AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Uh... I?—”
“I’m fucking allergic to peanuts!” He gritted his teeth, and I think in that moment, my heart failed.
Holy fucking shit. He truly had needed it. It wasn’t just a nonsense errand.
Nearly out of my mind with panic, I turned around and all but took off my shoes so I could sprint to the car.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and called Raul asking him to meet me at the door with the bag.
As I wiped the door open Raul was running up to it. His face was a mask of worry but I didn’t have time to say anything. I grabbed the bag from his outstretched hand, turned around, and ran back to the private room.
I must have been a sight to the others sitting at the tables. The ambiance of the restaurant didn’t fit a woman running through it like her pants were on fire.
I burst into the room without knocking this time and quickly opened the bag before passing it over. Unfortunately for me, I missed his hand and the bag tipped and the EpiPen flew from the bag.
The entire room gasped, and I most definitely went into shock. I watched him as he shut his eyes, his chest slowly heaving as he tried to control his temper. And then he went to search for the pen.
I couldn’t move.
I couldn’t even breathe.
All I could do was stare at him, I guess waiting to be shouted at or something. All the while praying that he wouldn’t die.
The entire room was so silent a pin could have dropped.
One of the men on the other side of the table reached down to the floor, picked up the pen by his feet, and slid it across the table.
Guy as calmly as he could thanked him and proceeded to take the cap off and slammed the device on his thigh so hard you heard his pants rip. His eyes were pinched shut and his breathing was ragged through his swollen lips.
Everyone remained quiet and waited until eventually he lifted his head and turned to his guests.
“Excuse me,” he said, and it was as though the room was brought back to life, and they remembered to breathe.
I, on the other hand, had turned into a statue.
“Are you alright, Mr. Templeton?” they asked. “Should we call emergency services?”
He didn’t respond. Instead, he walked out of the room and slammed the door shut behind him.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Guy
Apart of me couldn’t help but wonder if she did it on purpose. As I stood in the bathroom and tried my best to calm down and recover, I truly didn’t know what to think. What had just happened was malicious at best and downright foul at worst, and in both scenarios, I was so angry with her that I didn’t know what to do with myself.
I was almost immensely embarrassed, the very careful persona and carriage I had managed to cultivate over the course of the dinner was perhaps now engulfed in flames. Control was the most important thing in these kinds of meetings, and here I was, having completely lost all of it, along with almost having had to take a trip to the emergency room. I needed a lot more time to recover but knowing that it would be rude to keep them waiting, plus there was no way the meeting could continue now given my swollen lips and scratchy voice, I decided to leave the bathroom in order to return to them.
Just when I did, however, I met the last person on earth that I wanted to see waiting outside. Her head was lowered, but she wasn't just there to apologize. In her arms was a garment bag containing, I supposed, a change of a suit for me. However, this was the last thing I currently needed. I also wondered where she had gotten it from, but then again, I wasn’t surprised that she had an extra suit for me in the car without even my knowledge. Based on my observation of her over the past week, this was what I had come to expect of her, which was why I truly couldn’t understand how she could have made this monumental mistake.
I considered walking past her; after all, she would no longer be working for me after today. If she had been any other employee and not the one whose hiring was embroiled in so much controversy, I would have fired her on the spot. But here I was having to deal with this monumental embarrassment and discomfort all because of Gloria and that damn ban.
I did have one question that I truly needed to know the answer to, however, and so I stopped. I couldn’t look at her; I was afraid of how harsh my words would be and how deeply they would crush her, so I kept my gaze ahead and tried to control my temper.
“Did you do this on purpose?” I asked. “That’s what I want to know.”
As the words came out of my mouth, I had to admit then that they made very little sense. I mean, what could possibly be the reason for her wanting to kill me and embarrassing me in the same vein?
“No,” she replied with a shuddering breath and then turned to me. “I… I have no excuses. But… please change first.”
