Three Stages of Love: Attraction (21 page)

“Ms. Gina, I have to run out to the pharmacy. I will be back shortly. If Alexander returns, you can call me on this number.” Handing her a Post-It with my cell phone number on it, I turned with the extra car keys in hand and headed for the door.

Google is the go-to source for everything for me. I searched Alexander’s name based in LA, and not knowing for sure what the name of the company was, I found him listed at Angel Ventures Corp.

I felt awkward taking Alexander’s car without asking, but this
was
an emergency of sorts! I was on a mission, and I prayed that the knife in my gut would be removed once I found Alexander and no Chloe—or at least a Chloe that wasn’t Alexander’s ex.

I entered the address into the GPS and took off in haste.

I sat in the car, staring at the granite building before me and felt an awkwardness that I had not felt since the day I stood weakly and shyly outside the PHI building. But I had much more to lose inside this building than just a job.

The building stood only six stories tall, but the details and design of the modern build held its merit to stand in the center of LA.

I took the elevator to the sixth floor and followed the sign for Angel Ventures Corp. When I entered the glass suite, I walked into an empty reception desk. Funny, all I could think was,
The receptionist should be fired.
Had I been a client, I would have thought the business was unprofessional with no one to man the window to the corporation. First impressions are, after all, the most important!

Only today, this was a blessing for me. Having no one at the desk, I wasn’t stopped and Alexander wasn’t alerted of my presence.

I walked toward the back, passing office after office and cubicle after cubicle, and I was obviously having no luck.

“Can I help you?” a young man delivering mail asked.

“Yes, thank you. I’m headed toward Mr. Mason’s office, but I just can’t seem to find my way.” I flashed a million-dollar smile and a damsel-in-distress shrug of my shoulders.

And—like a charm—the young man showed me the way.

Before I arrived at the corner office, I noticed that the large mahogany desk that stood in front of his office was also empty. That same desk was surely to be occupied by the Chloe in question. But where was she?
Doesn’t anyone work here?

“Ha, ha, ha! Xander, you are too much!” The excruciating giggling that came from Alexander’s office practically made me whimper.

I froze in a panic. I knew nothing of what was behind his office door, but I feared it more than death itself.

And then death came to face me head-on.

Standing at almost six feet tall was yet another blonde bombshell with a teeny-tiny skirt on. “How may I assist you, Ms.…?”

I swashed the numbness out of my brain so I could answer her without sounding like a bumbling idiot. “Miss Chase. I’m here to see Alexander.”

“Ah, Miss Chase from PHI. It is a pleasure to meet you. I apologize, but I don’t have you on Mr. Mason’s calendar,” the nameless model confirmed while I verbally coaxed myself steady.

I nodded my head, knowing I wouldn’t be on his calendar, and sparked the burning conversation. “I’m so rude. Your name is?”

“Chloe,” she confirmed, adding nothing else to her identity. “I am Mr. Mason’s personal assistant. And again, I apologize but I don’t think he will be able to see you.”

She was shooing me away, and I wasn’t digesting it well. “I didn’t think that his fiancé had to be penciled in to his calendar.”
Oh shit! I’ve gone and done it now.

The PA scoffed in a grunt. “I’m sorry. Whose fiancé are you? Mr. Mason isn’t currently with anyone, so seeing as you’ve invented this little story of yours, I am going to have to ask you to leave.”

She was being way too overprotective of
Xander,
as she had called out to him moments ago.

“A tad over shielding, aren’t you? Why don’t you poke your little blonde head in and ask
Xander
if Evangeline can see him now?” I was throwing everything I had at her.
Leila must be right; there is no way this girl is throwing herself between me getting to Alexander just because she’s his PA!

With her hands firmly planted on her desk, she spoke pointedly at me. “Look, Eva, I know about you, and I know you broke his heart. I also know that when he needed to get over you, he came crawling back to me, and he’s with
me
every day. Why do you think we work the way we do? I
personally assist
him with all his needs. He’ll never forget what we had together, so you are better off saving yourself a heartache now and walking away with your tail between your legs.”

