Blind Attraction (23 page)

True Love was obviously not blind.

She had come that far; she was going to see it through. After finding a bathroom to make sure she didn’t look like a ghost, she was going to march up to his office and waltz through that door and demand he look at her, demand he see her. And if he didn’t like what he saw than screw him, she would just have to learn to live with half a heart.

Before she found a bathroom, she just wanted to drink in the sight of him looking absolutely ama
zing in his business suit while he waited for the elevator. She missed his smile.

“
Victoria!” Catherine’s voice called out from across the lobby, demanding her attention. Victoria turned her head and saw James’s assistant hurrying towards her from the entrance, a large manila folder in her hands.

In the moment that
Victoria had looked away, the elevator doors must have closed and she had missed seeing James. Distraught, her head whipped back and violet eyes crashed into green eyes from twenty feet away. Only, James didn’t look happy to see her, even from this distance. His jaw was clenched and his free hand was curled into a fist. Victoria watched helplessly as he turned on his heels and walked away, probably to find the stairwell in his rush to get away from her.

Feeling Catherine’s presence to her side and slightly behind her,
Victoria murmured, “I guess I’m not what he was hoping for.”

“He looked more hurt than upset,” Catherine commented. “Didn’t you say anything?”

“Well,” Victoria swallowed hard against her guilt and pain. She couldn’t tell her that she was just about to go after him; it would look too much like a cop out. “No. I wanted to know if he would be attracted to me without knowing it was me; he wasn’t.”

“You don’t know that for a fact,” Catherine stated.

Victoria shrugged, not up to arguing the point with Catherine. It was hardly relevant anyways; he still walked away once he saw her. Glancing over her shoulder, Victoria murmured, “I was going to go up there after I gathered my nerves.”

Catherine smiled, motioning for
Victoria to sit back down. Resigned, Victoria did so and watched as Catherine plopped the fat folder down on the table. “Did you take advantage of his blindness to land yourself a rich husband and live a life of luxury?”

“Why?”
Victoria shrugged her shoulders. “All of the money in the world hasn’t made Taylor very happy; there are things that money simply cannot buy.”

“Still, wealth can provide many luxuries….”

“And it would mean nothing without love,” Victoria sighed, knowing she was being a hopeless romantic. “To love and be loved is everything; I thought I had that with James.”

“You used his blindness to finagle your way into his life and you pretended to be something you’re not,” Catherine judged harshly.

“I’ve never pretended to be anything other than what I am,” Victoria said indignantly. “And had I known that it was Taylor that he wanted then I never would have gotten involved with him. He’s the one who used his blindness to manipulate me – her – and if I had been aware of his error then I would have corrected it. I would just as soon tear out my own heart then to deliberately mislead him.”

“You love him,” Catherine said smugly, a too-pleased smile on her lips.

Victoria laughed but it was without any real humor. “What does it matter? He met me under false pretenses; I’m not who he wants.”

“Pshaw; Jimmy doesn’t know what he wants,” she waved her hand through the air.

For some reason, those words hurt even more; Victoria knew exactly what she wanted but she couldn’t make him fall in love with her, not the way she loved him. “Weren’t you just accusing me of having less than honorable intentions towards your boss?”

Catherine’s lips curved upwards in a knowing grin, “I wanted to see how you felt about him
. Of course, I’ve known all along how you felt about him.”

Victoria
’s look of disbelief spoke volumes. “Didn’t it occur to you just now as he walked away that it doesn’t matter? I’m not who he wants.”

Standing up, she was going to
put on her big girl panties and go up to see James; she was finished with the conversation. With a bemused smile, she looked at Catherine, “You were right, you know; I did take advantage of his blindness; I thought he could fall in love with me, not my looks or the lack thereof. Two weeks just wasn’t long enough.”

“Can you honestly tell me that his looks have nothing to do with how you feel about him?” Catherine asked skeptically.

“He’s a gorgeous man, but I’ve known plenty of attractive men in my life,” Victoria shrugged. “I’ve never found looks to be a good indicator of character and James has character in spades.”

“What are you going to do, then?” Catherine asked, gathering up her files.

“Go up there and talk to him,” Victoria answered, shrugging her shoulders. “It’s the least I can do.”

Catherine beamed at her, looping her arm through Victoria’s as they made their way to the elevator
bay. “Well, I think it’s a brilliant idea.”

Victoria wasn’t so sure and offered a weak smile as she pulled her cell phone out of her purse and turned it on to check for any messages. There were several missed calls from
Marnie followed by even more from Taylor. With a furrowed brow, she called Marnie first, her heart racing in her chest in apprehension. When Marnie didn’t answer, the apprehension turned to dread.

“What is it?” Catherine asked softly.

Shaking her head as she dialed Taylor’s number, she answered, “I don’t know.”

“Vi?
Thank God,” Taylor’s normally calm voice sounded extremely panicked, which was never a good sign. “Marnie had to take her son to the hospital….”

The bottom fell out of Victoria’s world.
“Oh, no! What happened? Is he okay?”

“He’s fine,” Taylor assured her, calming Victoria’s worries some. “They were getting ready to leave when he accidentally knocked over a vase and then he cut his hand on the broken glass; he just needs a few stitches.”

“Thank God,” Victoria breathed, sagging in relief as she pressed her hand against her racing heart.

“But you have to get back to the store immediately,” Taylor pleaded, the panic even more apparent in her voice. “I don’t know what I’m doing and I am so afraid of messing up.”

“I’m right in the middle of something really important,” Victoria began, already walking away from the elevators, away from James.

