Love in a nutshell

CHAPTER 2

With my phone broken, I had to head into work to find out what Anna wanted from me the night before. After our long night last night, myself and Elijah ended up not sleeping much. We'd eaten the takeout eventually, after it had gotten cold. In the morning, Elijah headed out to pick up a few things from the office, promising that we'd go out for a bit when he returned. I was heading out to replace the phone when I made the last minute decision to pop in the office, knowing Anna was always in on a Saturday until midday.

I was in a simple summer dress and wedges, dressed for the date later and waited for the elevator to stop on my floor. The publishing house was big but after a week I realised the other departments didn't matter if I knew where I needed to be which was on the fifth floor. There were a few familiar faces and they all smiled at me as I walked past. Anna's office was fully frosted glass and I could see shadows and movement telling me that she was in.

I knocked quietly and when I didn't get an answer I listened carefully but all I heard was muffled noises. I tried the handle and it was unlocked. I pushed the door open, my mouth open in preparation to greet when I stopped dead at the sight before me. There was Anna, in all her red head glory leaning over her desk with her jeans and underwear at her ankles. Her backside was to the door so she obviously hasn't noticed me yet.

Her blouse was unbuttoned with her breasts spilling out on the dark desk. Her hair covered her face so I couldn't see her entirely but the noises coming from her clearly expressed her enjoyment. The man behind her had his own bottoms at his ankles with one hand gripping her hip, over a leopard tattoo I never knew she had and the other covering her mouth.

I didn't have to look at the man for over a minute to know who it was. Elijah. His grunting and groans mixed with Anna's had my throat feeling like sandpaper. He never made those sounds with me, was all I could register at the time. I stood frozen as they both finished and I watched Elijah breathlessly pull out and shift positions before he finally noticed me. "Fuck." Anna who heard him curse looked at him before following his eyes and landing on me.

I looked at them, freshly f****d and Elijah tucked away his limp d**k. "Is that all you have to say?" I finally said. "Lelika-" I gave Anna a look that told her not to f**k with me right now. I fiddled with the strap of my bag, my whole body vibrated with anger, confusion and so many other emotions. "How long has this been going on?" I asked Elijah lowly. "I can explain-"

"How, the f**k, long has this been going on!?" I yelled. "Since you started working here." Anna spoke up and I watched Elijah give her a look. I look in disbelief at Elijah "Two years? Out of the three years I put into this f*****g relationship you've been having s*x with my boss? You didn't even have the goddamn balls to tell me? Both of you." Elijah took a step towards me and I stepped away.

"Anna, please take this as my resignation and Elijah," I looked at him, those green eyes didn't look so beautiful now. Now they just looked like the bottomless pits of hell where I hoped they would both burn. "don't bother coming home until I'm gone and make damn sure I don't see your f*****g face for the rest of my life." With that I grabbed the door and slammed the door, silently hoping the glass would shatter but it didn't.

I tried walking away with whatever pride I had left but my lungs felt as though they were filling up with water and I felt myself being pulled into suffocation. I looked around one final time at the few people around me and I sniffed. "All of you f*****g knew and didn't even tell me. You can all burn in hell." I yelled and stepped into the elevator. I could see Elijah looking at me from the doorway of Anna's office. He looked hurt. Hurt? Hell I should've broken his nose.

The elevator doors closed and I gripped my bag tightly, hoping the leather would soothe the ache in my gut. When the doors opened again on the parking level, I walked swiftly to my car and when the door closed and I was surrounded by silence and the cool leather, I finally broke and let the hurt consume everything in me.

***

Three days after the incident, I finally packed the last box, not that I had that much stuff but the first two days I spent drinking all of Elijah's expensive alcohol and eating ice cream. I'd basically trashed the place while wasted and on the third day, the maid came in and fixed up the place. I finally cleaned myself up and sobered up, ordering some proper food, without any dairy. I'd puked enough ice cream to never look at the stuff again for a while.

I'd decided it would be my last night in the penthouse and sat comfortably on the couch in front of television where I'd been planted for the last seventy-two hours. I'd finished up the salad when the buzzer went off alerting me that someone was on their way up. My stomach twisted and the thought of seeing Elijah so soon made me fear the salad of coming up.

I swallowed the bile and walked to the the door as the elevator dinged and the doors opened with a silent woosh. I blinked a few times to make sure I was seeing right. If you looked quickly, you'd think it was a walking building but once you really focused, you'd see it was a man. I didn't recognise him immediately but when his eyes fell on mine, I frowned.

"Elijah isn't here." I told him trying not to notice the his eyes trailing over the bare skin of my legs. I was only in an oversized shirt I'd bought while still in university and it just reached mid thigh. "I know, he sent me here." Alexander's frame passed me and I followed him as he walked freely through the penthouse. "Why would be send you?"

I watched him help himself to the last drop of whiskey in the bottle. He didn't immediately reply but instead kept quiet. Alexander was Elijah's eldest brother, heir to the throne and the founder of an oil empire. Elijah was a mere twenty-four where as Alexander was thirty-one years old. The middle brother, Brent was smack bam in the middle at twenty-seven. "He told me what happened and asked me to tell you that he wants his apartment back."

I stared in disbelief and shook my head when he offered something to drink. "You telling me he couldn't even tell me in person and had to send his big brother? He is f*****g pathetic." I said and walked away with my arms crossed and sat down on the sofa. Alexander followed and I tried not to notice the way his shirt pulled tight over his torso. Was he always this built? I'd only seen him once or twice while myself and Elijah were together and I shook the strange feeling creeping up the back of my neck. "Why help him?" I blurted.

"I was free, he asked for help, I helped. Nothing to it." He shrugged, the movement looked odd for him with his braid shoulders.

Alexander wore black slacks with a white shirt tucked in, no jacket over to cover up. We sat in silence and I looked at him and noticed how he looked nothing like his younger brother with dark brown waves instead of Elijah's light curls and he was bigger and more built than Elijah.

I found myself looking at this man with something burning between my legs and I cleared my throat quickly before looked away. I got up abruptly and went to fetch some water from the kitchen. When I returned, Alexander sat in the same position and I tried not listening to my brain that whispered dark and dirty things in my head.

"You can tell Elijah that I'll be out tomorrow morning. Now it's been nice catching up but I need to get some rest if I am to be up bright and early." I said hoping he would take the hint. He nodded and put the empty whiskey glass on the table before standing. God this man was huge. I bit the inside of my cheek before saying it out loud. "Listen Lil, I'm not here to get involved between my brother and you."

"But?" I could tell there was more.

"But I've got a VIP booth at a club I go to, if you would like to talk or whatever, you can find me there tomorrow." I frowned when he handed me a card with his number on it. "Why would you do this for me? You barely know me and I for you." He shrugged again. "If I'm being honest, I've always had a thing for you and it would be a waste to have your last memory of our family be with my jackass of a brother. Think about it, no pressure."