Golden Opportunity

Chapter 8

GAVIN

After our talk we began to work on the project. When Beau came to me this morning with the footage from the floors, he said that on the management department I'll find something interesting and, when I remembered that it was Ayla's floor, I became a little uneasy. What if someone did something to her? So I looked at it first. The whole time, my eyes were focused on her desk. And, when I saw the unmistakable appearance of Ms Carter heading towards her, I zoomed in.

The rumors began the day after I saw Ayla in the lunchroom and I heard about them after a few days when they got to Beau's ears. Some girl seeking for attention was using me as a way to gain it. I let it be, thinking that after a few more days there will be another gossip and the current one will be forgotten. And I thought it happened because five months on a row I hadn't heard anything else. I didn't know that the girl I went to a hotel room with that night and the one spreading rumors are one and the same. I hadn't seen her face clearly that night and when I saw her in meetings or on the hall she felt familiar, but I couldn't pinpoint her, so I didn't mind her.

I heard Ms Carter warning Ayla that she didn't win anything and that she doesn't believe in her fals care for others, but when she leaned over the desk and lowered her voice, I heard nothing else. But I heard Ayla's comeback and I couldn't contain my laugher.

This woman is something...

I took Ms Carter in and by only the way she was dressed I could say that she wasn't my type.

When I asked Ayla, I did it because I trust her and she didn't disappoint. She said exactly what I heard and, when she said that Alice warned her that I'm hers, I almost lost it. What if Ayla believes her? Would I have at least a chance?

I have to do something about Alice Carter. I warned her Friday that I'm watching her movements and at the slightest mistake she's gone. I guess it's time for her to say goodbye.

Ayla's pale hand enters in my eyesight as she traces with her long and delicate finger some lines on the sketches spread across the table in my office. I use this table at lunch or when I have a visitor, mostly my mother, Lana or my i***t of a best friend.

"If we go here", she points the terrain near the wall, "I think a garden would more likely fit. Don't you think?" She looks at me expectantly.

Her hands are on the table sustaining some of her weight and her red hair is falling like a curtain across her right shoulder. I stand beside her, my right hand a few inches away from her left and our face are so close at this moment I could move only a little and our lips would touch. I wonder what they taste like. The scent of vanilla is wafting from her to me and it causes my mouth to water.

I see her eyes going unconsciously across my face and stopping at my lips and I want nothing more than to take her in my arms and kiss her. Out of nowhere, I remember her question.

"Yeah, it would fit", I say in a low voice moving a little closer to her, my eyes on her lips and then her eyes, as if they are asking for permission.

Fuck, I don't know how much I'm gonna resist without at least touching her. But I don't want to scare her away.

She's like a pull. She draws me in like a moth at a flame.

My right hand has its own mind though. It touches hers and I can feel her shuddering at the contact.

I'm affecting her. That's a start.

She moves closer, her green eyes wide and I can see that her breathing is a little out of control. Only a few inches. I turn my head slightly on the side and I see her eyes close and her lips parting slowly. Her breath is fanning on my lips. My lips touch hers and when I'm about to press them harder...

There is a knock on the door.

The sound makes her part away from me and she's now standing a few steps away trying to regain her composer. I see her cheeks reddening.

I curse under my breath ready to kill someone for interrupting us.

"Come in", I say in an annoyed tone.

Beau enters into the office and says "Sir, I was wondering if you need anything. If not, then I would take my leave."

Leave? I look out the glass window behind me and see that it's already getting dark.

"What time is it?", I ask going to my desk.

"It is half past 19, sir."

Shit. We've been working all day and even a little past working hours. Thanks to Beau, we took our lunch, but that too while looking at the sketches.

"I should leave too", Ayla says while grabbing her blue suit jacket from the back of a chair at the table.

Her attire today works wonders on her, the simple blue colour making her pale skin even more porcelain-like. The fabric shorts and floral patterned heels make her long legs look endless and I fantasized about them wrapped around my waist enough for today. It is hard to work with the knowledge that a particular part of you is hard. The strap top she wears isn't making it any easier.

"Do you want me to give you a ride?", I ask.

