by Elle Harte
Don’t you mean Kitten? You conniving man.
“Yes… Chase… hi,” I managed. Barely. “I started training today.”
Embarrassing. Embarrassing. Embarrassing.
He went on beaming. “Good,” he said, smooth, calm, composed like a freaking sociopath. “Guess, I’ll see you around.” He resumed talking to the person that he was with, and continued toward the elevator without so much as a single glance back.
Chase
That was intense! I managed to somehow get into the elevator without acting like a fool but I could barely focus on anything. If I hadn’t left the room, I would have been in an embarrassing situation because they were my co-workers.
I had to act professional at work, I had enough rumors going on about my personal life but so far no one had questioned my work ethic. Never date someone at work had been one of my cardinal rules.
But my Kitten looked beautiful. How could I possibly keep my eyes off with her working in the same vicinity? Being rude to her that night was easier because I hadn’t needed to act that way for long. It was barely a few minutes and that was nothing, but with her around me the whole time it was going to be difficult not to try and fuck her like I wanted to right now. Fuck me, I was getting an erection and I would probably have to do something about it now. Like picture her cute little head going up and down my dick. My beautiful, coy, Kitten.
This wasn’t going to be easy but I couldn’t get carried away. It would take a lot of will power to get through facing her every day.
The assistant who walked into the elevator with me was talking about something important, but I was still distracted. It wasn’t until I had gotten into the limo and Stanton started taking me to the next meeting that I started to calm down, or more accurately, my dick started to calm down.
“How’s your day going, sir?” Stanton asked.
“Fine. How about you?”
“Fine as well, sir.”
Stanton went silent when my phone rang. “Hey,” I heard Kira’s sleepy voice on the other end.
“Are you finally gracing the world with your presence?” I said, icily.
“Was I oversleeping again?”
“I haven’t seen you in days, Kira.”
“Sorry. I don’t know maybe I’m coming down with something.”
“Why’d you call?”
“Uh…I need some money.”
“How much?”
“Not much. A thousand should do.”
“I’m off to a meeting,” I said, checking my watch. “When I get there, Stanton can come by the loft and give you the cash.”
“Thanks.”
“He can also drive you anywhere you want to go.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Kira said. “I can manage.”
I said goodbye to her and tried to focus on the meeting. But between Kira and Blayne it was next to impossible.
“Stanton,” I said. “You’ll have to make a trip to the loft. Give Kira some money.”
“Of course, sir.”
“Stanton?”
“Sir?”
“Do you think you can keep an eye on Kira?”
Blayne
I don’t know how I struggled through those next couple of hours, but thankfully, I never ran into him again. Which was good. I think. When I finally got off work, I was running all the way back home because I felt like I had to grab Chloe’s throat and quite possibly murder her for giving me Brenda Sorkin’s contact.
I managed to get to our apartment on trembling feet from the adrenaline that my body was pumping, and I don’t think I had ever been this mad at Chloe before. I had trouble using the keys to get inside, I was that furious.
Chloe was on the couch, in front of the television watching some stupid show that I couldn’t care about.
“How could you?” I glared at her, throwing the keys and the bag noisily on the table. She turned to me and there was nothing on her face that showed she had a clue what I was talking about.
“What’s going on?”
“You knew!” I said. “You knew who I was working for, and you sent me there anyway!”
She kept staring at me the same way, completely clueless. “Blayne, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said. I rolled my eyes in frustration, and finally started to explain.
“I just found out who my boss is Chloe,” I said. “It’s Chase Cooper!”
“The one-night stand slash stalker guy?”
“You’re kidding me, right?”
“You think I knew about this? You really think I would do this to you? Come on, Blayne! Give me a break. That guy owns like a hundred companies in New York alone, there is no possible way I could have known that Corporate Alliances was one of them.”
My anger lessened but it wasn’t exactly gone, because I was still annoyed that I was working for Cooper now, but at least I knew Chloe wasn’t involved. “You really didn’t know?” I said. “Oh God, Chloe. I’m so sorry! I thought this was one of your plans where you don’t tell me a thing until it goes down.”
“Sit down and tell me what happened.”
I sat with a heavy movement, still feeling crappy. “I was having a good day,” I said. “I was actually having a good, productive day, and then, I found out Cooper owns the damn company.”
“You met him?”
“More like saw him. We said hello and then he went away.”
“So, he didn’t try to hit on you or anything?”
“No. But have you forgotten that mail delivery we get every day?”
“So, what, Blayne? He’s a freaking billionaire playboy. He probably paid someone to send you those fortune cookies every day and forgot. It’s not like he was just waiting for you to turn up. He’s probably moved on to greener pastures.”
“That’s certainly what it looked like.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“I’m not,” I said, lying only a little. “It’s just…it was awkward!”
“I know babe,” she said. “I get it. But is it worth losing a good, well-paying job over?”
“Of course not.”
