by Alycia Brown
“You don’t have to,” I said. “I’ll figure it out. You’re my employee, and you have to have a way to get to work. Let me worry about it.”
She squinted her eyes in my direction as if she were studying me, though she could’ve been squinting at the sun. I couldn’t quite tell. She was a hard woman to read most of the time. She licked her full lips subtly and untensed her shoulders as she brushed past me and headed inside. “I don’t know why you think you need to take care of me, Ronan.”
I followed behind her, keeping silent until we got into the elevator. She slapped the button to our floor and the second the doors closed I hit the “stop” button.
“What are you doing?”
“I don’t know,” I said, stepping into her space. I breathed in her scent, a mix of coconut and flowers. “Fuck. Fuck. I don’t know. I just want you to stop…resisting. God, that sounds bad. That’s not what I meant.”
She glanced up at me through long, dark lashes and her lips parted slightly. “You like me. I knew it. You like me.”
“It’s not that.” I lied. Kind of. “I’m trying to be nice to you, and you throw everything back in my face like it’s not good enough.”
“What, you want me to like you? Is that what it is? Because it’s going to take a lot more than being nice to me to get me to forgive you for what you did.”
“Your business was a casualty, and I’m sorry for that. But that’s life.”
“Not everybody is going to like you, Ronan. That’s life too.”
I raked my hand against my jaw. “I don’t know why, Alexis, but I’m just inclined to take care of you. And the more you push away, the more you decline my help, the more I want to take care of you.”
“You just feel guilty, is all.”
She reached over and slapped the button and the elevator began to move upwards again. Alexis crossed her arms, taking a step backward until the doors dinged and parted. The second she took a step off, I reached for her, tugging her back by her elbow and leaning into her ear.
“I’m giving you a ride home tonight.”
SEVEN – ALEXIS
I strapped my purse around my shoulder and walked slowly to Ronan’s office. I needed a ride home and, well, he offered. I wasn’t quite in a position to be shelling out cash for a cab, and I didn’t know the bus schedule.
“You ready?” he asked, looking up from his computer.
I nodded.
He shut down his machine and locked up his desk, ushering toward the door and following me to the elevator. On our way out, we were met with raised eyebrows from Jaclyn at the front desk.
“Hey, leaving so soon?” Levi, his marketing and acquisitions vice president, cornered us in the hallway. “Damn, Ronan, you never leave early.”
Levi grated on my last nerve for some reason. Everything about him was loud and obnoxious, and I couldn’t understand why Ronan kept him on. Maybe he was being blackmailed because that was the only reason I could think of that made any kind of sense.
“I’m giving Alexis a ride home,” Ronan said casually. “Her car is out of commission right now.”
Levi’s eyes wandered my way, and as soon as they locked, he made me feel uncomfortable, as if he were mentally undressing me.
Ugh.
Even his stare was violating.
The elevators doors dinged and parted, and I stepped on, throwing Ronan a look to hurry up.
“Hey, you guys want to go get drinks tonight?” he asked. “Happy Hour down at Bar Ten.”
“No thanks.” I didn’t need to think twice.
“Not happening, Levi,” Ronan said, shooting him a look that meant something, but I didn’t know what.
***
The ride to the west side was quiet, especially after I told him I lived in Bankhead. Bankhead wasn’t the best part of town, but given his background, he was going to shit a brick when he saw what my apartment looked like.
I always thought I could skimp on renting a nice place because I worked so much. What was the point in paying for a nice place when I was spending 70+ hours a week in the store?
“Turn right here,” I said, pointing toward stoplight ahead. “Take your first left. My building is on the right.”
“This where you live?” He asked, breaking his silence.
“Home sweet home.”
He pulled into a parking space in front of my building. “This a safe neighborhood?”
A group of rowdy-looking teenagers huddled close together and shouting profanities shuffled by. Behind them, a fresh coat of graffiti had been artistically sprayed all over the side of one of the apartment buildings.
“What’s it look like?”
A car alarm sounded in the distance followed a short time later by ambulance sirens whizzing by in the street.
Ronan’s jaw clenched tight. “You can’t live here.”
I rolled my eyes and reached for the door handle. “Here comes my knight in shining armor, ready to swoop down and save the day.”
“Alexis,” he said, reaching for my wrist. His hand wrapped around my watch, clutching onto me and sending an electric shock through my body. “There’s an apartment above the shop. You can stay there until you move.”
I jerked my hand away. “Thank you kindly, but no thanks. I don’t need your charity.”
I slammed the car door and hurried into my apartment, praying the lock hadn’t been busted and my place hadn’t been raided. It had happened twice since I’d lived there.
Whew.
Everything was fine.
I hated that I even had to worry about that ish. As much as I didn’t want to cave in to Ronan’s attempts to buy his way into my heart, I needed a safer place to stay and I’d have been a damn fool to walk away from that.
I flung myself across my sofa and kicked off my heels. I missed my grandmother. I’d have given anything for her advice in that moment. Instead, I had to settle for Monique.
