Chapter 10

 

“Good luuuck!” Laura chirps on the other end of the line. “You’ll need it!”

 

Despite Laura being unable to see her, Anna widens her eyes in disbelief as she feels her chest constrict into a tighter knot. “Wha-”

 

“Kidding!” Laura quickly cuts in before Anna loses her mind and panics all the more. “Just talk to him. I’m sure he’ll forgive you.”

 

“So he is mad?” Anna then asks, her anxiousness and stress resonating in her shaky voice. Her fingers tighten around her phone “I knew it. I knew it.”

 

It’s been a week since she’s last seen Jared. When she woke up seven days ago in his bed, she expected to wake up to the sound of his voice teasing her or his fingers and mouth working wonders on her body. That morning, when the sunlight streamed through the curtain windows, Anna woke up to half of Jared’s king-sized bed unoccupied. She didn’t think too much of it, not even when she saw Jared’s note by the kitchen. She even cooked herself breakfast and washed the dishes before she left his apartment. However, night fell and Jared still hadn’t called or even messaged her. She gave him the benefit of the doubt; Jared is a busy man, but after a couple days of not hearing or seeing him, Anna knew something was up.

 

She’s already left him a bunch of messages and voice calls but to no avail, and so desperate times call for desperate measures. She’s enlisted Laura’s help to get Jared to talk to her, and Laura managed to set a one-on-one meeting with Jared under the false pretense of partnering with her for a new business opportunity. Laura and Anna both know Jared can’t say no to an investment prospect, and so, Anna has no doubt Jared will push through with the meeting. She just hopes that he won’t kick her out of her office when he realizes that she’s there instead of Laura and that there wasn’t ever any business proposal in the first place.

 

“Honestly, I have no idea, babe,” says Laura. “But it shouldn’t be anything serious. If it is then he would’ve told Alex or Nate, and I’m not getting any news from those two.”

 

“Well, that’s comforting,” responds Anna; though, there’s a little waver in her voice. She’s a block away from Jared’s office building, and time’s ticking. There’s no going back when she steps into his office.

 

“Relax, you’ll be fine,” Laura then comforts, a hint of a chuckle in her voice. “Just show a bit more cleavage. Are you wearing a dress? A deep v-neck?” she questions, and Anna rolls her eyes at the direction of the conversation. “Pull it down a bit. He’ll talk to you in no time. I’m sure he’ll do more than t-”

 

“I love you for helping me, but you’re not really helping at this exact moment,” Anna says, then letting out a short ‘ha’.  Laura’s sexual innuendos aren’t doing anything to help calm her nerves. “I’m in his building already. Thanks again. I owe you one.”

 

“Don’t thank me yet,” Laura says on the other end of the line. “Give me a call after.”

 

“Will do.”

 

With that, Anna hangs up and puts her phone back in one of the pockets of her bag. When she takes the floor up to Jared’s office, Anna tries to think of what to say when she sees him. She hasn’t seen him in seven days, and she reckons a ‘hi’ or ‘hello’ would be an inappropriate greeting for him. They’re way past the ‘hello’ stage.

 

The elevator box then ‘dings’, and Anna steps out and makes her way towards the entrance lounge. The receptionist – Mary – lets her pass through the doors without any questions. Anna knows Laura gave Mary a quick call earlier to give the woman a head’s up. As Anna walks towards the corner office, closed off with the blinds drawn to the center, she keeps her head bent downwards. She’s never been the kind of person to draw attention to herself, and with the current situation between her and Jared, she wants to be invisible as she passes by his employees’ workstations.

 

When she finds herself face to face with the door to his private office, Anna lets out a heavy breath. Now, there really is no going back. She knocks once on the door and gives it a second rap.

 

“When did you ever knock?” Jared’s familiar voice calls out from the other side of the door.

 

Anna abruptly feels the hairs on her arms start to rise and the sudden lump in her throat form.  There’s no denying the millisecond her heart skipped a beat or the way the knots in her stomach constrict into a death grip. She’s never been more nervous before than she is now, not even when she lost her virginity to the man at the other side of the door. She lets out a sigh of relief. To hell with it. She opens the door, and steps inside.

 

“Hey, have you eate-” Jared suddenly stops when he shifts his head from his desktop screen to her. She’s never seen a mouth clamp shut so quickly, and she almost wants to turn around and walk away at how awkward the situation is.

 

No. She tells herself. She’s not going to waste Laura’s, Jared’s, and her time.

