Golden Opportunity

Chapter 2

My clapping is what brings them back from the pleasurable haze they are in. They are frantic in their movements to see who is there to interrupt their time together. When they see me leaning leisurely on the dresser in front of the bed while clapping and looking at them, the shock on their faces is so hilarious, I can't help but chuckle.

"What a show!", I say and stop clapping, a wicked smile forming on my lips.

"Ayla...", Brad croaks out, unable to form words and he gulps, the Adam's apple in his throat visible as it wobbles. I used to find it sexy and enticing when he did that, but now, as I think of how naïve I've been, I want to puke.

I see that he wants to get up from the bed, but I stop him. I don't want to see him in his dirty glory and surely I don't want to meet his little friend.

In the two years we've been together we never had s*x. Maybe it's my fault, but I wanted for us to build up our trust first, and our relationship to not be based on s*x. Because I saw how the pleasure of being intimate with someone can destroy a relationship you thought it's worth it. And the people in said relationship.

Of course, we had our moments when we would give each other pleasure - or I would give him, because he never succeeded in pushing me off the cliff, although he tried -, but never in the form of f*****g. Our first time was supposed to be the night of the wedding. His choice. Hence, I'm still a virgin at 25, and can't be more proud as I am in this moment for deciding to wait for someone that deserves it. I thought he was that someone. How wrong I was. If I would have let him take my virtue too, I would be left with nothing. This betrayal, right here, would have felt ten times worse.

"Don't", I stop him holding my hand up to indicate him to not move. "I'm just gonna take my things and you can continue", I say, not even believing myself how calm I am.

I loved this man so much and worshipped him for respecting me and my decisions and he did exactly the opposite.

I go to the walk-in closet and grab my suitcases and, with the utmost attention, I take every clothing article from the shelves and hangers and fold them meticulously before placing them in suitcases. Just because I'm in a rage it doesn't mean I have to let it out on my things.

In the bigger one go the clothes, each sorted and perfectly folded. In the middle one the coats and jackets. The last one is for hair and body products and the jewelry and makeup. I take my phone from my back pocket and call at the lobby to send someone to help me with the luggages and I gather my last items: shoes. I make sure not to let anything in here as I won't return.

Thank God I had the inspiration to take with me only a few items when I moved with Brad, the rest of the things being supposed to come in after the wedding. That's not happening anymore. Ever.

While I'm doing my business I can hear the two lovers talking in the bedroom. Brad tried to talk to me while I gathered my things, but I didn't hear a thing he said as I was more focused on taking everything that I have.

I hear the front door of the penthouse opening and footsteps coming closer to the bedroom and then Brad's voice as he tries to understand what is happening.

"Who are you? What are you doing here? Get the hell out of my house!" But they don't listen to him. They have a mission to fulfill and that is helping me get all my things out of here in one go.

"Let them do what they're supposed to do, Brad," I say to him while stepping in the bedroom and the two bulky men greet me before going in the closet to take my things.

Brad is looking at me like he never saw me before. And I guess he didn't. He probably expected for me to throw tantrums, to scream and kick at him demanding explanations. Hell, I was expecting the same thing since morning. I imagined myself getting home, seeing him with a faceless Bambi and being so heartbroken and hurting so much that I would barely stand on my feet. But after hearing his intentions, that he wanted me only for my father's company, I guess I began to see things in a new light. I figured out that if he loved me for something I don't have, he doesn't deserve any of my tears. I will get out of this relationship and this tainted house with my head held high and never look back.

He didn't know me at all even after two years.

I look at him indiferent, my face devoid of any emotion and I can tell that it scares him a little. He doesn't know what I'm going to do. He's still naked. He didn't even bother to put some boxer on. The brunette is still on the bed and I can see her from the corner of my eye, sitting there like a deer caught in headlights.

He takes a hesitant step towards me and, as he sees that I'm not backing away, he becomes confident and closes the distance between us holding my cheeks in his dirty and filthy hands. I try with all my might not to flinch at his care display.

"Ayla, baby, I'm sorry... I-It happened just now. I promise you, it means nothing. I love only you, I just let myself get carried by temptation", he fumbles with his words trying to find the right ones to make me believe him. The disbelieving glare Bambi throws in his way tells me that he already told her that she's the only one that he loves and I'm just a purpose to an ends. "Please, don't go... don't leave me, baby!"

There it is again. Baby. I flinch when I hear the word escape his lips. How I yearned for him to call me that way in the last two months. But now it fills me with desgust because that's how he calls her now.

"Look at me," and I look and see the same face I woke up to this morning, with the same messy brown hair and dull blue eyes.

Dull, because, when I look at him now, I don't see any light in them to make me blush with their intensity as they used to. And now that I think of it, I may have imagined that light all those years.

"This is just s*x. Nothing more, no meaning, no feelings. We decided to wait, remember? We didn't say that we couldn't seek it from someone else."

Is he for real?!

"We have a wedding to prepare for, baby. Please don't throw it all away because of a misunderstanding."

This is the tip on the glass and I feel the angry monster inside me peeking its head to the surface. While he still holds my cheeks I place my hands on his shoulders and, not waisting any other second, I raise my right knee and kick him in his displayed balls. At the same time Bambi throws a pillow at him in her own rage and the bulky men get out of the walk-in closet with my language.

