Eloise

The week was flying by and I couldn’t believe it was already Thursday. Since Monday, I had filmed and edited five videos, three of which were already posted and two more scheduled for the next two days. I finished the edits for the Chanel Campaign and had them packaged nicely to take to Christian’s office. Christian and I saw each other every night since we we’d been back from Chicago, and last night, he surprised me with a dozen pink and white roses. I asked him what they were for and his answer: “Just because.” I was on cloud nine and the happiest I’d ever been. My parents invited us over to dinner on Saturday and I was beyond excited for them to meet him. I knew they were going to love him. As for his texting habits, he was right on point. Always responded within ten minutes or less, and most of the time, he initiated the text messages. Our nightly routine was adorable as far as I was concerned. We’d have sex, he’d kiss me and say good night, and then he would pick up his phone from the nightstand and send me a good night text. I’d look at my phone and then at him and he’d give me that sexy wink that melted my heart.

The text messages between me and Mobile Man started to fade, and not because of me. He would go hours without responding, and when he did, it was usually with one or two words. Our long conversations we used to have suddenly stopped. I spoke to Natalie, Scarlett, and Claire about it, and they said he was probably heartbroken that I’d found someone. I told them to stop being ridiculous because he had a girl of his own, the one he called the love of his life. So it had to be something else. I was really bothered by it because I considered him one of my best friends. I told him things I couldn’t tell my girls. He pulled away and I wanted answers. Normally, I would #Delete him, but we’d never met, went out, nothing. We only talked every day via texting, so to me, #Delete didn’t apply in this situation. We weren’t dating and we weren’t interested in each other romantically.

I grabbed the Chanel photos and headed to Christian’s office. When I stepped off the elevator, Claire was standing there with Kenny.

“Hey, you two.” I smiled.

“Hi, Eloise.” Kenny kissed my cheek. “What are you doing here?”

“Dropping these photos off to Christian.”

“Ah. Can I talk to you for a second?” he asked as he lightly grabbed my arm and walked me away from Claire.

“What’s up?”

“I’m happy you and Christian are dating. I was worried there for a while that he would try and make a move on Claire.”

I rolled my eyes at him.

“Can I give you a piece of advice, Kenny?”

“Sure.”

“Stop this jealousy thing you have going on. Claire loves you to death and I’ve never seen her happier. But everyone has their limits, and if you keep this up, you’re going to push her away and into the arms of another man. I know your last girlfriend screwed you over, but don’t let your past define who you are in the present. Trust is very important in a relationship and if you keep giving out that vibe of mistrust to her, you’re going to lose her.”

“I do trust her. It’s the other men I don’t trust.”

“Come on, Kenny, we both know the truth. Because of what happened with your ex, you project all the women you date to be like that. Am I right?”

“I don’t know.” He looked down.

“Just think about what I said. I don’t want to see the two of you split up over something that could have been prevented.”

He gave me a small smile as he placed his hand on my arm.

“Thanks, Eloise.”

“Excuse me?” Claire yelled. “If the two of you are finished, I would like to go eat. I’m starving!”

I glanced over at Claire and gave her a smile before heading to Christian’s office. When I arrived, he was on the phone but motioned for me to come in. I set the photos on the table in his office and he hung up from his call and walked over to me.

“God, I missed you.” He kissed my lips.

“I just saw you five hours ago.” I laughed.

“Five hours is a long time, babe.”

“You’re right. It is.” I kissed him.

Joe cleared his throat as he stood in the doorway of Christian’s office.

“If you two are finished with your PDA, I would like to see the photographs.” He smiled. “I brought lunch for all of us. I had your secretary take it into the conference room.”

I grabbed the photos from the table and the three of us walked down to the conference room. Christian gave me the honor of standing at the head of the table and pulling the photographs out of the envelope one by one. Joe loved them, and when I pulled out the black and white photo of the model naked in bed with the sheet barely covering her, he gasped.

“I would remember that shot,” he spoke.

“I took it after you left. I had an idea and I went with it.”

He got up from his seat, took the photo from my hand, and studied it.

“This is brilliant, Eloise. Do you have any others like this?”

“A few.”

“Send them to Christian as soon as you can. I think I know what we can do with them. My God, you’re a genius.” He kissed my cheek. “I’ve been wanting to do a special test campaign for a long time but was afraid to put it in motion because of the other VP’s. But this, this photo, her look, the expression on her face, it screams sensuality!” he exclaimed. “This is the vision I had.”

“Thank you. I’m happy you like it.”

“No, darling. I love it. Christian, I want to meet with you and your design team. Our one campaign just turned into two.” He smiled. “I have a few errands to run. I’ll be back around five o’clock for that meeting. Is that okay?”

“Five is fine,” Christian replied.

“Great. Excellent work, Eloise. I will definitely be keeping your number handy.” He winked.

Christian walked over and wrapped his arms around me.

“Thank you.” He kissed the side of my head. “I knew I made the right decision hiring you for this job.”

“Was my work the only reason?” I arched my brow at him.

“I’m not going to answer that question.” He smirked.

I hooked my arm around his and we walked back to his office. He took his phone from his pocket and set it down on his desk.

“Dinner tonight at your place after my meeting with Ron?” He grinned as he placed his hands on each side of my face.

