* * *
I tried to sleep—I really did! But the thought of sharing a roof with a man who wasn't Louis chilled my blood to the bone. David had definitely earned my trust yesterday—protecting his business, his younger brother, a child he fosters (still in question), and his austere father to say the least with a plan I could have never thought up myself—so it was safe to say I could trust him and his judgment calls. But what I didn't know was if I could trust myself with the fact that he was a finely-built, sturdy young man.
And how could anyone?!
Last night, his grip, his way with words, the workings of his mind, and even his brief display of vulnerability had made me waver embarrassingly. And I still can't work out if it was because of my intoxicated state or a weird enamoured fascination. This is no good! Where is that contract he gave me last night? And where is my phone—good God! I need to contact my family, Louis, Elena, Gideon, and the rest to explain.
Scurrying out of my bed and into the hallway, I still couldn't get over how grand this place was. How was it even possible to create such tranquillity within a bustling city like New York; the outside of the property was surrounded by the splendor of lush greenery, while inside spelt out the peak of modern-living architecture.
"Good morning," A gravelly calm voice from behind startled me.
"JESUS CHRIST—" I raised a tightly wound fist, but quickly redrew when I realized it was only my husband—Eh, I mean, David! Duh! Who else would it be? "Y-you're an early riser," my voice tried to hide the undertow of absolute dread in witnessing a fear that was already transpiring as early as 5 'o clock in the morning!
"I could say the same about you." I quirked a fake smile at his witty remark. "And where were you headed?"
"I was... well, I was..." Ducking my head down, a wave of chagrin rushed over me at the additional loss of defences I was letting him break down yet again. "I'm not usually the tardy type but I think I may have lost the contract."
Which was all true. I'm hardly tardy.
"Huh..." he went silent. Yet somehow, silence didn't stop him from forming an undoubtedly cheeky grin that spread across his face like that of a Cheshire cat.
What a jerk!
"Does your head hurt? You emptied every single cupboard in the house yesterday. Not a drop in sight."
What?
"You're head. Does it hurt?"
"A bit—It hurts a bit," I constrained a stammered reply so I wouldn't seem like a volatile moron. Maybe he wasn't grinning after all then?
"Well... I usually prefer to stay at a hotel in lieu of here so you'll have to forgive the inhospitable conditions. I've just ordered some groceries, a few breakfast plates, and some house workers should be due by the end of the week. I take it hangover soups are your favourite dish—"
"We won't be alone!?" I let the words roll out of my mouth like sweet, sweet honey.
"Would you like it otherwise?"
"God no—I wouldn't even dream of that," I sighed with gross relief. "Besides, I'd like some friendly company for when you abandon me for work."
"What a nightmare I must be," he said indifferently. Which only made him more incredulously... stoically handsome?
"Right!" My eyes moved focused to my feet. "Did you happen to see my phone lying around here anywhere? I can't seem to find it at all."
"Now I'm definitely sure you're not a tardy individual my dear Miss Rose," he cheekily added with a knee-melting, white smile and I only noticed it by peaking up for a quick briefing of his expression, but, good God—I wish I hadn't! If I ever wanted to have a normal conversation with this man, I'd always have to look away else he would effortlessly reduce me to a stammer!
"I can only hope Miles has a perfectly good explanation for why he stole it," he continued.
"HE WHAT?!" I flared at him — I mean, he knew about it all this time! — but quickly diverted my gaze when confronted with his devilish beauty. "D-do you know where I can find him?"
"Why do you keep doing that?" He asked curtly.
He noticed.
"Doing what? I think you're imagining things. I was just—"
"Look at me." His stark, veiny hand planted my gaze firmly into his deep vermilion ones. It stayed that way for a long, quiet minute—me, forcing my face to stay as stoic as possible—when a loud buzz of a bell Interjected the strange, beguiling moment.
Saved by the bell indeed.
"I'll go get that," I said, quickly removing my face from his grip and scurrying to answer the outré visitor. But try as I may, it didn't matter how fast or far I made it to the door because the heat of his searing gaze had already singed half my back off. There was no winning on my part; I definitely angered him.
"David, buddy! About yesterday; we've got to sit down and have a one-to-one talk about what you're about to—Miss Rose!"
Well, speak of the devil.
"Chase, Chase, Chase," I glared deep into the guilty man's soul, hoping I could suck it out and rip it into tiny, little atomic shreds. "Where is it? Hand it over right now!"
"Where is what?"
"Don't try to be sly; you're an embarrassment to proffesionals! PHONE! NOW!" I yelled in complete exasperation. I needed to talk to someone I actually knew and they were making it purposefully impossible.
"I'm sorry, but I don't think..." he paused mid-way before continuing. "I won't be able to do that, miss Rose. I have strict orders no to."
"Give her her damn phone, Miles," David ordered, doing that thing he did earlier; appearing out of nowhere without a single sound. And to that, I heard Chase whisper something along the lines of: "David, I still need her files, settings, and data to compile information for the private phone you asked me to get for her."
"Phone Miles! Now!" He persisted with double the intensity. "And let's get going already. I have a busy day ahead of me."
"You mean you're not staying for the breakfast plates?!" I found myself asking like a whiny attention-seeking child.
Ew.
And, why?
"Billionaires aren't every day, menial people like the rest of the world. Neither do we live out its romanticization of us. We wouldn't have the title if it were otherwise."
"Well, that's just the problem."
"Should I dare ask why?" he scoffed conspicuously from under his breath.
"You need to learn how to live like everyday people."
"Hmm-hm," he dismissed bitingly acerbically. How rude!