He lets go of me and grabs at his groins doubling over and groaning out in pain. The men let out chuckles at what they'd witnessed and go out the door without a word. Bambi screeches in anger at him.

"Misunderstanding!? Did you just called me a misunderstanding?!", she's out of bed now and she hovers over him naked. "You asshole..."

I let him in her rage and look at my right hand. Right there, on the ring finger, the diamond ring winks at me. He was my first real boyfriend. The first man to get me out of my comfort zone and to break the walls I wrapped myself into all those years ago. I take the ring off and I'm about to let it fall on the floor in front of him. But as I take a better look at it, I think: these stones would look amazing as earrings. So I slip it in my back pocket.

I look at my picture above the bed, the one that they just worshipped a half an hour ago. I climb on the bed and get the photo down, wrapping my hands around the frame.

I get down from the bed and see both of them looking at me. I smile as I think about the moment I'll make them pay. I just have to come up with a good revenge plan. Bambi recoils from the expression on my face. I must look really scary in this moment for the fear in her eyes to be real.

I look at Brad who is cupping his jewels on the floor. "If I didn't make it clear enough, we're over. You can go and fool another person into giving you shares in their family's business." I see the shock on their faces as my words register. But I smile, feeling like I was finally freed from this golden cage. And with that I turn around and leave them there.

***

The hurried footsteps coming my way make me pause in what I'm doing and look up at a very flustered Veronica.

She stops once she reaches my desk and places her hands on it to support her weight and I wait as she tries to calm down her labour breathing. Once she recovers, she opens her mouth to say something, but then holds up a pointing finger to tell me to wait. She takes a glass from my desk and fills it with water, drinking it in one go. I shake my head at her antics.

Veronica is my cousin, her father is my mother's brother and we've been like sisters all our lives. We grew up together, she was there with me when I fell off the bicycle and scrapped my knees and I was there with her when the boys in school teased her for her round curves, calling her fat. She was there for me when my mother died and I was there for her when she had her first breakup and the following three.

Now we've grown up, and changed so much emotionally and in physical appearance that you wouldn't recognize us. Although we're the same little girls coming at each other's call in times of need.

Her curves are now any man's dreams, and her height of 5'2 is so adorable. The dirty blonde dyed hair is falling straight like curtains around her small face. Right now, her dark brown eyes are filled with something akin to fear and her thin red lips are finally opening to say what she came here to.

"The VP is asking for you. He said something about a meeting with all the head executives and the CEO and that you have to go with him", her teeny voice is filled with anxiety and she looks at me as if I did something. "What did you do? You didn't do something foolish, right?"

I understand where she's coming from and I was wondering the same thing. Did I do something that the CEO would ask precisely for me to go to the meeting?

Often, the head executives announces one of their staffs to be present in a meeting, but to go to a meeting with the head executive in your department unannounced ahead means that the CEO asked for you. It may be a good or a bad thing, but it usually is a bad thing.

Our CEO is one of the most scarry and ruthless persons out there. At least that's what they say. But I've seen the man a few times when I had the privilege to go to meetings announced and what I saw was definitely not the monster they portrait, but a man that knows what he wants and how to get it. He's so hard-working that in the years this company had been in his hands it only got upper with time.

I might have a little innocent crush on him that I'm not going to address. It's inappropriate and it could being me to unemployment. I'm not the only one in the office, but I seem to be the only one that keeps it quite.

As I seek in my mind, I come to the conclusion that I didn't do anything, so it can be a good thing. So I look at her and say:

"I didn't do anything" I shake my head. I look at the watch on my wrist and add, "what time did you say it starts?"

"11:30" and it's already 11:16. She adds, "and that means you'll lose your lunch. Should I get you something for when you return?"

I get up from my seat and take my tablet in which I keep everything related to work and shake my head in response to her. "I don't think that would be necessary. Let's see what happens and then I'll text you if I have an appetite."

"Sure thing."

And with that, I head to the VP's office. When I reach there, Mr. Bolton is already outside looking at his watch, clearly waiting for me.

He is an old man in his fifties and his beer belly gives away the many nights he watches football on TV with a beer in hand. A bald round head rests on wide shoulders and a little french style mustache is traced above his upper lip.

"Why me?", is the first thing I say as I get close enough to him. He looks up and visibly relaxes.

"I have no idea, and you're not the only one. Miss Carter was also asked for", he shakes his head, as clueless as me. "Let's go and see."

We make our way to the conference room where we stand in front of our respective seats awaiting for the CEO. Other colleagues from different departments are already present, some are yet to come. Alice Carter, another apprentice in our department, is already there as well. After a few other minutes, everyone is present and we wait patiently for the one that called this meeting.

I see other staff looking fearful and I guess they were asked to be here too. Unlike them, I keep my cool, I don't let my emotions be seen, but on the inside, I'm kinda freaking out.

What was I asked for?

We'll see soon, my mind tells me.

I hear the telltale of his approaching, footsteps that contain so much unmistakable confidence, and then the door opens and in enters the CEO's PA and the devil himself.