AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My email inbox is stuffed with all kinds of junk, but there are a few items I need to pay attention to. I’m deeply involved in work when I hear a few taps on the glass. When I glance up and spot Zane, he’s already entering.
“How’s Olivia?”
“She’s in today, why don’t you ask her yourself?”
He drops down into a plastic chair in front of my desk. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I have work to do.”
“Cut the bullshit, Lucian.”
I sigh. “I guess I smothered her a little too much, and she got pissed. I just want her to be okay, but I walked out of the loft, angry.”
“Not everyone is going to respond to your brand of protection. I know, you can’t help it, but dial it back a little. By the way, you have lipstick on your mouth,” he teases with a huge grin.
“Shit. I’ve been walking around like this?” I say, alarmed, as I rub at my lips.
“Are you sure it’s because she got pissed or because she won’t sleep with you?”
“I don’t want to sleep with her. She has to make that decision.”
“So all this nice, nice shit isn’t so she’ll give in? I know how broken up you were when she threw you over for that jerk.”
“You really give me that little credit? Unlike you, I would never sweet talk a woman into bed.”
“I don’t need to sweet-talk them. They come willingly, over and over and over again.”
“Zane, enough. You’re one to talk with your Lana hang up.”
“I don’t have a Lana hang up. She left. End of story.”
I snort because I know he is full of shit. Just like Olivia leaving me, Lana leaving him was just as bad, if not worse.
“Uh-huh, keep telling yourself that.”
“We’re not talking about me. We’re talking about you. I would guess that the lipstick is from Olivia. You kissed her, and she pushed back?”
“Nope, she kissed me and gave me some crap about being grateful. I feel like it was out of pity, but I don’t want it if she doesn’t want me. I wish she would just come out and tell me if this is ever going to work between us.”
“Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be.”
“Not helping. Is there a reason why you’re in my office?”
“As a matter of fact, I need you to sit with the accounting department and go over some figures on a project we have in the works. We need to set a budget, including marketing dollars. Can you get your mind off Olivia long enough to concentrate on that?”
“Kindly get the fuck out of here. I’ll meet with them in a little while.”
“Nice to see you too. Talk to you later.”
I watch him exit, then get up to close the shades across my door. I didn’t want anyone peering in, especially Olivia. Zane’s words leave me upset, and I need to cool off.
I don’t encounter Olivia all day, and I wonder if she’s feeling alright, but I refuse to check on her. I don’t want her to think I was a mother hen, so I also don’t seek her out when it’s time to go home. I slip on my jacket and promptly get on the elevator at five.
I’m home before her and begin to prepare dinner, roast chicken with potatoes. The hour ticks to six and past, but I hear nothing from her, nor does she text or call me. I’m starving by the time dinner rolls out of the oven at 6:45 PM, and I’m not going to wait for her either. She doesn’t even have the decency to let me know that she’s okay or when she will be home. Why should I hold dinner for her? At nine, I hear the door to the loft open, and she calls out to me. I’m in bed, reading.
“What?” I snap.
She comes into my room, but I don’t look up when she enters.
