53

“Doesn’t explain why he’s a douche,” Scarlett remarked.
“He’s been spoilt his entire life. He comes from money. Brad has never known anything other than the high life.”
“What about Ace?”
Michael chuckled. “Ace didn’t grow up the way Brad did. His story isn’t something I’m at liberty to tell; in fact, I don’t know the full story, myself. All I do know is that Ace worked his ass off to get to where he is and he still works so hard. Lots of people envy him.”
Scarlett sighed. “He was reading some documents late last night, too.”
Michael nodded. “That’s Ace. In his early twenties, he barely went home on weekends. He was always working. He’s relaxed a lot, but not entirely.”
“He’s a billionaire. And he owns a company that could probably run itself. Why?” Scarlett asked.
“He doesn’t do it for the money,” Michael shook his head, “I don’t think Ace could care less about the money. He donates to charity a lot, but likes to keep out of the spotlight. He just does it because honestly, he’s good at it.”
The pair stopped talking and pondered on the words that hung in the air.
Michael was the first to break it. “Well, I should go. I don’t want to keep Nick waiting.”
Scarlett stood with Michael, walking him to the door. “Is that your boyfriend? Tell him that I said ‘hi’.”
“Oh, I will.”
“Does he know who I am?”
Michael chuckled and nodded. “We discuss you constantly.”
Scarlett frowned. “Why?”
Michael shrugged, dismissively. “Reasons.” He smiled. “I’ll see you, maybe tomorrow, Scarlett.”
“Sky.”
“Huh?”
“You can call me Sky.” Scarlett clung to the door that Michael was on the other side of and smiled.
Michael smiled. “See you, Sky.”
Scarlett closed the door and looked around. Belinda was nowhere to be seen. Taking her phone out of her pocket, she stepped out on to the balcony and walked to the end, dialing number.
“Scarlett,” Terrence’s voice came down the line, “To what do I owe this pleasure?”
“Ace has gone for a meeting with someone. He left suddenly last night. Apparently, he’s in Devon Falls. I’m sorry, that’s all I know,” she said, in a hushed voice.
“Devon Falls?” Scarlett could almost hear Terrence’s frown. “There aren’t any businesses that any of us have dealing with in Devon Falls.”
There was a silence. Scarlett wondered whether to hang up.
“Oh!” Terrence’s exclamation made her jump. “I know who’s in Devon Falls right now! Ha! Scarlett, this has been an absolutely illuminating piece of evidence. You’re doing well. I’ll be looking forward to more of these nuggets of information.”
He hung up before Scarlett could even ask in what way she had helped.
She slipped her phone back into her pocket and went back inside, feeling oddly accomplished, but not at the same time. She ambled into the kitchen, where Belinda was wiping down the counters of the spotless kitchen.
“You want a snack, Scarlett?” she asked, “Ace isn’t too much of a snacking person, so there isn’t really anything much other than fruits and some crackers and few sweets.”
“No, it’s fine, Belinda. I’ll get some snacks for myself next week,” Scarlett smiled.
Belinda wiped her hands on the kitchen towel. “Well, I’ve made Ace’s dinner in case he comes back later today. It’s in the oven, so all he has to do is warm it up. There’s some lasagna leftover, or shall I make you something else?”
Scarlett walked over and hugged the little lady, who smelled immensely of a fresh bar of soap. Belinda was surprised at the affection, but hugged the girl back.
“I’m good with lasagna,” Scarlett smiled, pulling away, “Thank you. And I’ll leave a note for Ace if he’s not home before I go to bed.”
Belinda patted Scarlett’s arm, softly. “Well, I’ll be going, then. I’ll see you on tomorrow morning, alright?”
Scarlett nodded. She walked Belinda to the door and waved her out. She locked the door and turned, heading straight over to the door to Ace’s study. She tried the handle, but it was obviously locked.
Next, she went upstairs to Ace’s double bedroom doors and that, too, was locked. She growled to herself, wondering what he could possibly be hiding in his room from his own housekeeper. She then wondered whether the doors were locked because there was someone other than his housekeeper in the house.
She looked at the lock on Ace’s bedroom door. It wasn’t a usual lock that could be opened by a run of the mill key. It was an ornate lock that needed its own special key, which meant that Scarlett couldn’t even pick the lock.