“I know and I am so sorry.” Taylor sounded close to tears and Victoria picked up her pace in a hurry to return to her friend’s side.

“I’m on my way,” Victoria assured her, ending the call, aware of Catherine following close behind.

“Wait!” Catherine called out, the frustration in her voice. “Come back here and work things out with James! Victoria!”

“I can’t,” Victoria said, her voice laden with regret as she stepped through the doors and headed down the sidewalk towards the parking ramp. “It would take too long and I have to go.”

“Coward!”
Catherine bellowed.

Walking away before anything else could be said, she shook her head in resignation, “I have a store to run and a fortune of my own to make.”

*****

A few long hours later, once she had closed the shop, Victoria
threw herself down in one of the over-stuffed chairs, too emotionally and physically drained to make it back upstairs to change out of the beautiful dress. She’d get to it eventually but for now she wanted to collect her thoughts in a warm atmosphere. Kicking off her heels, she curled her legs under her and rested her head on her palm. When she created her broken-hearted section, she would have tissue boxes handy. And garbage cans.

Taylor sat on the edge of a chair, handing
Victoria a tissue, “Tell me what happened with James; you look even worse than you did this morning when you woke up.”

She smiled slightly at that, considering just how horrible she looked when she woke up with a red nose and puffy eyes. “He saw me and then he… walked away. He looked at me as if he
had just discovered I was a Cylon, one of those new and improved ones that look human but really aren’t, and he wasn’t pleased with the realization.”

“I don’t understand your reference but he’s a moron,” Taylor offered
.

Victoria
huffed out a harsh laugh, “I was even going to go up to his office and introduce myself but then there was the emergency here and I had to leave.”

“I’m so sorry, Vi,” Taylor breathed, leaning back in the chair and letting the silence wash over them.

“No,” Victoria shook her head. “It’s for the best; this way he can have some more time to adjust.”

Taylor scooted over and squished into the chair next to Victoria. Wrapping her arms around Victoria, she rested her chin on Victoria’s shoulder, “He doesn’t know what he’s missing.”

“Oh, I’m pretty sure he does,”
Victoria laughed without humor.

Taylor stilled, pulling back slightly to look at her friend, “Tell me you didn’t sleep with him,
Vi. Please.”

Victoria
remained stubbornly silent and Taylor tightly closed her eyes, returning her head to Vi’s shoulder, “You’ve only known him for a few weeks; what possessed you to have sex with the man?”

“The chemistry,”
Victoria murmured, not sure how else to describe that
zing
she had felt from the very first moment he stepped into her store.

Taylor exhaled noisily, “Guys are all the same; take Sebastian Moore for example.”

“Okay, that’s totally random,” Victoria smirked, accepting the non-sequitur because Taylor was entering Taylor-land. She’d eventually get around to making her point.

Holding on to
Victoria as if she might never let go, Taylor began to explain, “He accepts me as his daughter even though I might not be his while he lets another man raise the child that truly is his daughter. How messed up is that?”

“I guess it’s pretty messed up,”
Victoria agreed with a half-grin, curious to see where Taylor was going with this story. It was bound to be interesting; though Taylor rarely spoke about Sebastian Moore she always had fascinating tidbits to impart about his affairs and his business savvy. “But, what does this have to do with… anything?”

“Because I need to tell you something really important,” she said solemnly, frightening
Victoria a little bit.

“Well?”
Victoria asked when Taylor didn’t continue. “Are you going to tell me?”

The frown
magically disappeared and Taylor grinned broadly, “I know who your father is.”

Victoria
stared at Taylor in mute silence; that was the earth shattering news? And if she knew, why didn’t she just tell her? “Okay, and?”

“Come on,
Vi, play with me,” Taylor teased, digging her fingers into Victoria’s ribs making her laugh. Drawing back, she grinned, “It’ll be fun; I promise.”

Victoria
’s smiled reluctantly, “Why do those words coming from your mouth scare me?”

“Think about it,
Vi,” Taylor ground out in exasperation. “If you put it all together you’ll figure it out.”

“I’m not Sherlock Holmes,”
Victoria protested. “If you know, tell me.”

“I promised I wouldn’t
.” Taylor frowned, obviously not pleased with the way the game was playing out. “You should have figured it out by now; all you have to do is say it.”

“I
don’t want to,” Victoria breathed, her chest constricting in fear and anticipation.

“
Victoria,” Taylor murmured with a scowl. Catching her lower lip between her teeth, she finally asked, “What do you know about your father? About your real father?”

“I know enough; I know that you killed him,”
Victoria rasped in her best Luke impersonation. It wasn’t very good but it still made her smile. At the cross expression on Taylor’s face, the smile faded and she let out her breath. “Fine. The only thing mom told me was that he was the most extraordinarily beautiful man she had ever met and on the night I was conceived he was utterly desolate.

“She was cleaning the offices after everyone had gone home and he was sitting alone in the dark
; she said he scared the bejeezus out of her when she realized he was there,” Victoria smiled grimly. “She offered comfort and he took it. Afterwards she freaked out and ran back home to daddy. I guess she didn’t even realize he was the father until later on.”

“Uh huh,” Taylor nodded with a frown. For as intelligent as
Victoria was, she was being awfully dense. After a long, silent pause, she asked, “Did you know that Serenity Elementary doesn’t offer financial assistance?” Pausing for a breath to add drama, she continued, “That in order to get in, one must be the child of someone… influential.”

“That doesn’t narrow the field much,”
Victoria said, ignoring the niggling thoughts in the back of her head. It’s not true; it’s impossible….