The Miami Millionaire

by Dawn Tamayo

  Mark stopped and looked Victoria up and down, her little smart shirt and skirt combo smoothed their way across her body and her suntanned legs were even more toned than he remembered them to be. “Miami certainly suits you. I don’t remember you dressing like this for work back in London.” He said as he once again eyed her up and down and thought he actually liked her hair down, just like she was wearing it now with the front clipped back off her face and the rest falling like a red waterfall across her shoulders. He hadn’t before, but now he thought it looked incredibly beautiful.

  Victoria wasn’t sure if she should be insulted or flattered by Mark’s comment. She had always looked incredibly smart and professional for work. Okay so her clothes were now a little tighter than she wore in London, but if she walked into a meeting room with a tight fitting top in London she would never have been taken seriously, it just wasn’t the done thing, but here in Miami it was considered perfectly normal. She chose to ignore his comment and asked him again, “What do you want Mark?”

  “I want a very cold drink, preferably an iced-tea, and to talk to you.”

  “We have nothing to talk about Mark.”

  “Well that’s not true, I am going to buy you out of your share of the house and I have the papers for you to sign. If that is what you still want.” He interrupted her.

  Victoria stopped for a moment, she hadn’t expected to hear that and paused for thought – if the money was right and she signed the papers now then there would be nothing to tie her to Mark anymore. She liked the thought of never seeing Mark again and decided not to act too hastily.

  “Have you got the papers here with you?”

  “In my bag.” He nodded to the small travel-size suitcase.

  “Good, you obviously weren’t planning on staying long.” Victoria muttered more to herself than him.

  “Only as long as you want me to sweet-heart. Whatever you want.” Mark said.

  ‘Sweet-heart!’ Victoria wondered where the hell that had come from, she couldn’t remember Mark ever calling her ‘sweet-heart’ and she gave him a strange look.

  “Then you shouldn’t have come here at all because I don’t want you here. We could have signed the papers back in England. But since you are here then come on up to my office and we can sign the paperwork now and get this sorry business finished with.”

  Mark sat back on the chair in Victoria’s office. He made himself comfortable and rested one ankle across the top of his knee and sipped at his iced-tea as Victoria read through the paperwork he had handed her. It all looked good and the amount of money he was offering her for her share of their house was fair, more than fair in fact. She toyed between signing the paperwork now or getting a solicitor to look it over first. Victoria wanted to sign it now and get everything over and done with, but she knew better than to sign anything without reading the small print first and there was a lot of legal jargon she wasn’t familiar with.

  “I agree in principle to this Mark but I need to e-mail this across to my solicitor in London to get him to check it out.”

  Mark shrugged, “No problem, I can wait.”

  “It won’t take long, if I scan it in and e-mail it to my solicitor now, then I will have an answer for you tomorrow afternoon. If it is all okay I will sign the papers and you can take them away with you, so you may as well book yourself on a flight out of here tomorrow night.”

  “Oh don’t worry about me, I am happy to stay as long as you need me to.”

  She laughed disdainfully as she got up from her chair and walked around her desk, “Mark I don’t need you at all. If you want to stay to get the signed copies you can, but otherwise I will e-mail them back to you in London and I will bring the originals back with me next week. Please don’t feel the need to stay on my account, really.”

  Mark stood up and walked across to stand within reach of Victoria.

  “You know I am really sorry for what I did. I know I screwed up and I know I hurt you, but I promise you I can change. I will change for you.” He said as he stepped closer.

  “This is not the time or the place Mark, I think it’s time for you to leave. I will call you tomorrow lunchtime.”

  “For lunch? How about we talk about this over dinner tonight instead?”

  Victoria burst out laughing, she really couldn’t believe that Mark wasn’t giving up or listening to her. He just didn’t seem to be getting the message.

  “It’s true what they say Victoria. You never know what you have until you lose it.” Mark said as he reached out to stroke her hair.

  Before Victoria had a chance to react her office door swung open and Jake stepped inside, his face was like thunder and his eyes shot daggers at Victoria and Mark standing opposite each other.

  Jake couldn’t hear what was being said through the heavy wooden office door, he could just about hear the muffled voices of Victoria and her ex-fiancé. He had waited for a few minutes for Victoria to return to his office, but after ten minutes he phoned down to reception to be told that she had taken Mark up to her office. Jake felt uncomfortable - he had been caught off guard by Mark turning up at his office asking for Victoria, and telling them he was her fiancé. He knew Mark couldn’t be telling the truth, he must have told Jackie on reception a load of rubbish, but it bothered him that Victoria had invited him upstairs into her office. Why did she need to do that if there was nothing between her and this Mark anymore? Why hadn’t she told him to go away and never come back? That nagging thought took him downstairs to Victoria’s office where Jake stood outside her door for a minute or two. He didn’t want to go inside, he wanted to trust Victoria. But he was torn between wanting to know what was going on and wanting to check she was alright. But then he heard the beautiful sound of Victoria’s laughter and he frowned. Jake turned the door handle and opened the door.

