by Emelia Blair
He is honestly, the most oblivious man, I have ever met.
I see his eyes light up and why that sends a thrill through my body, I don’t know, but I watch as he strides towards me, a huge grin on his face.
“Elise!”
He sounds so happy to see me that I end up smiling in response. “It’s good to see you, Lucas.”
“Did you bring Sophie?” He peers over the edge of the counter, and when his eyes make contact with my daughter, he looks delighted. “She’s grown so much in these six months!”
How can I hold any sort of hurt against this man who is looking at my baby girl with such affection?
“I brought something for her.” Lucas starts digging in his bag.
I wince. “You shouldn’t—”
He whips out a pretty little bib that has pictures of pandas on it. “I saw it in a store yesterday.” He dangles it in front of Sophie who just kicks out her legs again, beaming up at him.
“I—thank you,” I say, slowly. “Although, you didn’t have to …”
His smile automatically dims. “I wasn’t trying to be too forward or anything. I just—”
“No, no, that’s not it,” I hurriedly reassure him, but he looks wary and now I feel bad.
However, before I can say anything, he looks a tad bit reluctant before telling me, “When I came to your house that day, I thought you were uncomfortable with me being there, which is why I left in such a hurry. Lana told me that you got the wrong impression.”
I wince and curse Lana’s big mouth under my breath and then sigh. There is no way out of this. “It’s okay.” I smile at him. “Why are you here so early though?”
He glances at his watch. “Well, I had a meeting. And it got canceled a minute ago and now I have nothing to do.”
When his eyes gleam as they settle on me, I find myself taking a step back. “What?”
“Well,” he drawls. “The office doesn’t open for another half hour. Do you want to get some breakfast?”
I’m about to deny the invitation but my stomach makes a loud noise.
Lucas gives me a cheerful look. “Well, that settles it then. I’ll carry Sophie’s carrier.” He rounds the corner and picks it up.
I can do nothing but follow him, helplessly.
“There is this fantastic coffee shop just down the road.’ He beams at me. “It has the best breakfast deal.”
And ten minutes later, I’m sitting across from him in quaint little café, drinking tea and eating deliciously scrambled eggs.
Lucas truly is a force of nature.
I watch him as he babbles nonsense to Sophie.
She loves it when people pay attention to her and she’s quivering with barely restrained excitement.
My parents wholly disapprove of my keeping Sophie. They’re traditionalists and believe I should have married first. So, while they talk to me on occasion, they don’t want to hear anything about Sophie. They haven’t even come to see her. So, aside from me, Sophie has no family.
No one who will love her so completely and adore her wholeheartedly, and yet when I saw the way Lucas looked at her in the hospital room, when the doctor had handed her to him, that look of love and pride on his handsome face had made me want to cry, ‘Oh, why couldn’t it have been him?’
“You haven’t touched your food yet,” I tell him, pointing towards his bacon and eggs which is starting to get cold.
He reluctantly stops playing with Sophie and starts digging in. “So, how have you been?”
I think about how I spent twenty minutes staring at my naked figure in the mirror, this morning, feeling so unattractive. “It’s been all right.” I take a sip of my tea. “Sophie is a handful. She keeps me up at night.”
He stops eating then and studies me with what looks like concern. “Are you sure you should be back? I know you cut your maternity leave short.”
This time, my smile is a little strained. “Well, it’s just me and Sophie in our apartment all day long and it got kind of lonely.”
I’ve been sinking into depression day by day and I refuse to let that happen to me.
Just then Lucas’s phone rings and he makes a face before answering, “What, Deb? I’m busy.”
There’s a pause and then, Lucas Black blushes. “You know what? As a matter of fact, I am!”
Another pause.
“No, you may not!” He cut the call and stuffs the phone in his pocket, not meeting my gaze.
My curiosity sufficiently aroused, I ask, “Is everything okay?”
“It was my sister,” he mutters.
That is new information to me. “I didn’t know you had a sister.”
This time, he meets my gaze, looking pained. “I try to forget on most days myself. And then she calls me up to remind me of her existence.”
I watch him, patiently, knowing just how to get people to talk.
He continues, “She’s my twin and she’s getting married in three weeks’ time. And I’m required to bring a date.”
The last part of his sentence makes the smile slide off my face. There is a soft burning in my chest and I quickly stomp on it.
Absolutely not, I warn myself. He’s not for you.
I hear my voice but I feel so detached to it as if watching from outside my body. My lips are frozen into a smile. “So, have you asked anyone yet?” The look he shoots me makes my heart thump wildly.
“Not yet,” he murmurs, “But I have somebody in mind.”
I immediately avert my eyes, feeling the flush crawl up my neck. I don’t even know why I’m suddenly so self-conscious but when our eyes meet again, there is this appraising gleam in his and I’m flustered all over again.
My first day back goes by smoothly.
Well, as smoothly as it can get.
Some of the women gush over Sophie, and then there are those who give me cold looks and when they look at my baby there’s disdain in their eyes and I have the urge to claw their eyes out. However, they don’t say anything yet.