“That’s funny! The fact that you think
you
could possibly intimidate me is hilarious. You know what is even funnier though? If it wasn’t for him, you would probably be dead by now with a cock in your mouth, even in your grave. You are a pathetic little nothing who he pities.” I moved closer to Alexander’s office.

And then she lost it!

“You fucking cunt! How dare you speak to me like that? You got sloppy seconds, and now you’re pissed—”

She gasped when Alexander flung his office door open and almost fell over when he saw Chloe and I standing only a few feet apart.

“Evangeline, what are you doing here?” was the only thing that came to him. Men—so typical!

“Well, let me respond with a question. What is she doing here? What is
Chloe
the sadomasochistic-loving whore who you dumped years ago in Amsterdam doing in this goddamn building at this goddamn desk telling me she is your
goddamn personal assistant
? Answer me that, Alexander. Or do you prefer to be called Xander?” I bellowed with sheer fury! My biggest nightmare was coming true. My ill-fated destiny of following love and sacrificing my life for it had arrived.

“I can answer that,” Chloe spat out.

Alexander waved his hand to hush her, which failed to do anything but stir her up even more.

“Tell her, Xander, how you came back to me looking to be mended and healed by my touch, by my fucking you, and by our love. Tell her how I please you!” she yelled.

“What the fuck are you talking about, Chloe? Shut the fuck up, and stop trying to stir shit that doesn’t exist. She knows I saw you once when she and I separated. Now get out of my face.” He yelled back.

He turned to face me again, and as he reached to grab hold of me, I stepped back, feeling the bile rise from my churning stomach.

“Evangeline, let’s go calmly talk in my office.”

“What do you have to talk to her about? How much you love me and not her?” Chloe continued to throw her blows. “Make sure you can handle it rough. He likes nothing less.”

“Ha,” I let out in a heavy breath. “While he didn’t like beating you roughly, he has no problem fucking me senseless. I guess I win!” Teasing her I walked to Alexander’s office door to let my self in.

“You fucking bitch!” she shrieked.

And that’s when Alexander jumped in front of her, preventing Chloe from getting at me. Though had he not stepped in the way, my heels alone could have killed her. “Get the fuck out of here, I said. Now! Get out of my face. Take the day; just get out before I fire you.”

He walked with me into his office and slammed the door shut and then locked it. He stood with his back against the door and then scrunched down onto his thighs, bracing his head in his boiling and red hands.

“I fucked up,” was all he could muster up.

But it wasn’t enough.

“Why, Alexander…Why is she here? And if it wasn’t for any other reason than a job, then why didn’t you tell me?” I questioned calmly but sternly.

He remained where he was but looked up at me with his beautiful hazel eyes that were now swollen and glassy. “I felt like I had to help protect her. I thought if she at least had a job that she had to be responsible for, then she would grow on a personal level.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “Though that may be true, it isn’t an answer. Was fucking you also part of her personal growth or yours?”

“
I don’t fuck her!
” he shouted, sprinting up from the ground he had crouched on. “Not after the one time when you sent me away—which I told you about. I never loved her. I have never loved another soul like I love you.”

The fountains of despair released their salty waters as I let my frustrations get the best of me. “You fucking lied to me. You hid her from me. She shouldn’t even be working here. And all the while you allowed Leila to tease me about your whips-and-chains girls, and she bated me by telling me I just
had
to meet her friend Chloe.” Sobbing uncontrollably, I asked, “How could you humiliate me like this?”

Dropping to his knees with a thump, he held his hands at my hips and begged, “Please, Evangeline, you have to believe me. I am telling the truth. It was the one time that it happened in over a decade, and nothing else and at no other time. And I was honest with you about that. It was a mistake, and I came forward and told you because I didn’t want you to find out like…like this!”

“I can’t digest this. This is what Leila meant when she told me she would pull back the Wizard of Oz curtains. She knew you had secrets.” It felt like poison filled my lungs as I released every word. Instead of oxygen, I breathed poison.

