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Other speakers came up to the stage to speak, and soon enough, the morning event came to an end. I was incredibly pleased because I got to see her. I had a feeling that things would become even more eerie between us, that she would do all that she possibly could to hide, and that it would be hilarious. I truly couldn’t wait, so I turned around, but instead of her, I was met with the Swedish investors that we had dinner with the previous evening.
Everyone was standing to their feet and mingling, the hall getting rowdy, and I wanted to try to leave. However, he stopped me, and I couldn’t help but be even more irritated as I saw his face.
"Mr. Swift," he smiled at me. "I sent you a message last night and this morning, thanking you immensely for allowing my team to host you. We hope to continue our discussion today, and I also have some officials that I am personally connected to and who are vital to our project."
I watched him, and truly, I didn’t know what to say. I was interested in what he was offering, but the way he had acted yesterday severely pissed me off.
"My secretary is still hungover from all the drinks you fed her yesterday,” I couldn’t hold myself back, and this was how I knew I was losing it just like Madison because under normal circumstances, I would have put my goals and focus first. But I liked this side of me. I liked this more human side that she brought out where everything was not always simply about achieving. I wanted to have a little fun, just as she was telling me to, and so I decided to take my own advice.
At my words, his smile immediately faltered, and then he began to stutter. I couldn’t stand him, so I turned around, but before I could leave, I was surrounded once again by a different crowd.
I shook more hands than I could identify faces, and more often than not, the questions they asked warranted automatic responses. It was my field. I knew what to say and when to say it; however, suddenly someone said something out of nowhere that completely stumped me.
It was the organizer of the conference. He had come over amidst those gathered around me to determine how the networking lunch happened. He was hoping that I would move away from the conference hall so that it would encourage the rest of the attendees to also move, so that we could talk instead as we had lunch, since the conference had to be returned to in the afternoon.
And then he added a sentence that I had never even thought I would ever hear.
"Congratulations about your engagement?"
I was sure he was talking about something related, but it still didn’t make any sense to me.
"Excuse me?" I asked.
"Oh, it's spreading around the women," he replied with a smile. "They’re all devastated. Don’t you see how many of them are here? They all thought you were still single, so none of them wanted to miss this event for the world. But now, I don’t know if even a single soul will be here come the afternoon session."
He said it as a joke, and the majority laughed in amusement, but I wasn’t amused at all. Instead, I was incredibly confused, especially as I understood the context in which he was espousing this now.
"Who said I was engaged?" I asked, and the man seemed quite taken aback.
"You’re not?"
"It was your secretary," the woman beside him said, smiling. "She was asked if you were in a serious relationship, and she said that you were close to being engaged, if not even engaged, so all of us have to back off, except there’s still a chance?"
Everyone laughed at this, but I wasn’t the only one not amused. It wasn’t that I was angry; I was just confused. I turned around then, and it was as though she had overheard everything. She turned away, and all I could see was the back of her head. Shaking my head, I almost felt sorry for her. She was most definitely having the absolute worst day ever. As to their inquiry, I didn’t respond. There was no need to, and just as quickly, everyone moved on.
Chapter Sixteen
Madison
Everybody in the tearoom wanted to talk to him. I completely understood. He was the talk of the conference - his expertise, his success, his youth, his scarcity. He never went anywhere, but this time around, he was here, and everyone wanted a piece of him.
I stayed just close enough, and at first, he didn’t notice me. But I noticed soon that his eyes kept wandering, and I pulled out my phone to send him a message. But when I recalled what I had written earlier, I lost my confidence. I was clinically insane. At this point, it was official, and I wasn’t exactly keen on reminding him of this fact. So, I simply tried to stay within his line of sight until eventually, our eyes met. His gaze lingered on mine, and I couldn’t help but notice that even though everyone was trying to talk to him, there were a few seconds where his complete and total focus was on me. It made my heart flutter, even though I was sure he was just staring at me because of what I had written. Sure, I had deleted it, but the notification had come to his phone, so I was a hundred percent sure that he had read it.
But I had already worked up a couple of ways to salvage this, and I knew just how to use it the second we found a moment alone together. My only question now was if he would actually believe it. That was indeed the question.
But now, as I overheard the entire exchange, I knew that I was dead. I had only told one person. It had been a complete in-the-moment lie, and now the entire conference was celebrating him for being engaged. And he hadn’t refuted it. I wanted to run away. At this point, I couldn’t even feel fear again. All I could do was feel amusement. At least I knew it would be a funny story to tell after I had gotten royally fired.
He had said that he wasn’t going to move, but now I had no doubt about it. I was messing up his perfectly ordered life, and there was no need for him to bear it. I wondered what to do now. I couldn’t leave him in the middle of the event and just head back to the hotel unless he explicitly asked me to, so I stayed put and tried to avoid his eyes. If he needed something from me, he could text me as he usually did.
But then, we would have to be alone soon because we had to head over to the lunch venue. It was three stories down, and I wondered if it would be weird for me not to take the elevator with him. What was sure, though, was that we wouldn’t be alone, so I was counting on quite the number of people between us to buffer his wrath and my embarrassment.
Shaking my head, I followed behind as we left the hall, with people trying to keep up and talking to him while he did his best to answer. Soon, the elevator arrived, and I watched him from behind. However, just as everyone went in, he didn’t. He stopped and was searching for me. I couldn’t run away then. I hadn’t expected it, and it was too late for me to take cover. Our eyes met, and then he gestured. Tears rushed to my eyes.
"What are you doing? Come over."
I did as he asked, and then the elevator filled up.
"I’ll take the next one," he said, but about five people immediately got off. "No need, no need. You’ll have to wait. You’re the guest of honor, Mr. Swift."
