CHAPTER 29: ONE KISS IS ALL IT TAKES.
Though Evelyn had tried reassuring Raphael about her coming to the office the next, she didn’t make it and he perfectly understood the reason. She saw that she wasn’t stable yet and it would only make her situation worse if she were to go to work.
Two days later, she resumed fully. Dressed in her well-ironed smart dress, she proceeded to Raphael’s office to hand over to him the presentation that she had come up with. She knocked on the door softly.
“Come in.”
Then she entered. Evelyn met him standing across his table with a cup of hot coffee. She suddenly became nervous after remembering Kira’s words two days ago.
“Mr. Raphael, I am done with the papers meant for presentation. I will just put them right here and leave…” She turned around swiftly and was about to dash out.
“Did I say that you could leave, Evelyn?” He asked and placed his cup down on the table. Her name pronunciation coming from his mouth sounded melodious to her hearing. With her back still turned around, she could feel Raphael coming closer to her and that got her hypertensive on a whole level.
Raphael spun her around and a little yelp came out of her mouth as she faced eye-to-eye with him. He placed his hand on her forehead and on her neck to check her temperature.
“How are you feeling now? I hope you are taking the medications as you ought to.” He asked and Evelyn nodded.
“Yes, thank you very much for your concern, Mr…”
“It’s Raphael in private.” He corrected her.
“I am sorry, Ra…Raphael.” She took heed to the correction and tried looking away from him. Her eyes were roaming around the office but in avoidance of his eyes.
“Look at me, Evelyn. Are you scared of doing that?”
The tension was too much for her to handle especially with her closeness. She tried to look into his eyes and it just got stuck there for a while, the both of them locked into the passion of one’s beautiful eyes.
Evelyn’s heart beat faster like crazy. Was Kira right about Raphael liking her? But how would that be possible? How would he like someone like her? She was way below his standard, that was for sure and she was a single mum. His parents might not accept so wouldn’t liking her be in vain?
She had this soft spot for him in her heart that was beginning to form, no denial about it but things like this were making the spot wider each minute.
Raphael could see through her the turmoil in her eyes though she had them fixated on his. He was wondering what it could be that she was going through, he wanted to run another deep and thorough investigation about her family background to see if he could in any way help but then he restrained himself and was willing to wait for her to tell him.
Slowly, her head began to move forward until her warm and luscious lips landed on his for about five seconds before they both snapped to the present.
Raphael blinked in surprise while Evelyn’s head widened at what she had just done. Stupid hormones! They put her into trouble now. She was only feeling the nudge to do without thinking much about it and she did. How would he think of her?
Raphael on the other hand wasn’t expecting the lady to make the first move but he sure wasn’t going to let go of this. After all, one kiss was all it took now.
Just as he was about to say something, Jeremy opened the door and walked in. He looked from his boss to the assistant in a confused manner and wondered why they were this close to each other.
Evelyn took a few steps back while Raphael cleared his throat and returned to his seat.
“What’s up, Jeremy?”
“Nothing much, sir. I just wanted to remind you of the meeting. The chairman specifically asked you to come with the recommended designs in less than twenty minutes and that he wants no error.” He delivered the message.
“Hmm.” That was Raphael’s only reply saying that he totally understood what his male assistant had spoken. Jeremy glanced at Evelyn once again and she left the office awkwardly.
“Is something wrong with her, boss?”
“Why did you ask?”
“She looked perplexed and her face was red.”
“It might be due to the fever, she was sick two days ago and is slowly recovering. Don’t stress her with too much work, okay?”
“Of course, boss. I will take my leave now.”
____________
Inside one of the famous restaurants in the City, Erica was waiting for someone eagerly and wouldn’t stop checking the time as she awaited the person. She would check her makeup once in a while and look at the door whenever there was a sound of someone getting in.
This continued for a while until the last opening of the last door, she reluctantly looked at it and her dull face brightened up immediately. The person that she was waiting for had finally arrived. But her joyous moment soon came to an end when she saw a lady behind him. She wasn’t sure at first if she was here with him or not until they sat in front of her, side by side.
“Good day, Miss Erica. A fancy restaurant that you have chosen for our meet-up.” Raphael greeted. Erica smiled.
“I am happy that you like it. I just wanted us to have a bit of privacy to be able to discuss our business issues and this idea came up.”
“I see. This is my assistant, Evelyn by name. And she[points at Erica] is one of our new business partners.” Raphael introduced them.
“Oh, nice to meet you, Miss Erica.” She greeted her with a smile.
“Hmm. So, Mr. Raphael, would you like anything to eat or drink before we start?”
“I am fine, Miss Erica. Let’s get to the meeting right away.”
“Oh okay.”
Raphael looked at Evelyn, “Do you have your medications with you here?”
“Yes, why?”
“What would you like to eat? You need to eat something so you can use them, I don’t want any neglect from my assistant. Make your orders, I will pay for them and that is an ORDER.” He concluded.
Evelyn nervously looked at Erica whose face had turned ugly just by watching the two interact like there was no one around them. When her eyes met with Evelyn’s, she looked away quickly.
A few seconds later, a small yet satisfying proportioned meal was brought to Evelyn and she started eating it.
“I apologize, Miss Erica, my assistant isn’t feeling her and I don’t want to take responsibility if she faints. I still need her to do some things for me that are very important so I hope you won’t mind.”
“No, not at all.”
“Thank you. Where were we?”
The conversation started with only the two intellects talking and a foodie scooping the meal into her mouth as she listened raptly. She was impressed that Erica knew all these things and wasn’t just a Barbie doll. Her way of talking was elegant and intelligent, her laugh was melodious and it could easily sweep a passer-by off their feet.
While they were still communicating, a car drove past the restaurant at an overbearing and annoying speed that surprised and as well scared those around. Followed by the car were the cops’ cars, blowing their sirens heavily. The reasonable explanation was the car was overspeeding and probably had broken too many traffic rules.
“Mr. Raphael, I don’t know when you will be less busy. I would love for us to get to know each other as business partners.” Erica offered as he packed up.
“Miss Erica, I appreciate your gesture but I am a busy man. My assistant will let you know when we need your help. We will take our leave now.” He stood up and so did Evelyn.
Erica had no choice but to accept his idea and wanted to shake hands with him.
“See you next time, Mr. Raphael.”
“And you too.”
“Have a good day, Miss Erica.” Evelyn greeted but didn’t receive any response from her. Instead, she sat down and crossed her legs, Evelyn felt embarrassed by being blatantly ignored. She was angry but left the place with Raphael.
Erica returned her gaze to the door that Evelyn had closed on her way out before sighing in disappointment. She was less concerned about those around him, all she wanted was to get closer to Raphael but he was building up that bridge between the two of them as only business partners.
Well, if the mountain can’t meet with the queen fairy then the queen fairy will meet up with the mountain. It was either way as long as they met up and this time around, she was willing to go deeper than just business partners with him no matter the way.
TBC…