Chapter 40 - Friendly Threats(2)

***

Valerie was seated beside her husband in the backseat of his car, their usual morning ride to the office. Gabriel was on the phone, while she checked her messages. She held her breath when she noticed an email she received from Ryan Parker. Gabriel's rival whom he also cared about. Their relationship was complicated, but she knew Ryan Parker was a good guy and Gabriel knew it too. It surprised her the man was reaching out to her without letting Gabriel know beforehand. It was a bold move.

"Ryan wants to have lunch with me." She told Gabriel quietly, knowing he wasn't paying attention to her due to his phone call.

"What?"

Startled, she slowly tilted her head to the side and met her husband's suspicious gaze. He still had his phone pressed against his ear, but paid attention to her instead of whoever he was talking to.

"Ryan Parker wants to have lunch with me today." She clarified, "Since I have nothing planned I think I'll be meeting up with him."

It looked like Gabriel had an awful lot to say about her plans for lunch, but he brushed it off and continued his phone call as if nothing happened at all. She was impressed he didn't order her to turn the man down and have lunch with him instead. She figured Gabriel actually meant it when he said the rings around her finger gave him piece of mind.

Arriving at the office, she immediately made her way to her office to drop her things off and prepare for her meeting with her team. She picked up her laptop and tightly held onto it, turning around to see Andrew awaiting her in the doorway.

"Ready?"

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to this. I mean it's always me who is speaking about future projects and our successes and losses." She took a deep breath and smiled, "I'm so excited."

Andrew rolled his eyes at her, his hands shoved into his pockets. He looked laidback, but his attitude told her he wasn't as relaxed as he pretended to be. She didn't understand why he'd be as nervous as he was feeling right now. He had done a great job when he took over from her weeks ago. Gabriel complimented him, that rarely happened since her husband didn't like Andrew that much. Ethan had been praising Andrew too. He had no reason whatsoever to feel anxious this morning.

"Let's just get this over with." Andrew muttered when she strolled past him.

She glanced over her shoulder to meet his gaze, "What's with the attitude?"

He looked jumpy, "Don't know, might be the coffee."

"Okay, try to switch to tea then." She told him.

Entering the conference room she took a seat at the head of the table and opened up her laptop, going to her mailbox while she waited for everyone to settle in. Andrew took a seat at her right, still looking unhappy. Something was definitely off about him, but she couldn't explore that right now. She would keep it in mind though. When she had some time to spare she'd sit down together with him and demand of him to talk. His jumpy, annoyed attitude was not working out for anyone.

"Okay let's start." She announced with a smile, addressing everyone in the room.

***

Valerie sat across Ryan enjoying a berry salad while sipping a mint tea. Ryan was telling her about the things he had been doing since their last meeting. That had been a while. He was charming, the light in his eyes telling her he was genuinely having a great time with her. It caused her to smile while listening to his story.

"It surprised me Gabriel didn't decided to show up."

She couldn't help but to laugh, "That surprised me too. He didn't have anything to say about it at all. I'm guessing we all have grown since the last time we met."

"That's true." Ryan agreed, "A lot has happened." All humor left his eyes, "How are you doing?"

She knew he didn't want to bring up her accident, but she could tell he was concerned about her health. She healed up and was feeling absolutely amazing. Her marriage was great and she was pushing Gabriel to be more social concerning his family. Alexia had actually texted her and left her a lovely message. It made her tear up whenever she read it. She was doing great and Gabriel as well, she wanted to focus on that rather than the crazy Tiffany.

"I'm actually doing great." She let Ryan know, "I'm focusing on what makes me happy and Gabriel is right there beside me. I just want Tiffany to stay in our past and move on, you know."

"Well, she'll stay in your past." Ryan assured her.

Gabriel would make sure of it, he was so done with Tiffany it wasn't even funny. Ethan didn't speak up about his ex-girlfriend being crazy, but she didn't want to bring it up either. They had been focusing on her healing and making her happy that they all forgot that once upon a time Ethan thought the world of Tiffany. She knew Rachel was happy with the guy, but she wondered how Ethan was taking it all.

"So you coming up with a new plan to make Gabriel's life miserable?"

Ryan chuckled, "I figured I'll give him a free pass, he deserves it."

Valerie knew Gabriel had put his little torture game with Ryan on the backburner as well. Eventually they'd go back to making each other's life miserable though. Ryan told her it was what motivated them and inspired them to do better.

"That's very kind of you." She told him.

His lips curled up to a smirk, "I'm only doing him a favor because of you."

She couldn't help but to laugh, "You're such a charmer."

Leaning in he looked at her with playful eyes which gave him a more youthful appearance, "Are you hitting on me, Mrs. Starr?"

She wasn't getting used to being called that, ever. She rather liked her last name, it sounded powerful and made her feel on top of her game.

"Whatever do you mean?" She asked him, innocently smiling at him, "I'm giving you a compliment. No need to look too much into it."

