CHAPTER 21: HEARTBEAT.
Evelyn arrived at the company the next Monday morning after dropping Tom off at school. She wasn’t late this time around so she wasn’t much in a hurry until she bumped into Vegas again that morning.
“I am sorry…oh, Mr. Vegas, Good morning.” She greeted him swiftly.
“Good morning, Miss Evelyn. You seem to be in a rush.” Vegas commented and put on a charming smile but Evelyn looked away and breathed in the fresh air. The air had suddenly become suffocating for her.
She wasn’t in a rush before but now, she suddenly wished to be Barry Allen, the fastest person alive.
“Yes, since you know that sir then I will love to take my leave.”
As Jeremy was about to take the elevator upstairs, he sighted the two of them. He couldn’t figure out what exactly they were talking about but seeing the way Vegas was smiling, it seemed as if he was flirting with her. He wasn’t privileged to catch a glimpse of Evelyn’s reaction or else, it would have been fun to watch.
“Goodness, Mr. Vegas…I seriously don’t know what to say about him.” He shook his head and entered the elevator.
On getting to Raphael’s office, he delivered the important details that he needed. Jeremy thought well about the issue, was he supposed to tell his boss what he saw down there? But it was between Evelyn and Vegas, right? It was supposed to be a private affair but [there were a lot of ‘buts’ in this thinking] this could be about their business too.
What if Vegas was trying to use this to get closer to Evelyn to get first-hand information?
Jeremy got hit by a pen and he rubbed his forehead before looking at his boss with confusion.
“You look lost. What are you thinking about?” Raphael asked as he wrapped up part one of his work.
“Nothing, boss. It’s just that when I was coming, I saw Mr. Vegas with Evelyn and they seemed to be discussing something because Mr. Vegas was smiling non-stop.” He replied.
When Raphael heard this, his mind unconsciously shut down for a moment. During this shutdown, Jeremy was still talking in his world with the intuition that his boss was listening.
“I am telling you, boss. It’s not that I don’t trust your judgment when it comes to choosing workers but her being your assistant, I see no reason why she ought to. Just imagine her talking with Mr. Vegas, she could have shared any secretive information with him…something that is meant to be confidential. Only goodness knows how long they have been together.” Jeremy muttered, he was clearly trying to bring everything in his favor.
“Where did you say she was?” Raphael asked.
“Downstairs…”
Raphael stood up and walked out of the office, leaving poor Jeremy stunned and confused but then he wore a bright smile.
“The boss might be going to lash out at her. This is good. I am the only one fit enough to be called my boss’s assistant.” He rejoiced and did an ‘oky-doky’ dance.
“Good morning, sir.”
“Morning.”
Raphael replied to their greetings as he walked past them into the elevator. When he pressed the button, Evelyn was waiting below. She was too late in pressing the button so she could only wait for the elevator to come down before she could enter.
Standing with Vegas creeped her out and she did not know why. For some reason, she felt like he was meant to create unnecessary trouble for her even though all he had tried doing for the past few days was only to be nice to her.
The elevator arrived and she waited for it to open only to see Raphael inside it. She furrowed her eyebrows.
“Mr. Raphael? Good morning, are you perhaps going somewhere?” She asked. Raphael cleared his throat and tried looking for a reasonable excuse to give because he only unreasonably landed in front of her. Why did he not think it through before rushing out?
“No, I went to get something.”
“You went to get something? From the office or…” Evelyn tried using her hands in describing since her words could not make out any meaning at all. Raphael, as well, nodded innocently in every direction she was pointing at, making it more than an awkward situation.
“Get in.” He said after a while and she obeyed.
The elevator’s door got closed and the two of them stayed miles apart from each other. Well, Raphael wouldn’t have minded staying this close to her but she was just trying to distance herself for social etiquette’s sake.
Raphael looked at her once in a while, his right foot hitting the ground as if he was anxious about something but he tried not to make it obvious. What could they have discussed? He couldn’t believe that he was going all crazy and jealous over a girl but she wasn’t just any girl…she was the woman that he was interested in.
He glanced at her without any form of shamelessness even Evelyn who was standing miles away from him could feel his burning gaze piercing through her body into her soul that she could hardly help herself from standing.
Evelyn had to walk a bit and leaned against the elevator’s walls. She gathered the courage she needed and looked at Raphael, he was not focusing his eyes on her anymore. He had his eyes closed. Evelyn used this moment in appreciating her boss’s looks but then, there was something familiar in the act about the two siblings. It was that the two of them could have a staring contest without losing.
Whenever the first would stare at her, she would feel like running away but whenever the second stared, it seemed to have a kind of feeling bloom within her and that was what was happening now.
The elevator stopped moving, signaling that they had arrived at their destination. Raphael walked out of it in huge strides.
“Meet me in my office, Miss Evelyn.” He paused, gave the instruction like an automatic robot, and then continued.
Evelyn sighed and looked at Mrs. Conner.
“Good morning, ma’am.”
“Evelyn dear, how are you doing? Why is the boss angry?”
“Oh, is he? I certainly did not notice that. I have no idea. He was pretty fine in the elevator.” Evelyn answered and continued walking. She greeted everyone else and dropped her bag on her chair before going to meet Raphael in his office.
Immediately she entered, she was pulled in and the door was locked.
“Haaa.” She yelped but calmed down when she saw Raphael’s face in front of her. He pinned her in between his arms, her back resting against the door as he stared at her eyes.
“Mr…Mr. Raphael? What…what are you doing?” She stuttered.
“What does it seem like I am doing, Miss Evelyn?” Raphael asked in his deep and sexy voice that got Evelyn’s ears dancing to it imaginarily.
“You’re too close…”
“Do I make you feel uncomfortable?” Raphael asked and raised her chin, her lips slightly parted. His scorching gaze landed on them and Evelyn had to lick them to get rid of the dryness. This was somehow giving dirty thoughts to the poor guy’s head. He looked at her cheeks which were turning red and then at her eyes, she was trying to avoid looking into his eyes.
“You have sexy lips, Miss Evelyn.” This comment of his took Evelyn off guard. She could only look at him in shock. How could he have said that? Her heart beats faster than ever as her eyes trailed down his smooth face to his chin and then his Adam’s apple. She gulped.
Raphael snapped his fingers and retreated from him. His expression turned cold and bossy within the minute.
“I was informed about you talking with Vegas downstairs this morning.”
“Huh…huh?” Evelyn had still not recovered from the messy trauma that he made her pass through within a second ago. She blinked and looked at him with the eyes of ‘please, come again. I don’t get what you are saying.’
“I said that I was informed about you talking with Vegas downstairs this morning,” Raphael repeated.
“Oh, yes.”
“What exactly were you talking about?” He asked.
“That is meant to be private, Mr. Raphael.”
“Well then Miss Evelyn, I really do hope that you do not get close to him to the point of sharing information with him. Don’t talk to him that much as that might lead to scandal and anything that can ruin my image and my reputation and I wouldn’t like it. I don’t like sharing what belongs to me with others. You are working for me not him so steer clear. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir.” She replied instantly.
_______
For the rest of the day, Evelyn got her mind messed up that she committed a lot of errors and it was all thanks to that one conversation with Raphael in his office.
“Stop thinking about him, Evelyn.” She hits her cheeks and then pats them before washing her hands in the toilet.
It was not the time to think about a man now. She could start working well on Kira’s advice about her socializing with everyone and being confident so that was what she would do for the main time till she is able to get more confident about herself.
TBC…