The Witch Of Alpha

Not A Date...Sort Of

Rowan

I woke up feeling sore and my heart raced, all the memories from last night rushing back to me. I sat up, rubbing my neck and looking at the empty space next to me.

At least he isn't here so I don't have to deal with him. I thought to myself. It's sad when you'd rather your husband was gone than have him around. I sighed and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and shower before Lina woke up.

I looked at myself in the mirror and groaned at how awful I looked. My eyes were puffy from crying all night and I had bruises all over my neck. I sighed, how am I going to hide all this?

I looked through my closet and found a black sleeveless turtleneck so I put that on. It didn't cover the bruises completely but as long as I remembered to keep tugging it up and cover as much of it with make up, it should work out just fine. I paired it with a black pencil skirt and set my black booties aside for right before we left for the day.

I put my hair half up in a high ponytail so I could use the rest of my hair to hide my bruises. I caked on the makeup today so it didn't look like I had been crying all night, I think I could almost pull it off if no one looked directly at me for too long.

Once I was satisfied with my appearance for the day, I got breakfast ready for Lina and went to go wake her up. I opened her door and paused, just watching her beautiful face while she slept. She was so peaceful, she didn't deserve the terror that her father put her through whenever he was mad. He was so good to her when he wasn't mad, but when he was he didn't care that she was scared of him and that made things worse.

I knelt in front of her bed and gently caressed her hair, waking her up with kisses all over her face. She smiled and opened her eyes, giggling at getting all the kisses. My heart just felt so full seeing her smile. She was worth everything for me, I just wished her father would change.

"Are you ready for some waffles baby love?" I asked her with a giggle.

"Are they blueberry?!" She sat up, instantly excited.

"Of course they're blueberry!" I smiled as she squealed and ran out to the table. I let her eat while I picked out a little outfit for her and set it on her bed for when she was all done eating.

When we were all done getting ready and heading out the door, I crouched down to her level and told her, "Listen baby, I know last night was scary. Your daddy gets really mad sometimes and he doesn't know how to control it, but I will always be here for you okay?" She held my hands and nodded solemnly.

"But daddy hurted you mommy. He shouldn't hurt you." She had a bit of anger coming from her when she said it.

"I know baby, I know." Was all I could say. I couldn't justify his actions to her, what if she thought it was acceptable to be treated that way and got herself in the same exact situation as I was in?

"I don't want Daddy to be here when he's mad anymore." She said sadly.

"Me either baby." I hugged her and then stood up, holding her hand as we walked out the door and to my car.

When we arrived at her daycare, I looked at her and said "Honey, make sure you don't tell anyone at Daycare about what happened with me and daddy last night, okay?" The last thing I need is for CPS to come and take her away from me after hearing how bad her father is.

I dropped her off with a kiss and then headed straight to work. I had to meet with Everett at 10 so that didn't give me much time to finalize the quote for the order he asked for.

I rushed in, saying hello to everyone on my way to my office. I set all my things down and immediately got to work making the quote with the cost of the gold thread I found yesterday.

He showed up at my door at exactly 10, smiling while he stood in the doorway holding 2 coffees.

"You seem like a sugary coffee lover so I got you this frozen caramel with whipped cream thing!" He said as he handed me one of the coffees.

"Oh my gosh, you don't know how thankful I am for this, I forgot to get some on the way in and I have been dragging this morning!" I said, taking the delicious looking coffee. I took a huge sip and sighed in contentment. He made my day a million times better just with his presence, let alone this delicious coffee!

"Well I'm glad my instincts were correct!" He smiled and sat down in front of me. "So boss, whatcha got for me?"

"Well I just finalized the cost this morning. With the price of that thread, we're looking at $2,500 for 400 shirts. That's discounted for quantity too." I said, nervous about the cost.

"Sounds great! Can you whip up a prototype for me? I'd love to see the process and what you can do!" He was so cheery, not even flinching at the cost.

"O-Okay...right now?" I asked, surprised by his request.

"Yeah! I'd love to watch the master at work!" He was so excited, it made me nervous to make a mistake.

"Well...first I design it on my computer..." I said, bringing up the computer program I used to make all my measurements and preplan the layouts. "I'm assuming you want the normal sizing of small, medium and large in men's?" to which he nodded.

