“Oh, I believe she’s working for you alright, but in more ways than one.”
“You want to be friends?” I snapped. “Then don’t fucking push it and trust me. I don’t know if I will be accepting your offer yet, but if you want me to then you really need to do better than whatever this is.”
“I made you a drink!” She exclaimed as though she had just built me the Eiffel Tower.
“And now I am asking that you get out.”
“Fine. I tried.” She marched away, leaving me alone with my thoughts again.
I had no idea how I was going to deal with the Aria situation. I had two options. The first was completely unacceptable: I could terminate the contract on her terms. No, that was not happening. I would have to be really weak in order to let a twenty year old girl win like that. Letting her off easy would be admitting defeat, something I had never done in my life, and I wasn’t going to start now. This was why I wanted to continue the contract. Plus, I craved her body. I slept every night dreaming of the times we had sex and thinking of all the ways in which I could please her and she could please me. I wasn’t going to sit there and pretend that the sex part didn’t matter; it did and it was quite a significant part of why I enjoyed our dalliance so much.
But there was more…
There were the sassy conversations we had. There was her intelligence. There was her stubborn defiance that at once made me so fond of her and so frustrated with her. There was the way she laughed: so contagious. And the way she removed her perfectly red hair from her eyes, slightly frowning through the side of her mouth, assuming nobody would notice her annoyance with the strand that dared to interfere with her vision. There was also the way she fucked me: with so much passion and effort. For someone who had only had sex once before me, she was more talented than any woman I had ever slept with. She just knew how to drive me completely and utterly insane, in and out of bed.
Somewhere between the contract and the dates in my office and all the talks about her Economics paper, Aria Roberts had managed to penetrate a part of my being that I believed had long ceased to exist. This wasn’t something I was proud of, but it was, unfortunately, a fact that I could no longer ignore. I cared about Aria, more than I had cared about any girl or woman in a long time. It mattered to me that she was happy and it mattered to me that she was happy with me. The way things had taken a turn, she was not going to be happy with me if I forced her to stay in the contract. But the alternative was to let her go, and that was not something I would allow happen.
The second option was to force her to continue the contract – the option I had already inadvertently chosen, the minute she talked of possibly breaking it – but to find a way to make her happy with me again. No matter what I had said to her about my reaction to her ex-boyfriend, truth was it was pure jealously.
Something I really needed to keep in control, at least around her, even if I felt it inside. She had said I had gotten too controlling. I wasn’t sure how I could fix that. That was the side effect of my entire existence: being on top of the food chain all my life involved the ability to get everyone around me to do as I say at all times. Mesmerized by my wealth and power, not a single person – other than my mother, and she too had to use emotionally manipulative tactics to defy me – had ever felt the need to criticize my approach. People usually just resigned to accepting me as a superior and did as I said.
Aria was obviously different from most people I knew, so I had to find a new approach. I didn’t have to, technically. I could let her continue the contract and be miserable. Some part of me felt like that was exactly what she deserved. But, no. I would not be able to handle an encounter with her where I knew that she would rather be any place in the world other than with me. If she wasn’t enjoying herself, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy her company. She wouldn’t be the Aria I had grown to care for.
So perhaps it was time to try something new. I picked up my phone and called Aria. She didn’t answer so I kept calling until she did.
“I get it, I am confined to your contract until eternity and beyond – or whenever you decide you are done with me. You made it very, very clear already. What more do you want?” She sounded like she had been crying.
“I want to apologize,” I said as softly as possible. “For my behavior. I am sorry.”
There was silence on the other end for what felt like a lifetime. She must have been shocked. This apology was probably the last thing she was expecting.
“Are you really sorry?” She asked, sounding much less miserable.
“I am. But I am not letting you out of the contract. That’s not negotiable.”
“Then why are we having this conversation right now?”
“Because I want to apologize. Because you deserve an apology. This contract is meaningless if you hate me.”
“Well I don’t…hate you. I never said that,” she said, and I felt relief spread through my whole body.
“In that case, I will see you in the office tomorrow?” I was clutching the phone very close to my ears. “You are out of vacation days, you know. The other tellers might think I’m playing favorites.”
She giggled, to my surprise. “Well, you are.”
“They don’t need to know that. Anyway, I would really like to see you tomorrow at the office and we can discuss the contract and how to proceed in a manner that pleases you. How does that sound?”
She simply said “okay,” which was still better than a “no.” I could work with “okay.”
“Have a good night Aria, I will see you tomorrow.”
“You too,” she said and then hung up.
Tomorrow I would have to employ all the skills I had accumulated as a businessman in negotiation, so that when the conversation was over, Aria would think it was her idea to continue with the contract.
For now I was just relieved and fell into my bed, finally relaxed after a very difficult few weeks.
