by Claire Adams
“Have a good one, Aria!” Nick waved.
I was made up entirely of nerves by the time I left.
---
When I reached the bank, it was unusually quiet. Everyone was staring in the direction of Zayden’s office, making insincere attempts to conceal what they were doing. Mrs. Brian was gasping visibly. I put my things away in my desk, then looked up to see what the fuss was about. My heart stopped.
A beautiful blonde woman who looked like a supermodel was giggling happily at Zayden, who seemed to be slightly frustrated. It had to be a business partner. Or so I kept trying to convince myself. The woman looked older – closer to Zayden’s age, and it was a perfectly reasonable possibility that she was there for something work related. It couldn’t be anything else, could it? Ignoring the uncomfortable knot that had been forming in my chest ever since I saw the woman, I tried hard to focus on work. A good amount of data entry had piled up in the time I had been away from the office, a fact that Mrs. Brian wasted no time in reminding me.
“I’m on it,” I said, annoyed. Most of the time I could stand Mrs. Brian and her judgment and nosiness, but right now, in the midst of worrying about the woman in Zayden’s office and everything else that was going on, I had no patience for her whatsoever.
“That man has no shame,” she was muttering.
Why? Perhaps she knew who that woman was; otherwise she wouldn’t be making these comments. I was tempted to ask her if it was just a business meeting, but was not interested in the slew of questionable looks and comments that were sure to follow. So instead, I tried hard to concentrate on typing as fast as I possibly could, occasionally allowing myself a quick glance, which I couldn’t help.
The woman finally got up to leave, and to my utter shock and horror, kissed him romantically on the cheek. I couldn’t quite make out Zayden’s expression at first, but then he noticed I had been looking, and his face got pale. That was it, I couldn’t take this anymore; I would so much rather deal with Mrs. Brian than let whatever was happening consume me.
“Who is that woman?” I asked, keeping my eyes firmly on my computer and trying to sound as casual as possible.
Mrs. Brian laughed, and when I looked up at her face she looked completely thrilled to be the person to have this piece of information. She never passed on any excuse to gossip.
“Want to venture a guess?” she asked smugly.
“I don’t know. A business partner?” I said, trying not to sound too hopeful.
That made her laugh so hysterically, I felt the earth begin to shatter underneath me. “Oh dear, dear. You are so innocent. Even if that man were ever to do business with someone who looks like her, do you think it could possibly be just business?” she asked.
I shrugged, trying hard to stop the tears that were forming in my eyes. Why the hell was this making me emotional? I was going to stop the contract. Shit. I was actually falling for him. “Who then? Some woman he’s sleeping with?”
“Not just some woman. The woman.”
“What do you mean?” I was barely able to keep my voice level at this point. The woman. She couldn’t be–
“His wife, of course!”
“What?” I said, unable to keep the tone of horror from my voice. Fuck it. I didn’t even care if Mrs. Brian knew what was going on at this point. I just… I needed to find an empty room… and breathe… before I crumbled completely.
“Well, okay that’s not quite right. You could say ex-wife, I guess. But really, that’s just a technicality. They have been separated for a year now.”
That made me feel infinitesimally better. Ex-wife was much better than wife. But then what was she doing in his office kissing him? And the way Mrs. Brian had called her “the woman.” It didn’t add up at all.
“What is she doing here, then?” I looked her straight in the eye, my disappointment turning into anger.
Her face lit up as though Christmas had come early. She had figured it out. Well, it was none of her business. “My, my, Aria. I warned you not to get into this, didn’t I? You young girls just don’t listen. You see a good-looking, rich man and he just has to show an ounce of interest for you to run into his arms. You’re all the same. What were you expecting? He’s going to sweep you off your feet and marry you, then cover you in riches?”
“Keep the judgment to yourself, Mrs. Brian. It is none of your business what I do in my free time,” I snapped.
“Get angry with me all you like, dear. It doesn’t make a difference. All the girls before you, it’s the same exact story. They go after him against my best advice, and then fall for him. They all think it will be different with them, no matter his reputation, because they are all special little snowflakes. In the end, Gina always returns; she is always his first choice and always will be. Sure, they have been having some trouble over the years, but what couple doesn’t? And marriage is a very strong bond, as Zayden proves over and over again. They filed for divorce, but as far I as I know, the proceedings were never really finalized. My theory is that they don’t want it to be. Just look at them. They are a lovely couple. I would say they are made for each other,” she said beaming, surely enjoying tormenting me.
Unable to stop the tears any longer, I rushed out of the booth into the ladies’ room. I had never felt so completely betrayed. Somehow, this felt worse than when I had walked into Rick cheating on me; that had crushed me, no doubt, but this made me feel like my whole body had left me, and all that was left was a pool of misery and hurt. After all, Rick hadn’t signed a piece of paper assuring me that he wouldn’t be sleeping with anybody else. No matter what Zayden was – controlling, arrogant, promiscuous – I had never gotten the idea that he was dishonest. Somehow I had managed to let myself trust him, and now I was really paying for it. My face was completely covered in tears, as I tried desperately to dab it with toilet paper. I had to go out there and do my job, but how could I when he was sitting right in front of me?
