Hidden Truths (Violet Chain Book 2) (11 page)

“Yes, Chain,” Candace answered.

“Candace, can you please call up the florist and send a dozen violet roses over to the Townsend building on Fourth Street and make sure they are addressed to Violet Townsend? The address should be in your contact list.”  

I swear she growled. “Who is she?”

I was appalled by this woman’s gall to ask about my personal life. “Excuse me?”

“This Violet Townsend, who is she?” she asked more sternly.

The nerve of this woman, who the hell did she think she was? I was tempted not to answer, but did anyways. “If it’s any of your business, she is my girlfriend,” I snapped.

The phone went silent and I heard that light growl again. “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend, but okay, I’ll get it done.” Before I could thank her, she slammed the phone down. What was her problem? I shook it off and turned on my computer, beginning my day.

It was half past noon when my cell rang. I lifted it up and saw Violet was calling.

“Hello, sweetheart, how’s your day going?” I asked her.

“Well it was fine, till I got your flowers. Seems as though you addressed them to the wrong person. Who is Candace?”

“What?”

“The flowers you sent, they were addressed to Candace. Who is she?’”

I was livid, damn Candace. Why would she do something like that? I didn’t want Violet to know that it was Candace who had sent the flowers, so I had to quickly cover it up.

“No one. The florist must have made a mistake, I will call them right now and fix it.”

“Okay. I have to go into a meeting, see you after work at my house?”

“Actually I was hoping we could meet for lunch.”

“Sure, what time?”

“Oneish?”

“That would be perfect, I’ll see you then.”

“Yes, can’t wait…love you.”

“Love you too, bye.” I could never get enough of hearing those three words from Violet’s lips. They gave me a security, an unexplainable happiness that only she could give.  

I stood up and walked around my desk. I had a problem to attend to and it came in the form of one devious little receptionist named Candace.

I strolled down to the reception area to find Candace talking on the phone.

“Yeah, Mary, he is so hot…no, not yet, but I’m trying. I—” She stopped mid-sentence as she saw me leaning against the counter. “Gotta go.” She slammed the phone down then looked up at me.

“Mr. Alexander, what can I do for you?” she said with an innocent smile. Innocent my ass. Trouble was written all over that smile with a capital T.

“My girlfriend just received the flowers that you sent, but they were addressed to you, can you please tell me how that happened?”

“The florist must have made a mistake, sir, and put my name instead of hers. I will call them right up.”

She reached for the phone and I placed my hand on hers. “Candace, the flowers were charged to my card, it would be literally impossible for them to put your name on the card unless you told them to.” I pulled my hand away and stood straight up, folding my arms, waiting for an answer. “You addressed the card to yourself, didn’t you?”

She frowned. “Yes, sir, I did,” she said quietly with her head low.

I blinked hard, a little surprised by her honest answer. “Why would you do such a thing?”

She fluttered her eyelashes with a light exhale. “I was jealous.”

“Jealous? Of what?”

“Of her.” What?

“What are you talking about, Candace, why would you be jealous of Violet?”

“Because she has you.” Huh?

She fiddled with her fingers nervously, before saying, “You had to know.”

What was this woman talking about! “Know what?” I responded impatiently. Why were women so insistent on beating around the bush, not getting to the point?

She huffed out a breath. “That I had a crush on you. I have been following you in the papers for years.”

Great, another female addicted to the media and their lies. What was it about women and their idealistic fantasy about men in the media? Was life that lonely for some that they had to live their lives dreaming about someone they could never have?

“You don’t even know me, Candace.”

“I know that you love animals, you prefer blondes over brunettes and have a soft spot in your heart for redheads. Why do you think I dyed my hair red?” She smiled as she pointed to her head. Wow, I could see this woman was definitely off her rocker.

“You really shouldn’t listen to the media, they don’t know anything about me. I do not prefer blondes over brunettes, in fact, my girlfriend is a brunette.”

She frowned. “And redheads?”

“Nope.”

“White wine over red wine?”

“I like all wine… Look, Candace, I am flattered that you are infatuated with me. But I have to tell you this, I love my girlfriend and I would never do anything to lose her. If you insist on intruding on that with these little childish games, I will be forced to let you go. Do you understand?”

She looked up at me sadly. “Yes, sir.”

“Okay.” I turned to walk away.

“Mr. Alexander,” she called out.

I stopped. “Yes.”

“I will call the florist and fix the mistake.”

I waved my hand in the air. “It’s fine, I will take care of it.” Like I was going to trust her again. Did she think I had stupid stamped on my forehead? She nodded and I walked away.

I sauntered back to my office and called the florist and arranged for a new dozen violet roses to be sent to Violet’s office.

As I hung up the phone David plopped down on the chair in front of my desk. “So how’s it going?” he said as he placed his feet on my desk.

“Eh, okay, long day,” I told him. I didn’t want to tell him about my little confrontation with Candace, because I knew that David would make a big deal out of it, and to me it wasn’t that big of a deal. But I was itching to ask him about how married life was.

He shrugged. “So how is it being married?”

“It’s really no different than before, except Callie has my last name. Why do you ask?”

“Just wondering,” I mumbled nonchalantly.

He leaned forward. “You’re not thinking about proposing to Violet, are you?” he asked with excitement.

This man knew me too well. “I already did and she said no.”

“What? When?”

“This morning when we were getting ready to go to the restaurant.”

“She wouldn’t take the ring?”

“I didn’t have one.”

