by Carter Blake
I force myself to sit up, despite the fact that my body feels achy all over, to take a look around, and as I try to move my arm, and the needle attached to a drip tugs painfully, the mystery is solved.
Whatever happened to me, however sick I got, I somehow ended up in the hospital, which has me a little worried. I mean, apart from the aching, I feel mostly okay, but who can be sure.
I reach for the button, trying to call the nurse to explain everything to me, when my eyes fall on a sleeping Wesley, who has my heart literally skipping a beat.
What the hell is he doing here, in the hospital with me?
Surely he just piled me into the ambulance and sent me on my way. This is too much for an employee, this is too much for someone that he’s seeing. We aren’t together or anything, and because of the way things are we never will be, so this is intense.
I move slowly out of the bed, tugging the drip along with me, and I move nearer to his sleeping face, drinking in everything about him. Now I don’t just see the rugged handsomeness that the rest of the world does, I can see the sweet man underneath. The guy who cares more about everyone else than himself, the man who I like despite the fact that I can’t. I can so clearly see now that he isn’t really my enemy, even if he is, and that makes it really difficult. But I have to plough on, I have to continue. I can find someone else that I like, I won’t have another Dad, I won’t ever be able to get my revenge again.
Then, as my eyes fall down his body, I notice something that I don’t normally see because he has it hidden under his tie. It’s a key, the one that has to be to his office, giving me the one and only chance to get this done. It’s a real head verses heart situation, and that’s absolutely killer.
With a racing heart, I grab the pile of my clothes that’s next to the bed while I’ve been forced into a horrible hospital gown, and I quickly find the casting material there. I’ve been keeping this with me at all times, just in case the chance arose, but I don’t think I ever expected it to come. Now that it’s here, now that I actually have the chance to do this, everything about me feels conflicted.
You have to do this, I scold myself. Think of Dad, think of everything he’s done for you, remember that this is the only chance you’ll ever get.
So with a heavy cold guilt sitting on my heart, I gently slide the key upwards, and I make the print. It feels wrong, it makes me feel like the worst person in the world, but I know that I have to do it. This isn’t about me and Wesley, and it never has been, and that’s what I need to remember. As soon as I’m able to move on with my life, the chances are I will forget everything about this whole affair anyway, and I’ll be able to move on and really fall in love. At least I’ve managed to prove to myself that I can fall for someone decent, at least this might be the one thing to prove that I am attracted to more than just bad boys.
I just hope I haven’t become the bad girl along the way.
I know I thought to myself that I wanted Wesley to fall for me, so that I can break his heart, but now I get the sense that I might actually be doing that, and it doesn’t feel as good as I expected.
As soon as I have the cast, I make my way back into the bed, and I grab hold of my phone to send a text to Oliver. If I don’t do this now, while I’m all over the place, then I risk the opportunity to talk myself out of it, which I’m already so dangerously close to doing. I still don’t want to involve this man, not when I don’t trust him, but I need someone to turn this print into a key and I can’t exactly do that while I’m stuck in here.
‘Oliver, it’s Naomi, I have the print, can you come to the hospital and get it?’
I know that he’s on the retreat, so he shouldn’t have too much trouble finding me. I would much rather get this done as soon as possible.
‘Now? Or in the morning?’ he shoots back almost right away. I glance across to Wesley wondering if I would be able to get away with it here, before making the smart decision.
‘Come in the morning, I will message you when Wesley is gone. Make an excuse to leave the retreat.’
With that, I turn back over on the bed, and close my eyes to try and get some sleep, but of course I can’t because my mind is racing everywhere, flickering with indecision. I know what I want to do, and I know what I have to do, I just hope that I make the right choice in the end.
***
Once I’ve seen the doctor in the morning, Wesley regretfully leaves me and I send message for Oliver to come. I’m still not fully decided at all, but I want to keep the ball rolling on the plan that I’ve had all along because it feels like the smartest thing to do. Even as I hit the send button, even when Oliver arrives and he takes the print from me, I still don’t know if what I’m doing is right, so I put in a call to my Dad, just to confirm things.
“Hey, sweetie, are you okay?” he asks in a concerned tone of voice. “Oliver told me that you were rushed to the hospital with dehydration. Are you not looking after yourself, or is this part of the plan?”
I have to resist rolling my eyes at this one. I might be ballsy and determined when I set my mind to something, but even I wouldn’t go this far for anything.
“It was just an oversight, Dad, I’m okay,” I shuffle in the bed uncomfortably, my body not fully agreeing with what I’m saying aloud. “I just want to let you know where I am with the plan.”
“Oh I know, you have the key ready, that’s great news.”
Of course, Oliver would have already told him. I don’t know why, but I feel a little annoyed about that, as if he’s stolen my thunder.
“So it shouldn’t be long for you to get this stuff sorted?”
“Well, we have this damn work retreat, so I suppose Oliver can’t do it now without it being obvious that it’s him, so I’ll get it done as soon as we get back.”
“Don’t take too long,” he echoes his warning from before. “I really need this done now.”
