“Andre! Andre! Please wait!”
A demented-looking Colleen called after him in a shrill she was certain could wake a dead man from the grave, but it all fell on deaf ears.
Andre was past hearing. Andre was past listening. Andre well was beyond seeing, even.
Not flinching for even a second, he hollered towards the elevator, his breathing rapid, his chest bouncing heavily, and jaws flexing. He couldn’t even bring himself to see anything other than what he had seen five minutes ago: the image of Colleen and Tobias kissing.
Angry was an understatement to describe how he was feeling.
Pushing down the button for the twenty-fourth floor, the elevator doors closed swiftly right in the face of Colleen who was ready to jump in there with him and explain how this was all just a huge misunderstanding.
Determined to set things straight, she hurried to the next elevator and pushed down the button for the twenty-fourth floor. Guess granting her access to the floor came in handy way too soon, in the way she’d never hoped for.
When she arrived on the floor, she dashed out of the elevator in the hope of getting to Andre before he entered his penthouse and inevitably shuts her out. Forever.
Fortunately for her, she was able to run ahead of him despite his rage-influenced pace, and halt right in front of his face, effectively bringing him to a stop.
“Please listen to me, Andre. It’s not what you think,” Colleen managed to say amidst being almost out of breath.
His gaze snapped to her and the look on his face made not only her heart tremble but her body as well. Andre’s eyes blazed with fury, raw and volatile, one dared not exploit. All his claws, sharp and ready to inflict twice the pain he was feeling, were out. His veins were throbbing and his entire being was expanding with rage. But beneath all of that, the hurt that flickered in his eyes was unmistakable.
“So I didn’t just see Tobias’ lips on yours?” Andre’s eyes hardened and narrowed into slits as he watched Colleen twitch at the sound of his voice.
“That’s not how it happened-”
“It doesn’t matter how it happened! The sore point is that it happened!” he bawled out in a guttural voice that was filled with nothing but unadulterated wrath. “I walked in on both of you. Hard as it was, I saw everything through eyes that once saw you as irreproachable. Don’t make me feel any more stupid than I already do by trying to explain a clear-as-day affair!”
A thick knot formed in her throat and she reached for his arms to touch him but he flinched. “Andre, please let me explain-”
“Get the hell away from me!” He said slowly, staggering backward as he sized her up from head to toe in utter disgust.
Even the sight of a stricken and almost in tears Colleen couldn’t bring his boiling blood to cease. At that moment, his eyes were clouded. Not only by anger and hurt but by the mental representation of what he had seen as well. And that was all he could see and think of: Tobias and Colleen together. The image of her in his arms stuck in his head like a magnet
.
He was warned. Not by Sean or his brother but by the other part of him. The part that had grown up knowing nobody was there for him and having to deal with being alone for the better part of his life. He thought he had been played for a fool. He-who’d always believed that he couldn’t be loved, who’d more than anyone else knew beautiful women always wanted one thing: the world at their feet-should have known better. There was no such thing as humility when it came to them. Instead, he’d allowed himself to be swayed by her saintly personality, and dare he admit it, he thought he had felt that love he never knew existed inside of him.
“What am I to you?” Andre’s voice was dangerously low as he covered the distance between them to look Colleen in the eye. “For the past week, I have been pining after you like a lost puppy without an owner. I haven’t gone one. single. day. without thinking about you. Whenever I was with you, I was happiest. And because I allowed myself to be happy around you, you took me for a fool.
“You used me like I was some piece of dirty rag! You say you need a favor and I fall at your beck and call. Because you knew I couldn’t resist any opportunity to make you happy! Because you knew I was way in over my head for you!
You know the worst part of it, I was prepared to go out of my way to see you win this goddamn ingenious award because I thought you deserved it! I thought you were different!”
The tears she has been trying to hold back let loose and began streaming down her cheeks. Andre’s words pierced through her chest, deep into her heart. Still, he wasn’t done.
“You know what I have realized today? You’re no different from all the women I have met. You’re not as innocent as I thought you were, you’re not the fragile woman I want to protect-you are no good. You owe me a favor so do this for me: Do not ever appear in my face again.” He hissed, brushed past her, and slammed the door behind him.
Colleen felt weak to the knees. It almost felt like her legs would give in at any moment so she supported herself by resting her back on the wall. All her thoughts were disoriented. From wondering why the hell Tobias kissed her to wondering how and if she would ever be able to fix things between her and Andre. Her heart churned as she recalled the look on his face.
She never meant to hurt him that much. Actually, she could never. He had grown on her so much and only now did she realize she cared deeply for Andre Lourdes.
Still trying to steady herself and her thoughts, Valentina’s footsteps brought her back to reality.
Colleen quickly used one hand to dab at the tears on her face as she stood upright, prepared to bypass the woman if she came at her with one of her usual jabs.
Her tongue clicked in both surprise and annoyance. “I have never seen Andre that way since. . . college when his mother never showed up to his graduation,” Valentina said. More like she spat out repulsively.
The jealousy in her voice could not be mistaken. Not even by a deaf man.
“How could you come into his life in less than two weeks and get him so angry?” Angrier than he even was when he found out she was sleeping with his business partner. “What the hell did you do? Who the hell are you?”
Having no more of it, Colleen began to walk past her but was immediately yanked back to place by her hair, knocking her to the ground.
“I am talking to you, bitch! What the hell did you do to Andre!?”
Colleen was mortified by the audacity. The nerve of Valentina Anderson-whoever the hell she was-to lay her hands on her.
On another day, at another time, she would have willed every bone in her body to resist, not to trigger that which has been nesting deep inside of her since yesterday. Anger spurred by the mere sight of the woman in front of her.
But now it was different. Now she was hurt, her heart was racing rapidly, and she was angry. Today she was confused. Today she was provoked. Now her hackles had risen to lengths unknown and she simply could not do anything.
Overwhelmed with all these different emotions threatening to burst out of her, she had due reasons to retaliate. And this piqued the reason for the next action she took.
With great suddenness, she rose to her feet and what followed was a hard, unapologetic smack on the right cheek of Valentina.
Surely Valentina never expected that. Glued to her feet, unable to even utter a word or cry, she held her horror-stricken face in her hand as she watched Colleen walk out on her.