Love & Lies

by Michelle Iannarelli

  “She didn’t let me pay for her clothes? Damn, I guess the Board did pick a good one for the CFO position and I completely fucked it up.”

  “Well you’re Miguel Cruz, unfuck it up, explain and then talk her into coming back. I’ve seen you make deals with the devil, you can do this.”

  “You’re right, grab the keys and let’s go.”

  Miles grabbed the keys and followed Miguel out the door.

  Alex sat on her couch eating ice cream while she tried to figure out what to do about Allan and finding a new job. She felt about ready to explode, she had eaten the whole pint of ice cream. She got up to toss out the container and the doorbell rang. She wasn’t in the mood for company. She pulled the door open and the last person she expected to see was standing there with the largest bouquet of flowers she had ever seen.

  “Miguel, what are you doing here?”

  Miguel couldn’t help but stare. Alex was in tiny shorts and a tank top, her hair was in a messy bun piled on top of her head and although she didn’t have on any make up, she was still so very beautiful.

  “Alessandra, I’m here to apologize.”

  “It’s not necessary.”

  Alex looked down at the floor. Her heart was pounding. Then she realized what she must look like and the thought horrified her.

  “It is necessary. May I come in and explain, please?”

  Alex stood back so that Miguel could come inside. After Miguel stepped inside he turned and placed the flowers in Alex’s arms.

  “Thank you, but you really shouldn’t have.”

  “Alessandra…”

  “Alex, call me Alex. I don’t know why I introduced myself as Alessandra, I guess I was…nervous.”

  “I guess your name, Alex, played a part in all of this. You see, I thought that Alex, my new CFO was a man and so when you showed up I just assumed that you were my…escort.”

  Alex turned and looked at Miguel and shook her head.

  “Miles said something while we were talking and I knew then that you had mistaken me for your escort. I don’t understand why you would just assume because I am a woman that I was not Alex, your new CFO?”

  “I shouldn’t have and I apologize for that and for mistaking you as an escort.”

  “I suppose I am partially at fault. I kind of thought something wasn’t right but I was so excited and nervous to meet you and be working with you that I just went along with…everything.”

  “About that, I, well I don’t make a habit of having sex with my employees. Sexual harassment at Cruz Contracting is grounds for immediate dismissal. I regret what happened.”

  Alex wanted to run and hide, no wait, maybe she wanted to smack him? She wasn’t sure but he needed to leave…and now. It was bad enough he mistook her for his escort but now he flat out tells her he regretted having sex with her.

  “I’m very sorry that having sex with me is something you regret, thank you for your honesty, now get the hell out!”

  “No, no, I didn’t mean it to sound like that. I regret that I had sex with an employee. Not you. Well you are an employee but the sex, the sex itself, I don’t regret.” Miguel walked closer to Alex and placed his hand under her chin and tipped her head up so he could look her in the eyes. “Please forgive me.”

  Alex melted. She saw the sincerity in his eyes and she knew he was being truthful.

  “Ok.”

  Miguel stepped back and gave her a half smile. “Any chance you would still like to be the CFO at Cruz…”

  “I, I don’t think…”

  “Alex, you were hired because you are the best and it is a great opportunity for you. I don’t want my stupidity to ruin what could be the best thing for both you and my company.”

  “To be honest, I’m not sure I can work for you…your company now.”

  “I’ll give you a raise, a company car…”

  “I don’t want or need your money or to be bribed. I just feel like after what happened between us…”

  “I promise; I will never ask you for sex or behave inappropriately. I respect all of my employees.”

  Alex paced back and forth, she really wanted that job but could she handle being with Miguel day after day, knowing what it was like to have sex with him and know she could never have him again?

  “Can I think about it and let you know tomorrow?”

  “I suppose as long as your answer will be yes?” Miguel smiled again.

  “There is a fifty percent chance it will be.”

  Miguel reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a business card and handed it to Alex.

