Romance: In Love With A Billionaire (3 page)

Chapter Five

I could feel a strange new vibe in my body when I woke up.

I wasn’t as mad as before, when I thought I was going to explode of fury.

Now I was calmer and more open to “suggestions.”

So I called my mother to ask her what happened after I left the house in a hurry.

It seemed my father had left his phone number in case I changed my mind and decided to give him one more chance.

I then took the number from Mom to see what’ll happen if Thomas and I spent some time together, just the two of us.

After his phone rang a couple of times, he finally answered, but he had no idea that I was at the other end of the line.

“Hello, whose this?” he asked.

I hesitated to say anything the first seconds after he answered.

“Is this a joke?” he added.

When he was about to hang up, I said it…

“It’s me, Dad.”

This was the first time since I was five that I said those words.

“Clara, is it you? My baby, is it really you? I was hoping you’d call me, but I never thought you’d ever want. Are you okay?” he asked.

I could feel the enthusiasm in his voice.

“Yes, it’s me, and I’m calling you because I want us to meet for a cup of coffee and discuss the things between us. Because I know it’s easier to accuse than to understand and forgive…” I said, and tried to control my voice the best I could.

The last thing I wanted him to see is I’m nervous when talking to him.

I want to be strong in any situation!

“Of course, dear, anything you want, anytime you want! Just tell me when and where and I’ll be there!”

“Fine, Dad, meet me at the mall at five, and we’ll go somewhere quiet where we can talk properly.”

“Fine, my love, I’ll be there even before five, waiting for you!”

I hung up before he could say anything else, because I knew how that discussion would’ve continued: endless talk about unimportant stuff just because he wanted to hear my voice.

I also had to earn a living, because no one will feed me in case I lose my job.

Tough life.

I went to work as any other day, at the same hour.

But today, I had neither the will nor the concentration to do anything.

All I could think of was what I’d do when meeting my father later that day and how things would come about.

These thoughts gave me no peace, so my boss saw I was distracted.

He checked on me the whole time…I could barely breathe without him checking me. But I pretended I was sick and left for home early, around twelve, to catch some sleep.

I needed all the strength I can get for my meeting with my father.

As I slept, a strange dream came to my mind, bringing me back to my childhood when my father was still with us.

But somehow, in my dream he never left us, and I grew up by his side, getting all the support and love from him that I always wanted and needed so badly.

I was so happy, and my heart felt it too because it couldn’t tell between dream and reality.

Neither my brain could, so when I woke up I was engulfed by a feeling of happiness and well-being.

But I realized soon that it was just a dream and I still had to face the reality.

Chapter Six

When I arrived at the mall, I saw him looking all over the place, hoping to spot me.

As I approached him, he came in a hurry to hug me just like a little kid.

I let him—what could I do?

I had no idea what I was feeling; in my head was a tornado of thought and feelings.

“I already ordered something for you: fries and ice cream, just the way you liked them when you were five. Do you remember? You were so lovely when eating them, getting messy with ice cream all over your face. You looked beautiful then…and you still do, even if you’re not one and a half feet tall anymore. You’re a grown woman!”

“But Dad, I told you we’ll go somewhere where we could talk in silence. Why did you buy those?”

“I know, dear, but I just couldn’t help myself. I wanted to see you eating one more time. I know it sounds silly, but you have no idea how much I missed you. I missed seeing you growing up, playing, eating and even crying, even if I never wanted to see you cry. Let’s just eat, and then we’ll go wherever you want to.”

“Fine, Dad.”

When I started eating, my father ordered for himself too.

But he didn’t touch his food, not for a second, and all he did was watch me eat fry after fry and freeze my teeth with that ice cream that seemed to have been brought directly from the ice age.

It’s a bit creepy, I must confess, to have someone looking at your very move no matter what you do and no matter if it’s your father.

I felt kind of embarrassed, but still tried to eat everything as fast as possible so that I could get out of that crowded place.

Soon enough, we left the mall and went to a small coffee shop on a backstreet near my apartment.

I went there with Madeleine from time to time when we want to have a good coffee and gossip on everything that moved. It’s cozy, and the environment is familiar.

The place was almost empty, and in there was a beautiful silence—silence I always enjoyed there more than anywhere else in the city!

