“Take them to my room,” he said as he saw me walk towards the kitchen with the sorbets I looked at him confused “don’t give me that look, Pepper, please,” I walked over to him and put my hand on his face.
“What’s wrong, Patrick,” I said looking into his green eyes. He seemed worried and hurt.
“You,” what?
“What?” he confused me.
“I want to be able to tell the world that you are mine, Lucinda,” he said. I knew that all color was drained from my face. I knew he wanted to have something more but I was scared of the day he was going to finally come out and say it. That very moment I realized that I had always been scared of that moment.
“We can’t Patrick,” I said shaking my head and taking a few steps back.
“Why not?” he seemed affected by all this.
“You are my boss, a relationship might ruin everything,” I said looking everywhere but him. “I can’t. We can’t. It’s impossible to have all that we have right now and have a relationship,” I wanted to cry.
“It’s not impossible,” he said. His voice softer and warmer.
“It’s, Patrick,” my voice verging on the possibility of sounding hysterical “if this never works, which is very likely because I can’t seem to hold on to any relationship, then everything I have in my life, everything that it’s worth in my life would disappear, I can’t afford that,” I said covering my face with my hands and yes, there were tears. I felt Patrick surrounding me with his arms and I couldn’t help but keep on crying.
“It doesn’t have to be like that,” he said and I shook my head “but we can keep on like this until we realize if this works out. How about that?” I looked up and he was smiling down at me.
“You would do that for me?” I knew I looked like crap but I didn’t care anymore. He smiled and kissed my forehead.
“Yes, I will wait for you,” I smiled back and then he kissed me. “On one condition though,” he said and my smiled disappeared “Sleep over tonight,” he said. I thought about it. What would sleeping over for one day would do to me? No one would see me because it would be a Sunday. He was already doing something for me and that meant a lot.
“Ok,” I said and he kissed me. He grabbed the sorbets that I had left in the table in the foyer and we went up to his room. We had sex, obviously. Mind blowing, passionate, emotional; please don’t screw up this kind of sex. I was glad I didn’t cry at the end because that would’ve been pretty pathetic but it had been different because Patrick had finally said what I knew he had been hiding for a while and it was ok but I couldn’t risk my entire life just because we had fun. If we had a relationship it had to be something semi-permanent and that scared me to death. I was not the kind of woman that did semi-permanent relationships. I was the kind of woman that worked, a lot and got to have a couple of friends. I was the kind of woman that didn’t let her feelings in the middle of her life. I was the kind of woman that hid her feelings. And that was exactly what I was doing and, as in everything I did in my life, I was going to be great at it.
From that day sleepovers were a regular thing but he had allowed me to have a rule about it: Only on Saturdays because in that way no one would know that we had been together the next day. In my opinion it was a genius idea and I was glad I thought about it because truth was that it was amazing to sleep in Patrick’s arms. For the first time in my life I knew what feeling safe with someone felt. Patrick did that to me. He still went for holding my hand or hugging me in public, not in work situations but in front of his family, which was embarrassing or in the streets. We had minor issues about those moments but all in all it was great.
I had been working towards Regina’s party and we were finally on the party’s weekend. I wasn’t too stressed because Tracy was taking care of everything but still Regina wanted me with her on her final dress fitting so I asked Patrick to let me not go to the office so I could be with her. Instead he decided that it would be much better if we all stayed at his place and did the fitting in there.
“Happy Birthday,” I said as Regina walked into the office where Patrick and I were going through some things that needed to be done that day. I stood up and went to hug her. “You are officially 18,” I said smiling at her. I had become attached to the girl in a short period of time. Who was I kidding? I cared about Patrick’s entire family.
“Happy Birthday, Gina,” said Patrick going to her and hugging her. She was his weakness and Regina knew it.
“Thank you guys, I’m quite excited!” she said jumping up and down.
“Everything is ready for the fitting. Everyone is in one of the guest rooms. Do you want me to show you?” I asked putting my stuff on Patrick’s desk and she just shook her head.
“No, I’ll find it myself. See you in a bit?” she asked from the door and I nodded.
“She seems happy,” I said going over my notes and I saw Patrick nodding from the corner of my eye. “Anything else you need?” I ask resuming our time working because Regina needed me. We had scheduled the fitting after lunch so I could go over some important stuff with Patrick.
“I need you to order a background on Samuel,” he said not looking at me. I knew why he wasn’t making any eye contact; he knew I wouldn’t like it.
“You are asking me as your assistant or as your friend,” I asked in a very serious tone.
“What difference does it make?” he finally looks up and asks with a frown.
“So I know if I can tell you what I really think,” I know I looked pissed.
“What do you mean? You lie to me in one of those modes?” he seemed pissed now.
“When I’m your assistant I can keep certain comments to myself, yes,” we were in a stare off.
“Ok, I am telling you as my assistant,” he finally said and I was close to spitting fire. I nodded and walked out the office and leaned against it. I took 3 deep breaths and opened the door office with a smile on my face. He looked confused because I guess he thought I was going to scream at him.