THE BOSS #3
Chapter 1
Aria
After the bizarre phone conversation I had with Zayden, I was very confused about my own feelings. He had apologized, and certainly sounded remorseful. If he wanted to continue this – whatever this was – he probably would not go back to his controlling ways. Or so I hoped. On the one hand, I really, really wanted to believe him—the truth was that I missed spending time with him, even though I hated to admit it. On the other hand, if I had learned one valuable lesson in my twenty years of existence, it was that people did not change. This wasn’t for lack of trying, but human nature demanded a deeply ingrained sense of self that was intrinsic to each person, and getting rid of that was not very different from getting rid of an actual organ. My dad had taught me this. Growing up, I saw the efforts he made to be more financially responsible; he really wanted to change and it was obvious even to a ten year old. Yet he managed to drag my family into bankruptcy, the price of which we were still paying today. Especially me. If it hadn’t been for my dad’s terrible decisions, I wouldn’t be in this situation right now. My mom wouldn’t be in the situation she was in to begin with. Sometimes, it was very difficult not to hate him.
My thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door, and I was glad, because I was entering dangerous territory: Allowing my thoughts to drift towards my father was like opening a can of worms that was best left shut very tight.
“Come in,” I said yawning.
The door swung open. It was Nick. “So, you’re being kidnapped for breakfast.” He looked pleased with himself, perhaps because he had been trusted with the job of kidnapping me. Stacey usually saved any endeavor that involved persuading me for herself, knowing Nick was too weak against my glare.
“I am starving. I’ll get ready in five.”
“Wait, what?” Nick looked disappointed. “You aren’t going to make me convince you?”
“No, Nick, I’m sorry,” I laughed. “Tell you what, I’ll tell Stace I didn’t want to go, but you worked your big Nicholas charms and I changed my mind.”
“This is why I keep you around,” he said and winked. “She’s meeting us at the diner. She went for a run. I don’t know what’s gotten into her.”
“She wants to be healthy?” I asked quizzically.
“What for?” He looked so clueless I wanted to pet him. “What does that do? She is already perfect, as far as I see it. Is she trying to tell me to work out more?” He tentatively surveyed his skinny arms.
I sighed. “It’s not a trick. She’s been reading too many blogs again. You know she’s a hypochondriac. She thinks she will die of a premature stroke if she doesn’t start running.”
He shook his head in what appeared to be disapproval and frustration. “Five minutes, Aria.”
---
To my relief, the diner wasn’t cramped like it tended to be during breakfast hours. Today was the day I was finally going back to work after all the drama, and I really needed a nice, calm morning to get through what was sure to be an action-packed day.
Stacey was already seated and waiting for us at a booth when Nick and I entered. She was still in her exercise-wear and looked very energized. Maybe I needed to start joining her in these morning runs. I sure could use the pick-me-up.
“Had a nice workout?” I asked Stacey sitting across from her as Nick found his way next to her.
“It was incredible! Did you know there is a hiking trail behind the lake? And clearly not many people have discovered it because I have been going every morning and it is just me and beautiful birds and swans by the lake. It’s mesmerizing.”
“Will it be as mesmerizing if you had company?” I asked tentatively.
Stacey’s whole face lit up, as Nick banged his on to the table, as though unable to understand why not one but two people in his life suddenly wanted to run in the morning.
“Aria, I’ve wanted you to join me this whole time!” She sounded very excited. “But you’ve been, you know, having a rough week, and I didn’t want to make it seem like I was pushing – but I mean – I did think it would help you work through some of the stress from–”
“Calm down, Stace,” I said giggling. “You don’t have to be nervous about asking me to do anything with you. You know that! So how about tomorrow morning?”
“Yep, get ready by five.”
“No way! How long do you run?” I checked the time; it was eight in the morning. One hour until I had to be at the bank.
“Well, I only run for probably an hour total. But I sit by the lake and think and write on my blog and it’s so wonderful. It’s like–”
Stacey’s voice was interrupted by Nick’s hysterical laughter. “You take your laptop on your runs?”
She gave him a really confused and affronted look. “Of course. I take my car to the hiking trail, leave my laptop in it, run for an hour, and then sit down and write while I enjoy nature.”
“Sure, enjoy ‘nature’,” he said making air quotes with his hands.
Stacey raised her voice. “At least I’m outdoors and not spending all my time locked in a room playing video games.”
Nick opened his mouth but before he could say anything, Stacey added, “I will put a dollar in the jar, whatever.”
“The jar?” I asked the both of them, slightly amused.
“We have devised a system,” Nick answered pleasantly. “Every time Stacey gives me a hard time about my video games, or I give her a hard time about her blogs, we have to put a dollar in an individual jar. At the end of each year, we are going to count both jars, and whoever has less gets to pick a present that the collected money will buy.”
“You guys are so perfect,” I said, yet again amazed by their relationship. “How do you do it?” I asked and then laughed.
“Lots and lots of dollars in the jar,” Stacey sighed and we all laughed.
