Romance: Hired (6 page)

Chapter 9

After sobbing in bed for two days, it was a slow walk back into the restaurant. 

I thought about giving it a couple of weeks before I went back in, but then I didn’t want Andrew to hire someone else in my place. 

Swallowing my pride, I walked into the restaurant in a daze of disappointment. 

With my pride swallowed and my hair straightened, I walked back into the kitchen.  My eyes didn’t lift off the ground as I made my way around to see Andrew.

“Hello Abbey!”

My eyes popped open, looking in the direction of the sound.  It was Andrew and he looked pleasantly surprised to see me, which felt odd.

“Hello, Andrew… um… how are you?”

“I’m good, Abbey.”

“Um… can we please talk for a moment?”

I was surprised as Andrew didn’t belittle or demean me.  This really felt strange.   

“Of course.  Come into the office.”

Hesitantly, I walked into his office and he closed the door behind us.  Strangely, he was smiling.

“Let me start by offering you apology.  I shouldn’t have treated you so badly.  I’ve learnt my lesson and I am striving to be a better manager.”

“Um…” my mouth dropped open, “Ok.  Thanks.  Apology accepted.”

“I should have treated you a lot better.  I am a man of few mistakes, but I made a mistake the other day.  And to fix this, I insist on giving you your old job back.  Additionally, I am giving you a 2 dollar raise.”

The shock was soon replaced by joy.

With shock on my face, I stared at him for a while, trying to compute what was happening.  But then I jumped up to hug him tight enough so that he could barely breathe. 

“All right, all right! You’re squeezing me! I'm suffocating!” he laughed. 

I laughed loudly as well. 

But I didn't know what emotion should I really have - sorrow or happiness. The large smile on my face was balanced by the tear rolling down my cheek. 

“But why the change of heart?”

“Well, we have a new owner.”

“A new owner?  I’ve only been gone for a two days,” I asked confused.

“This man has enough money to make things happen very quickly.  And he put an offer in for the restaurant on Sunday, and they signed the paper worked yesterday.  He paid well over the predicted price for the restaurant.”

“Are you still going to be the manager?” I asked Andrew.

“I think so.  I meet the new owner and he didn’t make any mention of changing my position.  He did make one special request though.”

“What was that?”

“That I hire you again.  And give you a pay rise.”

“Me?” I was surprised, “Why would he ask for that?”

“He knows you apparently.”

“Knows me?” I didn’t want to ask the next question that is on the tip of my tongue, but I had to, “Who is it?”

“Damon Walters.”

Chapter 10

A week after the weekend I was trying to forget, I was serving the exclusive tables at the restaurant.

There were too many people in the restaurant that night. I didn't stop serving plates for over three hours and although the tips were good, the work took a toll on my body. My arms and legs felt like lead weights and my joints were stiff as a board.

My head was down, focusing hard on my job, but I heard the statement that I didn’t want to hear.

I had hoped that if I didn’t think about it, the problem would go away.  That’s how I always deal with problems.  And it had been working for the past week.

“Hello Damon,” Andrew stated in his deep voice. 

I freaked out, frozen in place.

Time stopped ticking past.

My ears were concentrated on Andrew's voice. Although I was expecting it eventually, I couldn't believe what I had heard. 

My cheeks flushed red. 

My heart was pounding.

My limbs were weak.

I turned to the door's direction and saw Damon’s strong, tall figure dressed in a perfectly fitted expensive suit. 

When his eyes looked over in my direction, I quickly went back to serving people, pretending I didn’t see him. 

But the sweat began to drop off my brow and my body was heating up.

How could one man control me so much?

How could one man own me like that?

“Hello, Abbey.” 

It was definitely his voice. 

His seductive, sexy, smooth voice.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and kept them closed for what seemed like an eternity. 

Finally I turned and looked at him… 

He was smiling, which was reassuring, but I was still uncomfortable. 

“Welcome, sir.  There's a free table right in the corner. Please sit down and I will bring you the menu.”