Urgh, this phone call hasn’t done anything to make me feel better at all. If anything I’m even more annoyed.
“Right, Dad, the doctor is here,” I lie, just to remind him that my health is in danger too because that seems to have been forgotten. “I’ll speak to you later.”
I wanted to be reminded that this is all for a good cause, and that I’m doing it for the greater good, but instead I’ve been left angry and unsettled. Even more so than before.
In fact I feel like I might be floundering and falling apart.
***
“What are you doing here?” I smile as Wesley walks back through the door, changing my mood entirely. “Don’t you have the retreat to be working with?”
“Been there, done that,” he smiles. “I cut it off early for the day, told the staff to have few drinks on me. I wanted to come back to check on you, to see how you’re doing.”
“I’m much better,” I tell him honestly, sitting up much easier than before. “But they still want to keep me in for another night to keep an eye on me, I don’t really know why.” I did argue it, but the doctor wouldn’t budge. “So how did today go?”
“The team building went really well, but I’m a little concerned about things back at the office.” He looks down at his hands as if he’s really struggling with something, which makes me feel really guilty.
Has he somehow found out what I’m a part of? Is he about to confront me on that? My heart races, terrified, and I stare anxiously at him, just willing him to continue to kill the anticipation.
“I don’t know why, but I have the weird feeling that things are going to go wrong with the launch.”
“What? Why would you think that?” Oh God, this is horrible. I’m so fucking scared that I could scream. I’m just waiting for him to tell me that he knows exactly who I am, and what I’m doing, and I desperately don’t want to see that hate in his eyes.
“I don’t know. It’s just the weird question at the press conference, the stuff the papers have been saying. I guess that’s why I organized this retreat, to try and see if it’s obvious that someone isn
’t happy to be there. I thought it might show me if someone wants to betray me.”
“And?” My heart is thumping, bile rising into my throat, I’m absolutely petrified. “Did you find anyone?”
“No,” he shakes his head sadly. “I don’t know, maybe I’m just being paranoid. Maybe I’m just worried because this is the biggest thing that I’ve ever had to, I don’t know.”
“I think things will be fine,” I smile thinly at him, trying to hide the mess I am inside. “It’s probably just stress. I don’t think you can see how well you’re doing. You nailed that press conference, and the press have been kinder to you since then.” I really need to get him off my trail, and this feels like the best way to do that. By convincing him that it’s all in his mind, then he might look at something else instead. “Everyone I’ve spoke to loves working for you.” I rub his arm gently, causing him to smile back at me. “You just need to stop worrying and start focusing on what you have left to do.”
“You’re right,” he sighs, allowing the tight knot of panic in my chest to subside. “I do feel like I’m acting like a crazy person. I just… I don’t know, I guess it’s all piling up on top of me.”
“Well that’s why I’m here,” I do my best to reassure him. “I’m here to help, with everything until Amber gets back. So try not to worry and just enjoy yourself.”
“Yeah okay, thank you. God honestly I don’t know what I would do without you, you’re my rock at the moment, so thanks for that.”
“Of course,” I all but whisper, guilt consuming me. I feel terrible for lying like crazy, but what else am I supposed to do? I’ve committed the ultimate sin by falling for the person I’m supposed to be conning, and I only have myself to blame for that. “You’re welcome.”
I need to get out, I need to be done with this – now – before I end up doing something stupid. I’m dangerously close as it is, and if I leave it any longer, then I might just follow that through.
Chapter 14
Wesley
I had already decided to end the retreat with a nice meal for everyone where we can all just be together and have a good laugh, but that idea feels even more appealing now that I know Naomi has recovered her strength enough to come along too. As I glance at myself in the mirror, checking that my suit is all pristine, I try to imagine her with me, on my arm, coming to the event as my date.
Of course that can’t happen because I don’t think it’s a good idea for anyone to know about us just yet, just in case people suspect that I’m giving her preferential treatment, plus we don’t even know what we are to one another yet, but it’s fun to think about all the same. I picture her in that black dress, the one she was wearing at the gala when we slept together for the very first time, and my heart goes wild.
This really is the real deal, I can see that now, I just need to decide what to do with that.
“Right, time to go I suppose,” I mutter to myself, whilst glancing at my watch. I’m already a bit late as it is, and I don’t want to make that any worse.
I have been known to make a big entrance, which of course I’ll do tonight because it’s what people have come to expect of me, but tonight there will only be one face that I’m scanning the crowds for.
As I burst into the room, and I smile and wave at everyone, I find my eyes flickering much quicker than normal just trying to find her, but in the end it isn’t Naomi that catches my attention.
It’s a female face that I wasn’t expecting at all.
“Mom?” I gasp in shock, before wrapping my arms around her. “What are you doing here?”
“I had to come, didn’t I?” she muffles into my chest. “I could tell that you needed me when you called me the other day, so I made my way here right away.”
That’s so her, I don’t know how I didn’t predict that before.
She pulls back to look into my eyes, smiling happily at me.
