He nearly choked on his food, what the hell was wrong with pregnant women and getting annoyed by a slight comment? He chuckled and shook his head, “How can I say that to you, Willa? You just make the worst assumptions about yourself and it’s always so sad.” She rolled her eyes at him, and he knew it was only because she had her mouth full that she couldn’t talk, she was certainly waiting to swallow them and he knew if he let her do that, what she would say to him would be the worst in the history. “So, how have you been, Willa?”
She gulped down a drink and smiled warmly at him, “I’ve been fine, sick here and there and it’s only because of my bump. And you? How’s Florida?” A highlight of what happened in Florida passed through his eyes and he wished he could tell her what happened, maybe just gist her a few things but Willa would certainly tell Mom about it and Mom? Well, Mom was just Mom as everyone knew.
He smiled instead and stood up to take the now empty plate to the sink, as he rinsed it, they spoke from where she stood. “I’ve been fine. Nothing fun, just there waiting for my plane to be serviced.”
“I thought you flew some high-class women on their jet?” How the hell did they get these information from? Dad? The way he portrayed himself it showed that he didn’t care about whatever the hell he was going through, he might not be the one. And Mom? She can.
“Yes, I did.” He answered briskly and turned to rinse his plates.
“What’s her name? Is she beautiful?” She asked with a hint of smile on her face and he knew even if he ignored Willa, it will just be a waste of an effort for she will have to make sure she had annoyed his living cells into answering her.
He turned with his eyes fixed into her, “Her name is Anna Brayden, I mean, the owner of the jet. And for your other question…” he let his words trailed off as he remembered the way she looked. He knew it would be a brutal lie if he said that she wasn’t beautiful because man? She was. Damn it, she was so beautiful. Those eyes, how cute her face was, those plump lips as she spoke back at him…he wouldn’t go into the details of how she looked. “Yes, she is. Very beautiful, in fact.”
Here he was, with will forcing back the thoughts he had been wanting to push away from his mind, Anna was the last thing he wanted to think about because it always made him angry and now, she had made him thought about her in a different angle. Because he had never even thought about the way she looked, not for once since he saw how beautiful her eyes were on that elevator. Even though he wanted to kill her at the moment, he smiled when he remembered their encounter on the elevator, how stubborn and fierce she was. Man, the girl got liver!
“Jackyyy!” When her scream brought him out of his reverie, Willa stood by his side as she flashed him a curious look. He lifted a brow to ask her what she meant, “Tell me the truth, who’s this Anna Brayden? Wait, isn’t she the only daughter of the owner, Will Brayden? And she had been the CEO since he died? She’s the youngest CEO in the whole of America.”
With his mouth slightly agape, he was just staring at her as though she had grown some wings, “What do you mean?” He couldn’t believe his ears. No, maybe Willa had mistaken the Anna he spoke about to be someone else.
“What? You don’t know that? Everyone knows her face though.”
Jack shook his head, he knew it might be possible that she was the one, but he just didn’t want to believe that because unknowingly, that might give her some powers she didn’t have. “She’s not the one, Willa. She’s rich, of course but not as you’ve said it.”
Without a word from Willa, she brought her phone out hit the search button. Unending pictures of Anna Brayden appeared, and she hit into the latest one, “Look, isn’t she the one here? I can’t quite well tell her face but I’m sure she is the one you’re talking about, right?” He wanted to collect the phone from her, but she quickly snatched it away from him, “My chest! I met this woman a few moments ago in the supermarket. She looked so exhausted and told me that she was there too with her mother, but she had to leave her alone…”
He was about to stare through the pone to see if it was really Anna, his Anna. That nearly made his heart stop, what the hell was he thinking to even add ‘his’ before her name. “Oh my god, she’s the one! Here’s a picture of her at the supermarket today. The caption says, ‘Anna Brayden caught today at the supermarket along with Mrs. Daphne Brayden. But it was reported that Anna was looking sad and even caught wiping a tear away out…” he pulled the phone away from Willa’s grasp and read the whole content.
He stared at the picture, how worn out she looked. She looked tired and one could easily tell that she was in so much pain from the picture. Or was it because he could see through the thick skin she had portrayed to the world? She was weak, damn it! Why did he care about her? He gave Willa the phone back and walked out of the kitchen, ignoring the way she was calling his name because he badly wanted to forget about what had happened in Florida and keep on being angry at Anna for what she did to him on the plane.
But then, it was so hard. He couldn’t forget how she cried on the rooftop before Nate broke up with her, they had a fight, she had said. He couldn’t forget how beautiful she had looked the day she thought she was getting proposed to, and the expression that was on her face as Nate spoke about the woman he loved. How shocked and grief stricken she looked. The expression she had when he spoke to her that day, what she had said to him… ‘I hate you.’ He knew she did, a lot.