“Take a seat, Dad. I’ll order some coffee, and then we can discuss as much as you want. I’m off from work for the rest of the day.”

Then I went to the bar to ask for my favorite dark, sugarless coffee.

I quickly took it and returned to the table where my father was eagerly waiting for me.

“So, Dad, I thought it over, at least a hundred times. I decided to hear you out before I could make any decision, because life is long and I don’t want to live with regret that I never gave you a chance. So tell me what really happened and why you left us besides the booze reason—I don’t think the bottle of wine pushed you from the house and prevented you from ever coming back.”

“You are right, pumpkin, but the drinking problem was the cause of everything. At first, I started drinking beer and other easy stuff, as I used to call them. I kept lying, telling myself that with those, I wouldn’t have a problem and that nothing bad will happen if I continued to drink on a daily basis. After all, a lot of people did, and no one died from it…

“But soon, beer wasn’t enough anymore, and I started to drink Scotch, vodka, and other dangerous stuff for you and your mom. I became violent, and sometimes I even hit your mother when you weren’t there to see me. I’m not proud of what I did, but it is the truth and I want you to know it.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing because my mother never mentioned any violence.

Maybe because she wanted to protect me—what use was it to me to know all those dreadful facts?

I was speechless as I looked at him.

Who knew what other horrible things he did?

And now he wanted my forgiveness.

“After months of struggling while I stopped working and drank away your mother’s money, we decided in a moment of sobriety to separate. Nothing good could come out of our relationship in those conditions, so I left. The situation was more complicated than words could describe.”

That evening, we talked for hours about what I’ve been doing and how I managed to become such a successful architect.

But then, he came up with news.

He has a stepson.

“Is he yours?” I asked.

“Oh no, he is not my son. He was ten when I began dating Elaine.”

“So he’s not my
real
brother?”

“No. But he is your stepbrother. I raised him.”

“You didn’t raise me,” I snap.

I didn’t mean to snap at him. The words just fell out of my mouth.

“I’m sorry,” Thomas’ eyes fell to the table.

The awkwardness hung in the air for a long period of time.

I felt uneasy at the pain in his eyes.

“So… what does he do then?” I asked, finally breaking the silence.

“Well,” his voice perked back up again, “Funny thing is, he is also in construction.”

“A builder?” I asked.

“No. He is also a project manager for large construction company.”

“Same job as me?” I question.

He nods and then smiles. “Would you like to meet him?”

“No,” I react bluntly.

Again, his eyes fall to the table full of disappointment, “Oh.”

“Look… I’m sorry but it’s too much too soon. Maybe one day soon I’ll meet him.”

“Ok,” he nods. “But you do work in the same industry. Maybe you’ll come across him?”

“I doubt it. It’s a big industry.”

But as it happens, the industry is not big enough…

Chapter Seven

The mouths of every girl in the office dropped on Wednesday morning.

An unknown man swayed into the office, asked politely to talk to my boss and then disappeared into an eager discussion with him in his office.

The man was as perfect as someone could have molded a man.

“Who was that?” I asked the receptionist in our office quietly.

“Um…” it took her dreamy eyes a moment to refocus, “He said he was working on an office building across the road from your stadium.”

“Oh, right. I had heard about that building.”

“Hopefully, you get to have a few discussions with him. I’m sure you could even invite me into those discussions. You know, just to take notes,” she smiled.

“He was quite nice to look at,” I smile at her.

“Hmmm… that handsome face, his tall, broad body, and his dashing eyes…” she started daydreaming.

“Snap out of it,” I smiled. “He’s just a man.”

“I bet he’s all man too,” she giggled.

“I bet,” I replied as I went back into my office.

As I sat there in my office, I could see the man talking and making all kinds of gestures, like he was a peacock ready for mating.

After a couple of moments, he finished talking to my boss and walked over to my office.

“Hi there,” he said as he entered through the door. “I heard you’re the person to talk to for the new project under development - the sports stadium.”

Oh wow.

He looked even more handsome in up close.

His eyes were a piercing blue, his tanned skin glowing with health, and his physique was strong enough to be a quarterback at a football game… yum.

“Yes, that’s right. How may I help you?”

“Firstly, I should introduce myself – My name is Blake Carson,” he grinned with a cheeky smile.

