"Uh., I was coming from my dad’s office and decided to cool off the pressure here. You know how my dad can be." I said. "May I join you?" I asked and he quickly nodded and led me to a sofa. We both sat down. I flipped my hair from my face.
We were both tensed and nervous. First off, because we love each other and secondly, if Eric should find us together we'd be toast.
"So.. how have you been? It’s been a while since I spoke to you." He said.
"Yeah, like after Eric got back." I said with a light chuckle. He just sighed. Well we've been in touch with each other on the phone when Eric was in Germany but we don’t go out together. After Eric came back, I deleted his number to avoid suspicions.
Actually, I'm talking about Davis right now. It's really sad that Eric doesn’t want us together because Davisis his friend. I really don’t get why guys feel that way.
"You shouldn’t be here… with me." He said.
"Davis don’t say that. Eric is not here now." I said.
"Yeah, but you are the governor’s daughter. If someone sees us together, they will make it public and it will get to Eric or your dad." He said and it made sense.
"But it's not fair. Why do everything I want gets taken from me?" I sighed deeply.
"I guess we can just keep admiring each other from a distance." He said. I stood up and walked away briskly. I ran to my car and got in. There I let down my tears freely from my eyes. I slowly wiped it off my face. How can we continue admiring each other from a distance? We've been doing that since high school.
They were two grades higher than me. Whenever Davis comes to visit Eric then, I was always happy. Even though, I knew that among the four of them, Davis was the one that loves going out with girls, I still loved him. Along the line, I noticed that Davis started showing interest in me. He stopped going out with girls and focused on me alone. I wouldn’t say we were boyfriend and girlfriend but we were a thing. Only Calvin was aware then. But one fateful day during lunch break, Davis and I sneaked into the school storage room like we always do, to get some alone time with each other. We were in the middle of our hot romance session when Eric barged in on us. I could remember the look of horror on his face as he stared at us. He rushed towards Davis and bartered his face with punches. I had to call on Calvin and Barry to stop him but he had already damaged Davis face, who was unwilling to fight with him.
As from that fateful day, he never allowed us to see each other let alone be with each other, although they are still friends.
So you see, it's so complicated, my whole life is.
THREE DAYS LATER.
HAILEY’S P.O.V
After my check up with the kids, I decided to go to the pharmacy to see Liam. I haven't seen him around lately.
"Hey Liam." I called as I saw him. He looked up from his phone to me and he smiled widely.
"Hailey." He called and stood up. "What brings here?" He asked.
"I was just bored at my office.. and seeing that you are my only friend here, I decided to come see you." I said.
"That’s nice, please have a seat." He said and I sat opposite him. I looked around the enclosure, quite fancy.
"You guys do not have much to do here, right?" I asked.
"Sometimes." He said.
"So tell me about yourself." I said trying to bring up a conversation.
"Hmm, there is not much to know about me." He said.
"I would like to hear it anyway." I said and he smiled.
"Well, I live in an apartment, alone. That's because I’m still a bachelor." He said.
"How about your family?" I asked.
"I don’t live with my family. They don't live here in New York. But we do get in touch often." he said and I nodded. "What's up with you?"he asked.
"Me? Nothing much. Just work." I said.
"Family? Friends?" He asked.
"Um.. I really don't like talking about my family. Brings up bad memories." I said.
"Oh.. so sorry I brought it up." He said and I smiled.
"It's ok." I said.
"Anyways, uh, I've been meaning to talk to you about something." He said.
"Ok, what is it?"I asked.
"um.. I.." he sat uprightly. " I wanted to tell you that I.." My phone rang and I checked the caller and smiled. It was Calvin.
"Excuse me." I said to Liam and answered the call. "Hey Calvin." I said.
"Hi… I’m at your office right now and you're no where to be found." He said in his usual serene voice. I chuckled.
"Oh, really? I just stepped out a bit." I said.
"Ok, can you come over?" He asked.
"Yeah, I will be there." I said and hung up.
"You've got to go?" Liam asked.
"Yeah, I do." I said.
"I didn't know you were this close to Mr Hart." He said and I arched an eyebrow.
" How did you know I was talking to him?" I asked.
"Lucky guess." he said with a smile.
"Well, we recently became friends." I said.
"Um, you mean two months ago?" He asked and I chuckled.
"Yeah." I said and stood up. "What was it you wanted to tell me?" I asked.
"It's nothing, maybe some other time."he said.
"Ok then, it was nice chatting with you." I said.
"Same here." He said.
"Bye." I said and walked out.
I walked back to my office. Calvin was already sitting comfortably.
"Hey." He said.
"Sorry for keeping you waiting." I said.
"No problem." He said and I sat on the chair close to him.
"So, you finally have a free time." I teased.
"You can say that again. I've been juggling between meetings and auditions and business parties, trips and so on. But I'm less busy now." He said.
I noticed he was not wearing a suit as usual. He just wore a red T- shirt and a black trouser with a black shoe. The hand of the shirt tightened around his muscles which were more prominent. And the star tattoos on his neck was now visible. He was still wearing a diamond stud on his right ear. His lips were so cute like that of a baby. His face was so smooth that I could end up with a conclusion that he had never had a pimple in his life. 'Come on, Hailey, he produces different facial cream too. I guess they are effective on him.
"You do know that I'm not comfortable with you staring at me like that, right?" He said and I quickly looked away, embarrassed with the fact that he caught me staring.
"Um…." I didn't know what to say, I bit my lip. He chuckled.
"It's okay. Anyways, I want us to hang out." He said and I looked at him.
"You are really something. You didn't even ask if I mind, you just want us to. What if I'm busy" I said playfully and he chuckled.
"Okay I'm sorry, can we hang out today? That is, if you wouldn't mind." He said and I chuckled.
"Of course." I said and stood up. I took off my coat and grabbed my bag "Let’s go." I said and he stood up. We both walked out of my office. I signed out before following him.
"Where were you earlier when I came?" Calvin asked as we got into his car.
"I was at the pharmacy." I said. He started the car engine and started driving.
"Getting drugs?" He asked.
"No, I went to see a friend there. We both got the job the same day. He's a really cool guy." I said.
"He? He's a guy?" He asked.
"Yeah, his name is Liam." I said.
"You like him?" He asked and I looked at him, sensing a little jealousy from his tone.
"Well, he is my friend so I do like him." I said. He didn't say a word after that. I looked ahead. "Where are we going?" I asked.
"To your restaurant." He said.
"My restaurant?" I asked in surprise.
"Yeah, you told me to patronize you someday, right?" He asked.
"Yeah." I said.
"And that's what I'm going to do." He said and I smiled. I never thought he would truly patronize me. Not that my restaurant is in the low class range. It's actually beautiful to my taste, just not luxurious. He parked the car and we alighted from the car.
I led him as we walked in. Those who saw him were staring at him in awe. The girls there squealed excitedly.
"Come on." I said and pulled him to an empty table. We both sat down. Louisa came to us.
"Good afternoon Miss Hailey, good afternoon Mr Calvin Hart." She blushed as she said his name. I rolled my eyes at her. "Get us muffins, cinnamon rolls, brownies and sausage rolls." I said and she nodded and left.
"You've got a nice place here. It is better than I imagined." He said, looking around.