“I want to see how you’re doing, what’s going on with the business, and of course I also want to meet this girl.” She looks everywhere, trying to guess who it could be, which of course she’s never going to be able to because there are so many women here. “Are you going to introduce me?”
“I will, I just need to check that she’s here,” I tell her seriously. “She’s only just come out of the hospital, so I hope that she’s well enough to be here.”
But then I see her, sitting at a table alone, looking like a vision of beauty. I can still tell that she isn’t fully herself, which is proven by the fact that she’s gripping tightly onto a bottle of water, but she’s here, and she can meet my Mom.
God, I hope that doesn’t freak her out. I hope she doesn’t feel under pressure meeting my Mom, and that puts her off me entirely. I’m going to have to make this seem much more causal than maybe it is.
“She’s over there, Mom,” I tell her discretely. “But don’t make a huge fuss. We’re still quite causal and no one knows about us yet, so don’t be too crazy, okay?” I have to warn her because I don’t want her to go off like she’s been known to in the past. “Just be cool.”
“I will, I will,” she tuts. “Just take me to her.”
As we walk over to the table where Naomi is sitting, I smile widely to myself, happy to be able to have this moment. She’s incredible, absolutely beautiful, and I suppose in a way I hope this might be the bridge that opens us up into something more similar.
“Naomi, how are you?” I ask, sliding into the seat next to her. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m much better thanks,” she grins at me. “Glad to be out of the hospital at any rate.”
“I just want to introduce you to my mother, Madeline, she’s decided to join us for the night–”
Before I can get much further, my Mom is in the other seat, completely overshadowing the conversation. She’s being her normal, warm, bubbly self which luckily Naomi seems to be responding well to.
They end up chatting for a very long time about themselves, about the business. They even start putting the world to rights, while I sit there in silence, mesmerized by them. I keep wanting to join in with the conversation, but they’re speaking too quickly for me to be able to, so I simply sit back and enjoy the fact that they’re getting along so well.
This is amazing for me to see, because I’ve never bothered to introduce my Mom to a woman before, and it makes me realize just how important it is for my future wife (and my Mom to get along.
“So, I do have one thing to ask you,” Naomi asks in a tone of voice that has me sitting up straighter in my seat.
Is she about to ask something about me? I really hope that she doesn’t because I know my Mom won’t hold back. She’ll tell the truth whatever it takes.
“I asked Wesley about the founding’s of the company, but he didn’t seem to know much, so I wondered if you knew about it. There is an interesting story in there somewhere, right? The two men falling out…”
“Of course, well John, my husband, started the business with his best friend, Michael Norton. They actually concocted the idea at a business event much like this, for the company they both worked for, because they wanted to begin a pharmaceutical company that didn’t charge the Earth for their drugs. They both had separate skill set, and personalities that would work well together, so they just did it. It was incredible really.” She grows a wistful look in her eyes, and it makes me even more interested. “They hired me first, to be on the research team, so I really was in it from the start.”
I knew some of this already, but it’s interesting to hear again all the same.
“And then… the love triangle started.”
“Love triangle?” I jump in quickly, shocked to hear this.
“Yes,” Mom continues, looking sad. “Unfortunately, because of the close environment we worked in, feelings developed really quickly, from all sides.”
I don’t even know what to say right now. I always just assumed the Mom and Dad were in love from the start. It’s really strange to hear that their love sto
ry was just as complex as any one of my friends, or even my own, could be.
“I had feelings for both of them too, and I just couldn’t decide. I suppose in a way I was leaning more towards Michael…”
“Michael?” I can’t seem to stop myself from interrupting. “Really?”
“Yes, and that did cause complications. But it wasn’t the worst thing. Once Michael saw what he’d created with the first drug, I think greed gripped him, and he wanted to charge too much for it. It went against everything that the company was supposed to be about, so John and the investors forced him out. It was a sad day.”
“So…how did you end up with Dad?” There’s so much that I could be focusing on right now, but my mind can only seem to center in on that.
“Well, without any distractions, my love from John just grew, and we ended up getting married.” She pauses thoughtfully for a moment, before continuing. “Michael moved on very quickly too. The first thing I heard about him was that he was having a baby, so I can only assume that he was happy.”
Before she can say anymore, our conversation is interrupted by one of my drunk employees. “Come on, they’re pulling out the karaoke machine. Let’s go.”
I instantly don’t want to, and from the way Naomi shies away she doesn’t want to either, but of course my Mom jumps up excitedly, racing to the microphone. I know what she gets like and when she starts having fun. I won’t have any chance of getting any more information, so I put a pin in all of that for now, and refocus on Naomi.
“Did you want to stay and wait for food or did you want to come back to my room with me?” I grin at her, hoping she’ll choose the latter. “I have a nice one.”
Her eyes are clouded for a moment, and I wonder if she’s getting sick again.
She shakes her head, then smiles at me. “I want to get away, I’m already feeling a little overwhelmed. I think I’m more worn out from the hospital than I thought.”
