LIZ: DO NOT FORGET THE PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT ACTIVITY, TODAY. DARREN JAMES WASN’T SMILING WHEN HE SAID HE WOULD BE TAKING STATISTICS. WHAT ARE WE? TWELVE? ANYWAY, I SENT THE CARDS YOUR WAY. THEY SHOULD BE ARRIVING FIVE MINUTES AFTER YOU READ THIS.”
Colleen read the notification and almost immediately, her phone rang.
“Just checking to know if you saw the message,” Liz said when she hit the answer button.
“Yes, I saw it. Thanks.”
A few minutes later, a knock came on her door.
Thinking it was the person Liz sent to deliver the cards, she quickly slid into a pair of biker shorts and skipped out of the closet to get to the door.
To her surprise and infuriation, it was no other than Andre Lourdes, holding a long hunter-green maxi dress and of course, the cards Liz was just speaking of.
For the longest two minutes of her life, she was standing, he was standing, and they were both staring at each other. But the difference was, Andre had his usual, charming, cocky smile. And boy, Colleen was not fazed. In fact, she had a pretty cold glare pinned on him.
Not that he noticed she seemed upset with him.
Andre stepped further into the room in the littlest space she provided, leaving her glaring at nothingness till she closed the door and whirled around to resume glaring at him.
All smiles, he greeted in his own way, “It’s a beautiful morning. Don’t you think?”
It was beautiful before you showed up.
You mean it became beautiful when he showed his beautiful face. Yup. That was her subconscious betraying her for the fiftieth time since the start of the week.
“This,” he lifted the dress to her eye level. “For the networking event tomorrow night. I figured green would suit you best. It would make heads roll as well but that is just the first step to getting the attention on you.”
Not that she even needed to try, Andre thought as laid the dress on the bed and resumed smiling at her.
Was he not seeing all of that indignance on her face or was he just pretending not to see it because Colleen was beginning to tire from exaggerating her anger.
“Where were you yesterday?” Might as well just get to it. Andre was too self-absorbed to notice she was clearly upset with him for reasons that, when she thinks about it, make absolutely no sense. But she hadn’t thought of it yet. Which is why the words just came right out of her mouth.
“I called you yesterday. I even shot you a couple of texts but you never answered. You never showed.”
Andre couldn’t help but be amused at her. Was she really angry because she did not see him yesterday? I guess that was progress in the ‘Get Colleen to fall head over heels for you 001′ course.
“Why? Did something happen yesterday?” he inquired.
Yes. Something did happen. She pitched the most amazing idea to all-powerful and all-knowing Darren James and dare he admit, the man was fighting all the bones in his body just so he wouldn’t appear wowed. And she was so excited that she wanted to share it with the person that had pushed her to think in the first place but Andre was nowhere to be found. Worst of all, he didn’t return her calls or texts. For a split second, she had even begun to worry about the man.
But she wasn’t going to tell him all of this. No way. Especially the last part. So, Colleen just said, “Forget it. You missed the chance to know.”
“Know what?”
She spread her beige matte lips in a thin, mirthless smile. “Nothing, Andre. Now if you will excuse me, I have got an assignment to do.”
“Assignment?”
“Yes. I spoke to Darren James yesterday and he had some assignments for me.”
Andre’s brows lowered. “What kind of assignments?”
“That’s none of your business now. If you had answered the phone yesterday, you would have known.”
She snatched the cards from his hand and turned on her heel, walking towards the door.
Just before she took the final step to open the door, Andre hurried to her front, bringing her to a halt.
“Was I just imagining things or did you say, Darren James?”
“Yes.” Colleen stuck out her chin. “Detroit’s sweet sensation, Darren James.”
“How could they get him on my show without my notice?”
“Oh, Andre,” she pulled back feigning concern. “Still feeling insecure, are we?”
“That’s where you’re wrong. People like Darren James can’t resist women like you. But women like you can resist men like Darren James.”
A look of confusion washed her. What the hell was he going on about?
“That’s because, Colleen, there is only one woman like you. And the only person that woman cannot resist is Andre Lourdes. So, no. I am not feeling insecure about Beverly James or whatever he calls himself. What I am insecure about is him making advances toward you. If he makes a move, tell me. I’ll kick him out of my show.”