He held his hands up. “Wait, you didn’t have a ring? How did you propose?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I just asked her, that’s all. We were talking about living together and Violet is adamantly against living with a man unless she is married. So I asked her to marry me.”

David shook his head fervently. “No, Chain, that is not the way you do it. Women want the proposal to be special, one they will remember forever.”

“Isn’t just telling them that you want to spend the rest of your life with them special enough?”

He shook his head. “No.”

Wow did I mess up! “I screwed up, that’s why she didn’t say yes, isn’t it?”

David nodded his head. “Probably. My suggestion, find a ring, wait a few weeks then ask her again. This time make sure it is somewhere memorable, not your apartment.”

“Okay, so where do you suggest I go to find a ring?” I queried.

He looked at me like I was stupid or something before saying, “Jevons of course. They make custom engagement rings.”

Patience wasn’t one of my best attributes. I was the sort of shopper that when I purchased something with my hard-earned money, I wanted it in my hand when I left. Obviously, ordering a custom ring meant I had to wait and that was not something I wanted to do.

“Does it have to be custom? Can’t I just pick a ring out? It’s a diamond, right, they have to have thousands available.”

“Look, Chain, I can’t tell you any more. If Callie knew I was involved with your proposal she would be pissed. Callie believes that if a man loves a woman enough and wants to marry her, he will know her and know what she likes, so you are going to have to figure this out on your own.”

“You’re not going to help me?” He cleared his throat and shook his head silently. “Okay, can you at least tell me if I should get a custom ring?” He nodded. “I should because if I want her to say yes, I need to make the ring special.” He smiled and nodded again. Christ! This nodding and shaking of his head was irritating.

“David, can you just speak!”

“I just told you, I can’t be involved!”

I stood up and slid on my suit coat. “Fine.”

David looked at me, confused. “Where are you going?”

“I have stuff I have to do, I should be back in a few hours.” Sliding my cell into my pocket, I strolled out of the office.

Jevon’s jewelers was located only blocks from my office. I walked into the door and was met by a man with neat short blond hair.

“Can I help you?” he asked politely.

“Yes, I am looking for an engagement ring,” I told him.

“Custom, or do you just want to buy one right out?”

I leaned against the counter. “Do you have engagement rings that are not custom?” I asked him.

“No, sir, all of our rings are custom, one of a kind. But if you’re asking if we have some custom rings available to buy, the answer would be yes,” the man answered.

The man opened the glass case beneath the counter and slid out a tray with an ebony velvet cover, placing it on the counter.

“Do you have a price limit?” the man asked.

“No. I don’t care what the cost is.”

He squealed with excitement as he pushed the tray of rings closer to me. I glanced across the array of rings, and one caught my attention. A pale pink oval-shaped stone glittered in the middle, and two large diamonds sat on each side of it. I didn’t know why, but I just knew this was the one.

“That one,” I said, pointing.

“Ah, excellent choice. This is a round 4.5 carat pink diamond ring, set in platinum, very unique and special. There is not another ring out there like this,” he explained as he handed it to me. I held it up in the light. “Notice the craftsmanship; that diamond is perfect, there are no flaws in it and the diamonds set on each side are one carat trillions, setting the carat total at 6.5, ” he continued.

“Yes, it is very nice,” I told him.

I reached into my back pocket and slid out my wallet, grabbing my credit card. “I’ll take it.”

“Wait, don’t you want to know the price?”

“No, I don’t care. I am assuming you take American Express?” I asked as I handed him my card.

He smiled. “Yes we do.”

The jeweler handed me back my card and a small credit card slip to sign. I signed it quickly and he handed me a small bag. “Your receipt is in the bag. We have a one hundred percent customer satisfaction guarantee. If you are not satisfied with the ring, bring it back and we will give you a complete refund.”

I flashed him a quick smile. “Thank you.”

“Thank you for shopping at Jevon’s. You have a nice day.”

The adrenaline I had felt earlier when I rushed out to buy the ring had left me and now I sat  staring down at the ring sitting atop my desk, without any plan. I needed a plan. I couldn’t just walk into the house and ask her to marry me, could I? Of course I couldn’t, I had already done that and failed miserably. The morning with Violet replayed in my head. ‘You don’t just get married, Chain.’ Maybe she was right, maybe I was rushing into it?  I didn’t think so. I loved Violet, she was the one for me, the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Was it me or was it her? Did she not see forever with me? Damn it. I hated when I felt so insecure.

“I knew it, I fucking knew it,” David said as he walked into my office. He sat down on the chair and reached to the ring, picking it up. The ring glittered in the light. “Whoa, now this is a beauty.”

I exhaled as I leaned my face into my hand. “Yeah.”

“Well you sure don’t sound too happy.”

“I don’t know, David, I mean maybe Violet is right, maybe I am not taking the marriage thing seriously, maybe I’m rushing it.”

He looked at me like I was crazy. “Are you kidding, Chain? I have never met two people more suited for each other than you and Violet.”

I glanced down at the clock on my desk. “I know but she is kind of right, we have only been officially together
three months, five days, two hours and
sixteen minutes.”

He raised a brow. “You know exactly how long you two have been together down to the minute?”

I beamed proudly as I folded my hands, placing them on the desk. “Of course I do.”

“You need fucking therapy!”

“Why, because I know exactly when Violet told me she loved me? When she became officially mine?”

He nodded his head and leaned back on his chair. “You’re crazy, you know that.”