To Love a Man (39 page)

“Hi I’m Christian Waters.”

He extended his hand to hers. As she took his hand, she felt heat rise from her center. His hands were soft and smooth not rough with calluses as you would think a man’s would. She gave a little grin.

“Scarlett Hale.”

“Scarlett I like that.”

He continued to smile down at her and she felt her heart flutter. She bit her bottom lip as she did when she tried to control her emotions. Christian cleared his throat.

“So you must be new here, I think I would remember if I had seen you before.”

“I have an interview with Dan Mario’s.”

“Dan, oh so you must be the new Psychologist nice.” He smiled at her and she frowned.

“Uh no not exactly…I'm working my way through school and well I need a job and he is hiring for a secretary.”

He lifted his right eyebrow to her. “Really how old are you?”

She gave a small smile placing a stray hair behind her ear. “26 I know but I got a late start with school.”

“But at least you’re in school…trying to be better.”

They stood in comfortable silence as the elevator rose through the floors uninterrupted. Christian sighed.

“So are you nervous?”

“
Very. she said nodding. “I need this job.”

“Well, just calm down…everything happens for a reason…what will be will be.”

She smiled up to him.

“My mom says that.”

He leaned closer to her. “Mines too.”

The doors to the elevator opened. She took a deep breath.

“Well this is my stop I should go. It was nice meeting you Mr. Waters.”

“Call me Christian. Hope I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah me too.”

Scarlett bit her lower lip as he smiled at as she stepped off the elevator and walked into the office. She tried to push the vision of Christian out of her mind. She headed towards the front desk wondering if she would see him again. The receptionist smiled at her. She had long dark hair with blonde highlights. Her skin was almost pale. She wore a dark blue skirt and white top that had brown stains on them. Scarlett figured the stains were coffee.

“He tends to do that to all the ladies.” The receptionist’s desk was a dark mahogany wood with a laminate finish with wire cut-outs and spacious cubbies. The round desk with a latch opening was a place Scarlett could see herself working. It was modern and very organized.

“Excuse me?”

“You were in the elevator with Mr. Waters or Christian as he likes to be called. That fine man leaves them all speechless. If I wasn’t married he would me too.”

Scarlett stared at her.

“Ok so maybe he does just don't tell my husband.”

She laughed and Scarlett couldn’t help but laugh with her.

“My name is Mindy how can I help you dear?”

“I am Scarlett Hale and I am here to see Mr. Mario’s.”

“Do you have an appointment?”

She reached into her bag for her resume. “No I am here for my interview.”

“Oh I’m sorry you have the wrong floor.”

“This is the 24
th
floor right? Mr. Mario’s office? I only ask because his name is on the door.”

“It is but whoever called you for the interview was supposed to tell you that the interview is on the 12
th
floor. I can call down and let them know.”

“Could you? Thank you for that.” Scarlett held her breath replacing her resume into her bag.

“No problem I should warn you though there are other people interviewing for the job and being late doesn’t look good…good luck.”

“Thanks you have a good day.”

“You too.”

Scarlett nodded as she walked out the office and back to the elevator. She felt tears rush to her eyes she prayed they would still see her. If this was a sign of what was to come she just wanted to get home. Home, how could she walk through that door without a job again? She took a deep breath. She had to do whatever it took to leave there with a job. While in deep thought, the doors opened and Christian stood there with a Folder in his hand. He smiled.

Scarlett looked away so he wouldn’t see the tears in her eyes. The doors tried to close but Christian held them open.

“What’s wrong? You were going down right. How did the interview go? You weren’t in there for very long.”

“I am fine and yeah I am going down.”

“So you are crying because you had to see me again? Ouch.”

She wiped the tears from her eyes and reached in her bag for a tissue but stopped as Christian handed her a handkerchief. She took it looking at the light purple material with the initials CPW embroidered on it wiped her face. She sighed shaking her head, “That’s not it. I am on the wrong floor and it frustrated me for a second I am fine.”

The doors started to close again but Christian grabbed them.

“You coming in or are we going to stay out here letting people think I made you cry…”

She looked at the double doors behind her and of course, Mindy was looking at them surely wondering what was going on. Scarlett took a deep breath.

“So is this your job? You ride elevators all day trying to rescue women in need?”

Christian smiled leaning against the elevator door.

“No thank you very much as soon as I stepped into my office I realized I left something in my car.”

“Oh.”

Scarlett looked at her watch then walked onto the elevator wiping the tears from her eyes with his handkerchief. She wanted to run somewhere and cry but there was something about this man that made her comfortable in his presence.

***

From the moment Christian Waters laid eyes on Scarlett, he knew there was something special about her. She looked so familiar he just couldn’t place where he knew her from, but it didn’t matter when he looked her in her eyes he knew he would never be the same. She was not his type by the standard set for men of his stature but she was beautiful. Pretty short about 5’4 maybe 5’5. Light skinned with smooth clear skin. Her body was so sexy too. She was thick in every aspect of the word.

She had big full breast and curves that would drive any man crazy. She wore a baby blue dress with a suit jacket. It fit her body perfectly. Her legs were short but long if that made any sense. And those heels and stockings just did something to his body.

In addition to her overwhelming sexiness, her eyes were fascinating. They seemed to change colors. They were grayish light brown when he first met her and when the elevator doors opened they were black. Now they were a soft brown and just so beautiful behind her glasses.