He laughed aloud and put his hand on my shoulder, “Actually I came to talk to you. Do you have a moment?”

“It’s really busy today, sir,” I was trying to come up with excuses. 

I didn’t know if I could stand being in a room alone with him. My heart could melt.

“Don't worry, I got permission from Andrew, can we talk in a more private place?” 

As he was now the owner of this restaurant, I couldn't refuse his request.

I nodded and he led the way to the office.

I felt sick.

Right from the pit of my stomach, I could feel the nerves.

I was afraid of what he was going to say. He closed the door and stared at me at first, as if waiting for something but I couldn’t even make eye contact.

I wanted to speak, but the words wouldn’t come to me.

“Please relax a little, Abbey. I'm here to pay you, as I promised you that I would.” 

He reached inside his jacket, picked a sum of money from an envelope, and laid it on the table.  The wad of notes was more money than I had ever seen. 

I looked away, refusing the money he placed before me. 

“I can't take your money.”

“Why not?” he asked.

“I could never accept money for making love with someone. My parents didn’t raise me that way.  I am completely embarrassed at my behavior last week.  I'm really sorry for what I did.  I feel quite so guilty for putting us both through that.”

Damon was surprised. 

He took a deep breath, and sat calmly on the chair opposite me.

“Do you really think I asked you home for sex?”

I stared at him. 

Was he really asking that question?

“I think there's a misunderstanding here,” he continued.

I couldn’t look at him.

“Please look me in the eyes, Abbey.”

I looked up to him, with tears starting to fill my eyes.

“Do I really look like someone who wants to
just
have sex with you?”

I couldn't understand what he meant.

His eyes were bright.

I could feel things becoming more and more complicated between the two of us in that moment.

“Why did you invite me to your house, if not for sex?”

This time, it was Damon that looked away, embarrassed.

“Because I didn't know how to ask you out in a way that would help you to know my intentions were real with you.  I thought it's easier to bring you back to meet the real me, without all the noise of the outside world in-between us and without all your thoughts confusing you.  It was never about the sex.  I never asked for sex and I never expected it.  The offer was for one weekend with me.  And that was it.  Sex was never mentioned.”

“I'm really confused, Damon.  I don't understand!  What do you want from me exactly?”  I cried.

“I want you, Abbey.” 

I stopped thinking because I couldn't believe what I was hearing. He was so utterly convincing in that moment. His voice was trembling, and his hands were shaking.

My heart was beating as fast as ever but I wasn't sure what to do. 

“Then why didn’t you say no to sex?” I asked as the thoughts rushed through my head.

“Because you seemed to want it so badly.”

The shock on my face was clear.

“And you are irresistible.  You couldn’t expect me to resist you when you were acting so sexy.”

He didn’t want sex?

The thoughts were starting to sink in. 

He didn’t want sex.

He never asked for it. 

He never pushed for it.

I was the one trying to push for sex. 

I was the one trying to seduce him in an attempt to chase the money.

“You could have asked me for dinner!” I blurted out in shock.

He took a pink handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the tears from the corner of his eyes. 

“I’m sorry.  I’m really sorry.  I have never asked a woman for a date. I usually use money for these situations.”

“You have never asked a woman out on a date?” I asked.

He shook his head, “Never.”

A long pause drifted over us as we tried to understand what was happening.

“Will you come on a date with me?” he asked uncomfortably.

As I stared at him, I wanted to forget what I felt.

I wanted to forget that I felt used.

I wanted to forget it all.

But I couldn’t.

“Sorry,” I felt the tears well up in my eyes.

“Sorry?  What do you mean?”

I can’t forget what I did.

My world would always be tainted by actions of that weekend.

“I can’t do it.”

With tears pouring out my eyes, I ran out of the office.

Chapter 11

I ran to Caroline’s apartment as fast as I could.

She was there to greet me with a long, warm hug full of emotion.

“What happened?” she asked as I wiped the leaky mascara off my cheeks.

