Billionaire In Hiding: The Complete Series (Alpha Billionaire Romance Western Love Story) (68 page)

There was silence on the other end for
what felt like a lifetime. She must have been shocked. This apology was
probably the last thing she was expecting.

“Are you really sorry?” She asked,
sounding much less miserable.

“I am. But I am not letting you out of the
contract. That’s not negotiable.”

“Then why are we having this conversation
right now?”

“Because I want to apologize. Because you
deserve an apology. This contract is meaningless if you hate me.”

“Well I don’t…hate you. I never said
that,” she said, and I felt relief spread through my whole body.

“In that case, I will see you in the
office tomorrow?” I was clutching the phone very close to my ears. “You are out
of vacation days, you know. The other tellers might think I’m playing
favorites.”

She giggled, to my surprise. “Well, you
are.”

“They don’t need to know that. Anyway, I
would really like to see you tomorrow at the office and we can discuss the
contract and how to proceed in a manner that pleases you. How does that sound?”

She simply said “okay,” which was still
better than a “no.” I could work with “okay.”

“Have a good night Aria, I will see you
tomorrow.”

“You too,” she said and then hung up.

Tomorrow I would have to employ all the
skills I had accumulated as a businessman in negotiation, so that when the
conversation was over, Aria would think it was her idea to continue with the
contract.

For now I was just relieved and fell into
my bed, finally relaxed after a very difficult few weeks.

THE
BOSS #3

Chapter 1

Aria

After the bizarre phone conversation I had
with Zayden, I was very confused about my own feelings. He had apologized, and
certainly sounded remorseful. If he wanted to continue this – whatever this was
– he probably would not go back to his controlling ways. Or so I hoped. On the
one hand, I really, really wanted to believe him—the truth was that I missed
spending time with him, even though I hated to admit it. On the other hand, if
I had learned one valuable lesson in my twenty years of existence, it was that
people did not change. This wasn’t
for
lack
of trying, but human nature demanded a deeply ingrained sense of self that was
intrinsic to each person, and getting rid of that was not very different from
getting rid of an actual organ. My dad had taught me this. Growing up, I saw
the efforts he made to be more financially responsible; he really wanted to
change and it was obvious even to a ten year old. Yet he managed to drag my
family into bankruptcy, the price of which we were still paying today.
Especially me. If it hadn’t been for my dad’s terrible decisions, I wouldn’t be
in this situation right now. My mom wouldn’t be in the situation she was in to
begin with. Sometimes, it was very difficult not to hate him.

My thoughts were interrupted by a knock on
the door, and I was glad, because I was entering dangerous territory: Allowing
my thoughts to drift towards my father was like opening a can of worms that was
best left shut very tight.

“
Come in,
” I said yawning.

The door swung open.
It was Nick.
“So, you’re being kidnapped for breakfast.” He looked
pleased with himself, perhaps because he had been trusted with the job of
kidnapping me. Stacey usually saved any endeavor that involved persuading me
for herself, knowing Nick was too weak against my glare.

“
I am starving. I
’ll get ready in five.”

“Wait, what?” Nick looked disappointed. “
You aren
’t going to make me convince you?”

“No, Nick, I’m sorry,”
I laughed.
“Tell you what, I’ll tell
Stace I didn’t want to go, but you worked your big Nicholas charms and I
changed my mind.”

“This is why I keep you around,” he said
and winked. “She’s meeting us at the diner. She went for a run. I don’t know
what’s gotten into her.”

“She wants to be healthy?” I asked
quizzically.

“What for?” He looked so clueless I wanted
to pet him. “What does that do? She is already perfect, as far as I see it. Is
she trying to tell me to work out more?” He tentatively surveyed his skinny
arms.

I sighed.
“It’s
not a trick. She’s been reading too many blogs again. You know she’s a
hypochondriac. She thinks she will die of a premature stroke if she doesn’t
start running.”

He shook his head in what appeared to be
disapproval and frustration. “
Five
minutes, Aria.
”

---

To my relief, the diner wasn’t cramped
like it tended to be during breakfast hours. Today was the day I was finally
going back to work after all the drama, and I really needed a nice, calm
morning to get through what was sure to be an action-packed day.

Stacey was already seated and waiting for
us at a booth when Nick and I entered. She was still in her exercise-wear and
looked very energized. Maybe I needed to start joining her in these morning
runs. I sure could use the pick-me-up.

“Had a nice workout?” I asked Stacey
sitting across from her as Nick found his way next to her.

“It was incredible! Did you know there is
a hiking trail behind the lake? And clearly not many people have discovered it
because I have been going every morning and it is just me and beautiful birds
and swans by the lake. It’
s
mesmerizing.
”

“Will it be as mesmerizing if you had
company?” I asked tentatively.

Stacey’s whole face lit up, as Nick banged
his on to the table, as though unable to understand why not one but two people
in his life suddenly wanted to run in the morning.

“Aria, I’ve wanted you to join me this
whole time!” She sounded very excited. “But you’ve been, you know, having a
rough week, and I didn’t want to make it seem like I was pushing – but I mean –
I did think it would help you work through some of the stress from–”

“Calm down, Stace,” I said giggling. “You
don’t have to be nervous about asking me to do anything with you. You know
that! So how about tomorrow morning?”

“Yep, get ready by five.”

“No way! How long do you run?” I checked
the time; it was eight in the morning. One hour until I had to be at the bank.