She wore very little makeup from what he could tell and lip-gloss but that didn’t bother him because he didn’t like a lot of makeup to take away from a woman’s beauty. The more he saw of her the more he realized that to him she was gorgeous. Her scent was overwhelming it reached into his soul and pulled him closer to her. He didn’t know what it was that she had on but he loved it.

When their hands touched, a spark shot up his arm and to his heart. Her skin was so soft and smooth all he wanted to do was embrace her whole body. Once she got off the elevator and he inhaled her and knew he needed more. He was tempted to go back down to Mario’s office.

When he realized that she went to his office and not to the interview room he knew he had a chance to see her again so he headed back down. And when the doors opened there, she was looking so distraught and sad. As she stepped into the elevator, he smiled.

“So you’re headed back down to the ground floor?”

“12.”

He hit the button for the 12
th
floor and the elevator started to move. Christian wanted to say something but he couldn’t. He prayed a silent prayer that some way he could help her. He looked at her fanning her face trying to compose herself, but before he could speak, the lights flashed and the elevator began to shake.

Scarlett pressed her backside against the wall as Christian went to her. Christian held her as the elevator swayed a bit then completely stopped. He looked down to her.

“Are you ok?”

“What’s happening?” she asked with his voice shaking in fear.

I don’t know I am gonna check it out ok.”

She nodded as he moved to the elevator’s phone. He picked it up.

“Hello? Hello? This is Christian Water’s I am stuck in elevator two.”

“Mr. Waters we are experiencing a blackout. I think someone ran into the pole outside we are working to get everything back on as soon as we can.”

Christian looked over to Scarlett and sighed. “Do you know how long we are gonna be stuck in here? There are two of us.”

“No sir but we will do our best to get it up and running.”

Christian placed the phone onto the receiver and glanced over to Scarlett who had managed to slide down the back wall. She had her hands to her face. Christian pulled his suit jacket off as he sat next to her.

“Looks like we are gonna be here a while.” He said loosening his tie.

“Makes sense. Today is one of those days where bad things happen and happen and keep on happening….dammit I needed that interview.”

Scarlett hit the wall as Christian looked at her.

“You know you can take me up on that offer to talk. We aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.”

She bit her lip and looked away. He placed his hand on hers.

“So tell me what's wrong.”

Scarlett couldn’t hold her tears anymore she just broke down. She took Christian’s handkerchief and wiped her eyes.

“I don’t know what I am going to do. I was counting on that job. I had two other interviews today but I came to this one…we can’t survive without it. And because some girl gave me the wrong info I ended up on the wrong floor and now I am stuck in an elevator and any chance I had at the job is long gone.”

“I am sure if you tell them you were stuck they would he will let you keep your interview.”

“There are like 12 other people who were on time and have better references. I probably wouldn’t have gotten the job anyway.”

“Don’t be like that.”

“Like what?”

“Well you are being kind of negative.”

Scarlett stood and crossed her arms over her chest. She felt the elevator rock but didn’t care she was angry.

“I’m being negative? Well excuse the hell out of me for having feelings. My life has been so frustrating that I am sure even on your worse day you wouldn’t understand.”

She dropped her arms feeling tears well up in her eyes. “I woke up this morning to complaints from three different birds chirping in my ear. Why are we stuck here, I need new clothes, school is starting and then I get out on time just to realize that I have missed the bus.”

Christian stood across from her looking down to this woman whose beautiful brown eyes turned dark with anger.

She threw her hands in the air. “A bus that was supposed to be at the stop at 8:45 but came at 8:35 and you wanna know how I know that? Because as I was walking up to the stop it was driving pass me. All I have been able to think about for the last few weeks is how is this going to get paid and how is that going to get done. What are we supposed to do now?”

“We?”

Scarlett looked at him and frowned. She shook her head and exhaled.

“I'm not in school that’s just the story I was gonna tell everyone. I was up here interviewing for the secretary position because I need to support my family.”

Christian’s heart sank when he heard the words family. First thing, that popped in his head was a man holding her and kissing her. He wanted to speak up but something told him to let her finish first.

“The job paid $12 an hour and it had benefits and vacation time. We just moved here, my mom has breast cancer, and thanks to my no good rotten excuse for a dad all the money she saved from working two jobs he blew through. It seems so weird because she was in remission four years ago and I was so excited I could finally go to school. But she has gotten worse. Her disability checks only covered her expenses and I had to quit school and take care of my younger siblings.

“Devon is 17, Maggie is 15, and my daughter Angel is 9. And yes, I said my daughter is 9 you didn’t hear me wrong. We had to move here because there is a treatment center here that will do more things to help my mom than I ever could. I needed this job to help support my family. I am all they have now. I mean we have like one aunt but she has four kids of her own and our older brother who is 29 and has his own problems.

“I won’t allow him to be around any of them because I can’t bear for him or our father to hurt them. I had to sell our house to pay for the Shrines that’s where we put my mom in and I sold my car so we could move here. We have no money, are staying in a hotel and school is about to start. I just don’t know what to do now. And to top it off I am sitting here rambling on to a complete stranger.”

Christian stared at her for a moment.

“First you need to take a breath. Calm down everything will be alright.”