“Then, it’s settled. You’ll be okay in a couple of days when this becomes routine. This is hardly his main office. He probably doesn’t come here that much.”
“Yeah, I guess,” I was feeling so much better now that I had discovered she wasn’t involved. The whole thing was still bothering me, but I hoped that too would pass.
Chloe brought me some wine and we snacked on whatever was available in the kitchen, and while Chloe immersed herself TV again, my head held on to its stubborn distraction, and I was unable to concentrate on anything.
“You’re mine, Kitten. You’re all mine.”
I know I wasn’t supposed to make a big deal out of it, but it’s just that strange feeling I got when I took a whiff of that perfume, I couldn’t seem to wrap my head around it. It was as though inside my heart I knew who it belonged to, I knew it was him, before I saw him, knew that in my gut. As though it was unique, not because I haven’t seen people smell that good, but because it was on him.
I clearly remembered my heart skipping a beat at the sight of him. I wanted to stay there and keep talking to him, if it wasn’t already so awkward between us. He looked perfect, a lot like the vision I remembered from all those nights ago. Back then, I had thought perhaps it was because I was going through a rough patch, which might have altered my feelings toward that stranger. But today, it felt amazing just seeing him again, there was no denying it. It was like I was crushing on him, but it didn’t feel like the crushes I’ve had on people before. This was something completely new. I’ve never felt that way before for anyone.
Maybe it was because I saw him that night, while I was in a difficult spot and he might have done something to cheer me up. He gave me a reason to laugh and the confidence to be on my own. Perhaps it was just that. It had to be. I don’t know anything about him. He could be an asshole, like Tristan said, or like Chloe said. It would be awkward
to work for him, in that office. What if his turning up keeps reminding me of that night? I don’t really want to do this, I shouldn’t. Because I will end up doing something stupid. I took this job because I wanted to work, because I wanted to get away from all this relationship crap.
I wanted to work, to find Blayne Worthington. I didn’t just want to give up on everything that is mine to have a meaningless fling with someone I found attractive. I don’t even talk to men in bars anymore, I hardly look at them and I make it a point to dress down as much as possible when I go these places. I’ve been careful not to get into that kind of situation so far. After everything that happened with Nick, I need to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Because I just can’t go through that sort of pain. If it wasn’t for Chase, I’d be doing an even better job. But now, it had all become confusing.
But the decision was still in my hands.
I could let that one night and my ridiculous attraction to my new boss come in the way of my progress, or I could be the best Blayne I could be.
And if working for Chase ever came between my new life and me, then I would leave that place, there was no doubt about it.
Chase
That day after work, I was tired and wanted to go home. Too many things to worry about, and avoid but then I stepped into the elevator and saw Blayne.
She and her friend whose face I recognized for some reason, they stepped in the elevator with me. I pushed the button for Ground and we waited. Her friend was smiling at me.
“I know you from somewhere,” I said, smiling back.
“Yes,” the friend said. “We met at a corporate event, it’s not important. I’m sure you attend a lot of them.”
“You’re Jane’s friend,” I said, finally remembering where I had seen her.
“Wow,” she was either impressed or confused, I couldn’t tell.
I was trying hard to remember her name. “Chloe?”
This time she looked positively charmed. “You…remembered my name.”
“Of course,” I said. “We were at the same table at the event, remember?”
“Yeah.”
Blayne was watching the exchange silently and her gaze was fixed at the moving numbers above the door. When the floor finally came I let them walk through before I came out.
“Well,” I said. “It was nice running into you.”
We parted ways and again trying to act like I wasn’t noticing her was absolute torture. I took out the keys to the Audi and drove home.
I tried calling Kira from the car, but she wasn’t picking up. For some reason, I just felt uneasy. And then Stanton confirmed that uneasiness by calling me.
“Sir,” he said. “You said you wanted me to keep an eye on your friend.”
“Did you find something?”
“Sir,” Stanton said, and it was obviously hard for him to say the next words. “I think you need to come with me.”
“Come with you? Where?”
Blayne
We were walking down the street after just having run into Chase.
“He remembered me,” it was the third time Chloe said that. “He actually remembered my name, how’s that even possible? I mean, he must meet a million people every day so how does he remember me?”
“I can’t tell if you’re mad or happy about it,” I said.
“It’s just strange.”
“So, he knows names, so what?”
“Blayne,” Chloe said. “He doesn’t have to remember people. Maybe he’s not as awful as some people make him out to be.”
“That’s your conclusion?”
“It’s a working theory.”
I think Chloe had started liking him, even though she wouldn’t admit it.
The idea made me smile. Just like that smug man to impress everyone around him. He was doing it on purpose. He knew it would make an impact on me.
Despite all my attempts to despise Chase Cooper, when we walked to the subway, I felt oddly ecstatic in the knowledge that there would be a fortune cookie waiting for me at home.