“Stop it now!” And he rose to his feet; even with my heels on, he still towered over me. “Leila will get hers. But for now—you are all I care about and all I care to think about. Chloe has a fucked-up temper, and to keep both you safe and her out of harming anyone or herself, I thought it best to keep it quiet. I was obviously wrong, and for that I am sorry. But you have to believe me when I say that I can’t bear to breathe if I think of losing you.”

And I you, Alexander!
But now was not the time.

“I’m leaving,” I said, heading for the door while Alexander watched me walk away. “This is what I have feared all along. Giving in to love and having it tear me apart only to leave me alone, picking up the pieces of my shambled life! I’m temporarily in your home, so I will ask that you not return to the house tonight or that you return when I’m asleep or gone.” Rapidly unlocking the door, I flew out of his office and bolted for the exit to the elevator.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“Ms. Eva, oh thank goodness you’re back. Mr. Mason has been calling every fifteen minutes to check if you had returned. We have been so worried. Are you all right? Are you ill or hurt?”

Ms. Gina might as well have taken my mother’s place at that moment because all I needed was to cry in my mommy’s embrace.

I fell literally into her arms, tightening my hold around her neck, hoping to find consolation. “I think he cheated on me,” I mumbled between hiccupping sobs.

She gasped, holding me up to look at me. “You saw him with another woman? But with who?”

I shook my head no. “His ex-girlfriend is his personal assistant, and she told me he has sex with her often.”

Ms. Gina forcefully positioned me erect. “Now you listen here. That little bitch”—she whispered the word
bitch
—“is no one. I have worked for Mr. Mason for ten years now, and I can assure you that he has spent most of his life alone. She would call, and he wouldn’t answer. She would show up, and he would hide and tell me to say that he was out. He doesn’t love her; he barely cares for her. He loves you, Evangeline.”

I was utterly speechless. Had I talked to Ms. Gina that morning, I might never have gone to Alexander’s office to begin with.

“Let’s go sit and get you dried up from all these tears,” she said, escorting me from the foyer to the kitchen.

The fireplace was lit, and while I sat, Ms. Gina slipped the torturous but gorgeous shoes off of my feet and then placed a blanket over my shoulders.

I was trembling from head to toe from sheer fright and hysteria.

“Let me tell you a story, Eva. When I first married my husband, God rest his soul, he owned his own business in construction. He did well for himself. He had a very outgoing personality and a very friendly demeanor. I didn’t know a single person who didn’t immediately love him or call him their friend. Well, one day, because curiosity gets to us, I was visiting his office and saw the light on the answering machine was blinking. At that time the machines were very new, so I played with the machine and pressed play to hear what the messages sounded like. But remember this always: when you seek, you may not like what you find!” Ms. Gina raised my chin with her fingertips and pushed my disheveled hair to the side. “What I found was a message from a young woman with a very seductive voice. Her message to him—as I can never forget it—was:
I’m so glad you liked it, and I can’t wait to see you again
. I was destroyed. My thoughts immediately decided that he was cheating on me. So…I did what any normal woman would do—I started throwing and breaking things in his office.”

That finally forced a giggle out of me. I couldn’t even try to picture Ms. Gina in a furniture brawl.

“Good. I like to see you smile. As I’m smashing things up real good, my husband walks in and says,
Gina, have you lost your mind?
But seeing him—having his heart beat that near to my own—I could do nothing but cry. My heart was rupturing. So, I spent the night on the floor of his office crying, and he spent the night on the floor right beside me, swearing to me that nothing had happened—except that she had kissed him unexpectedly one day. But before and after that, there was nothing else. And he swore and swore that even that insignificant kiss never should have been given the room to happen, but he did and was gravely sorry for it.”

“Did you leave him?” I asked, crying again for Ms. Gina as well as myself.

“Oh—absolutely not! Are you crazy? Look, men are silly, bendable, and foolish beings. They could be made to crash a plane if women in short skirts and big boobs could walk the clouds. I
chose
with my heart to believe that there was nothing more than that one-time mistake of a kiss. And I
chose
to not give up on the love of my life just because he was a naive fool! See, women are the masterminds behind the workings of everything and anything in the world. Go back to Adam and Eve, and I can assure you that on Eve’s bad days, Adam walked with two feet in one shoe!”