AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I, however, chose to keep things simple. "It's the breakup," I explained. "You know what they say? It usually changes a woman completely. Most times her appearance."
He didn't respond and instead continued reading the menu. I had so many questions about him and for him, but I couldn't well ask any of them because having been his assistant for so many years, I was supposed to know, right?
I sighed, suddenly unable to wait for this week to be over.
The waiter came over then to take our orders, and once again, he continued to watch me as I spoke. It was quite disconcerting, but nothing, however, could have prepared me for what he said afterwards.
"You’re into rebounds?" He asked, and my entire body went still.
For a few seconds, I didn’t know how to react. I considered acting as though I hadn't heard him. In fact, I was almost sure that I hadn't heard him.
“You can decline,” he said as he lifted his glass for a sip of water. “We’ve worked together a long time. I’d understand if you couldn’t handle it.” I was about to respectfully decline until he made that statement, and then I stopped once again and gave him a look. For a moment, I was sure a blink of mischief flashed across his eyes, but I couldn’t tell if he was taunting me on purpose with that comment or if he was being deadly serious.
“First of all, I could handle it, I just don’t want to, and secondly…” I stopped then because I realized that I truly didn't have anything else I wanted to add.
“Secondly?” He asked. I watched him and thought of Sophie. Although the instruction was to outrightly reject him, I needed to know if he had ever made this same advance to Sophie before and if and how she had rejected it.
He raised his eyebrows in question as I continued to stare at him until eventually, I was forced to lower my gaze to avoid his intense look.
“It's a no,” he asked, and truly, I felt ambushed.
“Why the sudden proposition?” I asked.
He shrugged.
“You're available,” he said, and once again, I was up in arms.
“Um, available?” I asked in disbelief, and then I scoffed. Looking around the bar, there were countless other girls, any of them would jump at the chance to be with him in seconds.
“You're a billionaire. You could have any young woman you wanted. It'd be easy for you.” I told him. “I know it seems that I'm easy because I'm your assistant and I'm right here, but…”
“No,” he interrupted. “That's not the reason.”
I was curious then because I couldn’t think of any other reason.
“So what's the reason?” I asked.
“You're available now,” he said. “You never were before.”
I was quite startled by this response.
“So you were interested in me before?”
“You're a beautiful woman, Sophie, and you've always been, plus your temperament has always been especially agreeable with mine. However, because you weren’t available, that never crossed my mind. Now that you are, I'm making this proposition.”
This made sense to me, and as a result, I was no longer offended, but I would never knowingly risk Sophie's job.
“You're not worried it'll affect our working relationship?”
“That's why I mentioned your inability to handle it,” he said, and I was annoyed all over again. He was so damn cocky, and although he had a reason to be, it didn't make him any less irritating.
“I can handle it if I wanted to,” I said, and he nodded.
“So you don't want to?”
I didn't know how to respond to this, so instead, I got up then and excused myself to the restroom. My head felt like it was coming loose, seated in his presence, and I needed the space to think, plan, and recollect my thoughts.
Chapter 14