But I’m not holding my breath.
And then he comes in. When he sees the little carrier beside my desk, the shock in his eyes morphs to raw anger. He stalks forward, fury and disgust on his face.
But the CEO enters and he has to quickly change directions.
The agreement we had was that I wouldn’t bring the child around him. But technically, I haven’t done anything of the sort. Bringing Sophie to work is simply a temporary arrangement.
Caleb approaches me, and Kendall, two steps ahead, leans into coo at Sophie who waves her tiny fists in their air which Kendall grabs and gently kisses.
“How are you doing, Elise?” Caleb asks, politely.
As he glances at Sophie, I can see a sort of fascination in his eyes. I chuckle. “Would you like to hold her?” I ask Kendall.
He gives his fiancée an evil look when Kendall picks Sophie up with practiced ease and holds my drooling baby towards him, laughing. “She won’t bite you, Caleb. See she doesn’t even have teeth.”
Caleb eyes Sophie like she’s seconds away from bursting out in fangs and biting his head off. “I’m sure Elise doesn’t want me to—”
Amused beyond belief now, I urge him, “She likes being held. Go on.”
The panic in Caleb’s eyes is growing and finally Kendall just cuddles Sophie who babbles sounds, before regretfully putting her back in her the carrier. Looking at me, she says, “Now that you’re on your feet and up and about, we’re having a small party at our place. It’s a very small affair. I wanted you to be there so we held it off. It’s this Saturday.”
A party might just be what I need to start mingling again. “What’s the occasion?”
“Just something to celebrate our engagement.” She grins. “And bring Sophie.” And once again, she’s leaning down and playfully tugging on Sophie’s tiny feet, cooing, “This will be your first party, won’t it, Sophie?”
At this point, Caleb is looking anywhere but at his fiancée who seems to have abandoned all sen
se of decorum at the sight of the baby. When he’s unable to bear it any longer, he starts dragging her away, saying, “I thought I had a meeting today?”
It’s once they’ve gone what I realize what they’re sudden appearance had just spared me from. I’m not scared of the man who sired Sophie. I may be sweet and cheerful on the surface but I have teeth, too. Now, that I have something to protect, my teeth are sharper.
When I’d newly discovered my pregnancy, I had been a mass of nerves and fear. He had found it easy to threaten me, frighten me. I would protect Sophie from him. I was adamant about this.
The day passes fairly uneventfully. Quite a lot of people congratulate me and the ones who gave me accusing looks, I stared back at them, until they looked away.
It’s as I’m packing up that I hear a familiar voice, “You’re still here?”
I look up to see Lucas standing at my desk with a briefcase in his hand, wearing a frown.
I glance at the clock, stifling a yawn, “Well, yeah. Clearly.”
He looks slightly sheepish and then tilts his head. “How are you getting home?”
“There’s a bus that goes by here. It drops me a block away from my apartment. I have the schedule printed out in three different locations on my desk because I really don’t want to miss it.” I tie the baby carrier around myself and carefully tuck in Sophie.
It’s as I’m making sure that none of her arms and legs are entangled in an uncomfortable position, that I catch Lucas staring at me with unhidden fascination. “What is it?” I ask, wondering if I have something on my face.
He shakes his head. “Nothing. I’ll drop you off. You don’t have to take the bus.”
“What, no!” I protest.
He grabs me by my shoulders and starts propelling me towards the door. “I insist.”
“Lucas, I am perfectly capable of taking the bus.”
He refuses to listen to me, all the while saying, cheerfully, “Of course you are.”
I try to dig my heels in. “I refuse.”
“Of course you do.” He has me inside the elevator leading to the garage.
I sigh.
It’s like talking to a brick wall.
The minute we’re in the garage, his hands move from my shoulders, and now one of them is on my lower back, guiding me towards his car.
I frown at the triumphant look in his eyes. “Getting me into your car is hardly something to be proud of.”
He opens the door of a Land Rover which is pitch black and gleaming.
“You changed cars?”
“My sister has a thing for this model, so I’m gifting it to her.” He looks mournful. “I hadn’t even had it for a whole year. It was one of a kind, a limited edition, too.”
The gesture by itself is so sweet I find myself smiling. I don’t know why it should surprise me though. Lucas has to be one of the most generous people I’ve met with a huge heart.
I’ve never seen him angry with anyone. Well, aside from the doctor that he yelled at during my delivery.
It’s at that moment when it dawns on me that Lucas has seen me at my very worst moment. He has seen me give birth, screaming and crying, and although this thought comes six months too late, I realize that I never thanked him properly.
Shame fills me and I fidget with Sophie’s hat, trying to come up with the best way to thank this man who had no reason to stand by me in my worst of times and yet, he’d befriended me and did just that.
We’re already on the road and I feel Lucas’s eyes on me.
“What? You ran out of reasons why I don’t need to give you a ride home?” He sounds amused,
I don’t smile and my mouth feels dry as I turn to look, “No. It’s just…” I try to search for the words and then finally settle on the most simple ones, “It’s just that you’ve done so much for me and I never thanked you.” I shrug my shoulders, helplessly. “I don’t even know where to begin! Or what to do!”