Abandoning all hope of trying to find something, Scarlett went back into her room, where she managed to, for the first time in over a week, find idle hours to herself, where she could read in peace.
It was only after she happily shut her book that her stomach decided to grumble. She looked outside. Night had started to set in and she ambled downstairs to get herself some dinner.
After dinner, when night had well and truly set in, Scarlett found herself in the TV room, ready to watch some TV, but unable to fathom which remote to work. She picked up the most obvious one and turned on the TV, which immediately said “No Input”.
She picked up another remote, which sat on the TV stand and pressed the ‘power’ button.
Nothing happened.
She tried the next remote.
Nothing happened.
She tried the next remote.
Soft music started trickling into the room through the stereo.
Scarlett looked over at the stereo and nodded, approvingly. “Okay, good. I know how to turn you on now. What about your friend, here? How do I turn the TV on?”
The stereo played music, while Scarlett stared at it, waiting for an answer. She sighed and switched it off.
She picked up the next strange remote and pressed a button.
The lighting in the room brightened for a moment and then went back to its usual state. She pressed a different button and it changed the colour of the LEDs on the floating ceiling.
“Whoa,” she exclaimed, looking up, “That’s for entertaining the ladies.” Scarlett laughed to herself. “Of course, the billionaire has a remote for his lights because light switches are for poor people.”
She pressed the power button to turn the mood lighting off and the room went back to its usual colour. Scarlett sighed and picked the next remote up and pressed a random button in the hopes of something happening and immediately, the TV began descending into the cabinet built for it.
Scarlett stared at the disappearing TV, outraged that it had the audacity to defy her. “That’s exactly the opposite of what I want. All I want to do is watch some Netflix and there’s three-thousand remotes here.”
Ace Hardwood, who had returned quietly in the midst of Scarlett’s technical difficulties, leaned against the wall leading to his vast TV room and watched the girl with the utmost amusement he had ever come home to. She sighed, frustratedly as the lift cabinet closed over the concealed TV.
She jabbed the remote in the direction of the stand. “Fine, I’ll just watch some BBC, I swear,” she tried to reason with the inanimate object, “And not even the specials. Just the hard-hitting news. The boring kind, okay? I’ll just watch the stocks. Come on!”
Ace smirked and decided to put the girl out of her misery.
“Ambrose, what are you doing?”
Scarlett whipped around, completely shocked by his arrival. When she laid her eyes on him, she huffed.
“Your entertainment system has some vendetta against me,” she accused, “I’ve been here for like half an hour trying to watch something. How long have you been here?”
Ace laughed. “Long enough.” He stepped forward and took all the remotes that she was juggling from her. He picked one up and pressed a button that made the TV reemerge from the depths of the cabinet. “That one handles all the compartments of the TV stand. This one’s for the stereo. This one for the TV, and this one is for the cable box and you press this button to get it going.”
Ace pressed a button and magically, people appeared on the screen.
Scarlett’s face lit up like she had just witnessed some formidable magic. “Well. Do you have Netflix?”
Ace nodded.
Scarlett sighed. “You’re back. You didn’t even tell me that you’re going.”
Ace looked at her. “I wasn’t aware I needed your permission.”
“Just a heads up would have been nice. I mean, there could have been a fire, I would have tried to look for you and you wouldn’t have been there and I would have assumed you were dead or taken by the fire and the fire department ”
“I get the picture, Ambrose,” Ace held up a hand, “Next time, I’ll leave a note.”
“That’s all I ask. Will you have dinner? Belinda made something for you. It’s in the oven,” Scarlett told him.
“I will,” he nodded, picking his cabin suitcase up and walking over to the staircase, “After I have a shower.”
He went up and had showered and returned, wearing a pair of dark track pants and a baggy sweater, before Scarlett could even pick what to watch. She switched the TV off and followed him into the kitchen. She watched as Ace put his plate in the microwave.
“I’ve further confirmed that you’re a psycho,” she said, leaning against a counter, crossing her arms over her chest.
“And why is that?” Ace asked, fetching himself some cutlery, not turning to look at Scarlett.
“You don’t have any snacks.”
Ace laughed and shook his head. Once the microwave dinged, he took the plate out and sat at the kitchen counter. Scarlett sat across from him.
“Did you manage to get what you went for?” she asked.
Ace nodded. “Did you finish the work that I gave you on Friday?”