But if he had broken the contract, didn’t that mean I could…no, but there was no way for me to prove that he had been sleeping with his ex-wife. Whatever way I looked at this, I was trapped. Unable to be composed any longer, I ran into the bathroom stall and began sobbing more, holding my face in the palms of my hands. How had I let myself get into this? I had been so, so stupid.
I was such a strong woman until I met him. Now I felt powerless.
Even more idiotic was that I had trusted him with my body! It wasn’t in the contract, and against my own better judgment, I had decided to sleep with him. Because I trusted him. Despite all the reasons the world gave me not to, I trusted Zayden and believed that he wasn’t going to hurt me. I had done this to myself and no one else was to blame. He must have had a good laugh. His grand, master plan to sleep with me had worked – I had willingly ran into his arms and asked for it.
I pictured him snuggling with his ex-wife and laughing with her about how stupid girls were. They probably even made a whole game out of it. Both of them insanely attractive, both could easily have anybody they desired. That was probably how they even kept their marriage interesting; the divorce must have been some kind of charade that helped them in the games they played with vulnerable people.
I kept telling myself I could, and gathering all the courage I could muster I walked back to my desk.
Mrs. Brian was waiting there for me with a smirk. “Been crying, have we? Sleeping with the boss. Feeling rejected.”
God, she was a bitch.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” I snapped. “So I would appreciate it if you could just let me get back to work. Thanks!”
“Work!” She laughed. “Do you do any work? Do you even have to? You’ve found other ways to please the boss man, after all.”
“Yes, I have,” I said, losing my temper with her. “And if you don’t stop with the taunting, I will use my influence to get you fired.”
That shut her up, but she looked ready to hit me. I didn’t care. She deserved it.
With
even more reserve than before, I started typing out the documents in front of me, not looking at Zayden, not looking at Mrs. Brian, not letting myself think even for a second, just working as fast as I could. When the phone rang, it startled be back to reality and I jumped.
It was Zayden, and he was looking right at me.
Chapter Two
Zayden
It was obvious from the puffs underneath her eyes that Aria had been crying. She had definitely seen Gina in my office and jumped to the worst possible conclusion. It was Gina’s fault. I had told her not to show up at the office, and that’s precisely why she had come here snooping, hoping to get me to admit to seeing another woman. The way she had kissed my cheek was not for my benefit, but rather for the audience that was peeping through my glass door. She had guessed that the woman I was seeing was in this office – rightly so – and intentionally done that to create complications. What a fucking sly fox she was.
It had worked wonders. Aria looked like she had just been run down by a train – I had never quite seen her this way. She answered my call with what appeared to be extreme reluctance.
“Yes?” Her voice was wavering.
“I need you to come into my office,” I said softly, worried about causing any further damage.
“Uh, I have a lot of work to catch up on. I am sorry…. Mr. Sinclair,” she said the last words with a lot of emphasis. She was trying to undo the last few months, undo me.
“I don’t recall, Miss Roberts,” I said, returning her formality with the hopes of throwing her off. “Giving you a choice in the matter. And last time I checked, I was still your boss and I call the shots.”
She shut her eyes tightly. After what felt like hours, she finally said, “I’ll be there in a few seconds, boss.”
She seemed to take her sweet time, as I watched her finish up whatever she was typing, then remove and replace an insane amount of objects from her desk drawers. If she was trying to hide the fact that she was intentionally delaying our encounter, she made a poor attempt of it. Frustrated and eager to tell her my side of the story, I called again.
“Now,” I said and hung up, staring at her with the iciest gaze I could muster.
Finally, she began walking towards my office, leaving me wondering what exactly I was going to tell her. I could claim Gina was my coworker; she hadn’t exactly heard anything we had been talking about, and it wasn’t a completely ludicrous notion that I would be discussing business with an attractive female coworker at my office. At the same time, if I was considering Gina’s offer, Aria was bound to find out who she was sooner or later, and if I lied now, I would not only be accountable for being married, but also for lying to her about it.
When she was outside my door, she knocked. “May I come into your office, boss?” She put so much stress into that word, as though she was taking all the bitterness she felt towards me and our situation and expressing it through that single word.
“Just get in here, Aria,” I said, starting to lose my patience.
“Do I need to, like, curtsy or something, since you’re trying to make it clear that you’re the boss?”
“I am, though,” I said helplessly. “I wasn’t trying to rub it in like that but–”
“You did. And that’s exactly what you were trying to do, which is okay. You’re right, you’re the boss and I do as you say if I want to keep my job. So what do you need, Mr. Sinclair?”
His face was turning red. My attitude must have been pissing him off.
“Zayden. We’ve been over this, Aria. Let’s not go through this whole ordeal again,” I said and shook my head.
“Oh, so it isn’t just who I talk to that you control, but how as well? Duly noted, boss,” she snapped.
“Stop! Just fucking stop. We have a lot to discuss, Aria, and for the sake of both of us, let’s not make it more difficult than it has to be. Just take a seat will you,” I said, trying to sound a little gentler.