"That wouldn't be necessary", she says in a slightly shaky voice. "I have my car today."

I take my own blazer and iPhone. She goes to her office through the connecting door and take her things. I get out and lock the door of my office and she does the same to hers. Beau has already left by the time we prepared. We head to the elevator and get in. The silence and tension between us is awkward and it becomes too much at some point. But neither of us is saying a thing. We just stand there close to each other but it feels like we're two miles away.

The metal doors open and we get out and into the lobby. The place is vacant at this hour and as we go out to the parking lot there are only two cars left. Mine and a blue Mini Cooper.

Ayla goes to the Mini Cooper and, before she gets in, she turns around and comes in my direction. She raises on her tip toes and my heart beats erratically at this point. But she kisses my cheek. She lets out a sigh and parts away with a small smile.

"Good night, Gavin", she says.

"Good night, Ayla", I reply in a low voice.

She turns around and gets in her car and in a two minutes she's gone. I stand there like a lost poppy watching his master leave.

I love her smile.

***

There is a knock on the front door just as I reach the stairs. I look at the clock on my phone.

1 a.m.

I've been trying to sleep from 2 hours now, but my mind wouldn't let me rest. I was so close today. So close to kiss her, to feel her body pressed against mine...

I guess I should thank Beau for the interruption. I could have destroyed the little friendship we've built so far.

The knock is heard again, this time accompanied by the door bell. Who could be at this hour? I look at myself as I pass by a mirror in the foyer. I'm wearing only a pair of satin pajamas pants because I got up from bed with the intention of going to the kitchen to take a bottle of water. I'm in my house, after all.

I open the front door of the penthouse right when the person behind it presses again on the bell. Insistent much?

As I open the door my eyes fall on blonde shoulder length hair. Cobalt blue eyes meet mine and the girl doesn't even wait for me to say a word. She enters in my house as if she owns it.

And I guess in a way she does.

She's my sister, after all. And it doesn't matter how much I love her, sometimes she just knows how to pull on my last straw.

"What are you doing here, Lana?", I ask annoyed.

"Am I not allowed to come and see my brother?", she replies and plops down on a couch in the living room.

I roll my eyes and go to the kitchen. I take my time in pulling a bottle of water from the fridge and, after a few moments of thinking, I take another one. Maybe she's thirsty too.

I go back to the living room and give her one of the bottles and sit down on the couch in front of her.

"Do you even know what hour it is?", I ask.

"As a matter of fact, I do", she states. "You should thank me I came", she declares. "Otherwise, you would have woken up to Mom without having the slightest idea of what is coming to you."

Now I'm all eyes and ears. I lean on my back on the couch, propping up my right leg and closing my eyes with a suffering sigh.

My Mother. So, she's up to something.

"Say it already", I say as minutes go by without her sayings a word.

"Oh... I thought you've fallen asleep", she says.

I chuckle at her words. She's weird this way.

"Well, she'll come in the morning to announce you that she found you a date for the company's anniversary."

I groan. She's done that a lot in the last years. After Beatrice left me at the altar she took it upon herself to find me a better woman. She would arrange blind dates with her friends' daughters, dates I didn't go to. I have to make her stop somehow.

"Did she now?", I ask absentmindedly.

"Yeah, and unless you don't have a good reason to refuse, I don't see you getting away this time", she warns me.

"What if I tell her that I already have a date?", I say already forming a plan in my mind.

It has to work. It would be like hiting two birds with the same stone.

"Do you?", I can hear the excitement in her voice so I have to give her something, even though it would be a lie for now.

"Yeah", I say like it doesn't matter.

She lets out a high-pitched scream and in two seconds she's at my side on her knees.

"Who is she? Is she beautiful? She has to be! What's her name? Do I know her? Where did yo-", she lets out a string of questions that I'm not in the mood to answer right now.

"Easy, Lana", I interrupt her. "I tell you this: her name is Ayla; yes, she's gorgeous, and no, you don't know her. The rest you'll find out another time. Now go to sleep, it's 1 in the morning, for God's sake!"

And with that I get up from the couch and head to the master bedroom upstairs with Lana singing behind me. "Gavin and Ayla..."