Shining stars in a moonlit sky were everything Colleen was dreaming about. And on that moon she sat, cross-legged, sipping from a glass of very expensive champagne while she made a painting out of the soulful hazel eyes of Andre Lourdes. It had been all about him through the night till she retired to bed and even after she had gone to bed. She just couldn’t help it. It was as if he had cast a spell on her-a good one, she hoped.
Then her phone rang. Was she still dreaming or was that her mother’s ID on the screen of her phone?
Groggily dragging the answer button, she placed the phone in her ear. What she heard next sent all the weariness in her eyes and the smiles on her face running back where they came from.
“You spoiled little thing! After everything I did for you! I birth you, I housed you, I clothed you, I even sent your dumb ass to school, and look how that turned out for me? You can’t even call your mother at least once in a month to send her a little ‘thank you for bringing me into this screwed world’ thing.”
Typical, Colleen thought. Typical of Grace Caddell to greet her daughter with insults first thing in the morning.
As her eyes fluttered close, she pulled the phone away from her ear, listening to more of her mother’s ranting which now almost seemed like music to her ear but still somehow affected her mood for the rest of the day.
Grace Caddell calling her first thing Monday morning was the beginning of a bad day. Hell, it was the beginning of a bad week.
When her mother was done ranting and raving, she spoke softly.
“What do you want, Ma?”
“What do I want? What do I want, huh? Have you been listening to everything I said?”
“Yes. And it’s the same as what you trumpeted about two months ago when you called me in the middle of a job interview. Thank you, mother, for ruining that for me.” Colleen retorted contemptuously.
“What I want, you this sorry excuse of a child is money. I need two grand to pay off my lease and your father’s bar debt. They’re sending some agents to the house tomorrow to bundle him into the district.”
Pardon her nonchalance towards her family’s rather pathetic situation, but they wouldn’t give a rat’s ass if she was being sent to prison for using a counterfeit fifty-dollar bill. They have never given a damn about her and she had grown up learning not to do so as well after all the emotional and psychological trauma they had caused her.
Her father, Tommy Caddell, was a drunk. And it was in his nature to knock up rather witless women in his drunken state. That was why he had children scattered all over the globe. In Colleen’s case, he had been forced to marry Grace by her Christian family. Grace became embittered over the years and Tommy remained the same. Together, they raised a beautiful baby girl who was every inch different from them.
Now, her mother has made it a habit of calling her now and then to ask for money. Two thousand dollars? Colleen almost convulsed with laughter. Her house rent was half that amount and she was struggling to come up with the money.
Politely, she responded to her mother’s request in the same old speech. “I’m sorry, Ma, but I haven’t got anything to spare. Things are just as bad for me in Detroit as it is for you in Colorado. If I can ring up something by the end of the week, I will consider your request.”
That did it. Grace exploded. “You foolish girl! You are just like your foolish father. That is why you’re jobless. Do you think going to Detroit will make your life better? I keep telling you, you’re a disappointment and that is what you will remain. I will give you till the end of the week. If you don’t want me to come to Detroit and announce to the entire city how much of a failure you are, then you had better send me that money!”
And the line went dead.
What a way to start your morning.
Colleen rolled out of bed and into the bathroom to splash some cold water on her body. When she was done having her bath, she slipped into a white tank top worn under a black dungaree. She let her hair tumble over her shoulders in wavy curls and slipped in her half shoe before checking with Tobias whom she was supposed to meet within a few minutes.
The message he sent said that there had been a last-minute change of location to the place they were going to meet to discuss the project plan for DESC. This one was not his room number. It was a certain G105. Neither on the East wing nor the West Wing. Way out of her league.
Sighing, Colleen pocketed her wallet and whizzed out of her room, opening the Harbor Bridge directional app to find wherever the hell room G105 was.
After walking for over ten minutes, she appeared in front of the door. Without bothering to knock, she let herself inside, only to find His Handsome Hotness conversing with Tobias.
Regarding either of them for a moment, she decided to just move on with it. They probably happened to see each other on his way here.
“Good morning,” Colleen greeted, closing the door behind her. Then to Tobias, she said, “Did you bring the sketch pad?”
“Oh shit!” He palmed his face, quickly apologizing before dashing out of the room leaving Colleen and Andre alone.
A solid two minutes passed and neither of them spoke. Well, on Andre’s part, he was waiting for her to put in the first word. And on Colleen’s part, there were just no words. The air in the room had suddenly become hotter and thicker.
Realizing she wasn’t going to say anything, he broke the silence. “Why do you need a sketch pad?”
“Because I only seem to think better-creatively-when I have one in front of me.”
Okay, that came out a little too fast. Turns out, she might not have known how to start the conversation but she was super eager to key into whatever she said. And trust Andre to notice the enthusiasm.
“So, Colleen,” he stood from the armchair he had been sitting in. “What do you think of this workspace?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Wait. You changed the location of our meeting?”
“Yes. What’s wrong?”
“Why would you do that? Now I have to walk more than ten minutes to get to this place every day. What was wrong with the other room?”
“Where was the other room?”
“Tobias’ room. My room.”
Slowly, he walked past her. “You see, Colleen, that is the problem.”
She contemplated what he was saying for a second or two, still unable to comprehend what this ‘problem’ might be.
Thankfully, he relieved her of her confusion. “To prevent a situation where you’ll have to go to Tobias’ room and vice versa, I provided a neutral ground.” The corners of his mouth turned up in a sly grin. “Here. An unbooked room. And look–I even got you a double-bedded room. In case you two ever get sleepy while working, you can nap on this side of the room and he could do it on the other side. Win-win.”
She scoffed in disbelief. “So you booked an unbooked room in your own resort because you were feeling insecure?”
He wavered, shaking his head slightly. “Oh no-no, darling. I just wanted to make sure no funny business occurs.”
“And it didn’t occur to you that ‘funny business,'” she air-quoted the last words, “could happen even on neutral ground?”
Andre paused in his walk. Now he didn’t think this through well enough.
“Congratulations, Mr. Lourdes,” she jammed her hands sarcastically. “What a waste of your time and resources.”
Lashes fluttered as he glowered at her. “Is there something you are not telling me, Colleen?”
“Yes. You were wrong on this one.” She answered pointedly.
“Was I? Because I thought you only had eyes for one person.”
Her pupils flared at his remark and she immediately looked away so he wouldn’t notice. Could Andre Lourdes get any cockier?
As if reading her thoughts, he responded. “Cocky is my best virtue yet. Why would I ever stop?”
About that time, Tobias returned with the sketchpad.
“Oh great! He’s back. Now let’s cut to chase,” Andre said, even-toned, at the both of them. “I have handed in a special request to the board to personally supervise and or mentor this team.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What do you mean to supervise?”
Just the question he wanted to hear. Turning to face her, his flirtatious smile returned. “It means, darling, I’ll be your boss starting now.
“And as your boss, your first line of assignment is to go get me coffee. Black.”