“Oh my God, Patrick,” I said sitting in front of him on a chair “I just spoke to your assistant, she told me you are running a background on Sam,” he changed his expression from confused to amused “What the hell are you thinking? Haven’t you seen enough in the past 2 weeks? He is a good guy, Patrick! He really cares about your sister! You are an asshole,” He was laughing by now.
“Come here,” he said smiling and I glared at him “come here,” he said again motioning with his hand to go over him. I did as he asked just because his smile could make me do anything he wanted sometimes. He pulled me from my waist until I was sitting on his lap. I was nervous looking towards the door “everyone knocks before coming in,” he said and I tried to relax.
“I am running a background on Samuel because he is sleeping with my sister, Lucinda,” he said in a soft voice.
“You don’t know that,” I said to him. He had his forehead on my shoulder.
“Really?” he said looking at me “a 28 year old man is going to have a perfect innocent relationship where no sex is involved?” He shook his head.
“Well, it could be the case,” I shrugged and Patrick snorted.
“When Regina told me about his age I asked her why the tabloids hadn’t spot them,” I nodded I remembered that “I asked where they were having dates,” I nodded again “I knew they were seeing each other either at his place or a hotel,” Oh. I didn’t say anything and Patrick nodded.
“So,” he continued “I want to know more about the 28 year old who is sleeping with my 18 year old sister. I can’t help it. I’m protective like that,” he shrugged and I nodded.
“I understand that,” I said kissing his forehead and stood up “Still I think you should give the guy some credit. He is nice,” I walked towards the door and looked at him.
“Lucinda,” he said with a grin on his face “could you tell my assistant to keep my private matters to herself. There are things my girl doesn’t need to know,” I laughed but on the inside I
froze. He called me his girl. I wanted to believe it was for the comment’s purpose.
“Dinner is at 6. Your parents are coming, Samuel is coming and your brother is coming,” I said “Jameson?” he looked up.
“No. Stuart. Jameson is on Iceland researching his next book,” I tried to hold my laughter.
“I swear…,” he shook his head and went back to his computer. “Why is Stuart coming?” Patrick asked.
“Apparently, Regina had been begging him for months to come for her 18th birthday,” I shrugged.
“He doesn’t know about Samuel,” he says and I open my eyes wide “that’s going to be interesting,” he shook his head. I’ve come to realize that when it comes to Regina, Patrick shakes a lot his head.
I waved him good bye and left to the dress fitting.
When I got to the room where the fitting was taking place I found Regina in front of the mirror looking at herself with the dress on. It was beautiful. It was an Ellie Saab. Amazing! Few things had I seen like that in my whole life. It was a Lavender/purple dress; the bodice was completely embroided with purple flowers that got to her thighs. The chest, shoulders and arms were covered in purple lace and the skirt (very skaterish) was completely purple; the length was a bit above the knee. It was a dream and Regina knew it. She had the biggest smile I’d ever seen on her face.
“You look stunning,” I said smiling at her. I felt kind of proud and it was weird that I had that feeling.
“I know! Lucy, it’s so beautiful I want to cry,” she said looking at herself in the mirror.
“I might cry too,” I nodded vigorously and she laughed.
“What are the other dresses for?” I asked looking at a couple of dresses in a rack next to the mirror.
“Oh,” she said clapping. She always clapped when something excited her. One single clap full of excitement “I forgot to tell you. Patrick asked some dresses for you to pick one for the party tomorrow,” she said looking at me through the mirror. I frowned, I knew I was frowning and she smiled at me.
“I already have a dress,” I told her through the mirror while someone was measuring something in the waist. I had no idea what was there to change but they were working on something.
“He wants you to check out the dresses,” she shrugged and I nodded “You might find something that you like,” she said with a tiny smile.
“I might,” I said getting up to check the dresses. I wasn’t planning on wearing any of those dresses but then I saw it. I saw the most perfect dress. It was a very short red lace dress. It was almost as if the whole top part was some kind of see through red lace while the bottom part was completed with a red tulle skirt covered in red lace. I was in love.
“That’s a Zuhair Murad,” said Regina with a half smile. I thought I was being careful by not showing that I was too interested in the dress but I guess that I stared at it longer that I should have.
“It’s beautiful,” I said almost in a whisper.
“You should try it,” she said and looked at her and she nodded with a grin “You’ll look amazing in it,”
“Ok,” I said taking the dress from the rack and gasping when I realize that the back was all in see through red lace “yeah, I need to try it on,” I said and went to the bathroom.
When I came out of the bathroom I felt like a princess and when I looked at my reflection I felt like a queen.
“I love it, “I said running my hands through the skirt of the dress.
“You look gorgeous in it,” said Regina who was coming out of the walk in closet where she had changed into her regular clothes.
“I’m not going to lie. I do look gorgeous,” I said nodding.
“But I have a tiny adjustment if you let me,” she said coming closer. I nodded. Everything that Regina touched was gold so of course I let her “a bit shorter,” she said grabbing the hem of the dress and folding a lot of it into the fabric.
“Shorter?” I asked. It was already pretty short. Four fingers above the knee and in my opinion it was very short.
“This dresses are made to be really short,” she said and the lady that had been in charge of the adjustment nodded. “This short,” she said folding the fabric until mid thigh.