 

“An-Anna,” Jared stammers, running a hand through his blond hair before letting out a throaty cough. “Why…I thought, Lau-”

 

“I need to talk to you,” she then says, coming clean right away. “I asked Laura to help me out.” When Jared makes a move to speak, she quickly says, “I know you’re mad, and I want to know why.”

 

“Anna,” he says, shaking his head. Then, his lips and the corners of his eyes turn slightly downwards, and Anna feels a tug in her heart at the crestfallen look on his face. “I’m not-”

 

Bullshit,” she says, glaring at him. When she realizes what she’s just said, she bites her bottom lip, even tastes blood, before she wears a wide-eyed, guilty look on her face. Did she really just say that to him? She questions herself. She’s never been confrontational, except during graded debates back in school and passion projects when she’s working. She doesn’t start catfights in clubs. She doesn’t create tension between friends. She’s just never been the type of person to purposely rub other people the wrong way. Apparently, even Jared is surprised when she calls him out on his bullshit. His whole body freezes for a quick second as he stares at her. “You’ve been avoiding me for an entire week. I’d like to know why.”

 

“I swear, I d-”

 

“Jared, seriously?” she says, starting to raise her voice. It’s one thing to not want to hurt her feelings; it’s another thing to purposely think she’s naïve and stupid. “Grow some balls.”

 

This time, she seems to have gotten through him. Anna cowers a bit at the sight of Jared furrowing his eyebrows together and clenching his fists at his side. The glare he’s throwing at her is definitely looking more lethal than the one she’s holding.

 

“Wow.” He breathes, using a tone of disbelief. “Wow,” The second time sounds worse than the first, his voice dripping with acid and bitterness. “Are you really putting this on me? You’re one to talk.”

 

“What?” Anna then asks, wrinkling her forehead, as she darkens and holds her glare. “I don’t even know what this is!”

 

“So when do you plan to ask me for money?” Jared fires. To add salt to the injury, he takes his wallet out from the back pocket of his pants and opens it right in front of her. “Let’s hear it. So how much do your parents need?”

 

Then, there’s no hiding the way Anna’s eyes widen. They’re so huge that neither of them would be shocked if her eyes fell off from their sockets. Understanding washes over Anna as she clamps her mouth closed. She starts pulling at her fingers, her nerves getting the best of her. How the tables have turned.

 

“So you read my messages?”

 

A single nod from Jared. “When your phone wouldn’t stop fucking ringing in the middle of the night.” Then, he lets out a bitter laugh. “Now you decide to stop talking.”

 

“Jared, I-” Anna starts, instinctively reaching her arm out to touch him. “What you saw…I-”

 

“I’d love to hear this.” Anna can’t deny the sick feeling forming in her stomach with the horrible tone Jared’s using and the way he’s looking at her. He looks disgusted, so very different from the way he looked at her the countless times they would share a bed. “So what’s your excuse?”

 

When she slumps her shoulders in defeat, Jared feels both triumphant and deflated. He’s been right all along; she’s been playing him all these months. There’s no denying the heavy and painful weight in his chest. It’s a large blow to his ego – trusting Anna – but a much larger one to his heart. He can’t make excuses. He wants to hate her. But he’s fallen for her.

 

“I’m sorry,” she then says, looking down towards the ground. She’s ashamed. She wants to leave his office and walk away, but that would be such a cowardly thing to do. He doesn’t deserve that. As much as she wants to deny everything, she can’t. She’s already hidden the truth from him. She can’t lie to him anymore. “But you have to believe me when I tell you that everything has changed. After the first date, I-”

 

“You what?” he demands. “You realized you’ve fallen in love with me and didn’t want to use me anymore. Please.” There’s no hiding the full-on eye roll. “Which movie or book did you get that from? At least try to be original.” Before she could get a word in, he opens his mouth and says, “I’ve had enough. You’ve already made an idiot out of me once. I’m not going to let it happen again.” He presses a button on his desk phone and then says, “Mary, can you please escort Ms. Coleman from my office. Now.”

 

When Jared hangs up the phone, he sits back down on his chair and purposely avoids Laura’s eyes all the while. He can’t see the way tears have started to smear her cheeks. He can’t see the way her whole body starts to shake because of the fear and hurt she feels. It’s not an exaggeration – when she says she feels like her heart has just been ripped out of her chest.

 

From the time Mary enters his office and until the time she closes the door behind her and Anna, Jared keeps his head ducked down. Then, when he’s finally all alone again in his room, he buries his face in his hands and feels the tears leave his eyes. He doesn’t cry usually, but this – it’s just too much.

 

Laura’s not the only one who got her heart broken today.