenched his fists. Dick pursed his lips. “You act so confident that you forget that our family has the biggest shares in this company. I’m a big investor. I deserve this seat on the board and my son deserves your position more than you ever will. If we withdraw our funds…”

  “Withdraw it,” I said cockily, almost resembling Julian when I spoke as I tilted my head to the side., “to hell, I care.”

  Dick laughed. “You honestly think that your company could survive without my funding?”

  “How much funds you shared will be shouldered by me.” Finally, Dad came into the room. I wanted to start with him but I knew that he would be running a little late. Mom was with him, as elegant and regal as always. “By my wife and I. I’ve honoured the gentlemen’s agreement between you and my grandfather and had swallowed every criticism you had of me when I was in position but I cannot allow you to scheme against my daughter to gain power.”

  Dick clenched his fists. “You’re making a mistake, Albert. You know that this comp
any would be nothing…”

  “Our family built this company. We’ve run it for years. All you did was invest, Mr. Carson, but as my father said, you crossed the line. I’m sorry but it’s either you face the wrath of the media like I do or you let your son get the hell out of this company. If you want to withdraw your funding because of that, we won’t stop you.”

  Dick was seething and if he were a cartoon, he would probably be drawn with his nostrils flaring and smoke coming out of them. He slammed his hands against the table but I did not even flinch, neither did my parents because Finches don’t flinch. Dick stood up and then marched out, his head held high and after a beat, Anthony followed his father.

  It was silent for a moment before someone cleared his throat. It was Beth Hauser again. “He’ll come back. He would allow you to fire Anthony for the sake of their family name and he wouldn’t even want to withdraw his funds because he knows that this had been the best investment he had ever made. Even with the regression issue that arose.”

  I let out a sigh of relief even if we had a backup plan if things turned out the way I thought it would. I knew my parents could shoulder the funding of Dick Carson but it would be better if Dick didn’t really pull out, which was something that Dad predicted. I talked to him about everything yesterday when I came to visit and he offered me help without hesitation. Even Mom didn’t need convincing.

  My parents lingered in the company for a while and we had lunch together then they left. I stayed to finish work despite Theo telling me that it would be a lot better if I went home so that I could rest, knowing that I spent the weekend figuring out the situation that I was in. But I told him that I was fine when in truth, I wanted to stay at work to distract myself from the heartache that I kept putting on pedestal.

  By the time work finally came to an end, I knew that I had to go home to a place that had been recently filled with memories of Julian. It was as if every nook and cranny reminded me of him and during the weekend, I basically locked myself in my office just so I didn’t have to face the pain all the memories brought.