“Because you have the power to do anything you want, huh?”
“Exactly!” he affirmed complacently. “Now do you mind sharing what this assignment is?”
Colleen scoffed. “Oh so you think because you waved some of that charm of yours, I’ll budge?”
Andre’s face split into a massive grin. “You thought I was charming?”
Goodness! Colleen breathed out furiously, pushing Andre to the side as she exited the room.
I’m in serious trouble with this one, she thought.
As part of the assignment, they were supposed to network with other residents of the resort. Whether they knew about DESC or not, that shouldn’t be a factor. The goal was to collate statistics of the residents’ thoughts on their ideas for the ingenious award and listen to suggestions as well.
For Colleen, she was going to be moving around inquiring about people’s havens because that is what she wanted her architectural firm to be about: building safe havens for the people. And for the very first project, Tobias and she would be working on creating a place of magic. Something so surreal people would wonder if it was an exit out of the earth. Together with her artistic skills and architectural mindset, and his out-of-the-world photography skills, they would wow the investors just like Andre had said.
She wasn’t prepared to walk the length of this massive resort alone so she rented a bike.
As she was driving, her thoughts wavering to the one person she hadn’t stopped seeing in her dreams every night since she came into this resort, she almost crashed into a couple taking a stroll along the sidewalk.
“Oh my goodness, I am so so sorry,” Colleen immediately ditched the bicycle and went over to help the lady to her feet.
“It’s alright,” the brunette woman smiled reassuringly at her. “At least my legs are still intact. For a second there I thought I would have to use a wheelchair for my ‘walk’ down the aisle.”
“Oh, you are getting married? I am so sorry. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I had done something to ruin your big day.”
Then looking at the man whose attention was a hundred percent focused on the lady’s legs to see if there was any sprain or something, she apologized. “I am very sorry, mister. I was so careless. Please accept my apologies.”
“It’s alright . . .”
“Colleen,” she answered immediately.
“It’s alright, Colleen. You don’t have to feel bad about anything. Nothing awful happened. If anything, this little accident would keep this one hovering around me all night and day.”
They laughed.
“I’m Stella,” she said, extending her right hand which Colleen took. “And this is my fiance, Sean.”
“I prefer the title husband-to-be,” he gave her a curt nod as Stella continued.
“We’re getting married Friday. Thank the heavens. Did you know how hard it was to pick a day? If not for the fact that we had some connections to the owner of the place, we would be waiting in line to get married next summer.”
“No,” Sean countered, glaring at Stella. “We would just be getting married somewhere else other than here.” He turned to Colleen. “I don’t know why the ladies adore this place and think it’s a dreamland to get married in. Just this summer, over eighteen weddings have been scheduled to be held in this resort.”
“That’s because Harbor Bridge is beautiful, isn’t it Colleen?”
“Definitely,” she admitted. “I’m sure the owner must be feeling very proud.”
“Oh he sure is,” Sean muttered to himself, looking heavenward.
“Well, it was nice to meet you, Colleen,” Stella said vivaciously. “You have no idea how princess-y I’ll be feeling for the next two days. And if I play my cards right, I might just get him to ditch his bachelor’s party.”
Sean laughed, shaking his head as he extended his arms to Colleen. “Delighted to make your acquaintance,” he said.
“Oh no, the pleasure is all mine,” she divided looks between the couple and then back at her bicycle. “I had better ditch riding the bike for now before I run into one of the other eighteen couples getting married and actually render the bride legless for the day.”
They traded laughs with one another, said their final goodbyes, and were on their way.
Barely thirty minutes into her assignment, she got a text from Andre. Of course he had been restless about this whole assignment since she told him about it. Darren ‘fucking’ James, he had cursed over a hundred times. He thinks he can swoop in and make her all giddy.
ANDRE: QUIT RIDING THAT HORRENDOUS BIKE AND COME TO YOUR ROOM. WE HAVE GOT TO GO OVER THE PLANS FOR TOMORROW’S EVENT.”
She read the text and ignored it. And almost immediately, another notification came in.
ANDRE: DID YOU JUST IGNORE MY MESSAGE, COLLEEN? IF I DON’T SEE YOU IN TEN MINUTES, I’M GOING TO CALL SECURITY AND TELL THEM YOU STOLE THAT BIKE.”