The door slammed angrily behind Christian as he stormed into the room, his shoulders stood at attention, painfully aware of Antonia on his tail.
.”You’re really going to act like you’re deaf or are you just simply choosing to be an ass?”The anger rang clear in her voice with every word that left her lips.
Christian tried to shrug the annoyance off but all it did was throw coal into an already blazing fire.
The reaction was swift and sudden but expected. She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, his brows recoiled, his own anger rising to the surface.
“Now that I have your attention, I’d ask again,”She arched hee briws at him in a challenge, “Where have you been, Christian?”The calm with which she broke each syllable would have made any one quiver, made any sane person lift their hands in surrender, but not him.
Christian scoffed and shoved her hands off of him.”Never do that again.”He warned before storming off into the adjoining bathroom. The frown remained on his face until the lock clicked shut and her voice was safely on the other side of the door.
Even as he leaned back against the cool tiles that enveloped the spacious bathroom, he still couldn’t force the calm he needed. Nothing a quick shower wouldn’t fix, he thought as he pushed off the wall and under the awaiting shower.
A sigh eased from his lips as the water rolled down his back, peeling with each droplet ounces of stress. He took his time, not particularly in a rush to go back out there, especially not with Antonia out there probably waiting for an answer he was not going to provide.
With a grumpiness settling in his chest, he cut off the shower, stepped out and dabbed himself with a towel nearby till he was mostly dry. Releasing a much needed breath to prepare himself for the waiting onslaught of questioning from Antonia.
His ease soon gave way to a scowl as he stepped back into the room to see Antonia comfortably laying on her stomach, her feets dangled from the edge of the bed in a carefree manner. His eyes moved from the stain on the bed, up till they settled on her hands, or rather what she held in them. His phone.
“Why the fuck do you have my phone?!”His voice thundered in the room.
Antonia let out a screech before her body caught on as she jumped from the bed, the phone long forgotten in her rush for safety.”What the hell Antonia?! Really?! First you interrogate me like the freaking FBI and now you’re invading my privacy too?!”He yelled, his anger reaching it’s breaking point, the veins in his neck visible for anyone to see
“Why… why are you… I thought you went to have a shower?”She stuttered, her eyes switching between the phone and his face.
“I was, did that spell out you can snoop through my phone to pass the time?!”He fired, his vision tainted with red, why did she have to choose that moment to be so infuriating, what was it all about? How insecure could one woman be?
He groaned in annoyance, shoving a hand down his face to calm himself before he said something he couldn’t take back, that’s all he had tried to do since the moment she opened her mouth to question his choices.
He swiped the phone from the bed before she could think of touching it again, his grip a little too tight for someone who had nothing to hide, an action notissed by Antonia as her eyes squinted at the action.
“Why Antonia? Why do you feel the need to invade my privacy?”He demanded, his tone a quick switch from angry and disappointed to skeptical and curious. Did he think she knew anything? Maybe she should play along, act like she has the faintest idea what he was up to. Antonia shook her head at the thought, it wouldn’t be too hard to figure out she had no idea what exactly he was up to.
“Why not? You wouldn’t give me answers to a very simple question so what was I to do or think, huh Christian?!”
“I don’t care what does or does not run through that troublesome head of yours Antonia, you shouldn’t go through people’s personal items much less their phones like that, you just shouldn’t.”He reinforced, the anger had slowly began to creep back in at the lack of remorse in her voice.
He had said more in the past two minutes than he had since they walked through the door leading to thebhouse and even before. For someone who claimed to be too tired and worried to speak just moments before, he had an awful lot to say, a trait only who’d been caught doing something they shouldn’t usually shared. Maybe his shower had refreshed him enough? She wondered, she immediately dismissed the thought, she was making excuses for him again when it was glaringly clear that he had something to hide, something on that phone that she shouldn’t see.
The urge to point it out was overwhelming but she was not going to put herself in the position to be bashed for being an insecure woman, not when he had already indirectly accused her of it before. She was going to stay in control of the situation.
He spared a final glance at her and when she still wouldn’t say anything, he muttered something incoherent under his breath and stormed out of the house, slamming the door hard enough to cause it to vibrate long after his exit.
Antonia stared at the closed door, shocked to say the least. What had gotten into him? She was sure he was cheating, but with whom?
****
Christian’s grip on the steering wheel tightened as his thoughts went haywire. She had been so damn close. Too close. He slammed on the brakes, the tired shrieked harshly against coal tar as he jerked forward. The lucky dog unaware to how close it has been to it’s demise strutted across the road.
He groaned frustrated. He had been so deep into his thoughts he had totally forgotten to stay focus on the road.
Just as his thoughts trailed to Antonia and how she was going to successfully drive him crazy, a beep came from the general direction of his phone. He kept his eyes on the road as he tapped the space around for the device. One thing was for sure, he needed to give Antonia some space, whatever it was going through her head, he wasn’t going to be dealing with it.
“We need to talk, stop by mine later? It’s urgent.”He frowned at the text from Laura, no emojis, never a good sign. Maybe he was just overthinking it.
“Sure.”He typed back, a smile on his face. Laura would make him feel better, just the thought of her hands on his shoulders, her fingers working their magic as they dug into his muscles, had him leaning back against the seat.
His finger hovered over the send button for a few seconds before he cleared it and tossed his phone back on the passenger seat.
He rolled the car into the lot, the pub already bubbled with life even from where he was, the music traveled to be heard easily despite the crowd whispering and chatting right outside the pub.
He got down and strutted into the pub like he had no care in the world. He soon found himself a table and settled in gracefully. Barely few seconds later, the man he’d been expecting showed up and he paused mid sip as he introduced himself as Rhys.
“Pleasure to meet you.”He offered a hand.
Christian took it in a firm shake.”Pleasure.”
“Now, without beating around the bush, here’s what my lawyers came up with for the merger,”he tossed a brown envelop across the table, “you can take your time going through it, we only have all night.”A deep rumble escaped his throat at that.
Christian was caught between joining in just so it’s not awkward and sticking with himself and just going through the file when the universe smiled down on him. Chris watched with silent gratitude as his manager slipped into the empty seat between Chris and Rhys.
“Well hello.”Rhys is quick to break the silence.
Maurice, his manager took his sweet time before his eyes trailed deliberately slow to Rhys, the disapproval unhidden.
“May I have a word with you?”His gaze shifted to Christian.
“Sure.”He agreed and followed closely behind as Maurice led the way away from Rhys, not even bothered to excuse himself or bid the other man goodbye.
“What’s this about?”Chris asked, unsure
“Why are you doing business with someone like that?”He blurted.
“I don’t mean-“His words are cut short as Maurice’s attention snapped towards the entrance, his attention clearly stolen. Chris followed his gaze to the person in question surprised to see a woman in her mid twenties.
Maurice’s brows scrunched in confusion. What was she doing here?