She watched as he reached for her hand, his eyes focused on the rings around her finger, shining proudly in the brightly lit room.

"I never would have thought he'd find someone he genuinely cared about it. Yet here you are, the woman who managed to make him smile and actually meaning it. Don't tell him this, but I'm happy to see you two getting along so well. I wish you all the best."

She tightly held his hand in hers, "Thank you."

After her lovely lunch with Ryan, Valerie made her way back to her office. She sat down behind her desk, firing up her laptop when Ethan burst through her office door looking upset. Startled by his sudden entrance she merely leaned back in her seat and watched him frost the windows and then pace her office like a caged in animal, ready to bare his claws at her.

"What did I do?" She quietly asked him.

That received her a glare which actually made her feel even smaller, "You know what you did."

"I don't know." She whispered, afraid to speak up at all.

Ethan stopped in his tracks and stared her down, "Why did you meet up with Ryan Parker?"

That confused her, "Huh? You're upset because I had lunch with Ryan?"

He folded his arms across her chest, "Behaving a little bit too friendly with him too." Ethan added.

Her confusion faded while anger slowly boiled up inside her, "Did you have someone following me?"

"That's not the point." He moved to her desk and took a seat in front of it, getting comfy in the one-seat while his glare held steady, "There was no reason for you to meet up with Parker."

"Okay, I'm guessing you're doing this to protect Gabriel, but trust me, I have no intention of ever betraying his love. That aside, Gabriel knew I was meeting up with Ryan. It was just a casual lunch, that's it."

Ethan looked less angry then a second ago, but he wasn't letting it go, "Then why were you holding hands?" He demanded to know.

"I can't share with you what we were talking about, but it was really sweet and I couldn't help myself. It was a friendly gesture, nothing more." She trailed her eyes to the rings around her finger, a smile spreading across her face, "Ryan would never go after me just to spite Gabriel. He cares more about him then you'll ever know."

Ethan scowled, "Yeah, right." He got to his feet, his look a lot more menacing to make a statement, probably, "If you ever get too friendly with anyone else I promise you I'll personally make your life a living hell." His scowl then turned into a bright smile, "I mean, I care about you. But I should have Gabe's back no matter what. So you know, that's just a warning which I had to get out there to protect my friend."

She nodded, not knowing how to respond to that. She knew very well how neither one of them would ever fully trust the woman their friend was dating. It was a side effect of both of them dating Tiffany. The urge to stand up for herself was intense, but she managed to keep it down. She watched him head to the door and stopped him by calling out.

"Oh and Ethan, the same goes for you." She told him in a clear voice which caused him to glance over his shoulder and meet her gaze, "You ever do anything to hurt Rachel, I'll make sure you'll never be happy with another woman again. That's a promise." She added a smile, mirroring his behavior.

He didn't speak up, but she could tell he didn't like her throwing his words back at him. He opened the door and walked out, quietly closing it behind him. He didn't want to make a scene, she appreciated that. Getting back to work she tried to forget about Ethan's threatening words. She didn't regret meeting up with Ryan. She wouldn't feel guilty about showing him affection either. She meant nothing of it and Ryan knew that too. Ethan could think whatever the hell he wanted, she knew she was loyal to the man who changed her life.

***

Angrily Valerie crawled into bed beside Gabriel, who looked totally wiped. He had back to back meetings all day. She knew he wanted a quiet night in and sleep at a decent time. She needed to talk to someone about everything she had kept to herself all day. If she kept it all to herself she'd end up like Andrew and she didn't want that. He was grumpy and made everyone avoid him like the plague. Rolling to her side she stared at her husband's back.

"Ethan threatened me today." She told him, "He had someone follow me when he figured out I was having lunch with Ryan."

Gabriel rolled around and faced her, "Ethan had someone follow you?"

She nodded, "That's creepy, but he really pissed me off when he threatened me. I did get back at him by returning the favor."

He raised an eyebrow at her, "Return the favor how exactly?"

She pouted her lips, not proud of the way she responded. It was childish, but she couldn't help herself. Every time those words came back to her it filled her with so much anger.

"I threatened him back."

A chuckle left his lips, "You threatened him back?"

She lowered her gaze, embarrassed that she did that, "Yeah, that wasn't my brightest moment."

Gabriel gently brushed his fingers over her cheek, "You should stand up to him, it's not okay he had you followed. I'll make it clear to him that I'm not okay with him following you either." He lowered his voice, "Why did he threatened you though?"

She smiled, "Ryan and I held hands."

"You held hands?" Gabriel clarified, "Like you two were having a romantic lunch?"

She frowned, "It really wasn't a romantic lunch. We mostly talked about you."

Wrapping an arm around her he pulled her closer and kissed her forehead, "I trust you, Valerie. Now I'd like to get some sleep. It's been a tiring day." He whispered.

She snuggled closer to him and closed her eyes, "Night, love you."

She heard the smile in his voice as he said those words back, "Love you too."