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.