  “That number is my personal number. Call me when you decide.”

  “Will do.”

  “Again, I am really sorry about all of this and if there is anything I can do to make it up to you, please let me know.”

  “I appreciate you taking the time to come here and apologize, it takes a big man to own up to his mistakes. I respect you for that.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Goodbye, Miguel.”

  “Talk to you soon, Alex.”

  Miguel walked out the door. Alex ran to the mirror and took a quick look at herself. Then she thought, he can’t be such a bad guy if he was still wanting to hire me after seeing me looking like a train wreck. Alex smiled. What on earth was she going to do?

  Three months later…

  “MR. CRUZ, ALEX IS waiting to see you?”

  Miguel looked up and Lacey was standing there. He was exhausted. He and Miles had only gotten back from their last mission a few hours ago and they showered, dressed and headed to work. It had been a rough few months.

  “Show her in, Lacey.”

  Alex waited outside Miguel’s door. She loved her job but it was still awkward sometimes when she saw Miguel, which luckily hadn’t been too often. Miguel had been traveling a lot especially in the past month. Each time he left town Alex wondered about the woman he would be having sex with and it made her jealous.

  “You can go in now, Alex.”

  “Thank you, Lacey.”

  Alex opened the door and Miguel was sitting behind his desk mulling through papers.

  “Good morning, Miguel.”

  “Alex, hello. Have a seat.”

  “I need you to sign off on a few things and then if you have a moment I’d like to discuss the strategy for the next Board meeting.”

  “Sure, let me sign these first.” Miguel reached out his arm and grunted from the pain in his shoulder.

  “Are you alright?”

  Think fast Miguel, you can’t tell her what you were doing that dislocated your shoulder, the gym, yeah the gym. “I aggravated an old shoulder injury when I was lifting weights this morning.”

  “Ouch! I dislocated my shoulder once when I was seventeen. My brother thought it would be fun to mattress surf down the stairs. My arm got caught in between the spindles in the bannister and poof, dislocated shoulder.”

  “Mattress surf?”

  “Yes, you’ve never done it?”

  “I can’t say that I have.”

  “Miles is right; you do need to add some fun to your life.”

  Alex got up and walked over to Miguel. He wasn’t sure what to expect after her statement about having fun. Alex stood behind him and then gently massaged his shoulder. “My mom used to do this when my shoulder was throbbing.”

  Miguel sunk back in his chair and relaxed. After a few minutes the throbbing in his shoulder had calmed down but he had a throbbing somewhere else and was relieved it was hidden under his desk. What the hell was wrong with him. Alex was his employee and he wasn’t allowing himself to have any sort of feelings for her or any other woman for that matter.

  “I feel much better now, thank you.” Miguel raised his arm so that Alex would let go and hopefully go back and sit on the other side of his desk. He needed some space to calm himself down.

  “So about the meeting…”

  Miles came in and handed Miguel his phone. Alex looked up at Miles who looked quite co
ncerned.

  “Hey Alex, would you mind coming with me? This call is highly confidential.”

  Alex stood up, gathered her papers and walked out with Miles.

  Allan was waiting in Alex’s office when she returned.

  “Hey, Beautiful.”

  “Allan, I wasn’t expecting you back until Thursday.”

  Allan kissed Alex.

  “I know but everything went so smoothly that we finished up a few days early.”

  “I’ve missed you.”

  “I’ve missed you too, Alex. How about lunch?”

  “How about dinner, I have a ton of work to do.”

  “Dinner it is. I will pick you up at six, ok?”

  “Why don’t you just come over and we can order in?”

  “Oh you really did miss me?” Allan winked.

  “I did.” Alex smiled.

  “See you at six.”

  Allan walked out and Alex walked over and plopped herself down in her big comfy chair and spun it around. She did miss Allan, she loved Allan but she knew she wasn’t in love with him, nor would she ever be and that made her kind of sad.

