5
1208 Words
Celeste
Two days.
It had been two days since I came here, since the incident at the dinner and two days since I stared avoiding Jared and Ethan at all cause.
My strategy was simple: stay in my room only come out when I was sure the halls were empty or listen for voices before going downstairs.
It was exhausting but it worked not seeing the two of them was the only thing keeping me sane.
This morning I was up before the sun… when I came out of my room the house was so quiet, they were all asleep .
I got to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee, I decided to settled at the giant marble island with my laptop.
The glow of job listings was my only light, Server, barista, cashier… anything to make enough money to get my own place fast.
I took a long sip of my coffee scrolling through another page of ads that required experience I didn’t have. The bitter liquid was the only good part of my day so far.
My eyes shifted to the door as I took a sip of my coffee.
Jared.
He was shirtless dressed only in a pair of gray sweatpants slung low on his hips His skin glistened with a light sheen of sweat, his chest and arms were hard with defined muscle not like a bodybuilder, but like a man who used his strength.
His dark hair was damp pushed back from his forehead. He looked like he’d just come back from running a marathon or from the private gym I knew was somewhere in this endless house.
I choked.
The coffe went down the wrong pipe causing a burning pain shot through my nose and throat.
I bent over coughing violently my eyes watering.
I slammed the mug down thumping my chest with my fist.
“Are you alright?”
His voice was close.
Too close.
A cold bottle of water appeared in my line of sight held in his large hand.
I couldn’t speak just kept coughing my face turning red from lack of air and pure humiliation.
Gosh!
This man never fails to take my breath away.
How can someone be this perfect.
I managed to snatch the water bottle from him fumbling with the cap and taking a few desperate gulps, the cold water soothing the burn.
“I’m… I’m fine,” I rasped finally catching my breath keeping my eyes glued to the marble countertop refusing to look at him.
Not while he looked like… that.
“What are you doing up so early?” he asked his tone so calm, normal, as if he wasn’t standing half-naked in a kitchen at dawn.
I cleared my throat my voice still scratchy. “Job hunting.”
“Job hunting?” He moved leaning a hip against the island opposite me.
I could see the defined lines of his abdomen from the corner of my eye but I forced my gaze up but only to his face.
His eyes were on my laptop screen.
“Yes. I need a job…” I said it firmly.
He was quiet for a moment studying the screen. Then he looked back at me. “You don’t need to hunt come work for me.”
I blinked.
Then I let out a short disbelieving laugh. It sounded harsh in the quiet kitchen. “Work for you? Doing what? Jared, I’m a college dropout with cafe experience I can’t file your important papers or… or whatever it is people do in your office. I don’t have the qualifications.”
“I’ll give you a job you’re qualified for,” he said his tone leaving no room for argument. “Assistant…. Reception or something entry-level. You’ll learn.”
“No.” The word came out sharper than I intended.
His eyebrows lifted slightly. “No?”
“No thank you,” I amende r but my voice was still hard. “I don’t need your favor. I don’t want a job you created out of… out of obligation. We had an agreement to stay away from each other and keep things in the past. You giving me a job isn’t staying away Jared. It’s the opposite, so please just let me be. Let me do this myself.”
I finally looked directly at him meeting those dark unreadable eyes.
He opened his mouth to respond but his expression turning stern but he was cut off
“Good morning you two!”
Genevieve’s bright polished voice chirped from the doorway causing my head snapped toward her.
She was already dressed for the day in a sleek cream-colored pantsuit her hair perfect.
She looked from Jared’s shirtless form to my flushed defensive face, and her perfect smile didn’t waver but her eyes turned sharp and curious.
“Well, isn’t this a cozy scene,” she said walking into the kitchen and went straight to Jared placing a possessive hand on his bare arm. “Darling you’re all sweaty. You’ll catch a chill.” She looked at me, her smile widening. “Celeste dear, up so early and bothering Jared about a job?”
Jared straightened up pulling his arm gently from her grasp. “Celeste was just explaining she wants to find her own position,” he said his tone neutral.
“And she should!” Genevieve agreed too brightly as she poured herself a glass of water from a fancy pitcher. “It’s so important for a young woman to have her own… little projects but Jared my love, you can’t possibly hire her. The gossip darling… I mean people would talk. They’d say you hired your late best friend’s poor unqualified daughter out of pity. It would look terrible for the company image and for our family image. Don’t you think?.”
She said it all with a sweet concerned tone but every word was a knife aimed right at me making me feel my face burn.
Jared’s jaw tightened.
He looked at Genevieve then his eyes flicked back to me. “The company’s image is my concern, Gen.”
“Our concern darling,” she corrected smoothly. “Soon everything of yours will be ours. We have to think of these things.” She turned her full attention to me. “I’m sure you understand Celeste It’s nothing personal. It’s just business and family. We wouldn’t want anyone getting the wrong idea would we?”
The wrong idea.
Family.
The idea that Jared and I could have any connection beyond his pity the idea that there was anything between us at all.
I looked from her triumphant face to Jared’s closed, frustrated one.
He didn’t even try to defend me or argue with her.
The message was clear.
I slowly closed my laptop.
“No,” I said quietly my voice surprisingly steady. “We wouldn’t want the wrong idea. Don’t worry Genevieve. I would never work for him.”
I stood up picking up my mug and my laptop. I didn’t look at Jared again. “I’ll just keep hunting on my own…. Now if you’ll please excuse me.”
I walked out of the kitchen feeling their eyes on my back.
- Writer