“Hi Blake. Clara,” I hold out my hand to shake his.

“Yes… I can see a touch of your father in those eyes.”

“My father?” I questioned in surprise.

He grinned again, “I should elaborate. Your father is my stepfather. After my father died, he raised me as his own.”

“At least he raised one child,” I scoffed back.

Damn.

Why do all the good men have to come with complications?

“Oh, he did mention that you might be a bit touchy about that subject.”

“Touchy? If someone disappeared from your life to raise someone else, you may be a little touchy too.”

“My apologizes. Sorry, Clara.”

“It’s not your fault, Blake.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you Clara. I have heard a lot about you.”

I didn’t want to listen to that sort of thing anymore.

“Is there anything else I can help you with?” I tried to change the conversation.

I turned my back to him, appearing to look to the window over something in the distance…but all I wanted is for him to leave the office and leave me be.

“C’mon, don’t be so feisty now. I came here in peace,” he said, laughing again—a gesture that got to my nerves.

“And what do you want?”

“I run a construction firm that will build an office right next to your stadium, so I came here to discuss about the feasibility of our two projects being built next to each other. I don’t want to create any inconvenience; that’s why I came here to ask first,” he answered while coming even closer to me and closing the door behind him.

He wasn’t going to leave anytime soon, and I was already fed up with his heritage.

“I don’t see why your project should be my concern here. Everyone should deal with their own things,” I said, thinking it was going to make him leave.

But he was a quite insistent fellow.

“So whose assistant are you for this project? Because I can see it’s a quiet morning and the man in charge is probably on the way. Who should I expect to talk to in future discussions?” he asked, trying to mock my qualities, probably…or maybe he was as ignorant as he looked.

“Are you kidding me?!” I turned and looked at him.

Apparently the noise could be heard through the glass walls of the office, because almost everybody turned around to look.

They probably thought we’re fighting already.

“The man in charge? What is wrong with me? If my boss told you I’m the project manager for the project, it means I am. And stop acting like a jerk because I’m not in the mood for your failing charm, really.”

With his mouth to his ears, he laughed at my indignation.

“Don’t get me wrong, but so far I’ve never met a woman capable of such complex tasks—if you know what I mean. Usually, project manger of a large-scale construction is a man’s job because women are more preoccupied of destroying things and shopping than building sports stadiums. It’s just like that.”

“And that gives you the right to tag every woman as a shopping zombie and nothing more? Do you think yourself smarter than me? I’m afraid you are so far from the truth you can barely see it. So please stop insulting my intellect before I throw you out my building!” I replied, seeing that he’s even ruder to me.

No matter how intelligent my remarks were, he definitely was a prick—the type of man who thinks he’s the navel of the whole world and the best at everything.

“Oh, no need for violence here, darling. We are peaceful people,” he said.

“Please don’t call me that. I’m not your darling. You can call anyone you want like that except me. I don’t need your lame compliments.”

“Okay, I believe you if you say you’re in charge. No need for debate on the subject. I didn’t mean to upset you, but you have to understand my surprise…you look so feeble, like a little flower that needs constant watering and protection,” he added to his already sexist discourse, as if his only plan that day was to get to my nerves.

“Yeah right, let me worry about my feebleness. Don’t you have anything else to do rather than sitting here and keeping me from working? I really have important stuff to do!” I said to him while showing him the door, suggesting for him to leave at once before I gave him my foot up his ass!

“Are going to get violent with me now? You’re quite a catch, young lady - clever and badass. Didn’t you consider becoming a bodyguard? You’d earn a lot of money from it,” he again laughed at my attitude.

“Get out of my office, before I call security, who’ll throw your ass right in the middle of the street,” I said, hitting the office table with my right fist. “Out!”

“Sorry for being rude, but I just couldn’t help myself,” he argued. “It happens to me all the time when I meet a pretty lady: my ego gets the best of me, and sometimes I act irresponsibly and hurt people. Forgive me.”

As he apologized, I stood there looking at him without saying a word.

All I wanted to see was his humiliation, his surrender in front of me!

I had to admit that his replies were very witty, even if at times they were quite arrogant and harming.

He was intelligent and had a born instinct like an alpha lion in the wilderness.