How she had become miserable on the rooftop and cried her eyes out, how she felt in his touch. She was soft, she melted in his touch and offered to him the comfort he had never knew he needed at the time even when she was breaking down in bits and pieces. He palmed his face as he slumped on his bed, it was neatly cleaned and he knew that might be Willa’s work, ordering the maids to the it because even though it had seemed like a simple thing, just to order maids to clean a room, Mom might never remember to do it.
He laid his head back on the pillow and lightly scream off, “Get the freak out of my head, you bitch!”
❦
He didn’t know why he would be called to their office just when he thought he had a day off before work began afterwards. But maybe it was an emergency call because the HR called him directly and Jack wondered what must’ve gone wrong. He spoke with a few people he had seen on his way to the HR’s office and when he entered, he was seated proudly on his seat.
“Good morning, sir.” He greeted with respect.
“Jack Roberts, you’re wanted at the CEO’s office, now.” He informed him and went back to work, not giving room for any further question which he knew Jack surely have.
With weak knees, he nodded his head and walked over to the CEO’s office. The secretary was flashing him a wary look and he nodded his head at her before he walked into the office directly. At first, he didn’t know who the occupant of the visitor’s chair was until he greeted the CEO and turned to do that to whoever sat, then boom, there she was. Majestically seated on the chair with her legs crossed and all those bags beneath her eyes were covered with makeup. She looked beautiful, surely, but this didn’t look well.
He wasn’t done thinking of the possibility of what brought her even though he knew she had already told him that she would go to the company, but he had never imagined that she meant what she had said. “Jack Roberts, Miss Brayden has lodged a complaint about you and whatever she said has happened and she demands that we suspend you until for you to go and learn how to be a professional pilot. Here, this is the suspension letter, you are on suspension without payment until next month. I’ve already referred this to the HR, so you don’t have to report back to him.”
Jack was gob smacked, and when he turned to look at her, she had a smug and triumphant expression on her face. She wasn’t even looking at him, but he was certain she was aware of his hot gaze on her body. He stared at the CEO and he knew he was expecting him to be apologized to Anna even though that wouldn’t make them withdraw the suspension. Because anything Anna Brayden wanted, Anna Brayden got.
“I sincerely apologized for what had happened, Ma’am. It will never repeat itself as this will give me some time to make a profound research and I’ll make sure such has never happened again. I’ll love to fly you someday again.” This time, she looked up to meet his eyes and he saw that the way the same they had ever looked, maybe just a bit glummer and angrier. He could see her reply through her eyes, ‘So that you can get rid of me then?’ But she hadn’t voiced a word out of it because everyone thought this was solely because of professionalism, no personal feelings attached, but Jack knew better.
He tightened his hold on the suspension letter and before she got a reply out of her heavy lips, the CEO’s phone rang and he stood up immediately, “I’m sorry, Miss Brayden, I’ll have to excuse myself and answer this call.”
“Go on please.” She said with a smile and waited until he walked out of the office before she turned to look at Jack with a pleased smile on her lips, “Sit down.” She ordered through gritted teeth and Jack wanted to give her throat a huge punch that might make her lose her voice forever.
“Be careful, Anna…” he began, but her eyes darkened, and she looked so dangerous.
“Jack, before I do something worse, don’t forget that I pay the boss that paid you; sit down.” Begrudgingly, he did. Not because of what she had said or the threat he could taste in her words. But he knew that he had to keep this job at all cost, because of his Mother, her fight against his Father shall never go in vain. And because he loved being a pilot, it was peace, love and everything happiness was ever about.
“Now, that’s so much like a good employee.” He shot his eyes angrily at her and she lifted her hands up in surrender with a mocking laughter escaping from her chest, “What? Don’t kill me yet, I thought you’ve fully signed up for this game when you’ve said all those words to me? Do you think that I’ve forgotten or maybe just because I’m neck deep in a mess I’d have no other choice but to forgive you? I’d be sad to burst your bubbles, but none of these happened.”
“You can tell your pathetic self that, Anna, not me. I could see through this thick flesh you’ve covered up yourself with, okay? You might portray yourself as strong to other people but not me.” He lifted his face and met her eyes, “Look at you, a crumbling piece of mess and you think that you can hurt me by doing this?” He lifted the suspension letter and shook his head with a small laugh, “No, you’re more pathetic than I could ever be, Anna. And I know I don’t have to remind you of all the things I’ve told you in that restaurant because I’m certain they’re stuck in your heart and will be for a few years to come. But I’d add this to you, I’m glad that Nate did what he did to you, because man, he doesn’t deserve such a horrible woman like you. And about making you his wife, you of all people should know that you aren’t good enough as a human being to think of being a wife, not to talk of even being a Mother. I pity the child that’d refer to you as Mom, because you’ll be the worst one alive.”