ANDRE watched as Tobias walked into the dining hall and headed for where Colleen sat with her friends, Liz and Jessalyn, chatting and laughing so happily. His eyes followed every move of Tobias, from when he walked into the hall, scanned the place for a certain redhead, and when he spotted her, strutted in her direction.
He watched him speak to her in what he was sure was whispers, and after barely any convincing-because why would he need to convince somebody he had locked lips with yesterday-, she stood up and followed him to wherever the hell they had talked about.
Yup! Andre was definitely paranoid.
He tightened his grip on the tableware in his hand, so hard it began to hurt. But he didn’t feel any pain down there. The affliction he was feeling right now wasn’t from the knife in his hand, it was from watching Colleen follow Tobias out of the dining hall.
“Easy there,” Valentina all but purred from behind him, in that velvet-textured voice of hers that made even the ladies ballyhoo. “That’s a cutter in your hand, Andy. Before you go on flying to assault the man, think about the consequences of that action. The woman isn’t worth you spending a night in prison.”
Then, Valentina rounded the table where only he was sitting and with malice aforethought, did a hair flip of that iron straight blonde hair to reveal what was her most attractive feature: her graceful long neck. She set her tray of food on the table before sitting in the chair closest to Andre.
“They’re good for each other, you know,” she declared after a long minute of silence, watching as Tobias came back into the hall to get Colleen’s phone. “I mean, what is all the fuss and anger about her for? The girl isn’t even your type. I’m sure she took the hint after seeing Stella, Sean, you, and I together at the game, and went for someone more her class. Which is every bit less of a man that you are, Andy.”
Andre sucked in a deep breath and without taking his eyes off the seat Colleen had been sitting in, he asked, “What do you know about my type of woman?”
“I know you are captivated by beautiful women with a good dress sense that graces all of her femininity. A woman with deep pockets and confidence. Needless to say, more me. . . less her.” Valentina answered unabashedly, using her big blue eyes to give Andre a once-over in a very seductive manner.
Someone had to tell her that he wasn’t interested in that very inaccurate description nor was he even looking in her direction.
His phone buzzed and he clicked it open to see the notification of the groom-to-be.
SEAN: THEY ARE HERE.
With that, he tossed the cutleries in his hand to the table, took to his feet, and wordlessly, left the dining hall.
COLLEEN had been in bed for the better part of the day.
Scratch that.
She had been in bed all day and only remembered to eat when Jessalyn dragged her to the dining hall for dinner.
When she awoke that morning, feeling weak to the knees and heavy-headed, she thought she needed to go back to bed, sleep it off and all will be well. Yet, even after she forced herself back to sleep and awoke for the second time that afternoon, she didn’t feel any better. In fact, it seemed as if the headache doubled up.
Unable to take the pain anymore, she dragged herself to the store that sold health products on the ground floor to get some drugs for her head. Luckily, all it took was some aspirin to deal with the pain in her head but unfortunately, it did nothing to alleviate the pain in her chest.
What had constituted that headache she was feeling was the many times she replayed every word Andre had said to her last night. The way the words flew out of his mouth like he truly didn’t want anything to do with her made her heart churn and her head bang.
Is it that easy? She had thought. He never allowed me to explain what happened. He just jumped to crazy conclusions and discarded me like I was some piece of trash.
Then there was the issue of Tobias who had kissed her. That morning, he sent a message to her saying that he wanted to talk but Colleen had been in no mood to talk. She was too busy combating an annoying migraine caused by overthinking the words and actions of a certain Mr. Detroit. So when Jessalyn appeared in the evening, to drag her out to dinner, she didn’t put up much of a fight. Because, well, she was weak enough not to.
Only to find Andre sitting on the other side of the room.
Knowing Andre Lourdes, he would rather have his dinner brought up to his penthouse or even make it himself than sit in that dining hall. Alone. Frankly speaking, the only time he had ever used his hotel’s dining hall was this summer. And that was because he knew Colleen was always going to be there.
Imagine the surprise of finding Andre there. All by himself. Looking somewhat miserable.
Colleen would have gone to speak to him, clear the air, and put an end to his misunderstanding but he didn’t exactly have a welcoming expression on his face so she stayed away. Plus, and utmostly, she was mad at him.
So what if he had seen her in Tobias’ arms? He didn’t know the genesis of how they got into that situation and didn’t even care to know. He simply jumped to a conclusion, thinking so little of her and even saying it to her face. In other words, she was just as mad as Andre was at her. Only in his case, he was completely wrong about it.
“You look. . . aggrieved,” Tobias stated matter-of-factly to Colleen when they were inside their workspace-the room Andre had booked for them.
Colleen, who had her face scrunched up like she was eating shit, managed a smile at him, making sure to keep a reasonable distance between the both of them just in case Tobias attempted to hold her again.
“I understand if you’re mad at me. . .” he continued, respecting the space between them. “I messed up. Big time.”
“To be honest, Tobias, I am more confused than I am mad.”
“I get it. I owe you an explanation for my actions and that is why I brought you out here.”
Well, let’s hear it.
Tobias sucked in a breath, ready to do the speech he had rehearsed more than three times. He was no actor but looking at himself in the mirror, earlier, doing that speech, made him begin to wonder if Hollywood might just become his thing. But whatever. The most important thing was to convince Colleen that there was really no intention, other than excitement, behind the kiss yesterday.
“About yesterday. . .” he started solemnly. “Well, it was such a huge success. The sales, I mean. Bigger than I even imagined. And after Darren James made that comment about giving us his vote, I was very excited, my emotions were going over the place. In that moment when we were in each other’s embrace. . . truth be told, I don’t know what came over me. . .”
Colleen was listening keenly to every word he said but off the top of her head, unknowingly, she was imagining relaying his exact words to Andre.
What happened to being mad at him for jumping to conclusions?
“I must have fed you the wrong impression by my actions and knowing it would make things awkward between us, especially as we’re working on a project together, I knew I had to clear the air so that things can go back to how it was. Hopefully. I had no idea Andre was watching or that would have served as a reality check considering the relationship between you two-”
Now she remembered to be annoyed.
Colleen held up a hand. “There is no relationship between Andre and I. He made sure of that yesterday. Apparently, to him, all women are the same.” She muttered the last sentence under her breath.
A silence filled the room after this and it left her wondering if Tobias thought otherwise. Was she wrong? No. Technically, she and Andre were just. . . enjoying each other’s company. And when DESC ends next week, they will all go back into the real world.
“So, are we good?” He spread his lips in an innocent smile that crowned that speech as genuine and poor Colleen, she fell for it.
“Of course.” She returned the smile. “I’m glad you came to me to uh. . . clear this up. Last night was a bit-”
Tobias’ phone rang. And this time it wasn’t in the pockets of his pants or his jacket. It was laid out on the table separating him and Colleen. So when both their gazes snapped to the ringing phone below them, they saw the same thing: the caller ID displayed on the screen.
GATEN LOURDES.