Lucas opens his mouth, and then an odd look enters his eyes and he snaps it shut. Next, he’s pulling the car over and putting it in park, to my surprise.
“L-Lucas?”
He rests his forearms on the steering wheel and he’s staring at something in the distance, wearing a contemplative expression on his face. Finally, he turns and looks at me and I see a determined glint in his eye. “What if I told you could repay me?”
I grow motionless., “What?”
“Would you do it?” He persists.
A particular light in his eyes is warning me there’s a very good chance I would come to regret every bringing this topic up. “O-of course,” I stammer out, undone by the intensity radiating from him in waves. “What is it?”
“Go on a date with me.”
3
Lucas
“Go on a date with me.”
The look on Elise’s face is stunned like she doesn’t quite know how to process this request. “I-I…“ She stammers out, her cheeks turning pink. “W-what?”
I could laugh, play this whole thing off as a joke, but I don’t do it.
Why should I when she threw this opportunity into my lap?
All I need is one foot in the door.
The lawyer in me scents blood in the air, an opening, and I go straight for the jugular. I hold her gaze. “I want to take you out. On a proper date.”
“Are you sure you don’t just want me to bake you a pie?” she asks.
I had expected perhaps an outrage, but I hadn’t been expecting this particular reaction and I burst into laughter.
She gives me an insulted look.
I laugh even harder. “I’ll take the pie, too.” I tell her, chuckling now.
She swallows and there’s wariness in her eyes. “Why do you want a date with me?”
“Because I like you,” I say simply. Because telling someone you might be in love with them without even going on a single date, might not be a good idea.
She looks around desperately as she searches for an excuse. Her eyes move downwards and rest on her sleeping daughter and she begins, “I just had Sophie and—”
“It’s been six months,” I cut her off, “You’re allowed to have a life outside of Sophie.” My tone is gentler now as I continue, “Motherhood isn’t a punishment, Elise. I know you have had no social life ever since you got pregnant. You owe it to yourself to have one night of relaxation, where you can dress up, go to a fancy dinner with a man and then let him talk you into going dancing on the pier. And you can go home with no expectations of you.”
That gets Elise’s attention and she studies me warily. “Just a simple date? No strings attached?”
I nod. “If you don’t have a good time, then I’ll back off politely and we’ll just go back to being friends.”
“Just like that?” she asks, slowly.
“Just like that.” I nod.
The unspoken part of this statement hung in the air but both of us didn’t touch it.
Sophie stirs and Elise immediately runs her hand over her hand, soothing her back into a dreamless sleep. She goes quiet for a few seconds, before turning to look at me. “I’m not ready to get into a relationship, Lucas. I didn’t know you were even interested in me like that but you need to know. I have too much to lose.” She releases a discontented sound. “And after what happened with—” she cuts herself off abruptly, suddenly looking anxious.
Any man would have allowed her the slip of the tongue and refrained from asking. But I’m not any other man. Since I’ve known her, this s the first time that she’s brought up someone that might be the father of her child, and I press, “Sophie’s father?”
The way Elise’s face hardens is something like a shock to me because I’ve never seen her wear such an expression before.
“That man is not her father,” she spits out. She struggles with herself trying to regulate her breathing.
I can see her trying to rein in her temper. It’s a fascinating sight to see for me because I’ve never seen her lose her cool like this. I fi
nally say, “I’m not him. I’m not looking for a fling.”
She purses her lips and stares at me intently. “What are you looking for, then?”
And it hits me that I’m not really sure of what I want. I’m in my mid thirties and Elise is clearly in her late twenties. Am I ready to settle down or do I just want to date Elise? But the more I think about it, and ever since I’ve befriended her, whenever I imagine a future, she’s in it.
What does that tell me?
Once again, not something I can say to her when she’s not even agreed to a date. So, I grin, even if it’s forced. “For now, just a date.”
“For now?” She echoes, suspiciously.
My grin widens, enjoying that look on her face. “Who knows what might happen?” My smile is bordering on mischief now. “You could very well fall in love with me. And then you’ll have to charm me into another date and then another.”
Now even she can’t control the twitching of her lips, as she asks, “Why am I charming you into dates? Very confident, aren’t you?”
I waggle my brows at her, inciting a laugh from her, “So, what do you say? One date?”
She shakes her head, amused exasperation written all over her face. “One date. And no hanky-panky.”
I’m trying not to laugh at her choice of words which I find too endearing. Who says ‘hanky-panky’ nowadays?
Minutes ago, she was so reluctant to even think of saying yes, and now I have her laughing and agreeing as if the whole idea amuses her.
I start the car, satisfaction settling in my gut. Got you to say yes, didn’t I?
Elise has a smile on her face and the tips of her ears, which are visible due to the loose bun she’s tied her hair into, are red.
Do I feel guilty about manipulating her into a date?
I smile cheerfully. Absolutely not.
After all, there’s a reason why I’m called ‘The Shark’.