  Jake stepped through the doorway and didn’t want to believe his eyes – the tall good looking man dressed like something off the English movies was standing barely a foot away from Victoria as he stroked her hair and looked lovingly into her eyes. And Victoria was letting him! Jake’s stomach turned and anger shot through his veins.

  As soon as Jake walked in Victoria froze seeing the look on his face. She looked back to Mark and to where his hand was, and gasped with surprise realising how it must look. Quickly Victoria pushed Mark’s hand away and stepped back.

  “Jake. This is Mark Cavendish, my ex-fiancé.”

  “Are you so sure about that?” Jake said.

  Before Victoria had a chance to say anything Jake turned around and stormed out of her office and back down the corridor.

  Victoria pushed Mark aside as she swore under her breath and ran out of the office after Jake. She knew how it must have looked and she couldn’t blame him for being angry, but she had to make Jake understand that this wasn’t what it looked like.

  “Jake, wait!” She ran up the corridor ignoring the looks from a few people as she passed them and caught up with him as he reached the elevator. “Jake wait please. It is not what it looked like, I promise you.”

  Jake laughed sadly and tried to step past Victoria as she stood in between him and the opening lift door. “Couldn’t you come up with something a little more original than that Vicky? That’s such an old line and I have heard it before.”

  Jake’s blue eyes were as hard as steel and Victoria felt the wall of ice shut down hard between them. The memory of Jake telling her how his ex-wife had cheated on him with his business partner flashed through her mind and she groaned aloud. Wasn’t that just what his ex-wife had said to him – “It’s not what it looks like Jake!” But this was different!

  One of the men from the development team stood in the lift and looked at Jake and Victoria as the door opened. As Jake stepped in closely followed by Victoria he quickly made his way around them and stepped out of the lift - he had no idea what this was about, but he could feel an explosion coming and he didn’t want to be in the lift with them when it did!

  Jake hit a butt
on on the lift control panel and the doors closed leaving the two of them alone in the small metal box. As soon as the doors closed Victoria started again.

  “No Jake I promise you it is not like that. There is nothing going on between Mark and me. I don’t love him anymore. I really don’t.”

  “Wow you sure fall in and out of love quickly then don’t you. It was only a few weeks ago that you were planning to spend the rest of your life with him. Now you say you don’t love him. I had hoped you were getting over him, but if you tell me that you don’t love him at all then you are either lying or something is not right!” He said as he moved her aside when the lift stopped and he stepped out into the corridor outside his office.

  Victoria knew she should go back to Mark who was probably still waiting in her office, she didn’t like the idea of leaving him alone in there but right now she had to make Jake see she hadn’t lied and wasn’t cheating on him. After all he only had her word to take for it and she needed him to trust her. Victoria followed Jake into the corridor.

  “Please Jake listen to me. You can come back and ask him for yourself if you want”. Then she thought twice about that and wondered if Mark would really tell Jake the truth if he suspected there was something going on between her and Jake?

  “Seriously Victoria?” He couldn’t believe she actually wanted him to go back and talk to that man. “No thanks, I think I will just trust my own eyes if you don’t mind?”

  “Well I do mind. I understand that what you just saw looked bad, but I promise you it wasn’t like that. Just before you walked in I told Mark to go back to London. He asked me out to dinner and I turned him down. He is only here to bring me some papers to sign so he could buy me out of our house.”

  “He could do that when you got back to England. He didn’t need to come here.”

  “I know, I told him that too but for some reason he did come. Nevertheless, I made it very clear to him that I don’t love him anymore. Please believe me Jake, because if you don’t then I don’t have another way to prove to you that I would never hurt you. I ……” Victoria stopped short before she went any further. She desperately wanted Jake to believe her and to understand how much he meant to her. Her heart was beating so painfully fast she thought it was going to burst through her chest. She couldn’t let Jake think she would do this to him, but she managed to stop just before she blurted out that she was in love with him.

  Victoria looked at Jake as he stood looking at her, she could tell his mind was whirring over and his eyes showed his mixture of emotions.

  “Please.” She said almost a whisper as she stepped closer to him and put her hand on his chest feeling it move up and down deeply with each breath.

  “If you are lying to me Victoria…”

  “I promise you, I am not.” She pleaded.

  “Okay but not here. I will pick you up from your hotel just before eight o’clock tonight and we can talk over dinner. Okay?”

  She nodded and leaned up to give Jake a kiss on his lips. He kissed her back briefly. Victoria turned away to the lift, now she had to deal with Mark.

  Jake watched as Victoria stepped into the lift. As soon as the doors closed behind her he turned to Andrea, “You went out with Victoria last week, what do you know about this fiancé or ex-fiancé of hers?”

  “Not too much. She told us he had been cheating on her and she called the wedding off. Do you want me to see what he said to Jackie whilst he waited in reception?”

  Jake nodded. “Get me security on the phone will you, and let me know when that man leaves.”

  Andrea nodded and watched Jake walk back into his office.

  Victoria walked back into her office and saw Mark sitting in the same chair as before with a face like thunder. She sighed, what was wrong with him now? “I thought you might have left.”

