AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m sorry. We knew you would worry. So we wanted to tell you when there was nothing to worry about.”
“That’s not your decision to make. What if—you know what? We’ll talk about this when I get home. I’m leaving the office now.”
Matt starts to protest, but I hang up the phone and head out.
I run into Travis on the sidewalk on his way back into the building.
“Where are you off to in such a hurry?” he asks.
“I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to take the rest of the day off. I have a family emergency that I need to attend to.” I don’t wait for his response. I start to make my way toward my car.
“Is this a regular occurrence?” he calls after me.
I stop dead in my tracks and turn around. “Excuse me?”
“I just want to know if you regularly leave work in the middle of the day for personal reasons.”
I ball my fists at the implication he’s making. “No, this is not a common occurrence. If you want specifics, my mother has cancer. This morning she slipped and sustained a head injury. I would like to go and see that she is okay. Is that fine with you?”
He has the decency to look embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. Please, if there’s anyway I can help don’t hesitate to reach out.”
“I don’t need anything from you.” I look him up and down. I turn on my heels and head off.
As Jeremy drives me to my parent’s house I don’t even have the energy to be angry at Travis. I’m too worried about the state my mother is in.
I know Matt said she’s fine, but considering they hid all of this from me it’s possible he downplayed how bad things are. My heart is in my throat the whole drive. I am praying that Mom is fine. I don’t know what I will do if she isn’t.
4
TRAVIS
To say I feel like an asshole after my last interaction with Ms. DeLisle would be an understatement. We’ve had this back-and-forth ever since we met, but I guess I took it too far that day.
An entire week has passed since the incident and I haven’t seen her. I know she’s been at work, in fact, she’s made a point to clock in with HR every morning and clock out when she leaves. I’m sure that’s for my benefit, but I don’t deserve it.
I know I could’ve gone to her to apologize, but every time I was in the building, she was either actively avoiding me, or in the midst of a group of people. So I never found a good time.
That changes tonight. I’ve invited her to check out a building I’m thinking about purchasing for our expansion in the Garment District. I don’t need her opinion to be honest, but it’s a plausible enough excuse for why I would want to get her alone.
It’s been10 minutes since I got to this old building. I’m probably breathing more dust than I’m supposed to in a lifetime just waiting here on the main floor. I reach up to scratch an itch along my jaw and the sound the action makes on my 5 o’clock shadow fills the room, but not for long, because it is quickly replaced by footsteps approaching.
I turn just in time to see Ms. DeLisle round the corner, and she takes my breath away.
Her hair is in its usual high ponytail, but that’s all about her that looks normal. She has traded in her usual pant suits for a black fitted dress that stops just above her knee. It has a plunging neck line which displays her full breasts in all their glory. She is wearing strappy stiletto heels that wind up her shapely calf and stop at her knee. Over the whole outfit is a moss-green trench coat.
I’m ashamed to admit it, but the vision of her walking toward me, her hips swing, her breasts heaving, causes me to twitch in my pants.
When she stops in front of me, I can’t help but leer at her. “Ms. DeLisle, you look amazing…”
Color rises to her cheeks and she brushes hair back off her temple that isn’t there. “Thank you. I am meeting a friend after this for drinks.”
I try for words, but nothing coming out, so she continues, “Also, why do you call me, Ms. DeLisle? You asked me to call you Travis, so I think it’s only fair you call me Paige.”
I nod with a smile. “Well, Paige, let me give you the tour.”
I spend the next 30 minutes walking Paige around the space, showing her everything the realtor had shown me. I was actually leaning toward not buying this place, but seeing how Paige has reacted to it has made me reconsider.Hearing her ideas for the space and what we could do with every square inch of it has actually gotten me excited. I guess I was wrong about not needing her input on this.
At the end of the tour I turn to her. “How is it thatDeLisledoesn’t have a presence in the Garment District of all places?”