She didn’t say a word and sat down across from me, her expression unreadable.
“You have been crying?” It wasn’t really a question.
“Hah,” she snorted. “Wouldn’t you like that? I suppose it helps your already inflated ego quite a lot, the thought of a girl crying over you.”
“What?” I was perplexed. “Don’t be ridiculous. You think I want you to cry? The last thing I want is for you to be miserable. You should know that by now. I would think it was pretty obvious.”
“Right. Between trying to tell me who I can or cannot talk to and romancing another woman in your office in broad daylight, it is so very obvious that the last thing you wish to do is hurt me. Don’t mind me, I am clearly just blind and stupid.” She was looking at her fingernails instead of making eye contact. Her voice sounded solid and confident, yet there was an underlying tone of despair.
I reached out to hold her hand, but she pulled away. “You are neither blind, nor stupid, Aria,” I said. “What you saw in here? I was just talking to the woman that was here about a business deal that had recently gone wrong.”
“I know she’s your wife – or ex-wife, or whatever. You should know that before you begin your elaborate web of lies. It will just be a waste of time.”
“How do you know?” There was no way she could. Gina had never been here since Aria began working, and not many people knew… and then I realized. “I am going to fire Mrs. Brian!”
That piece of shit. She did not have any right to tell Aria. She must have known what was going on between us. A strange and unpleasant feeling came over me at the thought of Mrs. Brian taunting Aria about Gina.
“You can fire every single person who works for you, but it won’t change the fact that you are a liar.” She was fighting back tears hard.
“I never lied to you!” I exclaimed. It was true. Gina was never mentioned, because when Aria and I had started the contract she was a non-entity in my life. And even though we were technically still married, it was merely in name only. Since the topic had never really come up, I could have never really lied.
That made her burst into hysterical laughter. “Whatever. Your wife just walked out of here after passionately kissing your cheek and you sit there and tell me you never lied to me?” She shook her head as though she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“She is not my wife, she is my ex-wife. The divorce proceedings have been underway for a while now and we are married in name only.” I slammed my fist on the desk, feeling the fury begin to swell inside of me.
“Oh wow, that is a perfectly reasonable explanation for what she was doing in your office, acting exactly like a non-ex-wife would act.”
“She was trying to provoke a reaction. Out of you, funnily enough. And it seems to have worked.” I shook my head. “Listen, Aria, I never lied to you. Gina and I are working through certain things that pertain way more to my mother than either one of us. That is the only reason she is anywhere near me. I have no feelings for her and I am not sure I ever did, really. For all intents and purposes, she stopped being my wife a long time ago. That doesn’t stop her from showing her malicious ways; that is just in the woman’s nature. She somehow figured out that I was seeing somebody in the office and she walked in here this morning with the intention of scaring whoever it was away. You. And by reacting like this, you are letting her fucking win.”
“Oh really? Because I care so much about the games you play with your wife and whether or not you’re winning? Are you really trying to convince me that none of this is what it looks like? If so, just save us both the time and yourself the energy, boss man.”
“It’s not a game and she’s not my wife. I would never, ever want to hurt you.” I looked deep into her eyes, hoping she would sense that somewhere in my words was an ounce of honesty. With a much gentler voice, I added, “I really care about you. More than you realize, obviously.”
I regretted saying those words as soon as they left my mouth. Not because they weren’t true necessarily, but because she didn’t need to know t
hat. Until this very moment, it was something I hadn’t even accepted myself, but now I knew it was true. Because the fact was, watching her look upset with puffy eyes and a little blush over her perfect little nose was making me feel way more uncomfortable than it should have.
Upon hearing those words, her face seemed to gain some color. Perhaps she hadn’t even entertained the idea that I actually cared about her…. I hadn’t entertained it myself, until now, so I shouldn’t be surprised.
The room was silent for a long time, as Aria seemed to be weighing my words in her mind.
“If you really mean that,” she eventually whispered. “I have a request; I would like to rearrange the terms of the contract.”
“What do you mean?” What could she possibly want to change? Sex was not a part of the contract as it is…
“You don’t get to control who I talk to. Given that you somehow happen to have a wife up your sleeve, I should at least have sovereignty over who I communicate with.”
“Sure,” I said very carefully. “As long as it’s not your ex.”
“That’s amusing, coming from a married man who has been seducing me. If you remember correctly, as a part of the contract, you’re not allowed to have sex with any other woman. Yet your wife–”
“We’re not having sex!” I exclaimed. Hadn’t she been listening to a word I was saying? “I told you, Gina and I haven’t really been married in a while. Whatever shenanigans she was pulling here before were an act. Part of some evil master plan she has to win me back. And by me, I mean my money.”
“So you’re telling me you’re married to that woman and you don’t even touch her? You don’t have any regards for my intelligence, do you?” She was starting to sound hurt again.
“On the contrary, Aria, you are one of the most intelligent women I have ever met. And I can say this with confidence because I have seen your work. Both as your boss and as someone who worked through your economics coursework with you, I know what your mind is capable of. I would never underestimate that.”