"You have been avoiding my assistant's call," Reyona said in a passive tone as the call connected.
"Because I have nothing else to say to her," Maxwell Rohan said without missing a beat.
"I told you I didn't want it!" Reyona said emphatically.
"And I told you it was a gift," Maxwell said calmly, which only infuriated Reyona.
Where was the calmness she had promised herself she would use in dealing with him?
Before she dialled the number, she had told herself that she would simply find a way to reason with someone who could be so unreasonable, yet here she was already boiling with anger at the few words he said.
There was no denying it. Reyona thought to herself. He was purely annoying. He didn't even have to open his mouth before he could annoy her.
She only had to picture his arrogant face to get riled up.
Even when he was not in the same room with her, he could manage to successfully ruin her mood.
"I don't want your gift." she gritted out.
"And I am not taking it back," Maxwell said with the smug smile she could picture so well.
Her hand tightened around her phone as she said "I could sue you, you know."
"For what?" he snorted. "For giving you a gift? I don't think there is a law anywhere that would back you up on that. But then, you can try it." he said arrogantly.
Bastard!
"I don't take gifts from insufferable men, and I don't intend to start with you. Since you and your contractor refused to tell me how much I owe you, I will simply make an estimate and send you your money. Don't blame me if it is not enough."
She was about to disconnect when his tone changed, and he said "You just don't want to owe anyone, do you? Not everyone is out to get you, you know. It is a gift and nothing but that. You should be graceful enough to accept a gift, Ms. Dexter."
Is that idiot implying that…
"Gifts from the likes of you are not just gifts! I am tired of going on and on about this. I will repay you and that should be the end of it."
"If you are about to insult me with a refund, Reyona, then you should know that this will be far from being over."
"I…"
"You want to repay me?" he interrupted her.
"Of course, do you have a hearing problem? Why else did I call you?"
"Fine. I will take your repayment."
"I…" It took Reyona a second to get his soft response. "You would? Good, send me your…"
"Not in cash though. Have dinner with me."
"Okay, what nonsense are you sprouting now? Let me have your estimate and send me your…"
"My payment, my choice," Maxwell said in a playful tone. "I don't need your money, Dexter. Have dinner with me, and we are even."
"Not going to happen" Reyona answered automatically.
"Then I guess this is far from being over" he answered with a chuckle.
"Why are you…?" Reyona readjusted her heated tone, and asked more calmly "Why are you being difficult? Just take your goddamned money and…"
"I don't need the goddamned money, as you call it, Ms. Dexter. I only want dinner with you."
"Dream on." Reyona retorted as she disconnected the call and glared at the phone as if she could see him.
She tossed the phone on the table and sank into her chair so suddenly that she winced at the twinge in her left leg.
She eased off her wedges and curled that leg over the other as she absentmindedly massaged it.
She should just cancel everything the workers are doing in her place and get her own contractor.
In fact, that had been her intention before, but then the plan drafted for the renovation had been so perfect that she doubted she could have thought of a better one.
It had something of the old structure in it, but the result would be tremendously better than the former.
At first, she thought the contractor was the one who came up with the plan, but then the latter had ruined her excitement by saying, "President Rohan designed it."
Reyona couldn't believe that he was an architect too.
Thinking of how he had his hands on almost everything like a compulsive control freak, she was almost tempted to have them undo what had been done, so she could get her own contractor.
But then it was a momentary thought that held no water.
Reyona was a businesswoman first and foremost, and she wasn't about to do anything so wasteful.
She assumed she would just pay him back.
How was she supposed to know that the smiley contractor would refuse to tell her the amount he was paid?
And that ...
Reyona sighed as she caught her anger building up again.
Why did she always let him get to her like that?
Today was the first day she was fully back at her company and dealing with people who don't know what to do with their money was not part of her plan.
She was going to return his money to him.
Even if she had to cram it down his throat herself.
She just knew he was going to whisk out that gift one day and hold it over her head. Well, he would have to think again.
She had been able to get Andrews to agree with her in terms of allowing Samantha to take over the Multilinks account.
She must admit to herself that she had been a bit surprised when Maxwell did not counter that.
Still, all that mattered was that she didn't have to force herself to be polite to him while working closely with him until they got all the needed info about Multilink's finances.
She had accomplished that even when she was still at home and barely mobile.
She'd be damned if she would let him have his way now that she was fully functional.
Oh, he would take back his gift.
She was done allowing anyone to force her to do what she was not interested in.
Asshole.
For now, she decidedly turned her mind back to work and reached for the file she had discarded the other time.
Toria came to her mind and she checked the time.
She would just call her later.
She had not read more than a line when her phone rang again.
Annoyance showed on her face as she reached for the phone.
It had better not be…
She instantly picked up the call as she saw who the caller was.
"Hel…"
"Miss. I didn't know how they knew. They said they would take them away. What would I do now? I shouldn't have let that boy out. I…"
"Mary… Mary, calm down" Reyona said urgently to calm the high-pitched-toned woman, who seemed beside herself with worry.
"What happened?" she asked calmly.
"I had to take Cliff to the hospital. His back worries him so much. I asked a neighbour to watch over the kids and Sandy felt it was okay to let the boy go play with his mates down the streets. I… I should have told her to keep them in…but then, we couldn't have known that…"
"Mary" Reyona called the woman's name to get her back on track.
"Oh, sorry, I am rambling again. Cliff said I do that a lot. The kids were playing football and I supposed they got into a spat. I don't know how that nosy social worker was doing here or how she got to hear when one of the kids was telling Junior off. Something about him not living with his mother and father. God, I will take a switch to the backside of those rascals. Well, Sandy called me all flustered and all. The social worker asked questions and got to know that we were not related to the kids. Sandy said she said something about taking them away."
Reyona rubbed her hand over her face as she said "Is the social worker still there?"
"No, I didn't meet her. Sandy said she would be back though. And oh, I think they might sue us." then almost as if she was talking to herself, she asked, "Can they sue for something like that?"
Reyona could feel the beginning of a headache as she wondered what else had happened. "Sue for what?"
"Junior bit her. I heard she hightailed it out of here. She must have upset him. You don't think they would sue a child, can you?"
As amusing as the picture seemed, Reyona was not feeling the least amused. She looked at the file in front of her, and said in resignation, "I suppose not. I am coming."