by Carter Blake
To make it even better, mine and Naomi’s awesome team work skills are coming out again, and we seem to be winning almost everything. Competition is fierce, but that doesn’t seem to bother her at all, and she’s whipping everyone without a second glance.
“Another first place,” I grin at her as she jumps about with joy. “You won’t be defeated will you?”
“If you haven’t worked that out by now, then you never will.”
As someone else walks over to congratulate her, and chat to her for a few moments, I drink in her appearance. She’s wearing leggings and a tight tee shirt, I imagine to ensure that she’s more streamlined, which is much more casual that I normally see her, and she looks good in that way. I enjoy seeing her in her work suit, looking professional and put together, but I’m also loving seeing more of her body in these tight clothing too. She has some incredible curves, and I cannot stop staring.
“Right gang,” Steve calls out, interrupting all the chitchat. “It’s time for the relay race, so you need to team up with one more team and get into positions.”
Someone grabs onto Naomi, obviously wanting to lock in to her winning streak, which picks the team for us, but I’m no longer concerned with winning. I’m no longer worrying about anything at all, all I can really see is the odd look on Naomi’s face. She doesn’t look quite right, like herself at all, and that has me really worried.
“Are you okay?” I ask her quietly.
She nods quickly, but I’m not convinced. She’s pale and her face is an odd green twinge to it, as if she could be sick at any moment.
“Do you need to sit down or something?”
As she walks towards the race starting line, there’s a definite stagger there, which has me reaching out to her, but before I manage to connect her eyes roll to the back of her head and her body starts to collapse. I race as quickly as I can as she falls and I manage to grab her just before she hits the going.
“Steve, call an ambulance!” I cry out loudly. “Naomi’s collapsed.” I don’t know what could be wrong with her, she has seemed absolutely fine all day, but I need her checked out just to be on the safe side. Of course I would want to do that for anyone, but this is Naomi, and she’s special to me. I need her to be safe.
“Someone, grab some water.”
Everyone scrabbles around me, while I remain still, gripping on to Naomi for dear life, willing her to wake up. She doesn’t though, she’s still passed out when the ambulance arrives and the paramedics whip her away, leaving me hollow and alone.
“Wrap this up,” I tell Steve quickly. “I’m going to go to the hospital. There isn’t time for one of the HR girls to go back to check up on her emergency contact and I don’t want her to wake up alone.”
“Sure, of course.”
But I don’t wait for him to answer, not when my head is so messed up. Instead, I dive into my car and I drive away, moving as quickly towards the hospital as I can. It makes me feel bad that I know so little about Naomi. Does she have family I could call? Does she have some kind of underlying illness that I know nothing about? Is there something else that I should be doing here? I just have to get to the hospital and hope that she’s okay.
***
“She’ll be fine,” the doctor does her best to reassure me. “She’s just severely dehydrated so the drip will help her out.”
“When do you think that she’ll come back around?” I ask in a panicked state. “Is it normal for her to be out this long?”
“We will want to keep her in for the night anyway, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that. At the moment, all her vital stats are looking good, but I would rather keep an eye on her for now. You can go home if you like? We’ll call you if anything changes.”
I shake my head quickly, already knowing that isn’t the case. There is no way that I can leave Naomi alone in this cold, soulless building knowing that she will wake up confused and alone. I don’t care how long it takes, I’ll be here whatever.
“No, I want to stay.”
As soon as the doctor is gone, I slide into the chair beside the bed and gaze over at Naomi, just looking at her and studying her face carefully. She might not know it, and it might have taken me a long time to see it, but she’s changed me a whole lot. Never before would I have been watching someone sleep. Never before would I have cared about how one of my conquests was doing. Never before would I have felt my heart fluttering over someone like this.
Maybe I like Naomi more than I would care to admit, even to myself. Maybe I’m falling deeply in love.
Oh God, I don’t even know what to do about that. I don’t know how I’m supposed to act, so I pull my phone out of my pocket and I dial the number of the only woman who I know can help me.
“Wesley, are you okay?” she always panics, every time I ring which always makes me feel bad for not calling more often. “Has something happened?”
I can’t see any point in holding back, she already suspects, so I might as well tell her everything. “Mom, I think I’m falling for someone.”
“You are?” she gasps out happily. “Oh wow, that’s great news. Who is she? When did you meet her? When do I get to meet her?”
“Well, actually she works at the company.” I know she won’t like that part, but luckily she doesn’t comment. “And I will introduce her to you soon enough.”
“Tell me everything about her.”
As I talk, looking down at Naomi, I start to feel like everything might be okay. With just a few words, Mom has already made me feel a little better, which can only be a good thing.
Chapter Thirteen
Naomi
I groan, as I slowly come back around, wondering what the hell is going on. “Where am I?”
The last thing I can remember is feeling dizzy and sick, at the team building day, and now I seem to be in a really white room.
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. Thi
nk 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 Fourteen
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 ide
a 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?”
