Lunch With Evan

An hour later, I am finally happy to stop smiling. Mr. Crawford introduced me to so many people that my face felt like it would fall off if I smile at someone again. I walk around to find something to eat and drink. I have not had anything in my stomach since I arrived. While I am taking a sip of my wine, someone startles me and almost makes me pour my drink on myself.

“Do you have a death wish?” Mr. Jason asks.

We are away from the party, so no one can see us or hear us. I left the crowd to enjoy some time alone, but I think I made a mistake. Mr. Jason looks like he wants to kill me, and there is no one here to save me.

“What do you mean, sir?” I ask, taking a step away from him. I feel a little scared to be close to him right now.

“You think I didn’t see you out there, getting to know all the board of directors and to make it worse, you made sure to introduce yourself as my grandfather’s goddaughter.”

“Mr. Jason, I didn’t know the people your grandfather introduced me to were members of the board. He only introduced me as his goddaughter because people might get the wrong message if he said I am his friend.”

Before Mr. Crawford introduced me to people, he told me he would introduce me as his goddaughter to avoid people thinking I am his young lover. If only he knew it would make his grandson want to kill me?

“Wow, you are trying to blame my grandfather. Would you stop lying?” He says, getting closer to me. Why does he like coming close to me when he is angry at me. It’s like he knows being close to him makes me more scared. The fact that his height is towering mine makes me more afraid of him when he is close.

“Mr. Jason, I am not lying; you can ask your grandfather,” I say, avoiding eye contact with him. He is scaring the shit out of me. He looks like he wants to rip my head off right now.

“Look at me when I am talking to you,” He says, grabbing my arms to get my attention.

I don’t know if God hates me because if Mr. Jason’s anger can be described on a scale of 1-10 when he first started speaking and now. I would say 100 because of what happens next.

“I am so sorry, Mr. Jason,” I say, trying to clean the wine stain on his shirt.

When he grabbed my arms, I mistakenly spilled my wine on him. To make matters worse, I was drinking red wine, and it’s an all-white party. They did not serve red wine, but I felt like drinking one, so I had Kassie pour me a glass of one of Mr. Crawford’s wines. That was one of the reasons I was away from the crowd.

While I am unsuccessfully attempting to clean the wine stain from Mr. Jason’s white shirt, that might cost more than my life right now. I feel something amazing on the tip of my fingers, Mr. Jason’s abs. I unconsciously start tracing his abs one at a time with the end of my fingers. He has eight abs, and they are as hard as a rock. I can feel myself getting hot the more I feel them on my fingers. How can someone be so sexy, God?

“What the hell are you doing?” Mr. Jason’s voice booms loud in my ears, and my hand freeze. I quickly remove my hands and try to use my hair to hide my cheeks; that must be beet red right now.

“I am sorry.”

“Say that one more time, and so help me, God, I will do something to you that will make you regret ever meeting me,” Mr. Jason says, causing a cold shiver to go down my spine.

What is he going to do to me? Is he going to kill me? Mr. Jason does not seem like the type that could kill someone, so what could he do that will make me regret meeting him. I don’t say anything so as not to make him angrier than he is already.

“I will deal with you on Monday, now I need to change my shirt,” He says and walks away from me.

Thank God I could not bear to be in his presence any longer. It was so hard not to look at his abs visible through his shirt because of the stain. Mr. Jason is a man with a lot of anger and doubts towards me, but he is one sexy man.

Days have gone by since Mr. Crawford’s party. Mr. Jason let the matter of the goddaughter and wine spilling go. I was so happy when he came to work on Monday and acted like I did not exist the whole day. This week has even been good for me because Mr. Jason is hardly around the office. I don’t know where he goes, but he should continue going there.

I am on my way to meet up with Evan for lunch. I have not seen him since Saturday night. I arrive at the restaurant after a few minutes of walking. Evan did not want to stress me, so he picked a restaurant close to the office to meet with me. I step inside and look around for Evan. I see him sitting by the window and using his phone, so he hasn’t seen me. I walk over to him and take my seat opposite him.

“Hi, Eleanor, I didn’t see you walk in,” Evan says, dropping his phone on the table.

“How could you when your whole concentration was on your phone.”

“Sorry, I was replying to some work emails.”

“It’s fine; I also use my phone a lot, and how are you?” I ask while taking up the menu to look for what to order. The prices of the food here make my eyes want to fall out of their socket. I should have asked him to pick somewhere cheap.

“I am good and don’t worry about the price. I am paying,” He says, smiling

“You don’t have to pay,” I tell him even though I can’t afford the food here. I should not make Evan pay for me.

“I should pay since I picked the restaurant.”

“You don’t have to,”

“Eleanor, you have known me, for what, five years now. You still think you can talk me out of paying for your food,” Evan says with a raised brow.

“Thank you,” I say, blushing. I am a little embarrassed he immediately knew the food price was too high for me, but I don’t feel insulted that he offered to pay. I don’t know why I even tried to convince him. I know him well enough to know he would never allow me to pay for myself whenever we go out to eat.

“You are always welcome, and how are you and everything at work?”

“Do you want me to be honest?”

“Yes, of course; why would you even ask that?”

“Because my boss is your cousin, and you might not like what I will say about work.”

“I understand, but you can be honest with me,” Evan says and waves a waiter to our table.

“Alright, I hate my job because of your cousin,” I say and tell the waiter what I would like to order. I make sure not to order anything too expensive. I might not be paying, but I don’t want to order food like a freeloader.

“I am not surprised,” Evan says, chuckling

“Why,” I ask, shocked

“He is my cousin; I know him very well.”

“Yeah, that’s true, and are you guys close?” I ask, curious to know the relationship between them

“Not really; why do you ask?”

“I was hoping if you guys were close, you might know why he hates me so much. I know he doubts my intentions as to why I am working for him, but I feel he has other reasons as to why he hates me.”

“Oh, I wish I knew, but I don’t, sorry.”

“It’s fine; I just hope with time he will see me for who I really am.”

“I hope so too.”

Evan and I engage in other topics that interest both of us while eating. I lose track of time and get back to the office late. I am praying to God that Mr. Jason did not notice.

I arrive on my floor after taking the elevator upstairs. I walk out of the elevator with my heart beating loudly against my chest. This week has been going fine. I can’t believe I am going to ruin it myself. I arrive at my desk, and I can see clearly the Lord is not on my side today.

“Where have you been, Eleanor?” Mr. Jason says, fuming with anger. He checks his wristwatch. “Lunch break was over an hour ago. Why are you just coming back now?”

“I lost track of time,” I said and wished I used a better choice of words because these ones don’t help my situation.

“You lost track of time,” He says and releases a dark chuckle. This causes a cold shiver to go down my spine. He scares the shit out of me; every time he laughs like that. “It’s like you wake up every day and find new ways to make me annoyed with you. I don’t understand what kind of lady you are,” He says and looks at me from head to toe with disgust written all over his face. This makes me look at myself and wonder if I look disgusting. I don’t think I do, but it hurts a little to see him look at me like that.

“I apologize, sir, it won’t happen again” I remember this time not to say the word sorry. I have had enough bad experience from saying it.

“Keep your apology to yourself, and follow me to my office. You have a lot of work to do,” He says, walking to his office.

“Okay, sir,” I say and follow him.