“Dinner or sex?” I asked with a raised brow.

“Both. You can’t have one without the other.” His lips softly brushed against mine.

“I agree. If you were only going to say ‘dinner,’ I would have declined, Mr. Blake.”

“Is that so?” His lips touched mine once again.

“Uh huh.” I smiled and our kiss deepened.

“Sorry to interrupt, Christian, but Jimmy asked if you could go look at something in the draft room real quick,” his secretary spoke from the doorway.

“Tell him I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Jimmy interrupted our kiss,” I spoke.

“I’ll only be a few minutes. If you wait for me, we can continue where we left off.”

I gave him a smile as he walked out of his office. Sitting down in the chair across from his desk, I pulled my phone from my purse to see if I had any messages. I didn’t. The last time I heard from Mobile Man was yesterday afternoon. This whole situation was bothering me and it needed to be addressed.

“Hi. I don’t know what’s going on and why you’ve practically stopped texting me. If you’re busy, please just tell me. Don’t start pulling this shit. Not with me of all people.”

I hit the send button and Christian’s phone dinged. I didn’t think anything of it. I stared at my phone and waited for a reply. After five minutes passed, I sent him another text.

“I thought we were friends, Mobile Man. You’re doing to me what a typical douchebag guy would do and I want to know what I did wrong.”

I hit the send button and Christian’s phone dinged again. I furrowed my brows as a sick feeling washed over me. “My god, Eloise, don’t be stupid,” I said to myself.

“Mobile Man?”

I hit the send button and Christian’s phone dinged.

“Hello?”

Another ding.

“Hello?”

Another ding.

My heart started racing as I slowly got up from my chair and walked over to where his phone was sitting on his desk. With shaking hands, I picked it up and saw the name Digits appear on his lock screen. A violent wave of nausea overtook me and my legs began to shake. This couldn’t be happening. Christian was Mobile Man? He walked into his office and stopped when he saw his phone in my hand.

“Eloise?”

“I don’t know what to say, Christian,” I spoke in shock.

“I’m so sorry. I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t know how.”

I stared blankly at him for a moment as silence overtook me. It took a few seconds for my brain to process what he’d just said.

“What?” I cocked my head as tears instantly filled my eyes. “You knew I was Digits and you didn’t tell me?”

“Baby.” He walked over to me.

“STOP!” I put my hand up to prevent him from coming any closer. “ANSWER MY QUESTION!” I shouted.

“Yes. I knew.” He lowered his head.

The air around me constricted my lungs so tightly, I felt as if I couldn’t breathe.

“How long have you known?” I asked in a shaky voice.

“I found out that night I came to your apartment to look at your work.”

“And you kept it from me? Why the fuck would you keep that from me?!”

“I wanted to tell you. I really did, and you have to believe me. I just didn’t know how.”

I swallowed hard as the tears flowed freely down my face.

“All this time. All those text messages. Text messages spilling my guts about you, telling you how I felt and you encouraging me to let my guard down and go for it! How could you do that to me? HOW!” I slammed my fist down on his desk.

“I don’t know. I didn’t want to hurt you. And you need to remember that in all those text messages, you, Eloise, YOU were the woman I was talking about.” He pointed his finger at me.

“Oh my god, you used what I said to your advantage. Was this all a game to you?” I scowled at him.

“No. Of course not! How could you even think that?!” he growled.

“What were you going to do, Christian? Disappear as Mobile Man and pray I never found out?! Was that your plan?!”

“No.”

“Really? Because you haven’t texted me since yesterday afternoon!”

“I was pulling back.” He shook his head. “Fuck, Eloise. I’m sorry. You have to believe that.”

“Well, I don’t!” I screamed.

“Everything I said to you in those text messages was the goddamn truth!” he shouted. “Every single word!”

“Wow.” I shook my head. “I just realized something. You didn’t want to talk about your family because you already told me, and if you told me again, then I would know who Mobile Man was. Is that how you found out that night I was Digits? Because I told you about my parents?”

“Yes,” he softly spoke. “Then when I told you I had to use the bathroom, I stood around the corner and texted you to confirm my suspicions.”

I placed my hands on my head and paced around his office, tears still streaming down my face.

“Fuck!” I yelled.

“Eloise, please.”

“Don’t.” I pointed my finger at him in anger. “Don’t you say a word to me. You don’t get to say anything! You betrayed me, Christian. You knew who I was and you didn’t tell me.”

“You’re right, I didn’t. Maybe if you weren’t so fucking hell bent on not meeting Mobile Man, this never would have happened!”

“So it’s my fault?” I yelled.

“What is going on?” Claire asked as she stood in the doorway. “I just got back from lunch and everyone can hear you!”

“We’re done, Christian. Don’t ever call or talk to me again.” I grabbed my purse and began to head towards the door. Then suddenly I stopped and turned to him. “Wait a minute. You have two phone numbers? Because the number you gave me isn’t the same as Mobile Man’s. Wait. Don’t answer that. If you would have given me your number, I would have known. So you got a second number so I wouldn’t find out?”

He stared at me from across the room and didn’t say a word. His silence told me everything.

“Oh my god. I don’t ever want to see you again.” I stormed out of his office, practically knocking Claire down on my way out.