“Oh My God, Regina. No,” I said slapping her hand off. She laughed really loud.
“C’mon Lucy. You have great legs and this dress is made to be worn like that,” “I’m a 30 year old woman, Regina. I’m not 18 anymore,” I rose an eyebrow “That doesn’t mean you can’t dress sexy or amazing,” she said nodding to the adjustment lady who began taking measures. “Shoes? Do you have classic black pumps?” she asked and I nodded “Good. You are set then,” she clapped and turned to look at me. “My brother is going to be a happy camper,” she said as she turned and went to look at the rack of dresses.
I knew she did that on purpose. How could she say something like that and then walk away? Did she know something about what me and Patrick had going on? Ugh! This relationship was turning out to bring more stress than living without sex for almost a year.
Once the fitting was done (the adjustment lady was finishing everything right there on the guest room so we could have the dresses that very day) I went to change for dinner. Nothing fancy. Leather leggings and white peplum shirt. Nice enough to be at a Maynard dinner.
“Hey,” I said as I entered the kitchen and found Patrick on the breakfast bar.
“Hey,” he looked up and smiled. We stared at each other waiting for Miranda to finish whatever she had to finish. It was awkward and I guess she sensed it because she left after a bit. Patrick grinned and walked towards me but I stopped him putting a hand in his chest. He frowned.
“Your family is arriving any minute now and Regina is upstairs,” I said shaking my head and he pouted. “Why did you buy me a dress?” I asked.
“Oh! So you picked one?” he seemed excited.
“That’s not the point. Why did you do it?” I asked still with a hand in his chest. He was holding it by the wrist. He was smiling. I wanted to take him to the pantry and have dirty dirty sex. I shook my head to clear my head.
“It’s Valentine’s day,” he shrugged.
“Oh yeah,” I said remembering “Being Regina’s birthday I completely forgot about it,” “I always forget about it. February 14th is Regina’s birthday. That’s it,” he said and I snorted.
“You remembered now,” I said not asked.
“I did,” he was still holding the hand that I had in his chest.
“Why,” I asked and he finally moved his hand to my waist.
“Because I have you now,” I felt things I shouldn’t be feeling. It was a mixture of black caramel apples and my heart melting.
“We are not a couple,” I said almost out of breath.
“We are something,” he said. I nodded. “Good,” he said with a grin. I was looking at him like a stupid fool because I had no words left to say.
“So,” he said raising his eyebrows “did you like the dress you picked?” “Oh My God, Patrick,” I said finally releasing myself from his grip on my waist “It’s the most beautiful dress I have ever seen. It was love at first sight,” he was looking at me amazed. “I wish I could wear that dress every day of my life, every second. I want to sleep in that dress, I want to work out in that dress, I want to go work in that dress,” Patrick couldn’t take it anymore and laughed out loud. I laughed out loud and that turned into a fit of laughter that we couldn’t put a stop to. We had to sit on the kitchen’s floor to get some air from laughing so much.
“Ok,” we heard a voice and tried to stop laughing and looked up at the kitchen’s door. It was Stuart. I immediately got up and tried to wipe a few of the tears I had. “Patrick,” he said nodding looking at Patrick and then he looked at me with what seemed to be a smile “Lucy,” I nodded back.
“I’m going to check on Regina,” I said and walked past Stuart and went up the stairs to get Regina. When I came back from checking on her I found Patrick at the bottom of the stairs talki
ng to Stuart.
“Just in time,” he said with a huge smile “Come, I need to show you something. You too Stuart,” he said and I was so relieved that he was asking both of us to go with him because it wouldn’t look too weird if I went all alone with him and leave Stuart there.
“I just got the first assessment of MBU’s course,” he said clicking something on his phone as I heard the printer come to life.
“Seriously?” I said taking both my hands to mouth.
“That’s good,” said Stuart and we both sat in the chairs in front of Patrick’s desk.
“Here,” said Patrick giving me and Stuart a copy. I couldn’t help the smile that I had on. It said amazing things. 9 out or 10! And there were some minor issues that had to be changed but that were already planned for the first course that was offered at May, inc. in March.
“This looks great, Patrick,” said Stuart reading the complete brief. Patrick had a huge smile on too. He was happy about the results but I knew he was happy to be sharing that with Stuart. Patrick trusts a lot in Stuart’s opinion when it comes to business.
“This is perfect,” Patrick finally said and looked up to meet my eyes. I knew he wanted to jump from the chair he was in and hug me and kiss me and then have sex with me on the office’s floor (one of the few places in this house that we hadn’t tarnished with our dirty Sunday activities). I smiled, wide; I wanted to show him, in any way possible, that I was thinking the exact same thing.
“I’m impressed, Patrick, this is a project that will be big. I’m sure,” said Stuart re-reading the brief. We couldn’t stop eye-fucking each other.
“It was all Lucinda’s idea,” he finally said breaking the eye contact and looked at Stuart.
“Well, Lucy, this is impressive,” Stuart nodded “any chance that you want to come work for me?” I didn’t know if he was serious but Patrick’s smile was still the same so I just let a tiny laugh out.
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