Chapter 73: At least he doesn't pretend…..

Chapter 73: At least he doesn't pretend…..
Amara's POV 

I was getting ready for my day as I danced around the bedroom humming a happy tune. I was so excited.

Of course I wasn't excited because I had to go to work or because I had to stay home because that was the same hamster wheel I went through every other day. 

No. Today was very different. Lucas had asked me to come represent Blackwell Innovations beside him in the strategy meeting that happened with a bunch of top tech companies. It only happened once in a year and each company was always represented by their best, so basically, it was just a place where great minds rubbed and worked together to create an explosion in the tech industry.

I don't know if Lucas had asked me to join as a punishment — seeing as that was all he did lately — or he really thought I was capable of representing the company. Either way, I loved it.

The mail he had sent yesterday said that he was going to be picking me up from the house by 8:15am, which wasn't quite okay by me. I would have rather preferred to head to the office and join him from there, but Ezra said that that would be more stress on Lucas' part seeing as he apparently lived very far from the company he owns.

Just to please Ezra and avoid any suspicions of what might be going on between us, I accepted the offer. Now I was getting slightly frustrated with the thought that I would be riding with Lucas again but I tried to push the thought out of my head.

With a sigh, I pulled my outfit off the rack and got dressed. I was going for a casual look but still formal and I think I killed it with my black pants, white dress shirt and a pink cardigan over top. I had my braids in a low bun and paired my look with gold accessories, white sneakers and a black little purse.

As if on cue, Lucas arrived the moment I was done.

“Ammie bear.” I heard Ezra call from downstairs — probably in the kitchen seeing as that was one of his favorite parts of the house.

“I'm coming.” I called back and made my way downstairs in no bit of a hurry. 

Why would I be in a hurry for something involving Lucas Blackwell. He should even be happy that I'm already done otherwise I'd have intentionally tried to delay him.

“You look gorgeous.” Ezra said with his mouth full of bacon.

“Thank you Ez. I have to go though, so good bye and I'll see you soon.”

“Bye.” He said absentmindedly as he went back to his food.

Man, I loved him so much.

“Hey Amara.” Lucas greeted softly as I hopped into the front passenger seat of his car that he held open for me.

He's been trying to get me to talk to him and if I said I didn't know that, I'd have to be lying. But the thing is that I've taken Lila's advice and started addressing him as my boss and nothing more — nothing less either — but that's obviously not what he wants……

“Good morning, Mr Blackwell.” I smiled courteously as I sat back and held my purse closer to myself.

….. doesn't mean I'm going to stop though.

“Are you ready for the strategy meeting?” He asked as we rolled out of the driveway.

“Very ready, sir.” I replied with a smile. “I have all my questions prepared for the various tech companies that will be present and I also prepared some replies for those that will want to be nosy about our company.”

He nodded with a light smile. “You know that's really thoughtful of you to plan a reply for those that want to be nosy. I usually just told them to fuck off.” He chuckled.

“Well, I didn't say that the replies I planned were exactly nice, did I?”

He laughed. “No. No you didn't.”

We arrived at the location where the meeting was to be held and when I walked in, I was glad I wore a sweater because I would have died if I hadn't.

It was negative degrees in that hall and everyone was sitting so fucking still that I could have bet they were frozen from the cold.

“Why is it so cold here?” I whispered to Lucas after he was done greeting the man that had walked up to him the instant we came in.

“I have no idea.” He shrugged. “It's always been this way even when I used to come with my father. He said that it was a brainstorming room and that it was so cold so that the brain doesn't overheat. I guess I never cared to find out the true reason.”

What the fuck? Damn.

“Hey, where do I sit?” I asked — more to the thin air seeing as Lucas just left me and walked away.

“Don't worry about the scattered seating arrangement.” I heard a smooth chocolate voice behind me and turned around. “Your name is probably behind a chair so you can just walk around and find it.” He smiled sweetly at me.

“Walk around?” I asked with my eyes widened open. 

I knew that I couldn't do that because of my anxiety which was already killing me for being in this huge ass room. I mean, there were over 150 seats here and I was expected to walk around them like a fool while I searched for my name?

“It can be scary, I know. But I've been in here for quite a while and I've peeped some names, so you might as well tell me yours and I could tell you if I've seen it.” 

He liked me — maybe romantically and maybe not but I knew that he liked me, so I didn't feel cringe teasing him.

“That's a very smooth way to try to get my name, nice sir.” I smirked and folded my arms across my chest, a laugh tearing from me at the shocked expression he put on and the hand he placed across his chest.

“What?!” He gasped dramatically. “No. I'm just trying to be a gentleman and help a poor damsel in distress.”

“Fine. Amara. My name is Amara….”

“Collins.” He finished my sentence.

“How do you know that?” I asked with my brows raised. “Were you stalking me before here?”

“Maybe it's just a lucky guess. Or maybe your seat is right beside mine and I've been glaring at your name all morning.” We chuckled and made our way to our seats that could only be fate.

The meeting happened and it was far better than what I expected and I had a lot to tell Lila, but then everyone was socializing so I decided to engage in a conversation with the man whose name I found out was Nathan, and he was one of the new executive members which was great for someone his age.

Lucas was also his age but that's different.

“Why did you decide to venture into the world of tech when you could just go into modelling? I'm not trying to hype you up but you do have the looks of a model. Chiseled jawline, brown hair, tan skin, grey eyes, deep state, you'd kill it.”

“Don't worry. You're not hyping me up because I've heard it a lot before. I was actually a model, but I dropped out because it's not all sunshine and rainbows as people think it is. Let's just say I signed with the wrong agency and that ended up ruining me.”

“Shit. That sucks.”

“Nah. I loved tech all along anyway so I just saw it as an opportunity to chase my dreams.”

“That's great.” I smiled and for some reason, looked across the table where I caught Lucas glaring at us with his jaws clenched and his fists wringed on the table.

Well he could fuck himself for all I knew because I didn't care at all.

After being pressed for at least fifteen minutes, I finally found the opportunity to go pee, and now I was returning happy and satisfied  just to find Lucas seething as I turned the corner of the hallway.

Not my problem.

I kept my smile on and kept going just for him to rush towards me and corner me.

“Umm, do you have a problem sir? Do you need anything?” I asked as if I didn't just see him clenching his fists and looking like he was about to breathe fire just now.

“You think he's a better option?” He asked through gritted teeth.

I didn't need him to explain for me to know who he was talking about.

I scoffed a laugh, leaned forward and stared him in the eye. 

“At least he doesn't pretend I don't exist.”