I clicked around, generating 3 different layouts for the sizes. I changed the color to white with a turtle neck. I made the inside of the neck gold as he requested then printed out the plans.

"From here, we come over to the floor where we grab the fabric blend that we wanted to use and the thread. We put it over on this handy dandy machine that cuts it out according to our dimensions." I told him as the machine cut. But when I looked at him, he was just staring at me and smiling which made me blush.

Trying to avoid him noticing me blush, I grabbed the finished fabric and brought it over to our embroidery machines. "Right here is where we would add the gold. Since I have the gold thread on order, I can just show you with the fake gold thread we currently have." I input the solid block of gold thread that I wanted and the machine went to work.

Meanwhile, I looked at my 6 employees who were just sitting there smiling suggestively at me and Everett. I turned to look at him and he was looking at me with almost a look of longing. I blushed so hard that I think it showed through my brown-ness!

"So, um...what do you do for work?" I asked him, trying to clear out the awkwardness that I felt while we waited patiently for the embroidery machine to finish.

"Well I manage a lot of people. It's like our own community and I'm in charge of everyone. I guess like a mayor?" He seemed to be questioning his own role and I felt confused as to how he wouldn't have an official title when he was running a town.

"Oh wow, that's so cool!" I said, intrigued.

"Yeah, it's a lot of fun but also comes with a lot of challenges." He said, I could tell there was something specific he was referencing as a challenge but I chose not to push it further.

"Well I can imagine. Is that what these shirts are for?" I was curious as to who would need this many very specific shirts.

"Yeah! We're doing a...training program for people who want to be...fighters. So we want them all to wear the same thing." He said, seeming to be leaving some details out on purpose.

"That's pretty cool. Four hundred fighters, that's gotta be a heck of a training program!" I was pretty amazed but I could tell there was something he was leaving out. But I already felt awkward enough so I didn't press the issue.

"It is, I'm pretty proud of it actually. It the largest in the whole country for this particular program." He grinned and my heart twinged, I loved his smile.

"Wow! You're way cooler than I thought!" I blushed, realizing I sort of let go of the professionalism I normally held.

He laughed heartily, "You mean you thought I was lame before??" He asked while laughing. Everyone was watching us now with sneaky smiles and side eyes.

"Well no, but I thought you were an average cool. Like mid-level. Now that I know that, you've been like boosted up to the very beginning of the upper-level!" I joined him in his laughter, it was infectious.

"Oh I see, so I've been promoted." He said, calming down from his laughter.

"Yes, precisely!" I grinned at him, letting myself a little loose for the first time in a long time.

It was just then that the embroidery machine finished with the shirts so I brought them over to one of my employees, Laura and handed the two halves to her.

"Now the lovely Miss Laura here will sew the two sides together and we'll have a finished product that you can take home!" I smiled triumphantly.

"Wow, that's a pretty cool process, I never knew there was so much to it!" He responded.

"Well the fact that we have machines to do most of it really speeds things up thankfully."

"I bet, it probably would have taken four times as long without them!" He still sounded excited.

I couldn't help but smile at him, he affected me in ways I had never been affected by anyone else before and it was so strange.

Just then Laura handed me the finished shirt so I brought it back to the mannequin in my office and he followed. I pulled it over the male mannequin and showed him what it would look like on his trainees. I did a flourish and said, "Ta-da! How do you like it?" it was like last night was a long-gone memory. Everett somehow made me forget all about it.

"It looks perfect!" He smiled at me again, it seemed like there was a look of longing in his eyes. I must be imagining things, why would he long for me? "Listen, um...I was wondering if you'd want to get lunch with me? A-As a thank you for being so accommodating!" He pointed his hand to the mannequin.

"Oh, um...I'm married, sorry." I said, really sad that I had to say that.

"I know. Don't think of it as a date, think of it as a client luncheon! I just want to thank you for doing all this for me..." He seemed so nervous, it was so different from his usual demeanor.

After what Sam did to me last night, I really didn't owe him any sort of loyalty. Especially when I found out he cheated on me yet again. One lunch with a client wouldn't be so bad, would it?

"Okay, if you put it that way then let's do it!" I blushed at my word usage. "I mean, let's go!" and he laughed, it was the most magical noise.