“Apologies accepted. But the next time you try the same shit with me, you have to know I won’t be as courteous as this time,” I replied, trying to be a badass as he called me previously. “Now that we cleared things out,” I added, “Can you tell me what exactly you need from me, because you haven’t come here just to say hi.”

“Well, the reason I came here is the sewage system in the area. We don’t have its blueprint due to some past issues we had with the city hall, and I was wondering if you could help me with it before we start our project. I want to see its distribution in relation to your stadium and with the other nearby buildings in the area.”

“I don’t know what to say,” I replied. “But we have an authorization for the project, and all our documents are procured through legal ways. I don’t know if what you’re asking me is legal, and I don’t want to get in trouble for something I don’t fully know. After all, I’m not a part of it,” I told him, looking straight into his eyes and talking with a serious voice…the voice of a professional project manager that knows what she’s doing!

“Oh come on. Don’t worry, I just want to have a look over them; I don’t want to get you in trouble. Just want to see if it’s worth it. I don’t want to lose a lot of time fighting for those authorizations and then finding out after months of labor that the sewage system is physically impossible. I’d lose a lot of money, and it would mean disaster for my firm. So if you could please help me with this one, I’d completely be in your debt,” he said in a humble voice.

“Well if that’s the case, I believe I can help you. But you’ll have to do your studying right here in my office, because I can’t risk you duplicating the blueprints no matter how nice and sweet you might appear now. This is the only way I can help you, so take it or leave it.”

“I’ll take it,” he smiled.

“Do you work as a project manager there?” I asked as I went to search for those documents in one of my drawers in the back of the office.

“Not exactly.”

“Not exactly?”

“I own the business.”

“You own ‘B.R Construction’? But that’s a billion dollar company? And you don’t look older than thirty?” I asked in surprise.

“Your father raised me well,” he shrugs.

“What? But the ‘B.R Construction’ is many years old – how did you come to own it?”

“I started my own construction company when I was eighteen and we were building during the boom economic period. We landed a few good deals and then I had a lot of money, so I just starting buying other construction companies.”

“You
just
started buying other companies?”

“It’s like a game really. It’s like one giant game of Monopoly. But I still like to be involved in the larger projects that we take on.”

Wow.

My stepbrother happened to be a billionaire.

And super-successful.

And
oh so
handsome…

But still a prick.

“Those files?” Blake pressed.

“Oh yes…”

As I bent over to look for the files, I could see from the corner of my eye how he stared at my ass.

“Have you finished?” I asked him while returning with the documents.

“Finish with what?” he asked with an innocent face, as if he had no idea what I was talking about.

“Staring at my ass. Is my booty nice enough to catch your attention?” I said with an arrogant voice.

I had the upper hand now, and it was time for me to act bossy.

“Please excuse me, I didn’t do it on purpose. My eyes just slipped toward that direction and—”

“C’mon, don’t be silly,” I replied. “A man has the right to look wherever he wants to. And if a nice booty is in the way of his eyes, there’s nothing wrong with it…even if looking is the last thing they are going to do.”

With that, I could see him swallow, being obviously cornered.

As he took the blueprints from my hand, he stood there speechless, analyzing them for a couple of moments.

I tried to find something to do because he was completely caught up with the schematics.

Soon enough, he was finished with them and handed the papers back to me.

“Thank you very much for helping me,” he said nicely, smiling at the same time. “I don’t know how I’ll be able to repay you for what you did.”

As he prepared to leave my office and attend whatever business he might have that day, strangely, I started regretting the fact he was leaving.

I didn’t plan it to happen nor had a logical explanation for it…because that 180-degree switch of his personality baffled me already.

“You’re welcome,” I replied, trying to keep the nice tone we established in the latter moments of our conversation. “I never back down from helping people who are nice to me,” I then added to make him remember what an ass he’d been at the beginning of our meeting.

“Ah, by the way…what’s your favorite meal?” he asked out of the blue as he headed for the elevator.

“Why are you asking me? What has this to do with the blueprints?”

“Nothing,” he grinned. “Just for future reference.”

I couldn’t care less for his reasons so I replied politely, “Pork dumplings.”

“Thank you,” he smiled as he walked out the door.

Damn it.

Why is life so complicated?