“Girl, how’s work going?” she said when she answered my call.
“Fine. No complaints. Nice office. I get to design jewelry all day and manage a team of designers in New York. Did I tell you I’m moving in two months?”
“What?” Monique uttered a few profanities as if I’d just dropped a major bombshell on her. “He took your business and now he’s taking you away from me? Oh, hell no!”
I laughed, appreciating Monique’s comic relief. She tended to overreact to everything I ever told her, and I sort of loved her for that.
“He’s made me an offer I can’t refuse, Mo.” I dragged my long nails against the scratchy sofa fabric. That couch was an ancient beast with a hide-a-bed. I always vowed to leave it there as soon as I moved out. Guess I was going to be couch shopping soon. “I’m taking the job.”
“I would say I’m happy for you,” she sighed into the receiver. “But I’m going to miss you too much. I need some time to digest this. Ah, hell, Lex. I am happy for you. You know that.”
“I know.”
“What’s it like having that arrogant asshole as a boss?”
“He’s really nice to me, Mo. I don’t understand. Like over the top nice.”
“Milk it, honey.”
“I’m not like that.”
“Nice bitches don’t get the corner office.”
“I already have the corner office.”
“Oh.”
“Exactly.” My stomach rumbled as I pulled the phone away from my ear to check the time. “Girl, I’m going to get me something to eat.”
“That’s cool. Hector’s taking me out for dinner tonight. I need to find something to wear,” she said. “And by that, I mean run up to the mall real quick.”
I laughed. I was going to miss her when I moved. It was too bad I couldn’t pack her up and take her with me.
***
The next morning I stood at the bus stop, the warm Atlanta sun beginning to penetrate the soggy morning air. The whir and gush of the bus’s brakes brought my attention to the curb, where passengers lined up
to board.
I smoothed my hand down my skirt and tightened my grip against my purse strap as I climbed on and deposited a handful of quarters into the meter. Luckily, I found a spot right up front, away from a group of guys in the back who were being loud and blaring music from their iPhones.
“Hey, Mami,” a Hispanic man with tattoos on his face said, flashing me a gold-toothed smile.
“How’s it goin’, shawty,” a scar-faced thug-wanna-be said as he slowly undressed me with his eyes.
They both moved along, taking their seats in the back, and I concentrated on the view from the front of the bus.
Forty minutes later, I’d arrived at my stop, which was still a block and a half walk to the office. My hair was already starting to look a hot mess, clinging to my sweaty forehead and neck. I was not cut out for taking the bus, that was for damn sure.
“Morning,” Jaclyn said in a monotone voice as I walked into the office. I flashed a smile, opting to take the high road, and headed to my office where Ronan was standing with his arm crossed.
“Oh, hello,” I said.
“Good morning, Alexis.” His arms fell to his side, one hand dipping into his pocket and pulling out a small trinket of some sort. All I saw was metal. I slipped my key into my door and pushed it open, brushing past him and heading straight for my desk. “Did you have a nice commute this morning?”
His lips dipped up at the corners slightly, as if he were amused.
“For your information, I did not.” I cracked open my computer and typed in my password. “Taking the bus from Bankhead is…interesting.”
I wasn’t snobby. I wasn’t above anyone. I just wasn’t a big fan of riding the bus for forty minutes and being catcalled and harassed.
Metal clanged and clinked from his hand as he sat a set of keys on my desk. “Company car. For you. For the next two months.”
My eyes drifted slowly toward his face, until our gazes locked. Was he for real? I sat back, willing my pride to go away for two seconds so I could summon the strength to thank him for being so kind.
“Wow, Ronan,” I said, reaching for the keychain. I rubbed the leather against my fingers, against the Mercedes logo that embossed the material. “This is…too much. But thank you. I’m going to accept this, because a girl needs a ride.”
Goodbye, Jetta! My Jetta was old and run down, but I’d foolishly taken out a personal loan against it the previous year when I needed some cash. The second I paid back my loan and got my car back, that thing was going into someone else’s hands.
I glanced back at Ronan, who was dressed in an Italian silk suit in a dark shade of navy blue that nearly matched his eyes. His dark hair was freshly combed and creamed, and his jaw was set strongly as he watched me with his penetrating gaze. My eyes settled on his full mouth, and I found myself wondering what it would feel like to kiss him.
And then I snapped myself out of it.
It would be easy for a girl who was down on her luck to fall in lust with a stranger who was giving her everything she could ever ask for. But it didn’t add up. This was real life. These things didn’t happen. Fairy tales were for idealist suckers, not for Alexis Turner.
EIGHT – RONAN
“Mr. Pratt, your grandfather is here,” Jaclyn buzzed my phone the second I got back to my desk.
“I thought he wasn’t coming until tomorrow?” I replied.
“He’s on his way to your office now,” she said before hanging up.
I waited.
And waited.
Fully expecting him to burst through my door at any minute, I finally stood up and headed to the hallway to check on him.