Scarlett nodded. “Pen drive is in my room.”
“I want that before you go to bed tonight.”
Scarlett leaned across the table and picked a sun-dried tomato off Ace’s plate and put in into her mouth, before sitting back down.
“Did you have dinner, Ambrose?” he asked, jovially, waving his fork.
Scarlett grinned. “Mhmm.”
Ace shook his head with a smile and went back to eating.
“You’re in a good mood,” Scarlett noted.
Ace nodded, as he looked at her. “You’re not wearing your red lipstick. This is the first time I’ve seen you without it.”
Scarlett raised an eyebrow. “I could go upstairs and put some on if it’ll make you feel better.”
Ace gazed at her face and shook his head. “This is perfectly fine.”
“How was your flight?” Scarlett asked, conversationally.
Ace looked up at her. “Not bad,” he shrugged, “There was some turbulence coming in because bad weather is predicted.”
“Bad weather is predicted?” Scarlett asked sharply, startling Ace.
He stopped chewing and looked at her. “Calm down, Ambrose. Just some rain, I guess.”
“But it never rains here!”
“Sometimes it does.”
Scarlett got up turned and looked across the opened pass-through at the dark sky. “Is that why it’s so dark?”
“Yeah, it was raining near the airport. Why are you so interested, Ambrose? Trying to pursue a career in weather?” Ace joked.
Without returning a pithy remark, Scarlett was on her feet, looking out the window, like she was expecting the worst. She bit down on her lip, worry clouding her face.
She mumbled something and left the kitchen, hurriedly.
Ace watched the door through which she had left, confused, but decided that it was nothing, so he finished his dinner.
As he was washing up, the sky rumbled. He gazed out the window as the sky unleashed heavy rain, coupled with thunder and lightning.
Lightning etched the sky and then thunder rumbled deeply.
Ace headed upstairs, after switching off the lights, realizing that Scarlett was nowhere to be seen. Once on the landing, he turned towards his room, but remembered the pen drive.
He turned back towards Scarlett’s room and saw that her door was closed.
“Ambrose,” he said and thunder rumbled again, “I need that drive.”
He waited, but there was no sign on movement from the other side of the door.
“Ambrose,” he said, again, taking a few steps towards the door.
There was no reply.
He knocked on the door. “Ambrose, can I get that pen drive?”
There was deadly silence, except for the thunderstorm outside.
Slowly, he turned the knob and opened the door. His eyes scanned the room.
Scarlett wasn’t on the bed or near the foot of the bed reading. He pushed the door open fully.
Nothing in the world could have prepared him for what he saw.
The usually confident, powerful, witty Scarlett Ambrose had wedged herself under the desk in her room. Her knees were pulled up to her chest as she recoiled in on herself, wrapping herself as tightly together as she possibly could. She looked fragile, as she trembled and silent tears were streaming down her face. Her palms were pressed against her ears and the moment that she heard the thunder, her body jerked before returning to its state of trembling.
Ace stared at her.
She hadn’t yet noticed that he was in her room. She was too busy, arming herself, guarding herself against the thunderstorm. She whimpered, softly, every time thunder struck.
Ace abandoned any protocol he may have had and walked into her room. He rushed straight over to her. He crept under the table and pulled her into his arms.
Scarlett’s body shook.
Ace held her tightly to him.
“Shhhh,” he lulled, softly, “Everything’s going to be fine. I’m here.”
Scarlett’s brow never unfurled the entire night.
She clung to her sheets and her pillows; her eyebrows knitted together like she was in the midst of a constant nightmare. She was curled into a ball under the covers, earbuds in her ears.
Even at two-thirty in the morning Ace Hardwood stood at the entrance to her room, arms crossed over his chest, watching her sleep, with a frown on his face.
Scarlett hadn’t uttered a word, other than ‘No’. She had repeated that word under her breath continuously until she had finally fallen asleep.
Ace had had to hold her until she stopped trembling, which hadn’t been until the thunder finally silenced. He had managed to coax her into getting into bed and found earbuds for her to block out any noise. After she did climb into bed, he had surrounded her with pillows. Ace had no idea whether it would help, but he was unable to fathom what else he could do.
It was strange to see someone as charming and outgoing as Scarlett become such a mess. Something about seeing his social butterfly of a PA become a trembling mass of tears shook something deep within Ace.
