Alpha's Revelation

Chapter 19

It had been three weeks since I moved out of Taylor’s place. I had finally just started to come to terms with her not being around 24/7. She was still just across the hall, but it felt weird. Rocky and Blake’s bromance had gotten stronger, which meant we all just started hanging out in Blake’s apartment. Taylor’s parents didn’t want me at her place. They didn’t say we couldn’t have another place to hang out.

Although I had made it clear to Taylor that if anything were to happen, she had to listen to her parents. They gave her life, and I didn’t want any tension between them because of me.

Vince had stopped calling, and Taylor had made sure her parents would keep Vince away from Mariners Bay. Chris had settled into my old room, and honestly, he wasn’t too bad to have around. He was actually relatively fun, and he came around to hang out with us for movie nights and dinners.

Living with Blake wasn’t as bad as I had thought it would be. Blake’s place was bigger than Taylor’s. It was more of a penthouse with 4 huge rooms. The room I got was 180 degrees sea-facing. Blake’s room was above mine, and he had his gym room up there, too. The third room downstairs, he wanted to keep free, just in case he had visitors. He asked me to help him decorate it.

Blake was a chill person to share an apartment with. He was a gentleman, and his habits were impressive, very neat and tidy, and I loved that! Between Taylor and me, I was always the one who cleaned and tidied. It was refreshing to live with someone who shared that habit.

Blake drove me to and from work every day and even made dinners most nights. I get coffee in the mornings and sometimes even in bed. He loved to annoy me with stupid things, but it was more fun than annoying. It was like we were a live-in couple without the s*x and in different rooms. He wasn’t joking when he had said that he had learnt from the best on how to treat a woman.

I now understand what he meant by that. The best part was, I could talk about my life openly and not have to worry about being judged. Blake wanted to know more about my past and about my mum. I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to even Taylor about my mum this much.

I had learnt so much about Blake, too. His life was basic. He did everything that every privileged, white, rich boy did. The only thing he didn’t talk about was his relationship with his brother. That was a touchy topic, and he kept saying he would talk about it some other time. His family sounded like the best thing that had happened to him. Every time he spoke about them, he had this cute smile form, and it made me jealous.

All that was great, I was enjoying our arrangement. The problem, however, was Blake’s little proposal. He was still serious about it. He still wanted to get married and had gone into lengthy conversations as to why we should. Like, how do you marry someone you’ve only known maybe 4 months? He kept saying it’s possible since his parents did it, and he does really want to give it a go. But what if it doesn’t work out?

Yes, we had started to know each other more now that we lived in an apartment together, but still. Why did HE want to marry the daughter of a hooker?! Eligible bachelor number 4 on Huntly’s top 10 hottest bachelors could have any girl he wanted. Why me?

We were all in the boardroom having a general catch-up. We watched Patrick do his little presentation about the upcoming projects we had. I had started this meeting by talking about the Charity Gala we had happening soon. It was a week away, and I was honestly very excited about it.

In the last 3 weeks, there have been a few changes around the company. Some changes were welcomed by everyone, but others were frowned upon. Patrick had been having a lot of meetings with Blake, and every time there was an upset and gloomy Patrick walking out of Blake’s office. I had noticed that Blake had started to do a lot of the work Patrick did. I didn’t talk to Blake about work outside of work. I made sure that was something that didn’t clash with us now living together.

Once Patrick had finished his little presentation, Blake said a little thank you to everyone and reminded everyone not to forget about the Gala. The Gala was going to be hosted in the ballroom we had on the 11th floor. We hired out the ballroom for functions since it had a spectacular sea view. The beauty of Mariners Bay was the sea view.

Once Blake was done, we finished off the meeting with a little finger food lunch. I excused myself and went to hide in my office. I had a lot of work piled up during the week I had off work, and I seriously needed to catch up. Plus, with the Gala project, my workload had doubled, and thank god for Seth, the Gala coordinator, because I had no clue what to do. He had everything under control, which I was so happy about.

“Hey, Boss,” Lilly poked her head into my office.

“Yeah,” I replied. My eyes are not leaving my computer screen.

“Umm, I have food for you,” she said and walked into my office with a little plate of food. It was the finger food from the meeting we just had.

“Mr Cooper just stopped by. He brought this and said to ask you to eat.” Lilly had a smirk on her face.

“Oh, did he now. What if I don’t want to eat?” I asked.