“He came back to restaurant,” I commented.

“And?”

“Isn’t that enough?” I sobbed as she passed across a warm cup of tea.

“That’s not enough to make you look like you’ve been crying for weeks.  He must have said something to you to make you feel like that.”

“He did say something,” I said as my hands cradle around the warm cup.

“Well, what did he say?”

“He asked me to dinner.”

Caroline stared at me.

“So let me get this right – a handsome billionaire walks into a restaurant where you work as a waitress and asks to take you dinner, and that makes you cry?”

“There is more to it than that.”

“Like what?” she asked, even though she knew the answer.

“Like the fact that we slept together for money.”

“Did you?” she questioned.

“What do you mean?” I was confused by her question.

“Money never exchanged hands.  He never paid you.  So in reality, you have slept with a handsome billionaire because you wanted to.”

“But it was the intention that we were going to sleep together.  That’s what’s important.”

“Who is it important to?”

“Me.”

“Then you need to stop crying and understand that life is about more than someone else’s morals.  Just because your parents told you something was wrong, doesn’t mean it is wrong.  As an adult, you get to choose what you think is right and wrong.  If there was no talk of money involved, how would you have felt?”

“Like it was the best weekend of my life.”

“And what did he pay you for?”

“He said that he didn’t pay me for sex.”

Caroline looks at me confused, “So what did he offer to pay you for?”

“For the companionship.”

“So… he paid you for a weekend long date?”

I nodded.

“Did he even mention sex when he first offered the deal?”

I shook my head.

Caroline looked as me confused, “But you said…”

“He never said sex.  But I thought it was implied.  I never thought that someone would offer that sort of money just to have someone hang around with.  He had never asked a woman on a date and he didn’t know how to spend time with a woman without paying for it.  And the house looked like it hadn’t been lived in even once.  I never thought that it would be possible.”

“So you assumed that he meant sex?”

“Yes.  I assumed it.”

“And when you were together, was it you that initiated sex?”

I nodded again.

“Then you need to do something about this.  You have a beautiful man chasing you.  He may be a little awkward but by the sounds of it, his heart is in the right place.”  

“Maybe…”

“Abbey, are you ready to be loved?”

“I don’t know,” tears began to leak down my cheek again.

“I think you ran away from him today because you don’t think that you’re worthy of his love.  You don’t think that you could possibly deserve love like that.”

She was right.

Deep down, I didn’t think a man like Damon could fall for me. 

The fact that he paid me meant that it was nothing more than a business transaction.

If he didn’t pay me, then I could never feel good enough for him.

“Abbey, I know what you’ve been through with Richard.  That guy was a prick.  He didn’t treat you with the love you deserved.  You deserved better than the way he treated you.”

“I’m not good enough for a man like Damon,” I whispered.

“No!” Caroline snaps at me, “You are a beautiful, intelligent, funny, happy girl with a bright future in front of her.  You deserve to be treated well because you treat others well.”

I didn’t respond.

I didn’t know how too.

Those were probably the best words anyone had ever told me.

“You are gorgeous,” Caroline reaffirms.

I slowly nodded.

“You are beautiful both inside and out,” Caroline built my confidence with such strong words.

The way Caroline delivered the words made me feel more valuable. 

With her words, I felt more powerful. 

I felt more in control.

“You are stunning,” she stated, “You deserve to be treated with love.  You deserve someone like Damon.”

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“You deserve to hear those words,” Caroline continued, “I know how badly Richard treated you and you don’t deserve that.  You deserve more than that.”

“No one has ever told me anything as nice as that.”

“You are beautiful,” she repeated, “You deserve him.”

“Do you really think so?” I questioned again.

“Yes.  I really think that you deserve someone perfect.”

I smiled at Caroline.

Her words had filled me with confidence.

I did want Damon.

The time I spent with him was some of the most perfect moments of my life.

I wanted to be a part of his life.

I wanted him.

“What should I do?” I asked Caroline.

“Go back and get him.”