GRACE
Three days had sped by before I knew it, with a nervous feeling simmering underneath my stomach.
Was I giving in too easily? I wondered as I continued breezing in and out of my daily routines of going to work and taking Laurel to school. But then, Connor Shelby looked like a man who knew how to have his way every time.
One thing that bothered me most though, was what I was going to tell Laurel about who Connor was. Of course I didn’t plan to tell her who he ‘really’ was now, but she had never seen me with any male being serious at all.
So I explained to her that we were going to see the man who brought her back from school the other day, while I got her and myself ready that Saturday evening.
“Are we going to thank him?” she asked with an innocent confusion on her face. I had never enjoyed lying to my child but I realized I had to for now, just to protect her.
“Something like that, baby,” I said, brushing her pretty bangs.
“Is he your friend?” she probed further and caught me off guard. “Ms. Scott asked who he was that day at school and I said he was your friend. He’s your friend, right?” she raised her eyebrow before turning around for me to wear her hair in a ponytail.
I had no idea how to reply her at this point.
“Right,” I said and then got up to get ready as well.
She understood somehow that I was done talking about the topic, so she went and sat on the couch in the living room, picking up my phone to play Candy Crush while waiting for me to finish.
I slid into a knee length strapless silver gown that hugged and brought out my figure. Jody got it for me on my last birthday with a message that went: I hope the situation for you to wear this comes quicker.
Ever since then, however, it had been sitting in my closet totally forgotten and abandoned because I felt the occasion would never come.
I twirled around the full length mirror in my room, observing the dress over and over again, wondering if perhaps it was too much. Was this occasion worth it?
Was I overreacting?
He only said dinner, didn’t he? On the flip side, though, he must have meant a date!
I kept deliberating with myself until a car horn blared downstairs causing a fresh wave of anxiety to erupt within me. I checked the time and realized it was few minutes before seven O’clock.
But I wasn’t surprised. Connor Shelby looked like a man who respected time and honoured appointments.
I increased my pace at getting ready by hastily adding some mascara on my lashes, a nice nude-pink lipstick instead of my usual colorless lip gloss and then came the issue of packing my hair in a bun or letting it down as Connor liked?
Letting my hair down is a no-no. It wouldn’t suit the outfit, so I put it up in a bun allowing some tendrils of it to fall on my face.
The horn sounded again and I wondered why he wasn’t coming up here to check up on me or something. Maybe because of the reporters. I grabbed my purse, rushed out of the room and held Laurel’s hands as we went downstairs hand in hand.
I stared down at her and smiled at how excited she looked. It had been like forever since we both went out like this, especially when it wasn’t work related.
As we descended the final flight of stairs, someone, no, Connor’s personal assistant, the man who led me to him the other day, alighted from the car and rushed to get the door for us.
Disappointment replaced the feeling of nervousness.
I motioned for Laurel to go in and then stared at the assistant guy quizzically.
“Alpha Connor had an impromptu meeting he had to attend himself,” he said apologetically as if he was the one who did something wrong. “He’s really sorry, Ms. Jones.”
“Oh, I’m sure he is.” I snapped, letting the sarcasm in my tone obvious enough.
We drove to the Shelby Mansion in silence, I mean the two adults, not Laurel who talked non-stop, badgering the assistant’s ears, who we now knew to be Marcus (Thanks to Laurel large appetite for curiosity) with meaningless and frustrating questions like whether or not Marcus had kids, which school do they attend? Does he have a cat or a puppy? Or a bunny? Her mum wouldn’t buy any for her. Not a single pet, and so on and so forth. Then she asked me where we were going for like probably over a hundred times.