  Miles walked back into Miguel’s office to see what the outcome of the phone call was.

  “So?”

  “I’m getting too old for this.”

  “Migs, you’re in your thirties not your seventies.”

  “When we started these missions, we were younger, we lived for the action, the excitement and hell knows we wanted the money. Now, we don’t need any of that.”

  “Damn boy, are you alright?”

  “Maybe I’m just tired.”

  “What’s really bothering you?”

  “Alex.”

  “I knew it!”

  “Miles, what the fuck am I going to do?”

  “Take her out on a date.”

  “She’s my employee now.”

  “She was your employee before and that didn’t stop you.” Miles laughed.

  “You’re a dick.” Miguel got up and headed for the door.

  Miles grabbed his arm. “Hey, I might be a dick but I care about you.”

  “I know.”

  “Seriously, ask her out for dinner.”

  “Maybe I’m just in need of sex?”

  Both men reached for their phones as they buzzed in unison.

  “Well it looks like you’re going to have to wait.”

  “I just hope that this time we not only get out our people but we snag that mother fucker.”

  “I’ll call and make the travel arrangements, Migs, you call the Team. Meet you downstairs in thirty minutes.”

  Alex was walking to her car at lunch time when she saw Miguel and Miles loading several duffel bags into the trunk of the limo.

  “Running away from home?”

  Miguel looked at Miles then Alex.

  “There’s a problem at one of the other offices that we need to take care of.”

  “That’s something we need to discuss when you return, it seems you have traveled quite a bit and I have yet to see any receipts for your travel expenses.”

  Miles knew that neither of them could explain why they didn’t have any receipts so he decided a quick change of subject was in order.

  “Alex, do you have a date for the Cruz Foundation Dinner? Miguel still needs a date.”

  Alex looked at Miguel and he looked like a deer in headlights.

  “I really hadn’t thought about it.”

  “Don’t feel obligated to say yes because Miles…”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes?” Miguel looked at Alex like she had two heads. He didn’t expect her to say yes.

  “Should I have said no?”

  “Yes, I mean no. I’d be honored to have you escort me.”

  Alex looked at Miguel and her cheeks blushed. Miguel realized what he said. “I meant to say accompany me to the dinner. That’s all. I didn’t mean to insinuate…”

  “I understand. Well you had better be going. Make sure you bring me back some receipts from this trip.”

  Alex smiled and walked over to her car, got in and drove away. Miguel just watched her until she was out of his sight. When he turned back around Miles was grinning from ear to ear at him.

  “You really like her don’t you?”

  “I don’t know and it scares me.”

  “Migs, you’ve spent your whole life taking care of Eden, me, the countless number of men you’ve rescued, aside from building your company, maybe it’s time for you to take care of yourself.”

  “Let’s go bring these guys home.”

  “Changing the subject isn’t going to change the fact that you have feelings for Alex whether you want to admit it or not.”

  Miguel walked over and got in the car. Miles just shook his head; he was used to Miguel walking away when he wanted to avoid things.

  ALEX WAS SITTING AT her desk compiling reports for her meeting in the morning when she came across a contract Miguel should have signed weeks ago. She knew he was back from his last trip because she had seen Miles coming out of his office the day before. Alex called over to Miguel’s office to see if she could have him sign the contract.

  “Mr. Cruz’s line, how may I help you?”

  “Lacey, it’s me Alex. Is Miguel available?”

  “Miguel and Miles were in an accident and Miguel is going to be home for the next few days.”

  “Oh my gosh. I didn’t know. I saw Miles yesterday, when did this happen?”

  “Miles came to pick up a few things for Miguel but he wasn’t doing too well, he has a few broken ribs and some stitches.”

  “Oh dear, he didn’t say a word to me.”

  “What did you need Miguel for?”

  “I have a contract that somehow ended up on my desk that he should have signed weeks ago.”