He rubbed his bloodshot eyes with the base of his palms and sighed. He had been up for almost forty-eight hours at this point.
Closing the door, he walked into his own room and flopped on to his bed, falling asleep almost instantly.
The next morning, Scarlett was already seated at the breakfast table, dressed perfectly, red lipstick on and ready to take on the world when Ace walked in.
He approached her, slowly, as she read the comics section of his newspaper and laughed.
“You’re awake,” he said.
Scarlett smiled and jabbed her finger at the paper. “Isn’t Marmaduke the best?” she asked, with a laugh.
Ace went over to put on a pot of coffee, but saw that it had already been brewed. “Did you put on a pot of coffee for me?”
Scarlett nodded, closing the paper. “I asked Belinda to teach me how to work it.”
Ace poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down across the counter from her and eyed her. “Are you alright, Ambrose? You freaked me out a little.”
Scarlett’s smiled softened. “I’m fine. Thank you for what you did.”
“Are you afraid of thunderstorms?”
“Hmm,” Scarlett murmured, but explained no further. “You look tired. I’m sorry I kept you up.”
Ace smirked. “I’ve stayed up longer and survived.”
Scarlett shook her head, making her hair, styled like a vintage starlet, dance.
“You can stay here, if you like,” he said, waving his mug as a gesture, “You don’t have to come in to work today.” He was concerned.
Scarlett shook her head, again. “I’m fine,” she said, smiling, as Ace took a sip of his coffee. His eyebrows raised.
“This is actually pretty good,” he said.
“I just put the stuff in the thing.”
“The stuff?” Ace repeated, “In the thing?”
Scarlett leaned on the countertop, her cheek smushed against her knuckles and idly, turned the page of the paper. “Just drink your crazy juice, psycho.”
Ace took another sip. “Can I have my paper that you’ve dismembered?”
Scarlett straightened. “Can I keep this section?” She held up the section of the newspaper that had the comics and the words games.
Ace nodded and pulled the rest of it towards him, turning to the front page. He heard Scarlett giggle at one of the comics and wondered how this was the same person who had been cowering under her table the night before.
Scarlett looked down at the empty crossword and drummed her fingers against the counter. She bit her lip and looked around. Steadying herself on the footrest of the bar stool, Scarlett leaned surreptitiously over the counter, reaching her fingers out towards Ace.
He was shaken by the hand that covered his view of the newspaper that laid on the counter, and he watched her fingers.
Slowly, Scarlett reached over to his breast pocket, caught his pen in between two of her fingers and slowly lifted it out.
Ace’s eyes followed his pen right back to Scarlett’s face. She bit down on her tongue as she filled one of the crossword clues. Her eyes flickered over to Ace.
He gazed at her for a few silent moments.
“That pen better be back in my pocket before we step out of this house.”
Scarlett giggled and went right back to doing her crossword.
Once Belinda had made them breakfast, Ace got up and slipped into his coat, buttoning it. Scarlett picked up her bag and followed him.
Ace had just opened the door, when Scarlett hurried forward and put herself between Ace and the door. He raised an eyebrow looking down at her; Scarlett may have been tall and wearing heels, but Ace had an impressive physique.
Smiling her coy smile, Scarlett slipped Ace’s pen into the breast pocket of his suit and smoothed it down in one swift motion. “Now, you can leave.”
Ace rolled his eyes heavenward and stepped out.
“I have a small meeting today and Gretchen is going to be occupied at that time. I’d like you to come in and take notes,” Ace told Scarlett.
She smirked. “I thought you wanted to keep me away from your business friends.”
“I want to keep all my employees away from the likes of Brad Windom. This person, however, I respect.”
Scarlett shrugged. “I’ll be there.”
Once the pair arrived at the office, Michael was standing outside Ace’s door, waiting for him.
“Michael,” Ace said, nodding to Gretchen and then to the man, “I got that document. Thank you.”
Michael nodded and smiled. “Hey, Sky.”
“Mike,” Scarlett nodded back.
Ace looked from Michael to Scarlett and then back. “So, you two are friends?”
The two shrugged. Ace shook his head and gestured for Michael to follow him into his office.
Scarlett stood outside, near Gretchen’s desk, watching as the door closed. She looked down at the lady and smiled.
“Well, hello, Gretchen.”