He also kept asking Audrey questions about herself. It seemed like Audrey didn’t mind the conversation though so I remained quiet until I fell asleep. After a while, I felt someone nudging me gently. When I opened my eyes, Audrey was peering at me closely, her face so close that I could see the specks of gold in her brown eyes.
“Hi,” I whispered, caught in the trance of brown.
She smiled. She smiled more after that argument we had and even more after Violet arrived. Sure, she broke down when her Dad was rushed into the hospital but now that she was assured that her Dad was fine, it seemed like she was back to her normal self. The kind of normal-Audrey that I liked because the feisty one may have been amusing but that version didn’t make my heart race like the one smiling at me now.
Audrey chuckled and then slapped me lightly on the cheek. “You have a little drool on your mouth.”
I rolled my eyes but wiped it off with the back of my hand and sat up to see that the backseat was empty. “They already went in?”
She nodded. “Yea. I had to wake you up so you could leave too. I won’t come in. I have to get to Dad.”
There wasn’t any tone of worry in her voice so I didn’t worry either. “Okay. Text me when you get home.”
Audrey’s eyebrows lifted up in surprise as she looked at me. “That’s not part of the contract.”
I couldn’t help but smile and shrug casually. “Well, from now on we add it to the list.”
I got out of the car after saying that and when I glanced back at Audrey, she was staring at me with soft eyes that warmed my insides. I waved her goodbye when she started the car again and began to drive off the driveway, giving me one honk as her sign of goodbye. I walked into the house with my hands buried in my pockets and a warm feeling in my heart. I felt good, maybe it was the nap.
“She puts you in a good mood, doesn’t she?” Milo asked me the moment I walked in. Violet was asleep on the sofa, Julio curled next to him. My dog wagged his tail at me as a greeting but didn’t move.
I made a face. “Who? Audrey? Jesus, you have no idea how much I wanted to rip my hair out of my scalp because of her. One thing that Audrey does best is irritate me to no end.”
“Yet you miss her when she’s not around and you wonder when you could see her again. You say that she’s nothing close to the kind of girl you would want to be with but you can’t help but wonder what it would be like to kiss her and hug her. She makes you feel overwhelmed with emotion that you can’t explain and when you see her…”
“When I see her it’s like being basked in warm sunlight,” I whispered, “and her smile thaws the Casanova’s heart.”
I wasn’t sure why I said that but everything that Milo said was true and I was still in a daze after being that up close with Audrey in the car. Even just being near her intoxicated me and it didn’t make any sense because she was Audrey Finch.
And I was supposed to hate her.
Milo chuckled and then slowly moved to stand up and placed a pillow by Vi’s head. He approached me and then slapped me gently on the cheek. “You don’t realize as soon as you’d like. It happens to everyone. Good luck, Jules.”
16
Audrey
It had been almost a week since Violet and Milo went back to Chicago and I honestly didn’t expect to say this but I missed Violet. It was also nice getting to know Julian’s oldest brother and through him, I learned a lot more about Julian that he shied away from other people to know. It was cute though, to see the brothers banter and for Julian to be shut up so easily was insanely amusing to witness.
But after Violet left, there wasn’t a buffer between Julian and I anymore. We did get along better now but things were lighter and easier between us ever since Julian found out why I had been so desperate to have them sign with us. He understood my desperation and respected the attempt that I was making to salvage my right as the chairman of what was rightfully mine.
More than that, there was something going on between Julian and I that I couldn’t really quite explain but was something that I was allowing to happen even when I clearly shouldn’t.
I think I…
Oh, don’t even go there, Audrey.
I was in the middle of applying makeup when my phone rang on my bed. I quickly picked it up to see that Julian was calling via FaceTime. I was in the middle of applying cream on my face when he called. “Did you fall face flat on a pie or something?”
“Is there anything you want before I go there? I’ll leave after ten minutes,” I said, ignoring his question and spreading the cream all over my face. The first time Julian told me to call him when I arrived home, the conversation felt a little awkward until it sort of became a thing. I would call him the moment I arrived home from his place and he would call me when he wakes up, and we talked about absolutely nothing of importance.
“I’ll pick you up,” Julian said, fixing his hair. He had keratin treatment yesterday and gone were his curls. To be honest, I preferred the curly version of Julian. He looked more of an ass with straight hair that was cut the way fuckboys wore their hair.
My eyebrows furrowed as I patted my face so it would absorb the moisturizer I was applying. “You know I have a car and I can pay for my gas.”
He rolled his eyes and then all I could see were the shade gray and blue as he put the screen up too close his face. “One, I actually pay for your gas because apparently, that was part of the contract that I signed without reading because you’re my assistant for a month and you want the perks, as you’ve stated. Two, we’re going somewhere and I’m not really telling you where it is.”
My eyebrows furrowed in confusion but before I could ask anything, the doorbell rang, echoing throughout the house. Julian and I looked at each other and he raised his right eyebrow. “Don’t tell me you’re cheating on me and this is how I find out.”
He meant it as a joke and I was meant to laugh but there was something about the teasing that crossed an imaginary line that we’d been tethering in for a while. He cleared his throat and let out an awkward chuckle. “But whoever it is, it’s not me because I’m still at home. I’ll see you in a while.”
“Jesus Christ,” I whispered, closing my eyes and resting my forehead against my vanity as I tried to steady my erratic heartbeat. I wasn’t entirely sure why the comment affected me but the idea of being with Julian in a certain way where cheating was a possibility, that I did not want to happen. God, even thinking of cheating on Julian broke my heart and I’m the one in the wrong in that possibility.
But why was I even thinking about what could happen if I cheated on Julian when Julian and I weren’t even in any kind of relationship?
Jesus, my thoughts and feelings are so scattered that I couldn’t even understand any of them anymore.
Downstairs, the doorbell kept ringing and I inhaled deeply before rushing out to see who it was. I didn’t get the chance to check the camera I had installed to see the visitor and blindly opened the door thinking about Julian. It was only when my mystery visitor launched himself at me that I snapped back into reality.
The scent of expensive perfume hit my nose, the kind that was too strong that made me dizzy all the time but I’d learned to tolerate. A fleeting glimpse of blonde hair cut into a bob and curled and oversized sunglasses that I knew covered bright green eyes. My heart somersaulted and without any hesitation, I wrapped my arms around her as tightly as I could and I felt the lump growing in my throat because I hadn’t seen this girl for so long.