REFINED ROMANCE

He is nice.

Chapter 3

1525 Word Update date:2023-08-11 10:15:18

It's not me I'm worried about", he said quietly, eyes still outside the window. I turned to look at him. "It's my son."

I was intrigued. Even more appealing to me. Yeah, come on. Maturity? That's quite my thing really because I love older men who're experienced. "You're a father. That's so nice. I wanna be a mom someday."

"You will be. My son...." and he sighed, splaying the fingers of a well-manicured right hand before he warily, "his name's Henry, eight years old . Most days he's away in school.

"I was like that last year", I pointed out. "Then I realized that in order to survive in New York on my own, away from my parents, I'd have to be braver, you know…" I turned the wheel, swinging a corner, "bolder to get what I want, to get people to listen."

"I like that", he said looking at me. "I was a nerd in high school. But then my wife appened to me."

We were spilling our stories, stuff about our life just like that.He was a stranger, but he was my boss and I couldn't believe how comfortable I felt with him there although we had just met for the first time, well in person. I wondered why he told me what he did, how he could just open up like that. And I got my answer right after.

"I never speak to the people who work for me like this, Sophie", she said. I turned to look at him then when our eyes met, he almost drowned me.

"It's really okay," I shrugged.

"You probably already painted me as a refined ass."

Recollections of his yelling at employees and throwing stacks of paper at them, all spoken by Ruben came to mind. Pitching his coffee mug at the wall and telling Bill, the Vice President to sack his shitty excuse for a secretary. Having us answer the phone and he waited silently. Then when we replied with 'hello' only, Mr Abbort would blatantly ask what the hell happened to our manners. Yeah. He wasn't that bad.

"Nah," I lied.Growling at Ruben through the phone and demanding that he switch flights immediately. Flinging magazine artwork across tables as the graphics designer scattered to gather them up. Pitching his mink coats upon Ruben's with a smirk.

"So what's happening, boss?" I was always bold enough to speak that way. And just as a way of showing him that no, I wasn't affected or intimidated.

The reaction was glorious. He focused on me and probably hacked into my brain for a couple of seconds. Trying to determine how the hell I could talk to him like that. Apparently I passed some test.

"Just before my flight tonight, I realized that I've bottled everything up inside for quite some time. There I was sitting on the plane all by myself. With no one to talk to. No one to call. No one to cheer me on after a painful divorce. And then I called, you answered. And...You're the first person I encountered after that epiphany."

I swallowed. Smiled. Drove on. "Most people use me as a diary. I absorb all the stories, but whatever is said between you and me outside of work, well everything stays between us."

"Thank you.We remained silent until my phone rang. It was Thomas,asking where the hell I was. I told him duty called whilst brown eyes fixated on me. And then after promising that we'd meet up in like ten minutes, the call

"It's my friend Thomas ,we were supposed to hang out after work .

"You hang out with...men." he said it as if I had a disease.

"Coolest dudes on the planet, trust me." I smiled.

"Men are senseless idiots,"Liam sassed, "overgrown babies who eventually crave s*x and nothing else."

I swallowed hard. I almost choked whilst swallowing and I ended up laughing, not too loud but enough to catch his attention. "Geez," I said.

"Do you also crave s*x and attention, "

"Take it from me, dear. Don't waste your time with them."

"You sound like you're an expert."

"I am. In my career I've dealt with enough jackasses who wear expensive suits to cover up their arrogance," fists clenched, he glared ahead. "Walking into a room full of pigs who undress women and seal deals for the mere pleasure of it."

"They still seal the deals."He sat there with that intense stare upon my right cheek. I kept thinking to myself, does he have this effect on everyone? Or is it just me? Because inside the car was becoming seriously overheated. My temples were damp, hands sweaty. And my boss wouldn't stop looking at me.

It reached a point where I couldn't speak. Yeah, there were things that could have been said. Like, hey, what's your job like? I was genuinely curious where he traveled, what his day seemed like. I wanted to ask about stuff pertaining to the magazine. What brand of clothes he liked wearing, who did his hair. Those sort of things. But with that prolonged scrutiny, I closed up. My cheeks grew warmer and warmer.

We held that gaze.

I held it like my life depended on that gaze.

Without a blink, his chest heaved and I turned away, swallowing hard.

"One six five. Four Four," he said hoarsely, "two three nine five."

I frowned because those digits sounded familiar. "What's that? A code or something?" my throat was closing up because he would not stop looking at me.

"Your social security number," Liam reminded me. I stopped breathing.

"How did you..."Whilst waiting on you at the airport, I might have done some digging..."

I turned to consider his smirk. Really now? So what else did he find? "Go on then..."

"Well it appears as if you're a good girl. A 3.4 Grade Point Average. Business and Management Studies. Excellent."

The man wasn't even using his phone or anything and he was remembering these facts about me like a script. It was pretty scary. Sitting there, listening to my boss state these things like every day talk. Like commenting about the weather. How the heck did he know about my GPA?

"I hired you," he wouldn't give up. "On May 19th, personally after delving through 50 applicants."

I swallowed again. Fifty? He personally chose me? Oh wow. I'm Harry Potter now. "What made you choose me?"

"Honestly?" his gaze was directed out the window now. Thank goodness or else he would have seen my face turn pink. "I took one look at your picture and gave in."

He...GAVE...in.

"I'm...flattered," was all I could manage. Seriously though, no one, in my entire life, had ever been that bold with me. Liam was impressively firm on his statements and never choosing to conceal anything.

"Well you should be," he said softly, "I never choose my employees. But I chose you."

The CHOSEN one.His words had such an impact on me, I couldn't grip the steering wheel firmly. Sweaty palms and numb toes within boots that felt like coffins of cold air. Yet between my legs tingled because suddenly I was finding myself becoming entangled in a web of desire. The need to somehow gain more from the one person who signed my salary slips. Just a neat signature that never meant much until today. Today when I attached a face like that to a name which meant nothing at all before.

So we reached the office. I decided to be, well, responsible enough and head up with him just in case. The second he got out the car, Liam took my breath away when he smiled at me. Like reaching up and brushing fingers through the silkiest hair I had ever seen. Retrieving his bag from the backseat, he gestured for the guard in front of the building to watch the car with eagle eyes. Of course his uggage remained in there, so he had no choice. We're talking about the boss here.

Now as we're inside the building, and we step up to the elevator, both of us reach out to press the UP button. Again the brush of fingers tingled my insides enough to spark a fire. Without looking back, his brown boots crossed the threshold and oh my goodness, we were in a closed off space. For one full minute as the elevator climbed to the tenth floor, I couldn't breathe. Standing next to him forced me to feel the energy radiating from the man. Seriously, he was warming me up to an extent where I felt as if I'd faint! And that wasn't the worst part. The worst part happened when I was thrown a side way glance and our eyes met.

As the traffic hummed below on the streets, Liam opened his office and disappeared inside. For about a minute I stood outside and rethought . At that point in time, there I was believing that a simple guy would do the job. That I'd get married, have kids and be the perfect mom, the fun mother who played video games and ate cereal without milk.