Responsibility?
The word sent a rush of blood throughout Allison's body, she closed her eyes and counted to three, hoping to wake up from the weird dream she was having.
"Three…two…" Allison fully opened her eyes, but to her dismay, the Adonis figure was still very much around and had furled his lips into a frown.
"Do you fancy yourself a magician or something?" His voice pierced through her thoughts, violently pulling her into the reality that something had happened between them.
Allison darted her eyes from his jaw-dropping biceps and looked around the room until her eyes noticed her bra hanging on the TV. She blinked twice, even when having sex with Marcus, she was never the messy type to throw her things around.
"So, how do you plan on compensating me for the trouble you caused last night?" His baritone voice pierced her thoughts, leaving her in deep wonder about what he was talking about.
Seeing she wasn't following he took a step back and eyed her cautiously, "You don't remember?" She shook her head, and he scoffed and rolled his eyes, "Figures." She heard him mutter in a sarcastic tone.
Continuing he inquired, "So you mean to say you don't remember jumping in front of my car last night?"
"What? I…"
"Don't tell me you don't remember it or is that the act you've come up with? Save your breath, because it won't work on me." He sternly said with an unforgiving look in his eyes.
Allison wanted to protest, but she couldn't place her memories together, she recalled leaving with a stranger….then dancing, no, flying into the streets, and then a bright light….
Slowly, the painting from last night became clearer and Allison soon recalled what had happened. And the first thing the woman thought to do was sigh in relief.
"Thank God we didn't sleep together." She unintentionally voiced out her thoughts, and before she could take back those words the stranger had already furled his lips into a frown.
"I didn't mean it that way….um, I'm sure with a body like that you could snag any woman you liked…maybe even guys, if that's what you're into…" she rambled trying to make the situation less awkward.
The blue-eyed man pressed his brows against each other, "I don't know what act you're trying to spin, but know it isn't working. The only reason I didn't take you to the police last night was because you passed out." he clicked his tongue then said in a distasteful tone.
"Women become so crazy when they see an opportunity to leech off a man."
Allison frowned and stood up, forgetting the shirt she was wearing wasn't hers and barely covered up to her mid-thighs.
"Wait a second, don't tell me you think I deliberately jumped in front of your car!" She retorted wearing a stern look.
He retained his all-knowing look, "Oh, and you wish to convince me otherwise? How coincidental is it that you happened to be suicidal and right in front of my car."
"That's…I wasn't suicidal, and I don't even know who the hell you are!" She pointed furiously at him.
"If anything, I should be the one angry, you brought me to a hotel room with you. If I passed out, doesn't it make more sense to take me to a hospital?" Allison argued, riling up the stranger. He marched over to her, forcing her to take some steps back until she was against the door.
"What are you…"
He reached out and forcefully pinched her chin, "This is what you wanted, isn't it? To sleep with me, a crazy wench like you jumped in front of my car just to get into my bed. You're daring, I'll give you that." As he spoke, the more Allison got angry.
It was fine if he scolded her for jumping in front of his car, but downgrading her character with his assumption was borderline wrong.
"You're not pretty but I can do it with my eyes closed…" he was saying, only to be cut off by a solid headbutt to his head from Allison!
He staggered back and furiously rubbed his palm against the swell, "You crazy bitch…"
Allison scampered around the room for her clothes, putting on whatever her hands touched, "You're the one who's crazy! Why would I want to sleep with you? I have a boyfriend!" She cried out, kick jumping into her trousers.
While she chewed him out, her companion wondered what her head was made out of. It was the first time he had been hit before and more so by a woman!
"You will pay for this…" he groaned in pain, managing to sit at the edge of the bed.
Allison reached for her bag from the couch in the room and haphazardly stuck her feet into the hotel bathroom slippers. She pulled the door open ready to leave, but took a small spin, casting her gaze on the adult man bitching over a headbutt.
"Even if we were the last two people on Earth, I still wouldn't sleep with you." Allison spat out before she let herself out of the room, forcefully slamming the door on her way out.
Barely five minutes after she had left, the door was slightly pushed open, and in came a man in his early fifties, draped in a vintage brown suit, holding a phone in his right hand.
"Master Holdings! What happened to you?" The man remarked in full-blown stun, he looked around the room for the woman his boss had come in with, but couldn't find her.
"Don't just stand there Mathias! Get me a doctor! That nut head might've cracked my skull!" Dwayne barked at him in a thunderous voice, the older man sharply bowed his head and went outside to make a call through to the family doctor.
Inside, Dwayne was fuming in rage, to him she wasn't even that pretty, nor did she look like she had any class whatsoever. She was just a minimum-wage earner with a bad attitude.
"What's that?" He voiced under his breath, he rose from the bed and walked over to the black couch upon noticing something shiny sticking out from under it.
"A watch?" Dwayne stared critically at the black and diamond-encrusted watch camouflaged under the furniture.
It didn't look like what someone like that wench could afford, yet it looked too cheap to belong to him either.
"Master Holdings please bear a while longer, the family doctor is on his way." Matthias' voice pulled him out of his thoughts, he clasped the watch in his palm and turned around.