“
Well
,
I only run for probably an hour total. But I sit by the lake and think and
write on my blog and it’
s so
wonderful. It
’s like–”

Stacey’s voice was interrupted by Nick’s
hysterical laughter. “You take your laptop on your runs?”

She gave him a really confused and
affronted look. “Of course. I take my car to the hiking trail, leave my laptop
in it, run for an hour, and then sit down and write while I enjoy nature.”

“Sure, enjoy ‘nature’,” he said making air
quotes with his hands.

Stacey raised her voice. “At least I’m
outdoors and not spending all my time locked in a room playing video games.”

Nick opened his mouth but before he could
say anything, Stacey added, “I will put a dollar in the jar, whatever.”

“
The jar?
” I asked the both of them, slightly amused.

“We have devised a system,” Nick answered
pleasantly. “Every time Stacey gives me a hard time about my video games, or I
give her a hard time about her blogs, we have to put a dollar in an individual
jar. At the end of each year, we are going to count both jars, and whoever has
less gets to pick a present that the collected money will buy.”

“You guys are so perfect,” I said, yet
again amazed by their relationship. “How do you do it?” I asked and then
laughed.

“Lots and lots of dollars in the jar,”
Stacey sighed and we all laughed.

Would I ever have what they had… with
Zayden? Was he even capable of this kind of comfortable affection? Everything
was grand in his life, everything was upscale and elaborate– fancy cars,
expensive restaurants, personal chefs. Did he ever just have a day to pursue
the little things in life, in a non-calculated manner? I knew the answers to
all these questions, which gave me one more reason to keep my cool when I met
him later today. We were never going to be right for each other like Nick and
Stacey were. And who was I even kidding? He didn’t want to be right for me now,
did he? He just wanted me to obediently finish his contract so he could feed
his ego; there was never any deception there, never a grey-area about his
motives. He wasn’t exactly asking me – nor had he ever asked me– to be his
girlfriend— just his subordinate who did his bidding and entertained him from
time to time, who he could control, and tell her who she can or cannot talk to.
As a fresh surge of anger started
boiling deep inside of me
, I tried to distract myself with the
menu.

“What are you guys having?” I asked,
forcing a smile.

I got bacon and eggs over-easy, Nick got
two omelets, and Stacey, to both of our surprise, got a garden salad, making me
suspect that there was more to why she was running. She was obviously hiding
something from us. Stacey loved food more than anything and always mocked
people on diets. Early morning runs to be “healthier” I could buy, but this,
this was not the Stacey I knew. Wondering about what she was hiding momentarily
took my mind completely off all my other worries. A glance at Nick told me he
was thinking the same things, but we made eye contact and silently decided not
to pick at her for the moment. Instead, I decided to bring up my own woes.

“So guys, I am finally seeing him today,”
I said, looking at Nick because watching Stacey nibble at the carrots was bound
to make me laugh.

“Womp womp,” Nick said. He was also not
looking at her. “So this is it then? You are going to break it off?”

“I think so…” I thought of what I wanted
to communicate to them exactly, but then realized I didn’t know. They had yet
to hear about my phone conversation with Zayden. “He called me the other night.
And apologized for being so controlling.”

“He did?” Stacey sounded genuinely
surprised. “Are you sure?”

“
I don
’t think he could mean much else by the words ‘I’m
sorry’,” I said, snappier than intended.

“No, I mean like, did he say he was
apologizing for being controlling? Not just like a general ‘I’m sorry we’ve
been having a fight and I want you to come back,
so I
’m backing down kind of a thing?”

Hmm. What had he apologized for exactly? I
couldn’t be entirely sure. But I did remember he said… “He said he would not do
it anymore.”

“Very interesting,” Stacey said, clearly
weighing the implications of that rapidly in her head. “So you’re still going
to break it off?”

“I think so… I mean… that is why I brought
it up. What do you guys think?”

Nick got suddenly very preoccupied with
his omelet, which was fine. I was used to him making humorous quips, but he was
never one to volunteer serious advice, probably for good reason.

Stacey on the other hand was always full
of perfect advice, so I was curious to see what she had to say – considering
she was the one who had put the idea of breaking it off in my head to begin
with.

“There is a good chance he is going to
hurt you,” she said matter-of-factly. “He has already done it once. That said,
I am not going to tell you what the right thing to do is here. I have an
opinion based on very little second-hand information. I don’t know him like you
know him. I don’t know what was between the two of you like you do. The only
person who can realistically decide what the right thing to do here is you.”

“No, Stace! Come on, don’t choose now to
be politically correct. You think I should stick to ending it don’t you?”

“I did before and I told you as much. But
if he is willing to change, it’s a completely different matter. That’s what I
am trying to say – there is no way for me to rightly assess if he is, in fact,
going to change. You’re a much better judge of that, which is why I know
whatever you decide will be the right call.”

That gave me a whole lot to think about,
so for the rest of breakfast I remained almost completely quiet, thinking about
what I was going to do when I got to work later that day. The fact that I was
even considering all this so seriously and having second thoughts was
ridiculous.

I would just have to deal with it when I
saw him – perhaps I would make the right decision when faced with him in
person. Right now my judgment was too clouded by the fact that I missed him,
which I hated myself for.

Quickly finishing the rest of my eggs, I
got up to leave. “I’ll be late for work, got to run. Thanks so much, you guys.
For everything.”

“Of course. Good luck today. You’ll do the
right thing, Aria,” Stacey told me and smiled. “
Just don
’t be too hard on yourself.”