“Aria, who was that guy that you agreed to go on a coffee date with?”
“First of all, if you had been listening without the intention of hearing whatever you wanted to, you would realize it’s not a date. We specifically had a conversation about just being friends, and I very calmly and nicely rejected all his other advances.”
“Too nicely. You should have told him to fuck off. I’m going to ask again, who was he?”
She sighed. “Calm down, Zayden. It’s nobody important.”
“It obviously is if you are making plans with him.”
“I make plans with Nick all the time. You know, my roommate, who you thought I was also screwing. That doesn’t bother you.”
“He’s dating your friend. I hardly have anything to worry about there.”
“And you hardly have anything to worry about here either. You heard the whole conversation!”
“I saw how he was looking at you. I know that look… it’s the same one I give you all the time.” I tried to keep my voice from sounding betrayed and pathetic, but I suspected I wasn’t doing a superb job of it.
“Rick is the very last guy on Earth I would ever get involved with, I promise you.”
That name sounded familiar. After our first night she had said something about a Dick… I was half passed out from cumming, but I had heard her say something about something about a guy named Dick… Rick. And then it hit me.
Holding on very tightly to my stress ball, I said, “Your ex.”
“Yes, my ex,” she snapped. “Ex. Meaning in the past. I don’t know if you were paying attention, but that guy hurt me quite a lot. He cheated on me on our anniversary and it took me forever to get over it. I spent the majority of the year hating him.”
“Oh really? How often do you go out for coffee with someone you hate,” I challenged, my fingernails digging through the palm of my hands. The pain was oddly soothing.
“Not very often. But you know what? Before you came along, I would never ever have agreed to be friends with him. Because in some part of me, I still cared. Now I don’t. Because I care about you. And I have no reason to hate him. He almost did me a favor. In some ways, I am grateful… if he hadn’t cheated on me, you and I would have never…”
She stopped, perhaps realizing that she had said more than she intended.
“You can’t talk to him anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
“You are not allowed to go anywhere near that guy.”
She flared her nostrils. “You can’t tell me who I can or cannot talk to. You think you own me?”
“Actually I kind of do,” I spat. “In this regard anyway. It’s in the contract. Section 9. You’re not allowed to engage in any sort of relationship – platonic or otherwise – with a man I disapprove of. And I assure you, I disapprove of this guy.”
She opened her mouth in anger and closed it again. Tears were now freely streaming down her face, her mascara running down her cheeks. I didn’t want her to cry. But more importantly, I didn’t want her talking to that guy.
She looked like she wanted to say something a few times but changed her mind. After standing there in silence for a few minutes, she stormed out of the office.
People had definitely witnessed the production, and I worried about being insulted by my own employees. I did not need this kind of attention. Why did I care who she spoke to anyway? She was just some girl I had contracted to win a challenge in my own head, yet this whole ordeal made me feel extremely vulnerable. So much so that I had ended up creating a scene at work; something that had never, ever happened, in my entire career.
Aria Roberts was turning out to be more trouble than I needed in my life. Yet I knew just then that I would not be able to rest peacefully until I knew for sure that no one else shared her attention. She was to be – for whatever duration she had signed up for – completely and utterly mine.
I didn’t care how that made me seem. I wanted what I wanted, and I always got what I wanted. If she didn’t stop talking to him, I’d have him shipped off the state in no time. Money talks.
She would then hate me if she found out. I felt an uncomfortable knot in my chest. I didn’t want her to hate me. I would have to find a better tactic. What happened today could not be repeated. If I wanted to enjoy the remainder of these few months, it was in my best interest to learn to keep my emotions in check.
The trouble was, I had never before had trouble keeping my emotions in check, and I really did not know how.
Chapter 7
Aria