Dwayne clicked his tongue and sat back down, "So, what did you come here for?"
Matthias tendered the phone to him, Dwayne stole a glance at the picture of a luxurious white yacht, wrapped in a red ribbon. "Explain."
"Your grandfather has gifted you this yacht for your thirty-first birthday Master Holdings. He's organized a captain for the weekend voyage as a gift." Matthias explained the frown on Dwayne's lips contorted into a smirk.
"And what about the transfer of ownership documents? Have they been sent?" Dwayne demanded, going through the pictures of the new yacht.
"Yes, last night Mr. Santos emailed the documents, you are officially the new owner of Futurewave Corporations." Matthias announced with his hands behind his back, he lowered his head and greeted.
"Congratulations Master Holdings."
Allison wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole, the entire subway ride she felt everyone's scrutinizing gaze on her. Her hair was in a terrible mess, the stranger's white shirt was untucked and she had on red hotel bathroom slippers.
She took out her key from under her doormat and walked into her apartment, past the pile of unopened bills stacked on a flower pot. She threw her bag on the kitchen island and opened the fridge, her eyes scanned its insides, only to realize she hadn't stocked up on anything but water.
Opening the bottle of water, her mind flashed back to the conversation she overheard yesterday, she was still very much in shock over the whole thing. Consequently, she reached for her bag to take out the watch she had bought to inspect it.
However…
"It's not here! Where is it?!" She anxiously searched her bag, turning it upside down, emptying all its contents.
"Where could I have left it?!" Her mind flashed back to Marcus's apartment then to the club and then to the hotel. However, she doubted that the watch could've made it back with her to the hotel.
She angrily banged her fist on the table. "Fine, I got cheated on! But why do I have to lose a seven thousand-dollar watch? She complained to herself.
A vibration from her back pocket drew her attention to her phone, she reached for it and tapped on the text message from Marcus.
"I didn't see your call, I was busy with work, see you on the weekend babe."
"Babe? The nerve…" Allison scoffed at the text, her mind was more preoccupied with her missing watch than that bastard's lies.
She hadn't noticed it before but Marcus's texts always came in the morning but never at night. Now, the pieces of the puzzle were all starting to come together and make sense.
"For five years?" Allison was more bewildered than she was upset. Just when had they found the time to date around?
Another text followed, but the latter was an email, she recognized the sender as the company she had applied to, Futurewave. Immediately she dropped the bottle of water and scanned its contents.
"Dear Allison Grey, it is with our utmost remorse that we regret to inform you that your application as a software engineer has been rejected…" Allison's eyes widened in disbelief, she reread the email three times but it was all the same.
Her? Rejected?
Unconvinced with the decision, she went on her search engine to look up the company's address. She figured that if they were going to cut her off without a pliable reason, then she'd run on over and make them tell her just why she was rejected without an interview.
"What's this?" Allison zoomed in on the trending search associated with Futurewave corporations and got a huge shock at the company's newest decision.
"Futurewave was bought?!" She couldn't believe it, she stared at the headlines and gritted her teeth at the name Holdings Inc.
"The decision was come to after a consensual agreement by both parties to transfer all ownership…" The more she read through, the more it sounded strange.
Futurewave was a decent company, naturally, they paled in comparison to Holdings Inc., but that didn't mean they weren't doing great in the stock market. Just why would they sell?
*Ding*
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a doorbell. She unconsciously looked at the date on her phone and let out a deep groan.
"I know you're in there, you crazy wench! Come out!" A high-pitched voice cried out banging the door with her fists, it was the landlady and she had come to collect.
"Is she a landlady or a loan shark?" Allison thought as she marched over to the door. Dismissing the idea, she peeked out the window first, only to see her landlady was in the company of two hefty men.
"Shit." She closed the curtains and quickly turned off all the lights in her apartment, she went into her bedroom and then snuck into her semi-empty closet.
For the next twenty minutes, she sat in the closet listening to her landlady cuss her out for owing that month's rent, making sure even the club down the block heard her.
Once she was done, however, she left in the same way she came, but not without a promise to come back tomorrow with her spare key. Allison understood the implication of what that meant, she only had tonight to figure out what to do about the rent.
This was why throughout that night, Allison was glued tightly to her computer, filtering through part-time jobs that were hiring last minute.
"Party clown?" She read with zero enthusiasm, "Gardener…" She gave the idea a thought but shook her head dismissing it. In her current frame of mind, she resolved not to be anywhere near sharp objects.
"A cleaner…and woah, the pay is huge!" She remarked looking through a cleaning job ad that popped up on the job search.
"Cleaner cosplay will be provided on job location, body preferences are listed below…" she read on, wondering why the employer referred to the uniform as cosplay.
But for what it was worth, she filled out the vague form and clicked on apply. She did the same for other jobs, before drifting off soundly to sleep on her computer surrounded by the chips she bought earlier at the store close by.
The bright light on the screen displayed the list of offers she had applied for and were pending reviews. And, on the top of the list sat the most high-paying of them all.
Which was, the job of a cleaner on a yacht for a weekend birthday cruise party.