Mena
Estelle’s lips curled, and I had the sudden urge to smack that smirk right off her face. “I think you know what the deal is,” she said. “I do want you to know that it was a one-time thing, and it won’t happen again.”
I eyed her strangely. The information matched what Alessio had told me, and I believed him. Their encounter had occurred during a time when we weren’t officially together-but I couldn’t get myself to trust her.
I chuckled to myself. Here I was, worrying about Estelle damaging the relationship which was already hanging by a thread.
“I work for him, and that’s it. You don’t have to worry about me,” Estelle reassured me, but I could see through her fakeness.
“I wasn’t worrying about you,” I snorted. “I have other things to worry about. You weren’t even on my mind.”
At least not until I had laid my eyes on her.
Worst case scenario, Alessio might decide she fit in his world way better than I ever could, and settle for her by the evening. He could make me pack my bags and throw me onto the streets, only he wouldn’t because he wasn’t like that.
He had always been good to me…told me how much he loved me, yet here we were.
“He rejected me, and I wondered why, and then he said he wanted to do right by you. He really cares about you,” Estelle revealed as we stopped walking.
I turned to look at her. If she thought to gain some points in the hopes of me inviting her over for a drink so she could spend even more time with him, she was wrong. I knew exactly what she was doing.
“It’s just the way his face changed when he spoke about you? I’ve never seen him speak about anyone like that, and I just had to meet you,” Estelle continued, working hard to maintain her expression.
I released a chuckle, “Well, congrats, you’ve met me.”
“I did,” Estelle nodded. “And I couldn’t help but notice you and Alessio haven’t spoken the entire night, and I was wondering…” she began, her voice trailing off as she seemed to search for the right words.
“Go on,” I forced a smile, knowing exactly where this was headed.
“Are the two of you not speaking at the moment or-” Estelle squinted her eyes, attempting to understand her situation-but before she could finish her sentence, an arm was slammed over my shoulder.
It was Alessio, and he had pulled me closer. The way he held me was possessive, his fingers tightened around my shoulder.
I looked into his intense gaze which was meant for Estelle. “We’re good,” his voice was cold as he was trying to send her a message.
I blinked my eyes, not being able to look away from him.
How much had he heard of our conversation?
“O-Okay,” Estelle smiled awkwardly.
“I think you should go back upstairs. Keep the guys company like I paid you to do,” Alessio told her.
His words sounded so harsh, they even made me feel uneasy. Estelle lowered her eyes and walked past us, disappearing from the scene.
The moment she was out of sight, Alessio immediately removed his arm from my shoulder and stepped back, creating a distance between us.
“That was uncalled for,” I mumbled, carefully expressing my disapproval for how he handled the situation. I was glad he drew a line himself, but there was no need to embarrass her like that.
“You need to watch out for these kinds of women. Don’t be naive and let her dig her claws into our personal life,” Alessio warned. “Not everyone is trying to be your friend. She was trying to see where we stand so she could shoot her shot.”
Of course, I knew that, and I had it all under control.
I wished he cared that much about personal lives when he had made me a topic of their conversation.
“If those two should stay separated, then why do you talk to her and why did you invite her?” I questioned, struggling to understand his motives.
“Because she works for me and I’ll need her in the future,” Alessio responded with a breath. “It’s not her that I want by my side. I thought we had this conversation already.”
We did.
Before he invited her to the mansion in the midst of our argument.
Alessio turned and began to walk away, leaving a sinking feeling in my stomach. I had expected him to tell me he was sorry, and that he regretted everything that happened between us from the moment he had pulled that trigger-but he didn’t.
“Hey!” I called after him. I heard a sigh escape from his lips before he turned back to face me, his expression unreadable. It seemed like even the tiniest exchange of words made things worse between us.
“Did you really come all the way here to tell me this?” I asked, hoping to understand his intentions. “Is that really all you have to say?”
“Yes,” he replied. “I told you I need you to make a decision and when you do, I don’t want you to be badly influenced.”
So, he had sent Estelle back inside because he knew what she was trying to do, he had told me he knew what he wanted which was obviously to patch things up-but somehow I was the one receiving the cold shoulder?
“Why are you being so strange? It’s like you’re pulling away from me.”
“First, you tell me you don’t want to see me, don’t want to talk to me-and now you’re saying I’m distancing myself,” Alessio spoke, frustrated.
“That’s not true,” I said, even though I knew part of what he said was right.
“So you didn’t say you didn’t want to see me?” he challenged my words.
“I did but…”
In that moment I realized I missed him way more than I thought was possible.
I missed him a lot, and not a single disagreement could make me love him less. Maybe if we could pretend this day never happened, everything would be okay again.
“Let’s just forget everything and go back to the way things used to be,” I blurted out. “I have an answer to your question. I know what I want, and I do want to be with you.”
The situation with Anson?
It would take me some time, but I would eventually get over it. I would force myself if I had to, but I couldn’t lose him.
I stepped forward, ready to jump into his arms if he’d let me, but Alessio stepped back. Flustered, I stared into his eyes.
“We can’t,” Alessio exhaled. “We can’t just ignore what happened. If we do, we’ll have this same discussion over and over again until we get sick of each other.”
“Then I’ll accept you!” I spoke desperately. “I don’t care about your way of living, I’ll accept all of it.”
“Mena, I know you-and I know you’re not being sincere right now,” Alessio smiled weakly. “I really need you to think this through. I don’t want to hurt you, and as long as you can’t accept who I am-I’ll continue to hurt you.”
“I said it’s okay, you’re not hurting me!” I stated, my frustration growing. “Whatever you do, I can take all of it.”
“You can take all of it?”
I didn’t fully understand my own words, but the desperation to keep him overshadowed any other feeling. The fear of losing him suddenly became a reality.
When he had asked me to make a decision, I hadn’t realized that the harder part would be convincing him of my sincerity. While the choice was mine, the ultimate decision to accept my answer and continue our relationship was in his hands.
I wanted to yell out that I was pregnant, so we would have to make it work-but the small bit of dignity I still had left wouldn’t allow it.
“I can take it, and that thing with Anson? I’m over it,” I insisted, trying to sound more convincing than I felt.
“You’re not over it. Just this morning you looked at me like I was the most disgusting person to ever walk this earth.”
“That was then, and now I’m over it.”
“No, you’re not,” Alessio spoke, closing the distance between us. He reached for my hand, and I accepted. “And I’ll show you that you’re not.”