“He did answer that, too. He said if you don’t eat, he will make sure everyone in the office knows about your new living arrangement.” Her smirk turned into a huge smile. “So please feel free not to eat because I really want to know about this. Something tells me whatever your new arrangement is, it’s very interesting.”

“Give me the damn plate!” I hissed. This wasn’t fair! He knew I didn’t want anyone to know. Even though it wasn’t like a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, that’s exactly what people would think and talk about, and I didn’t want people to make this sound like something nasty.

Lilly laughed and put the plate in front of me. I picked up the sandwich and took a picture of myself eating it, and sent it to Blake.

*Good girl* He replied.

*Seriously?! I can’t believe you're blackmailing me*

*Well, if you would just listen, I wouldn’t need to. I keep telling you that you need to stop working and have your lunch breaks and eat FOOD.* His reply made me smile.

I never had a proper lunch at the correct time. It was usually at 4 or 5 in the afternoon when I would finally snack on something. Till now, no one really cared to make sure I had eaten in time. His concern made me smile.

“That’s a very pretty smile,” I said as I looked up from my phone, and Seth was standing at the door.

Seth and I had become good friends in the last few weeks. He was chatty and loved to make dirty jokes, which would be considered highly inappropriate.

“Just texting a friend. Please come, have a seat,” I replied, putting my phone away.

He sat down and put his folder on my table.

“This friend has a name?” He asked and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“Yeah, his called none of your business,” I said and laughed. I was actually glad Blake sent the food. Now that I was eating, I didn’t realise how hungry I was.

“So, you coming and going with Blake Cooper is just carpooling ?” I choked on the sandwich I was eating and started to cough. Seth quickly came around and handed me the glass of water I had on my table and tapped my back.

“What?!” I asked once I could breathe again.

“Really? Do you think no one has noticed? You guys come together every morning, and then you leave together. The other night, you guys were at Big Burgers having dinner straight after work. I know because I was there.” Seth sat back down and looked at me with a smirk.

I got up and closed my office door. “Who all have noticed this exactly?!” I asked, leaning against my door.

“Well, I know Lilly knows something. She was just out there talking to Mona about that plate of food you're eating. So, what’s going on? Are you two seeing each other?” He asked, and his voice made me feel like he didn’t approve.

“No, no! It’s not like that.” I sat back down and picked up my phone again.

*We need to talk NOW!* I texted Blake.

“We live in the same building. So yes, we carpool, that’s why we come and go together, and sometimes my flatmate works late and Blake’s alone, so we just stop and get dinner. It’s nothing romantic.” Who was I trying to convince? Seth or me? Seth nodded like yes, I’m listening, but I don’t believe you.

There was a knock on my door.

“Come in,” I said, my voice was shaky.

“Rosy, you busy?” Blake walked in.

“Talk of the devil,” Seth said and got up to shake hands with Blake.

“I.. ugh.. we were just having a chat about the Gala. You need something?” I asked, trying to hide the fact that I texted him.

“Oh, I just needed some reports, but I can come back. It’s not urgent.” He replied, looking between Seth and me.

“Oh, I’m gonna go. I just came to ask Rosy if she had a date to the Charity Gala,” Seth said, and that mischief smirk on his face made me uneasy.

“I’m supposed to have a date?” I asked.

“Umm, yes. So you don’t have a date?” I shook my head. I hadn’t even thought about it. “Would you like to go with me?” He asked, and my heart dropped. What was he doing?

I looked at Blake, and he had an annoyed look on his face.

“I umm... I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Seth.”

“Oh, come on. I’ll be back in Huntly in a week. I’m not asking you to marry me, it’s just a date,” he replied.

What is with that word ?! Marry?! Seriously, people needed to stop using it!

I looked up at Blake again, and he was looking down at his fingers.

“Okay, well, this is awkward, so I’m gonna go now,” he gave a nervous laugh and walked to the door. He stopped and turned to me, “Call me when you’re done. We can have a chat,” he said and walked out of my office.

I sighed, “Seth, what are you doing?! You're gay!”

He laughed, “Oh, I know that and you know that, but Blake doesn’t. I was just trying to get a reaction out of him.”

“Well, don’t do that! There’s nothing there. Now get out of my office. You’ve given me a headache,” I sat back down and opened my drawers looking for painkillers.

Seth laughed and walked out. I sighed and cradled my head in my hands. What was I going to do?!