All of Rina froze at once, her eyes staring at the bright red buds before her. They were roses, radiant and absolutely stunning. She couldn’t decipher which held her rooted to the ground the beauty of the flowers or the shock spurring from the name the card was addressed to.
“Stomping beauty?” Joel peered at the bouquet the photographer held as if it were some deadly weapon that didn’t belong there. His feelings were perhaps bruised upon discovering the package hadn’t been meant for him. It was his feeble attempt at acting all machoistic, like it didn’t bother him.
“We don’t have anyone by that name here,” he continued, angling his head. “Or do we? Who’s the sender?”
“You don’t have to pry into someone’s privacy like that!” Rina snapped, her hands lunging out to stop them from checking for the name of the sender. Joel was surprised at her actions. He raised a brow in concern and confusion. It brought back the memories of the previous night, and how weird it had been when the burly guy appeared.
Rina was doing that again.
“I mean, don’t you consider it rude too?” She tried again, trying to mend her initial outburst. “I wouldn’t want someone meddling in my package. Would you?”
“I wouldn’t.” The photographer shrugged. “And we’re just trying to see who the sender is so we can decipher who the flowers are for. ”
“It might be for one of the workers on the second floor,” Joel thought aloud. “I know all of their names, but it could be some pet name or something. Why don’t I go find out?”
“It doesn’t belong to anyone up there,” Rina breathed. Her heart thumped so hard that she feared they would all be able to hear the sound. Her head thought fast for a story to come up with.
“Why…”
“It’s for me,” she confessed. “I’m stomping beauty.”
“Now that’s some plot twist,” the photographer gasped dramatically, placing his hands over his mouth. It made Rina roll her eyes. Back in the moment, she retrieved the flowers from him and held them facing down, like she didn’t give a damn about them. It went well with her story.
“Why didn’t you say anything? “Joel was thrown further into the abyss of confusion. “I mean, we were all here trying to decipher who owned the package.”
“My ex-husband sent them,” she said mechanically, not batting an eyelid. “I wasn’t going to say anything because I thought you would just let it go and dump it at the front gate. But I couldn’t let you go through all the stress of trying to find the owner. That would have been unfair of me.”
“Finn?” Joel asked, dismissing the photographer with a wave. He obviously still wanted to be there to listen in on the conversation, but when Joel sent him a scowl, he scurried away with his tail between his legs.
Rina nodded. “You understand, don’t you?” She hated that she was using Finn to get out of this situation after she had vowed not to have anything to do with him. But this was going to be the first and last time, and technically, she could blame Zayn for this. If he hadn’t gone ahead to send her flowers after she had blatantly told him not to send them to the fashion house, this wouldn’t have happened.
Joel sighed in frustration. His hands folded into fists and his eyes suddenly turned angry. “Why is he still sending you flowers? Aren’t you divorced?”
“It’s a power play for him, Joel. You don’t have to get all worked up about it. I’m used to it already and I know I’m not just going to sit and let him do whatever he wants.” Although Rina was just keeping to her story, she meant every bit of those words.
She hadn’t forgotten the last time he called to threaten her that he was going to fight for the possession and ownership of her cottage like it belonged to him in the first place. And now, Rina was enraged.
“I can’t help it,” he sighed again. “You’ve been through so much already, and it’s unfair that he’s messing with you. I can’t help but wish I could do something about it.”
“You care,” Rina muttered. “That’s more than enough. And don’t worry about it. I’m not some damsel in distress that needs rescuing. I can take care of my business myself.”
“Just tell me if you need anything, okay?” Rina looked into Joel’s eyes, grateful for the sincerity she saw in them. But at the same time, it made her remember something else, and her upper lip raised in a smirk. If Zayn had been the one in Joel’s shoes, he wouldn’t have easily given up.
If she’d told him she wasn’t a damsel in distress, he would have scoffed and rolled his eyes. He perhaps saw her as one, and even though, usually, Rina would hate the thought and sound of that, with Zayn, it was different and she didn’t know why. She felt he wasn’t doing it to sound macho. It was just his person; it was engraved into him right from the very beginning.
“Why are you smiling” Joel asked suddenly. Rina hadn’t known that her smirk had grown into a full-blown smile. It fell at once, and she looked to her side then back at Joel rapidly.
“I better get into the studio,” she said in one breath. “We have a reputation to uphold now more than ever and no time should be spent loitering around the premises.”
Without waiting for a response, Rina walked briskly around Joel, pushed the door, and got into the studio. Cheers erupted as she shrugged off her jacket and carefully hung it on the hook.
“Well done to you all too,” she said to the team. “Those images came out the way they did because you all are brilliant at your jobs and you are creative. Thank you for putting me out there once again.”
They got to work, more fueled than ever. And Rina was pumped. Nothing could stop her now.