“So, what should we do now?” I asked changing the subject.
“Well, now that my brother is here, I can head home and finish some statements and paperwork,” Bailey answered, making it clear that she had no intention of extending this impromptu date any longer.
“Oh, well in that case, I can take you back to your car,” I hoped my voice didn’t betray the disappointment I was feeling. Damn I wanted to spend more time with her.
“Look, Titan, you really do seem like a great man, and under different circumstances, I would not mind seeing where things could go. But as I said earlier, I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to date. So after today, let’s keep everything work related,” Bailey’s mouth said but the look in her eyes betrayed her words,and that gave me hope. So, for now, I would keep everything professional, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t work on breaking her resistance down.
She didn’t know it yet, but I was relentless when I wanted something, and from the moment I laid eyes on her, I wanted Bailey Henson. I didn’t get to where I am by being afraid of a challenge, and right now Bailey’s morals about business and pleasure was presenting a challenge. So, I say to that, challenge accepted.
Bailey
Monday was already off to a horrible start.
It seemed like everything that could go wrong, was going wrong. First, I got my heel caught on uneven pavement outside of my building when I was going to the garage, and I rolled my ankle and fell. Thank goodness I wasn’t carrying anything because I was able to stop myself from falling on my face. But I did manage to cut my knee pretty badly and I ruined a good pair of silk panty hose and tore the front of my skirt.
When I finally made it to the office an hour later, as soon as I limped off the elevator an intern rushing to Marlow’s office bumped into me and spilled hot tea on my blouse. Luckily, I was not burned, and I always kept a change of clothes in my office. If that wasn’t enough, I forgot Penny was out on vacation this week and she had made arrangements to have a temp filling in for her. Which was a waste of time because that woman couldn’t handle the fast pace in which I worked, and she didn’t last until lunch before she ran out of here with tears in her eyes.
So, here I was without an assistant, a bad knee, and a swollen ankle doing the work of two people. I made a mental note to give Penny a raise as soon as she got back because I wasn’t going to let her have a vacation again. Around three in the afternoon,my stomach growled ferociously, and I groaned because I didn’t notice that it was so late in the day. I was about to place a lunch order when my office phone rang.
“This is Bailey Henson,” I answered professionally.
“Ms. Henson, please hold for Mr. Browning,” a male voice said and seconds later Titan’s deep baritone was on the other end.
“Hello, Ms. Henson. This is Titan, and I have reviewed the additional paperwork your assistant sent over Friday, and I was wondering if you could join me for a lunch meeting at my office in about thirty minutes, so we can discuss?” His voice wasn’t flirtatious; in fact he sounded serious, so I immediately agreed to the lunch meeting.
“Yes, thirty minutes is fine.”
“Good, my driver, Lloyd, will call you when he’s outside,” he said then hung up.
I sent Marlow a message that I was about to leave and got up as quickly as I could move and started to prepare myself for my lunch meeting with Titan. Of course, my stomach was in knots because I hadn’t seen him since Saturday but right now, I couldn’t focus on that. I had a business to run and Titan was only a client, nothing more.
Titan
As soon as I hung up the phone, I pumped my fist in victory. After I dropped Bailey off at her car Saturday, I promised myself to start working on a plan to get to know Bailey on a personal level, and if it went well, hopefully on an intimate level as well.
My “business meeting” today was the beginning of my plan. I had Royce order lunch for two as soon as I hung up the phone. Since the restaurant was in the lobby of my office building, it didn’t take long for it to arrive. Shortly after lunch arrived, Lloyd texted me to let me know that he was helping Bailey up to my office.
I was so filled with excitement and before I could stop myself, I was walking toward the elevator to greet her. I stood there with my hands in my pockets to keep my palms dry and to give the impression that I was nonchalant, but internally I was a nervous wreck. I had so much nervous energy I began to pace. I haven’t felt this nervous in a long ass time. I wasn’t this nervous on my wedding day. Looking back on that day I was probably so chill because a piece of me knew Eva wasn’t the woman for me, but how I was feeling right now was unlike anything I ever felt. Eva never made me feel like if I didn’t see or talk to her my daywouldn’t be right. As soon as I thought about my ex again, I let out a deep breath. I had to stop comparing Bailey to Eva because they were two different women. I made a mental note to make an appointment with my therapist, Dr. Wilson, to talk about this shit.
I took a break from pacing and glanced at my watch, wondering what was taking her so long. I was about to push the call button for the elevator and head to the lobby myself, when the doors finally opened in front of me and anger hit me hard in the chest like someone knocked the wind out of me. I saw Lloyd with his arms wrapped around Bailey’s waist and she had her arm around his neck. Suddenly, I was rushing toward him, and when Lloyd looked up and saw the murderous look on my face, he quickly started speaking.
“Mr. Browning, I had to help Ms. Henson up here. She was having a hard time walking, I sent you a message,” his voice was shaking a little when he finished.
“What do you mean she’s having a hard time walking?” My anger was immediately replaced with concern. Now that I was looking at them a little more closely, I realized Lloyd’s arms were loosely around Bailey’s waist to help her keep her balance because she was barely standing upright in those high ass heels. Her smooth face was wrinkled because she was grimacing in pain and biting the corner of her luscious lip, probably to keep from crying out.
“Come here, sweetheart.” I quickly grabbed her out of Lloyd’s arms and gently pulled her toward me, then I took her big ass purse from her shoulder and put it on. “Thanks, Lloyd. I may be calling you in a moment so don’t go too far,” I said, dismissing him.
Bailey tried walking, but those skyscrapers she called shoes were making it difficult. She was walking too slowly and when I saw that her right ankle was almost triple the size of her left,I reached down and swooped her into my arms and carried her to my office. When I saw Royce was about to ask a question, I quickly shook my head, and he closed his mouth.
I sat Bailey down on the brown leather sectional in my office before I went back to close my door and hit the switch that frosted the glass windows of my office. When I turned around, Bailey was taking her right shoe off and I winced when I saw her ankle. It was more swollen than I thought, and the dark purple and black bruises made my concern skyrocket.
“What the hell happened?” I went back to her and sat on the low coffee table across from her, and when I reached down to gently lift her foot in my lap to get a closer look, my fingertip brushed across something sticky. I pulled my fingers away and my eyes widened as my chest tightened with panic when I saw blood on them.
“What the hell? Baby, are you bleeding!” My eyes quickly looked over her body, but I couldn’t see where she was bleeding from.
“Not again.” She groaned and reached down to roll her pants leg up, but it didn’t get further than the middle of her calf. But that was high enough for me to see she had both fresh and dried blood on her leg, and now that her shoe was off, I saw two of her toes were swollen too.
“Shit.” She muttered, now reaching for the button on her pants. “I fell before coming into work this morning,” she explained while she undid the zipper of her pants.