  “Well if he is working from home, then I suppose you could send it over by messenger for him to sign.”

  “Yeah, I’ll do that. Thanks for the idea.”

  Alex hung up the phone. She was going to messenger it over but she planned to be the messenger. She grabbed the contract and tossed it into her briefcase and headed out the door.

  Miles stood at the foot of Miguel’s bed while the doctor examined him. The doctors that tended to both him and Miguel were forced to work in less than sterile conditions. Miles only had broken ribs and a few stitches to close a small gash. Miguel, however, had two knife wounds that were deep and required several stitches which is why Miles called in a doctor to check out Miguel and make sure he didn’t have any kind of infection.

  “I’m fine, right Doc?”

  “They did a good job stitching you up but it never hurts to be over cautious. I’m going to give you another round of antibiotics and some painkillers.”

  “When can I go back to work?”

  “Focus on getting well, I will check in on you in a few days. If you have any new symptoms, the pain worsens or if you have a temperature, I want a phone call immediately.”

  “What about work?”

  “No work. You need to rest.”

  “But…”

  “Don’t worry, I will make sure he rests.”

  “You should do some resting yourself, Miles.”

  “Thank you for coming doctor, I will walk you out.”

  Alex was about to knock on the door when Miles opened it to let the doctor out.

  “Alex.”

  “Miles, hi. Lacey told me that you and Miguel were in an accident.”

  The doctor nodded his head to Miles and smiled at Alex as he walked down the stairs to his car.

  “Come in.”

  “How are you feeling? How is Miguel?”

  “I’m sore but I will be alright. Miguel is the one who’s in bad shape.”

  “Can I see him?”

  “He’ll probably kick my ass for allowing you to see him looking so bad but hell, why not.” Miles laughed.

  “Are you sure?”

  “I know he probably won’t admit it but I know he’
ll be happy to see you.”

  The doctor pumped Miguel full of pain medication before he left. Miguel was feeling very loopy and about to fall asleep when he heard Miles talking to someone and then the door opened.

  “You have a visitor.”

  Miguel looked over at the door. Alex smiled.

  “Hey.”

  “I heard about your accident. I’m sorry.”

  “Me too.”

  Alex walked closer to the bed. Miguel was pale and he looked more like a child than the big intimidating man he usually appeared to be.

  “Do you need anything?”

  Miguel could barely keep his eyes open, he was fighting the pain medication so that he could talk to Alex but he was losing the battle.

  “You.”

  Alex reached for Miguel’s hand and he smiled. She wasn’t holding his hand for more than a minute before he fell asleep.

  “I didn’t think he’d last too long with those pain killers the doc gave him.”

  “Miles, can I stay here with him for a bit?”

  “You know he cares about you?”

  Alex looked at Miguel and smiled and then looked up at Miles.

  “He does?”

  “He does but he doesn’t know how to handle his feelings. He’s never allowed anyone to get close enough for him to care.”

  “I care about him too but…”

  Alex stopped talking when Miguel’s bedroom door burst open. Miles spun around.

  “Why didn’t you call me? Why did I have to hear it from the office?”

  “Eden.”

  Eden walked over to her brother’s bedside. Alex let go of Miguel’s hand.

  “Who are you?”

  Alex extended her hand to Eden. “Alex DiPietro, CFO for Cruz Contracting.”

  Eden shook Alex’s hand. “Eden Cruz, Miguel is my brother.”

  “I’ll get going now.”

  “Alex, would you mind staying here with Miguel for a bit while I talk to Eden about a few things?”

  “Sure, take your time.”

  Eden leaned over and kissed Miguel on his cheek and then his forehead.

  “If he wakes up, let him know I’m here.”

  “Sure thing.”

  Eden and Miles left. Alex sat down on the bed beside Miguel and watched him as he slept.

  Miles grabbed Eden’s hand and pulled her into the study and closed the door.

  “I’ve missed you so much, Miles.”