  “Not yet. I think you have some explaining to do first.”

  Victoria looked at him puzzled, she had no idea what he meant.

  “So that was Jake Cumberland.”

  “Yes that’s right.”

  “Your new client.” He said matter of factly.

  She nodded, not sure what he was getting at.

  “And that is all?”

  “Sorry what is that supposed to mean?” She asked as she folded her arms across her chest.

  “What was all that about? Is there something going on between you and Jake Cumberland?”

  “Oh for pity’s sake!” Victoria sighed, “Listen Mark, if there is or isn’t something going on between me and anyone else then it is none of your business. I know you said you wanted us to get back together but that is not going to happen. You hurt me so badly by what you did that there is no going back from that. You hurt me and humiliated me. But strangely enough I now know that we were never meant to get married. We fell in love a long time ago when we were young and were both very different people. If you really loved me you would never have wanted to be with other women, and I think I just didn’t question if I was really in love with you or not any more. I think we both just fell into the habit of being with each other, but I don’t think we were really in love anymore.”

  “But I know now that I do love you Victoria.”

  Victoria shook her head, she didn’t want to do this.

  “I know you say you have changed, and after what has happened I can understand that. But let’s put it all behind us and start again. I have a great new business idea and if you want to leave London we can. We can live anywhere you like, somewhere hot like here, or if you don’t want to leave London we can certainly buy a decent sized house here and use it as a holiday home - we can come here whenever you want.”

  “Mark stop. I don’t love you like that anymore and I don’t believe you love me either. You just don’t want to lose me. I’m nothing more than your comforter Mark, I’m not the love of your life.”

  “Dinner, just come to dinner with me and you will remember what was so good between us.”

  “No Mark.” When was he going to get the message? She couldn’t believe he was making this so difficult, and after everything he had done!

  Mark stood up and walked towards her office door, he was actually smiling. “I guarantee you will be dining with me tonight at my hotel, so let’s say eight o’clock.”

  “I guarantee you that I will not!” She said as she put her hand on the edge of her door to indicate he needed to walk through it and out of her office.

  Mark walked out with the smile still on his face and let Victoria escort him downstairs and out into the reception area.

  “See you later.” Mark said bending to give Victoria a quick kiss on the cheek and then he turned and walked off.

  “Not bloody likely.” Victoria said to herself as she turned and walked back to the lift.

  Victoria sat down at her desk and leaned back exhaling. Wow she felt drained and it wasn’t even lunchtime. The glint of something caught her eye and she realised her keys were still hanging out of her top drawer. Dam, she had forgotten to lock the drawer when she rushed out of the office to ask Jake to have the confidentiality agreement drawn up. She turned the key locking the drawer and then turned her attention to the paperwork on her desk, the papers from Mark, and picked up the phone to call her solicitor.

  Jake sat in his office trying to concentrate on the meeting he had with his development team but his mind kept wondering away from the subject at hand. He wondered what had made Mark travel all the way from London to come here and see Victoria. He thought Mark certainly looked like a man in love when he opened the door and walked in to see him touching Victoria’s hair. But Jake reminded himself that just because Mark was still in love with Victoria that didn’t mean she was in love with him. With great difficulty Jake pulled his mind back to the meeting reassuring himself he could ask Victoria any questions he wanted to tonight.

  Victoria bought a large iced diet coke and sat on a chair under the shade outside the coffee shop next door to Creative Technology Holdings offices. She sat watching th
e people walking past and realised she did like it here in Miami. It wasn’t just the friendly people, great food and music. Or even the wonderful weather. She liked being here with Jake, and until earlier this morning she didn’t have any reason to question just how much she liked being with him. And now she knew - she liked it a lot. She loved it! She took another sip of her ice cold drink and looked at her mobile phone as it beeped a message for her. She pressed the button and saw a message from Mark:

  Dinner tonight at 8pm. My hotel. Don’t be late and don’t worry about changing – you look hot!

  Victoria looked at the message puzzled. “Come on Mark, seriously!” she muttered to herself as she ignored the message.

  A few minutes later her mobile phone buzzed again. Another message from Mark. Victoria pressed the button and his message appeared on the screen:

  I don’t want to play games Victoria but I will if you make me. I want to see you tonight. It is the best for both of us. 8pm my hotel.

  This time Victoria typed one simple word ‘no’ then pressed the send button. It was no more than a minute before another text message appeared on her screen and she looked at it puzzled. At first Victoria wondered what the picture was, she didn’t understand why a picture of a few lines of text were of any interest to her, she had his agreement to sign for the house sitting upstairs in her office. But then Victoria looked closely at the picture and froze, dropping her drink on the floor. Without stopping for a second she grabbed her bag from the seat next to her and ran the few short feet between the coffee shop and CT Holdings’ offices. Victoria didn’t stop there, she didn’t wait for the escalator to slowly ascend but ran up the huge metal moving steps leading up into the reception and straight on through. She pushed the lift button muttering expletives to herself as she willed it to hurry up. Finally the lift arrived, and she pushed past people as they exited the lift and then pressed her floor button willing this to not be happening.