The second I pulled the door open, I found him standing at Alexis’ door, chatting with her.
“Grandfather,” I said, interrupting them.
“Ronan.” He turned to face me, but his eyes were still on Alexis. “I was just meeting your new designer, here. I had no idea we were hiring in Atlanta.”
I cleared my throat. “She’s one of the most talented designers I’ve ever met, grandfather. I couldn’t let her get away.”
His wrinkled face pinched as he waved her off and gave her a pleasant nod before following me into my office and shutting the door.
“Now let’s get one thing straight, Ronan,” he said, his face morphing into a side of him I’d rarely seen but knew existed. “You’re not to sleep with the help.”
“The help?”
“Your employees!” He barked, keeping his voice stifled. “Do you know what kind of law suit she could bring upon us if something went sour between you?”
“What makes you think I’m interested in her that way?”
“God, look at her,” he said as he shuffled to my window. His shoulders slumped beneath his gray suit jacket, almost showcasing how small and feeble he’d become in his older years. I’d once admired everything about him. I’d once wanted to be him. And then I grew up and realized he wasn’t the Wizard of Oz. He was the man behind the curtain pretending to be him. He had evil in his blood – the same evil that coursed through me. And I hated that. It wasn’t until I stumbled across an article in college that detailed Pratt Diamond’s involvement with blood diamonds, that I realized what a monster he truly was. People died so that my grandfather could sell diamonds.
“What about her?” I asked, playing coy.
“She’s flawless. God damn flawless. Everything about her,” he said. “She’s like a perfect, sparkly, chocolate diamond. Not a single inclusion.”
“She’s a very attractive woman, yes,” I said. “That’s not why I hired her, grandfather. She’s smart. She’s good at what she does. She’s the best I’ve seen in a long time. And we just got rid of Mauricio last fall. We needed a new head of design.”
“I know you like those exotic beauties, boy,” he said, wagging a shriveled finger in my direction. “Those dark skinned, raven haired women with the hips and the curves and the…”
“Stop,” I said with an embarrassed laugh. “With all due respect, grandfather, you don’t know what I like.”
“It’s why you always wanted to travel to Africa!” he practically yelled. “You wanted to find yourself a nice African woman and-”
My grandfather was absolutely stuck in the olden days, where it was perfectly acceptable to categorize people based on what they looked like. I shook my head. Thank God my parents didn’t raise me to see color like that. Love was love. But regardless, I didn’t love Alexis. That was impossible. Hardcore lust, maybe. Love? No. Not yet…
“Grandfather,” I sighed, slipping my arm around his shoulders and leading him back to a chair. “I wanted to travel to Africa to help with clean water and vaccines. It had nothing to do with picking up women, I can assure you. You need to relax. You need to let me handle this. You’re retired. You shouldn’t be here anyway, you should be playing pinochle in Boca Raton with grandma.”
“Just keep it in your pants, boy,” he huffed, crossing his legs wide after lowering himself into a seat. “Whatever you do. Keep it in your pants.”
“Yes, grandfather.” I stifled an amused grin. “How’s grandma? What’s she up to these days?”
His nose wrinkled as he leaned his head to the side. “I don’t know. She’s busy spending money the way she always does.”
An hour later, grandfather finished his ranting and raving about political agendas and the price of oil before finally standing up and showing himself the door. I supposed when you’re retired and have more money than God, you can just hop on a plane and fly to Atlanta for an hour-long visit with your grandson whenever you wanted.
I walked him to the elevator and waited for him to shuffle on before selecting the correct button for him and backing away.
Thank God he’s leaving.
Strolling back to my office, I turned the corner to find Alexis standing there with her arms crossed and her eyebrows arched. “May I have a word with you?”
“Of course,” I said, motioning toward my office. I followed her inside and s
hut the door.
“I heard everything,” she said. “These walls are paper thin you know.”
“My apologies, Alexis.” I headed to my mini bar. “Care for a drink?”
“It’s ten in the morning.”
“I always need a stiff drink after dealing with him.”
“No thanks.”
I poured a finger of single malt scotch into a crystal tumbler and took a sip, breathing as the amber liquid burned my throat and settled into the pit of my stomach. “You have to forgive him. He doesn’t know any better. He thinks this is still the fifties, when it was perfectly acceptable to objectify women in the workplace.”
She stayed quiet, and I turned to face her, trying to get a read on her which was virtually impossible.
“You should’ve told him I’m not that kind of girl.”
“I should have, yes. In retrospect.”
“Besides, no one needs to worry about anything like that happening, because you don’t stand a chance in hell at bagging me anyway.”
“I figured as much.”
“And as much as you wave all these shiny, fancy things in my face, I’m still not very fond of you, Ronan.”
“I’m not much fond of myself most days, Alexis.” I took in another sip, slowly letting it burn me once again. I hated that our business took down other businesses. I hated that the fatter our bank account got, that small business owners like Alexis were forced to drive shitty cars and live in run down apartments just to make ends meet.