“There is always time for love and happiness.”
Chase
The place Stanton had driven me to, was an abandoned building in far-off Jackson Heights. Peeling plaster and graffiti all over the walls, broken windows with years of dust collecting on them. In fact, the whole neighborhood looked the same, abandoned and a bit moldy.
“Sir,” he gestured to the building. “That’s the place.”
“You saw her?”
“Yes sir.”
“And you’re sure they haven’t left?”
“I would think not.”
“Okay,” I said, unsure if I was ever going to be ready for this. “I’ll go take a look.”
“Are you sure, sir?” Stanton said. “It could be dangerous.”
“Kira’s in there, isn’t she?”
“Yes, but perhaps I should go with you?”
“Stay here,” I said and walked into the building. I touched the Glock that I always carried with me now in case there was any trouble. Kira wasn’t the reason for my carrying that thing, but I guess it could still come in handy. Not that having an altercation with a coked-out drug dealer was my dispute of choice. There was just too much danger involved and that was one of the reasons I didn’t do drugs—the hassle involved was pointless.
Inside the building, things didn’t get much better. Once upon a time there might have been life in here, plaster that wasn’t peeling and people who were alive but now it was a stinking, decaying hell-hole. Everything smelled of mold or rot.
For a minute, it was impossible to believe Kira could be in a place like that. It just couldn’t be true. She was too much of a neat freak to be in a place that smelled like there might be dead things in it. It was dark at first but then I started to see the light from candles and the people who had lighted them. Homeless people, I thought at first glance and then it occurred to me—they weren’t just homeless, they were all junkies; ghosts that inhabited this dark abode, and they all looked at me with the eyes of the dead. I felt like the only living person among them. And then out of the other dead people I saw two faces I recognized.
“Kira?” I said to the barely conscious ghost who was barely conscious and lying on the floor in one corner, next to the same ‘friend’ who had been hanging out at the loft. I rushed toward Kira, and she tried to look at me but I couldn’t tell if she even recognized me.
“What’re you doing?” the kid said but my glare was enough to shut up his stupid junkie brain.
I put an arm around Kira and pulled her up but she couldn’t put much weight on her own feet. Before I left, I glared once more at the boy. “If you so much as come near her again, I’m going to have you arrested.”
The kid said nothing in response, disappeared in the darkness like the other ghosts. Outside, Stanton saw me and came around to help carry Kira to the limo.
“Where to sir?” Stanton asked.
I looked at Kira’s sleeping form and I knew taking her to the emergency room would be a bad idea. “Let’s just go home, Stanton.”
Blayne
We got to the apartment and there was something waiting for us in the hallway.
It was a big pile of roses with a sorry note attached to it and signed Nick Callahan. I crumpled the note right away and stepped through the pile of flowers to get to the door and unlocked it.
“Let me guess,” Chloe said, walking up to me. “Mr. Dick of the century realized he had to use every hook in the cheesy romance movie plot to get you to forgive his sorry ass.”
I went straight to the fridge and filled myself a glass of boxed wine. “He can try all he wants, it’s not happening.”
“How could you love someone that unoriginal?” Chloe said, getting a glass for herself. “I would have shot myself in the head a long time ago.”
I laughed, despite myself. “You’re right,” I said, going to sit on the couch. “He’s not exactly rocket scientist material, is he?”
“I ju
st wish he’d stop being stupid, though.”
“Me too.”
“What a waste of extremely good roses.”
“Chloe?”
“Yes?”
“Do you want to bring them in?”
“Kind of.”
“Well then, just do it.”
“You’re sure?” she looked at me. “It won’t be weird?”
“Weirder than having my ex send me flowers? I seriously doubt that.”
Chase
I couldn’t sleep the whole night. I sat in a chair next to the bed where Kira was sleeping and I constantly had the urge to check on her every fifteen minutes to see if she was breathing. That would make me relax for a few more minutes before I would start panicking again. At some point, I think I dozed off because I lost track of time. When I opened my eyes, Kira was stirring. And then she got up, sat on the edge of the bed and started rubbing her eyes. I felt relief for the first time. Kira saw me and knew something was wrong.
“What happened?” she asked, because she obviously couldn’t remember.
“I found you in that rotten place,” I said. “Brought you here. You can’t remember because you were barely conscious.”
Kira looked embarrassed. “I’m sorry.”
I wanted to say so much.
“How long have you been going there?”
“Chase—”
“How long Kira?” My voice came out shaking and loud.
Kira said nothing.
I felt rage.
But I also felt powerless, incapacitated.
I got up from the chair and went over to her. “Kira,” I said and couldn’t help that tears were forming in my eyes. “You need to stop. You…you need to stop this shit! This isn’t you! You need to—” the sentence wasn’t finished when Kira stood and hugged me.
“I’m sorry,” she said and I could tell she was choking up on her words too. “I won’t do it again, I promise.”