Would I ever have what they had… with Zayden? Was he even capable of this kind of comfortable affection? Everything was grand in his life, everything was upscale and elaborate– fancy cars, expensive restaurants, personal chefs. Did he ever just have a day to pursue the little things in life, in a non-calculated manner? I knew the answers to all these questions, which gave me one more reason to keep my cool when I met him later today. We were never going to be right for each other like Nick and Stacey were. And who was I even kidding? He didn’t want to be right for me now, did he? He just wanted me to obediently finish his contract so he could feed his ego; there was never any deception there, never a grey-area about his motives. He wasn’t exactly asking me – nor had he ever asked me– to be his girlfriend— just his subordinate who did his bidding and entertained him from time to time, who he could control, and tell her who she can or cannot talk to. As a fresh surge of anger started boiling deep inside of me, I tried to distract myself with the menu.
“What are you guys having?” I asked, forcing a smile.
I got bacon and eggs over-easy, Nick got two omelets, and Stacey, to both of our surprise, got a garden salad, making me suspect that there was more to why she was running. She was obviously hiding something from us. Stacey loved food more than anything and always mocked people on diets. Early morning runs to be “healthier” I could buy, but this, this was not the Stacey I knew. Wondering about what she was hiding momentarily took my mind completely off all my other worries. A glance at Nick told me he was thinking the same things, but we made eye contact and silently decided not to pick at her for the moment. Instead, I decided to bring up my own woes.
“So guys, I am finally seeing him today,” I said, looking at Nick because watching Stacey nibble at the carrots was bound to make me laugh.
“Womp womp,” Nick said. He was also not looking at her. “So this is it then? You are going to break it off?”
“I think so…” I thought of what I wanted to communicate to them exactly, but then realized I didn’t know. They had yet to hear about my phone conversation with Zayden. “He called me the other night. And apologized for being so controlling.”
“He did?” Stacey sounded genuinely surprised. “Are you sure?”
“I don’t think he could mean much else by the words ‘I’m sorry’,” I said, snappier than intended.
“No, I mean like, did he say he was apologizing for being controlling? Not just like a general ‘I’m sorry we’ve been having a fight and I want you to come back, so I’m backing down kind of a thing?”
Hmm. What had he apologized for exactly? I couldn’t be entirely sure. But I did remember he said… “He said he would not do it anymore.”
“Very interesting,” Stacey said, clearly weighing the implications of that rapidly in her head. “So you’re still going to break it off?”
“I think so… I mean… that is why I brought it up. What do you guys think?”
Nick got suddenly very preoccupied with his omelet, which was fine. I was used to him making humorous quips, but he was never one to volunteer serious advice, probably for good reason.
Stacey on the other hand was always full of perfect advice, so I was curious to see what she had to say – considering she was the one who had put the idea of breaking it off in my head to begin with.
“There is a good chance he is going to hurt you,” she said matter-of-factly. “He has already done it once. That said, I am not going to tell you what the right thing to do is here. I have an opinion based on very little second-hand information. I don’t know him like you know him. I don’t know what was between the two of you like you do. The only person who can realistically decide what the right thing to do here is you.”
“No, Stace! Come on, don’t choose now to be politically correct. You think I should stick to ending it don’t you?”
“I did before and I told you as much. But if he is willing to change, it’s a completely different matter. That’s what I am trying to say – there is no way for me to rightly assess if he is, in fact, going to change. You’re a much better judge of that, which is why I know whatever you decide will be the right call.”
That gave me a whole lot to think
about, so for the rest of breakfast I remained almost completely quiet, thinking about what I was going to do when I got to work later that day. The fact that I was even considering all this so seriously and having second thoughts was ridiculous.
I would just have to deal with it when I saw him – perhaps I would make the right decision when faced with him in person. Right now my judgment was too clouded by the fact that I missed him, which I hated myself for.
Quickly finishing the rest of my eggs, I got up to leave. “I’ll be late for work, got to run. Thanks so much, you guys. For everything.”
“Of course. Good luck today. You’ll do the right thing, Aria,” Stacey told me and smiled. “Just don’t be too hard on yourself.”
“Have a good one, Aria!” Nick waved.
I was made up entirely of nerves by the time I left.
---
When I reached the bank, it was unusually quiet. Everyone was staring in the direction of Zayden’s office, making insincere attempts to conceal what they were doing. Mrs. Brian was gasping visibly. I put my things away in my desk, then looked up to see what the fuss was about. My heart stopped.
A beautiful blonde woman who looked like a supermodel was giggling happily at Zayden, who seemed to be slightly frustrated. It had to be a business partner. Or so I kept trying to convince myself. The woman looked older – closer to Zayden’s age, and it was a perfectly reasonable possibility that she was there for something work related. It couldn’t be anything else, could it? Ignoring the uncomfortable knot that had been forming in my chest ever since I saw the woman, I tried hard to focus on work. A good amount of data entry had piled up in the time I had been away from the office, a fact that Mrs. Brian wasted no time in reminding me.
“I’m on it,” I said, annoyed. Most of the time I could stand Mrs. Brian and her judgment and nosiness, but right now, in the midst of worrying about the woman in Zayden’s office and everything else that was going on, I had no patience for her whatsoever.
“That man has no shame,” she was muttering.
The Boss (The Boss Romance Series Box Set) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) Page 15
