Chapter 24: Switching Rooms

"Hey Melisa?" I was sitting on the bed with Melisa in our room, and we were both rubbing the hand cream that had been on the dressing table. It smelled so good, Emre never disappointed, "Thanks for opting to share a room with me. You saved me from Eric."

"It was my pleasure. He creeped me out today," She said, touching her lips.

"Me too," I replied, "I hope he's gotten the message that I'm not interested in him."

Melisa's phone rang, and she picked it up on the first ring. I deduced from her side of the conversation and the blush creeping up the side of her face that it was Eric. I smiled and went into the en suite bathroom to give her some privacy.

I made a bun on top of my head while I waited for her to finish and tried not to listen in on her conversation.

When I came out, she was waiting for me.

"I want to ask you a favor," she said and bit her lip.

"Anything," I encouraged her.

"Um, it was Mert," She pointed to her phone, and I nodded for her to continue, "He's coming over here to my room, and Sarah, he wants…" 

She blushed then, unable to continue.

Oh, I realized what the issue was here, "He wants to stay the night with you," I finished for her, "and you need me to make myself scarce." 

Melisa laughed and looked at me teasingly, "Well…Mert will be coming here, and Emre will be alone in his room. You could go keep him company."

"I don't know…" I bit my lip and opened the door to our room, "What if he shuts his door in my face."

"Are you kidding me? The guy is crazy about you! Go knock on his door, or I'll worry about you all alone out there with Eric sleeping out. God forbid he sees it as an invitation."

"Okay, I'll think about it. Otherwise, there's Ash. Don't worry, he'll keep me company," I said and turned around to find myself face to face with Mert.

I smiled at him and went out. I tried to find my courage as I went up to Emre's room. 

Thank God, I knew which door was his.

I stood there for a while, debating, and then lifted my hand up to knock on his door. Before I could do anything, the door opened.

We stared at each other, both of us at a loss for words.

"I was just coming to get you," He explained.

I looked down, not wanting to explain why I was at his door. It wasn't because I had nowhere to sleep. In fact, sleep was the last thing on my mind.

"Sarah?" I jumped when I heard Ashton behind me, "Emre? I guess it's good that I caught you both together."

"Why? What's up?" asked Emre.

He sighed, "Let's go in and get this over with…"

I went in after him, and Emre followed.

"Sit down. We're going to be here a while," Ashton said and sat down on the bed.

I sat down opposite him while Emre just leaned on the door facing us, not saying anything.

I wondered if he knew what Ash was going to say.

"Okay," He rubbed his face with his hands, "I don't know where to start…"

He took a deep breath.

"It was me! I did everything. I destroyed everything between you two… I'm sorry," he broke off.

 "What do you mean? How can you be involved? You weren't even there..." I was confused.

My mind brought back old memories to me, ones that I'd tried to bury. 

I'd met Emre when I used to work for him. He was my boss, and I was just another employee in his firm. We hardly saw each other outside of work, and even at work, it was rare that we'd see each other because I was in charge of the finances, which didn't really need his supervision. 

I'd had a crush on him since the first day I saw him, and I used to look at him from afar, knowing that I'd never in a million years try to even talk to him, even if I met him outside of work. 

He was just so intimidating; it was just part of his attraction. So, all I'd done was look and lust from afar. Until then, I hadn't known he'd felt the same way. He'd watched me from afar, thinking I was indifferent to him.

But he was braver than me, as I'd soon find out. 

He'd invited the staff to a party at his house one day, and he'd heard from someone that I wasn't going to be coming. 

I'd made the decision to cure myself of my obsession with him. I knew if I saw his house, saw him outside of work—relaxed, talking, laughing, and flirting—it would be harder to get over this crush, and so I'd told everyone I wasn't coming. 

So he came looking for me as I'd been about to go out and leave earlier than usual. He asked me point-blank if he'd heard correctly that I wasn't going to be coming to his party. I just nodded. He then blocked me in near my desk and asked why.

I hadn't been able to come up with any reasonable answer, and so I blurted out that I had a headache.

He looked into my eyes and then said, "I can reschedule the party to another day… a day when you don't have a headache."

That had sounded so strange to my ears, "No…no, that's okay."

"So you're coming?" He asked me and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, "Good."

I was so stunned I hadn't been able to come up with an answer before he left me standing there staring after him.

The party had been a ruse, as he'd later told me, a ruse to get me to come, and when he'd heard I wasn't coming, he'd immediately come after me.

He monopolized my attention completely during the party. He'd set out to charm me, and he'd succeeded. I'd made it easy for him. 

It wasn't until something had spilled on my shirt that things started heating up. He'd taken me to his room to change, and I'd had nothing to wear, so he'd offered me his shirt. 

I told him I wasn't going out in the shirt, and he told me he'd keep me company there, and so he ignored all his guests and talked to me the whole night.

When he went out to make sure everyone had left and to lock up, I was so tired, I fell asleep in his bed. 

When I woke up, he was next to me, sleeping soundly. At that point, I got up and started to hurry away, horrified that I'd fallen asleep in his bed. He just woke up, caught my hand, and then just hauled me back to him. 

Then he took my face in his hands and finally kissed me. Kissed me so hard and long that I forgot everything—time, place, myself. Everything but him.

After that, everything was history.