The next morning I was awakened by a knock on my door. I was still a little skittish so when I went over to it I stood off to the side and looked through the peephole. Aaron was standing there with flowers in one hand and a box of chocolates in the other. I hesitated, hoping he didn’t think it would be that easy. Telling myself that I needed to at least hear him out, I opened the door. When he saw the bruises and scratches on my face and arms he looked horrified and said,
“Oh my God, Max told me you were in an accident. Are you okay? What happened?”
“Come on in,” I told him. He handed me the flowers and chocolates and I thanked him. Things were awkward between us, again. I had so many questions, but because he looked so worried, I thought I should answer his first.
“After I left your party the other night I got mugged. The guy that took my purse pushed me into the road and I was hit by a car. My bones are tough…nothing broke. I just ended up with a few scrapes….”
“Oh God, Robyn…this is my fault. I’m so damned sorry!” Aaron dragged his fingers through his hair and stood up. I’d never seen him look so…distraught? He was always so controlled. It was hard to see him like that.
“It’s not your fault. I should have hailed a cab at the hotel….”
“But you didn’t, because you were upset…because of me. You don’t have to even say so, I know that it’s true. I’m so sorry. I was an ass. I get so damned focused when it comes to business and I don’t even notice what else is going on right in front of my face. I should have made sure you got home safely.” He was pacing the room and I reached up and took his hand. I know I’m a push over and I should still be mad about the way he treated me. But instead, all I felt was sorry for him for feeling responsible.
“Please don’t blame yourself. I’m okay. It?
??s all okay.”
He sat down next to me again and said, “I can’t help it. It’s true…if I had treated you better this wouldn’t have happened. Please forgive me.”
“Forgiven and forgotten,” I told him. All I wanted at that moment was for him to hold me in his arms. He didn’t disappoint, and as he pulled me close I could feel him trembling.
~
CHAPTER FIVE
~
ROBYN
We sat on the couch and Aaron held me for about an hour and then he asked me if I was hungry. I said I was and he called someone…probably Jeffrey and had a delicious lunch of homemade soup and sandwiches delivered. We ate and Aaron insisted I go back to the couch while he cleaned up. I heard his phone ring twice and he took both calls in the other room while he was there. He sat back down with me for a half an hour or so and took another call. That was when he said that he had to go. I was stunned. He was the boss…the CEO for crying out loud. Surely he could take an emergency day off or two. Technically, he should still be in Belize so I’m sure that his executive staff could handle whatever it was…if he wanted them to.
“You have to go? Why?” I knew I sounded whiney. That wasn’t like me at all, but damn it I’d just got out of the hospital and he’d just told me how sorry he was…..
“I have a surprise for you. I have to go so I can organize it. Hopefully it won’t take more than a day or two….”
“A day or two? Aaron, I don’t want a surprise. I don’t need anything…I just want to spend time with you. Please get that, I don’t want anything except you!”
“I want to spend time with you as well. But this is something important, you’ll be happy about it, I promise.”
“But…”
“I really have to go.” He kissed me on the forehead…and he left. I sat there looking at the door, stunned. What was wrong with him? What was wrong with me? Why did I keep letting him push me away and then pull be back in? Why did he even bother to tell me back at Christmas time that he wanted to be with me if this was the way he was going to be? Why can’t he see that I don’t want things…? I have everything I want and need….except him.
AARON
I left Robyn’s place feeling at least a little better than I had when I got there and found out what happened. I’d been so upset with her for just showing up at the New Year’s party. She just doesn’t seem to understand sometimes that life is just not always fun and games. But, no matter how upset I was with her, there was no excuse for either my rudeness or the fact that I let her leave alone. It was almost midnight and I was more concerned with ringing in the New Year with a bunch of business men than I was with ensuring her safety.
The next day when I got the message from her that “something had come up,” I assumed that she was just angry. I decided to give us both a day or two to cool down. Then on Friday morning, I went down to marketing hoping to find her in her office. I ran into Max instead. He told me about Robyn’s friend dropping off a note and that he’d called her to check in but she said she was okay. Max of course didn’t know Robyn and I were dating, he was telling me as her employer. I asked questions and Max answered them to the best of his ability.
At first, I was angry that she’d not told me what happened when she called. We were supposed to be dating. Wasn’t that something you told someone that you were dating? I went back to my office, stubbornly determined to wait until she called me before I did anything else. Max said she was going to be okay, that meant she was capable of making the first move.
I tried to get my mind off of her as I worked. I’d find myself in the midst of reviewing a contract and thinking about the soft, throaty chuckle of hers that made me want to say funny things for the first time in my life. I wasn’t normally a funny guy. I thought about how she’d shown up at one of the most exclusive restaurants in Manhattan in an elf suit. That had made me really uncomfortable. I’d called up the memory specifically trying to lose the sentimentality I was feeling. But it didn’t do the trick. When I thought about it tonight I told myself that it was so juvenile…so risky….so…damned attractive. The fact that she didn’t give a crap what any of those high society fools thought of her was such a turn on…I’d wanted to take her right there on the table. The problem was, I had to care what they thought. That was what she didn’t get. That was what ended up frustrating us both, I think.
“Janice!” I’d said into the intercom, much too harshly. She stuck her head in the office. She had her bag on her arm. She was getting ready to leave for the day.
“Get Hal on the phone and tell him I want to go over the Xiong numbers before we leave today.”
“Sir…it’s after five.”
“Did I ask for the time?”
“No sir.”