“I need a shower, but later?”
“Yes. Besides, I need to get my ass going. I’m expected to be in the office soon. Be a good girl.” He bent down and I got on my knees on the bed to kiss him. When he broke our kiss,he shook his head and put his pants on. “Fuck, you are going to make me stay,” he grunted and forced himself away.
****
I sighed and stretched with a sly, catlike grin.
It had only been a day since James and I truly began our relationship after clearing the air. He wanted to take me on a date tonight because he wanted everyone to see him with his future wife, as he put it. It was a bit early for that title, and I blushed just thinking about it. From the moment James stepped into my life, I turned into a fourteen-year-old, fantasizing about marrying my crush. It was outlandish, but I couldn’t fathom anything else. Especially when he kept filling my head with that nonsense.
My phone rang, and I quickly snatched it up, thinking that James was calling to tell me he missed me, but it wasn’t him. My father’s image popped up on the screen, and dread shot straight through me.
I almost let it go to voicemail, but then I’d have to listen to it and that might be worse, so I picked up on the last ring. “Ava, please tell me that’s not you,” he spoke with clenched teeth. There had been no mistaking that voice and tone I’d recognized my entire life.
I sat up against my headboard and tried to play it cool while I braced myself for the storm that was about to be set loose. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Father.”
“A nurse showed me a video on the internet,” he snarled at a dangerous level. His voice coiled with rage I’d only heard a couple times in my life, and each had been when he’d been ready to explode.
“Do you mean the ad?” I ask, my tone even and steady unlike my shaking hands.
“Yes, so it is you? I thought you worked in an office, and this is what you’re doing with your time. You’re lying to me and your mother.”
“I wasn’t lying to you; I do work as a receptionist at an office. You would know it if you’d come to visit me over the past two years. A friend of mine asked me for a favor at the last minute just a few days ago. It wasn’t meant to be a video with the owner of the company, but the photographer thought it would be better.”
“That’s bullshit!” he roared. “They set that up for you to be seduced.”
“I assure you that it wasn’t.”
“We tried to let you be an adult by yourself, and this is what happens. You need to come home so you can be protected from this nonsense. I’m going to have my lawyers file an injunction to have it removed.”
“No, you’re not, Dad. I was paid to be a model and do photos. It’s said and done, and there’s no way it’s going to come off the internet so easily. Besides, he’s already trying to have it removed.” It was a lie. We hadn’t discussed it, but I was trying to play devil’s advocate with my father.
“What do you mean he’s trying to have it removed?” he asked.
“The video was not approved by me nor the gentleman in it. The photos were supposed to be reviewed and decided on, and the video was supposed to be edited and decided on by us before it was added. He was quite furious when he noticed it this morning.”
“This morning? It’s only 8:00 a.m. here. Are you two involved?”
“Yes, Daddy. He’s my boyfriend.”
“So that’s the friend that allowed you to be so indecent in public.”
“No, it was his assistant, and that is how I met him. Now, if you’re going to be rude, I’m not going to talk to you, Daddy. I understand that you’re upset and you have an image to maintain, but it is a perfume ad, which is pretty normal, and I’ve seen you and Mother look at them while she is selecting perfumes so don’t pretend that if it was anybody else you wouldn’t have cared, or because I’m your daughter it matters. It was a one-time deal out of a rush and necessity. Now I have my real job to get prepared for, so if you’ll excuse me, I have to get ready for work.” The line went dead and I fought back tears, doing my best to get ready for work. It took all my effort to shower and dress without falling apart.
I made it down my steps only to find a driver waiting for me. “Miss Kelly, I’m Ronald. Mr. Keaton asked me to drive you to work today.”
“Mr. Keaton?” I didn’t want anything to do with Henry. “James or Henry?”
“Oh, forgive me. Mr. James Keaton, ma’am.” I breathed a sigh of relief. I hadn’t wanted anything from Henry and hoped he learned his lesson.
“I will take the ride.” I slid inside the spacious town car and then he closed the door behind me.
“Would you like to stop for coffee before we head to your job, Miss?”
“Oh. I don’t believe we’ll have time?”
“According to the GPS, we’ll have plenty of time.” He set the destination, and we had more than half an hour. Wow.
“I’d like that.”
