"Who is Ruby?"
Cece remembered the hashtag she was supposed to add to each chapter she posted. She was still sobbing, sitting on the floor helplessly in front of a fuming Gavin.
Gavin on the other hand looked like he had been hit by a bus. He stared at Cece for too long, longer than she would have liked. Cece felt guilt and shame of stealing somebody else's story, someone else's memory even. It sounded poetic; felt terrible. After a contest of staring, Cece lowered her eyes.
"Who is Ruby, and why do people think of me in her place? I know I never left anywhere with you, but they all remember us leaving together and even dating. Why?"
"Because the thread of your lives is entwined. How? I can't tell you, because I don't know. All I know is that you can save her."
"Save her?" Cece repeated his words like they were the magic words she needed to open the door to a past utterly unknown to her. "Tell me about her, Gavin."
Gavin dropped his body on the bed with a soft thump. He placed his head on his hands, pressing his eyes and face in his palms. His back shook with each intake of his breath, his broad shoulders trembled softly with the night breeze touching the humid air inside the room. Cece knew he was not well, he was probably breaking down bit by bit. She wasn't aware of how she had acquired this knowledge about his mental state, but she was highly aware of the unrest in his mind.
"Gavin, I am sorry. I didn't know how much it would hurt you." Cece apologised to the man she had hated for so long, the one who managed to uproot her entire life in a single night. She hadn't left behind anything, despite the hatred and resentment she had carefully tucked in her mind, Cece observed that she had started to soften towards him. It hurt her as much as Gavin was hurting.
"You said that our lives are entwined to each other, you want me to save her, write a story that is somehow dedicated to her, I have a right to know about the woman. Even if you are hurting, you have to tell me what made you barge into my room at his ungodly hour." Cece said, trying her best attempt to bring a strict tone as she spoke. When he didn't move for another four seconds, she put her hand gently on his knee and asked, "Gavin, are you listening to me?"
"Come on," he responded in a flash and grabbed her hand. He rose to his feet and pulled her. Stumbling over his feet, she shrieked. Her knee hurt. She held his hand tighter and stood up grimacing. Her eyes travelled down to her body, and the thin night dress she was covered in.
"What do you mean, come on? Where are we going?" she asked in a trembling voice, her confidence and strictness waning.
"You want to know about Ruby, yes?" Gavin looked into her eyes, burning her soul with his glare as he did so, leaving Cece speechless. He took a step forward, which brought him uncomfortably close to her flimsily dressed body, making her shiver. "Did you think I wouldn't find out anything about you just because you have changed your place? You blame me for everything that has happened to you, and you are still making plans of running away so that you don't have to face me, which is quite cowardly if I may add. So yes, you are right. This is the time that you learn about Ruby, and why even though you hate me you are going to have to tolerate me until your tenure is over. Come with me."
His rant was over. He turned to leave the room dragging Cece behind him. "You don't need to drag me like that. And I need to change before I go anywhere."
"I don't care enough about you to look at you."
A soundless slap reddened her face. He didn't touch her, however, one didn't need to touch another person to hurt her. What was more hurting was the fact that he was right. Since he had entered the room, he had been too offended by her act, too offended to even spot how her body trembled every time he yelled at her. Her bareness didn't bother him for a second. Cece knew he was not a friend or even a close acquaintance. His dismissal or rejection should not affect her.
The burning in her eyes didn't agree with what she told herself.
He dragged her with him until they reached the road, where his black SUV was waiting for him like a loyal pet. He opened the door and pushed her inside. When he proceeded to buckle up the seatbelt Cece barricaded herself with her hand. She didn't want him closer than he already was. "I'll do it," she said. The dejection in her own voice remained unnoticed by him.
The streets looked very different at this hour of the night. There were some places in the city where night never descended. Those places crawled with crowds looking for relaxation, entertainment, addictions, or opportunities. These streets were not very similar to those roads. He drove towards the heart of the city where his office was. She had searched his profile online too many times to memorise his office address and the street his home was in. She wanted to ask why they were going towards his office, then she recalled the way she was dragged out of her house.
As she expected, the city centre was filled with people. There were people from all ages, ethnicities, and social circles. She spotted many young girls, students as it seemed, locking their eyes on their phones while waiting in a nearby bus stop. Elderly people chatted in a streetside cafeteria and had a good laugh. Couples walked, interlocking their hands with their loved ones, without any worries. Men and women dressed formally in business suits entered and left the highrises standing high around them. In between the busy street, stood one tower—A&R Corps.
Was the A a representation of Atwood? Who or what is R then? Ruby? Cece could put her finger on only one of the countless questions wandering in her mind. She looked at Gavin nervously. He wasn't planning on taking her with him through this busy road, or was he? His car stopped in front of A&R Corps headquarters; a valet came running towards them. He stepped out and threw the key to the middle-aged man's hands, whose face Cece couldn't see clearly. Her sight was lost in the riot of lights and colours around her.
He took long and fast strides to reach the other side of the car and open the door for her. Frightened, Cece looked up at him.
"Come out," he ordered.
Cece shook her head vehemently and waited for his next obnoxious order. She didn't have to wait for long. Almost immediately he barked, "I told you to come out."
"And I said NO."
"Cece, I don't have all night for you," he said in a cold tone, terrifying her even more. What was he going to do to her if she continued disobeying him? The fears were overpowered by her modesty and vanity though.
"I don't have the intention to put on a display of this," she lowered her face and gestured to the flimsy nightdress she was wearing.
Gavin grunted. He shifted his body from one leg to another. His eyes stopped momentarily on the valet, and then back to her. Finally, he looked decisive. He leaned in, too close to her, and murmured, "I would put up with your tantrums had I been your man, but I am not. The dreams may have messed up your mind, and you have started to think that I care, but really, I don't."
Cece widened her eyes and stared without a blink. She felt a drop of a tear falling over her right cheek, which she allowed. She couldn't take the risk of moving, not now when even a deep breath would cause her breasts to touch his hand. She waited until he unbuckled the seatbelt.
"I have no illusion about our relationship, but I do expect some sort of decency from you," she said once there was some distance between them.
"There is your illusion. We are not close enough for me to be decent to you," he hissed and grabbed her left hand. He started walking in long and fast strides again. The valet watched them in a startled expression. The man locked his eyes with Cece. She lowered her face to hide her tear-stricken eyes and put her free hand carefully over her chest to cover herself.
"Gavin, please. Don't humiliate me like this in front of a bunch of strangers," she whispered. It possibly didn't reach his ears; he continued pulling her like a dog on a leash as he walked through the middle of a hallway. It was not crowded, to Cece's dismay. Nobody would look at her if they had been busy with their own things, but this was worse. As an obvious result of the abuse, she had attracted every pair of eyes in the hallway.
Cece could even hear them talking about her. Whispering, gossiping, eyeing her like a hungry animal looking at its food, everything touched her with unimaginable heat, making her skin burn. She couldn't endure it anymore. Her feet froze suddenly, causing her to stumble and fall.
She was painfully aware of the wave she had caused in the hallway, for as far as she could she people watched her curiously. She stifled a sob. Hopefully, the question in her mind was worth this hell.
She muttered inaudibly, "Who are you, Ruby, and what have I done to you to earn this?"