Her CEO - Flora Ferrari Page 0,23
headache.”
“Sure,” I tell her, looking back at the barman, who shrugs. My eyes burning into him, demanding a reason for Alyson being anything less than happy, but he looks as bewildered as I am about it.
“What happened, baby?” I ask her, lifting her up from her chair with my hand.
“Nothing,” she lies. “I just have a headache. I actually think I might go home if you don’t mind.”
I’m still holding her hand, but I can feel she wants to move away from me, sending a splintering pain shooting into the center of my chest.
“Alyson,” I demand, and her eyes meet mine, brimming with tears.
“Tell me your mine, you said Eric. I actually believed I was the only one.”
I’m struck dumb for a second, not wanting to believe what I’m hearing and before I know it, she’s broken free of my grip and run out of the restaurant.
I look over to where Sloane was.
His chair empty, the one where the blond sat empty too.
Gone.
I smell a huge, scheming rat.
Chapter Seventeen
Alyson
I know it couldn’t be true.
In my heart I know it isn’t true.
It’s just the effect people like her have on me. They always have and I’m almost frightened that they always will.
Eric looks mad when he comes back from the men’s room and he’s been on the phone. My own imagination telling me the worst, especially after what that bitch just told me.
Not long after Eric left, I watched him walk out of the dining room and turn left, a familiar face planted itself right in front of me, those cold eyes narrowed with spite.
Cynthia, the same receptionist who made sure I didn’t get a chance with Chambers Inc. and then got fired once Eric found out.
“What are you doing here?” I ask her, surprised a secretary would be in a place that’s booked out for months, filled with all the one percenters.
She huffs, her voice is pure venom, but she keeps it low enough and her distance, so as not to arouse suspicion.
“You think you’re so clever, don’t you?” she hisses, and I feel a pang of fear, every run in with the cheerleaders, pretty blondes but nasty types from college come flooding back in an instant.
I wish Eric was here.
“You’re not the first, you stupid fat pig, and you won’t be his last. He does this every few weeks, for kicks. Picks a new hopeless case. Hires them, fucks them and then fires them a few weeks later.”
I feel like someone’s put a knife in my belly. A hot, searing pain travels up into my heart.
“No,” I whimper. “No, that’s just not true! Eric would never.”
But her cruel laughter cuts me short and she leans in close, her cold eyes only an inch from mine.
“Did he make you promise to be his? Did he make you say it before he fucked you?”
A horrified gasp escapes me and I feel stupid for letting her know she’s hit her mark.
She mutters something horrible, but I only catch the word that’s hurt me since I can remember fat.
My mind is reeling and my emotions are haywire, but I know it’s not true.
I know Eric would never even think anything like that, let alone do it.
He’s too busy to chase tail, it’s not even his style. Eric Chambers is a real man and I do believe him when he tells me I’m his.
I just know it.
But that bitch has planted the tiniest seed, the slightest kernel of doubt in my mind that’s already grappling with the idea that someone like Eric would even be interested in me, let alone-
“Everything alright?” he asks me, and I hear myself making silly excuses, even saying I want to go home.
I can see straight away that Eric is concerned, that he knows something’s happened.
But I can’t help it.
I know he’s the one. I know he’d never use me like that, but something makes me feel so overwhelmed, so out of place as that word echoes in my mind, that before I know it I’m running from the restaurant, up and out towards the plaza of shops where we were earlier, trying to find a way out.
I don’t get far.
New outfit, plus way too much to eat and then a stitch sees me collapsing onto a bench, right in the same little nook Eric kissed me so hard in just a little while ago.
What the hell’s wrong with me? Am I gonna believe everything some bimbo who just got fired tells me? Get a grip Alyson, Eric loves