"You also need to stop acting like an entitled, prejudiced prick! Every day people aren't 'menial' in the least as you believe." But his silence spoke for itself. He clearly didn't believe a word I was saying.
"Good day, Miss Rose."
"I don't think any type of greeting I get today can reverse the plight you've inaugurated in my life, Mr. Marquis. So, no! I won't have a good, nice, lovely, or fantastic day in the slightest." Call it being petty, but I wanted to make him feel even a little bit irked for the supercilious attitude he's been shoving down my throat this morning. His handsomeness be damned—he was beginning to embody an overbearing, self-righteous, haughty, snotty husband which I will in no way put up with whatsoever! Contract or no contract! I can't believe I even tried to be nice to him! "Oh, and by the way, I take back the breakfast plate offer. Normality isn't remotely for you! Stress and toil to death in God knows where with God knows who—see if I care!"
"And to that, I say you'll care well enough when Louis shares his vows with Miss Dupont for the whole world to see."
The audacity of this scum!
"YOU ARE SUCH A—"
"YOU'RE PHONE! Miss Rose." Chase purposefully cut me off.
"Give me that!" I snatched it from his hands and made my way back inside.
"You sure this thing's gonna work out?" I heard Chase's question, likely directed at David, disappear into the surrounding.
And honestly, I'm not sure either. I'm not sure at all.
. . .
"A petit-framed, average-looking, alcoholic young woman is who he chooses to make Mariah jealous with?"
"Well, beauty is a very subjective topic, Racheal."
"But common sense shouldn't be!" That sent the audience into a laughing frenzy. "I would laugh too if I weren't so outraged by the situation! How did our bachelor of the year, the Mr. David Marquis, hook up with such a posey when they are higher and much better prospects?"
"Give her some credit, her schooling degrees are very high up there," a talk show host pitched in on Ruby's behalf.
"And it's the only credit she's ever gonna get." The audience laughed again.
"Are you guys getting this?" Juliet spun around in ecstatic delight in her oversized office chair. "She's getting married to her boss! Our boss!"
"Yeah, and they're also dragging her name into the mud with the whole thing too!" Blaze sterned, confiscating the badger's phone from her clasp. Ever since seeing Ruby off due to her unfortunate "let off", communication with Juliet, which was previously little to nothing, became inadvertently prominent in the little friend group. Her company was hectic most of the time, but she came equipped with some strange charms that could capture the immediate attention—or scrutiny—of whoever she encountered.
"Hey!" she fussed.
"The files I gave you! Finish them before entertaining your sick humour."
"It isn't sick humour!"
"Then what else is it?" Gideon bore into her with a probing expression.
"It's..."
"It's?" He asked again.
"It's... IT'S FUNNY OKAY?! YEAH, SURE IT'S MEANT TO BE MEAN, BUT—"
"FILES!" Blaze badgered her again with unyielding attention. "Elena, have you got a breakthrough yet? Is she finally picking up the phone?"
The normally chipper returned looking 30 years older; chagrin wringing her youthful face dry to the bone. "I've called 75 times, left 30 voicemails, scanned all her social media pages, and still nothing."
"Do you think he's stopping her from contacting anyone?" Juliet commented—while finishing the files tasked of her, of course. "I've heard bits and pieces from his fan group that he's the overly possessive type. Crazy bunch they are—been wailing non-stop all morning!"
"If that's true, I swear by God, I'll use everything at my disposal to advocate relentlessly that he be labelled the nation's hugest _sshole!" Blaze broke into an uncharacterized maternal rage.
"I wouldn't be too hasty with that," Arian popped his head up and out from his workstation like an emerging meerkat. "She's calling."
"Answer! Answer!" They all bellowed fanatically as Rouge made an entrance, quickly turning the atmosphere dour and awkward.
"We finally got Ruby on the call," Gideon cooly notified her.
"About time..." she replied with an unattached mumble, fumbling with pools of work at her workstation and remaining stoic in her far-off demeanour and distance.
"Everything that's happened so far must be very overwhelming for Ruby. She'll want to talk to all of us about what she's passing through," Blaze inferred, not so much as a suggestion, but an order, to which Rouge returned with a negligible, lax glance.
"You should be here for this," Gideon got up and nudged her into the mix of things. "C'mon."
"S-stop!" She whispered through clenched teeth. "Knuckles stop it!" But ignoring and overpowering her, she couldn't do anything.
"She's our friend, Rouge."
"Guys, I think I need to use the washroom," Elena interrupted, getting up from her spot. "Catch me up when I get back, will you?"
"Okay," Blaze and Arian looked at each other, then answered with a dubious undertone.
"Are you happy now?" Rouge fussed from his embrace. "You've gone made everything ten times worse! I could live with the fact we could at least breathe the same air from the same room, but now I can't even do that much anymore! She'll come around when she's ready, not when I feel like forcing myself on her!"
"You guys can't keep this up! It's unhealthy, needless to say, annoying! Besides, I thought this fiasco ended on the night we broke up."
"Oh, you just love rubbing that all up in my face, don't you!"
"N-no! I just meant that it's been weeks since it happened and it seemed an appropriate reference point. "
"'Appropriate'?" Rouge scoffed rambunctiously.
"Well... no. Not now that it's come of my mouth—it doesn't sound too right."
"'Too right'? Are you for real?"
"DID YOU SEE WHAT THEY CALLED ME?" Ruby's voice roared from the phone across the room. "'PETIT FRAMED' 'ALCOHOLIC' 'A POSEY' 'A LOW PROSPECT'?!"
"Speakerphone," Arian grinned in amusement. "And no, I didn't increase the volume. It's on its absolute lowest."