Chapter 16
Elena
“Looks like Daddy is on his way here.” She says with much happiness in her tone.
“Reneè!” I shout at her, my voice strains as I continue. “I will murder you.”
“What?” she giggles in her seat.
“Why did you text him that? I will never be able to face him ever again in the office.” She texted him that I am drunk apparently and now he is on his way here to pick me or rather us up. I will bury myself into the ground tomorrow and never come out.
“See I did think this through because I am not stupid but,” she wiggles her fingers in front of my face and bops my nose with her finger. “If the texts were convincing enough, you might get laid tonight. None other than from Daddy Harvey.” she sings out his name. I widen my eyes at her when she starts jumping in her seat and moans out his name.
I laugh at her, not because she is funny - okay maybe a little. Mostly because she is an idiot. “Ahh, yes Mr Harvey. Spank me Daddy.”
“Oh my God. Do not call him Daddy. That is weird.” I hide myself deep into my car seat out of shame and cover my now red face with my hands as I giggle shamefully. “You are disgusting Reneè!”
She stops jumping in my car seat which will be sanitised after tonight and glares at me. She holds her hands up in surrender. “Okay how about this?”
She continues her childish act but moans out his name this time.
What kind of friendship did I get myself in?
I did not sign up for this.
The dark street lights up. The sound of an approaching engine breaks me out of my thoughts and I grow nervous when I notice Gabriel in the sports car.
“Holy fuck.” Reneè murmurs under her breath as her eyes practically grow hearts when she sees Gabriel’s car. She places her hands right on my freshly cleaned window, fog builds up against it as she breathes on the window. “That is a bloody Aravis F8, Elena.” she informs me.
I nod at her with much less enthusiasm. “I can see that.”
She looks over her shoulders at me with an annoyed glare. “Don’t be such a buzz kill.”
“I am being a buzzkill? You are the one that got him here?”
“Are you changing your mind about wanting to fuck your boss?”
Yes, I am.
Before it was champagne talking and now, all I can think about is how this might become the end of a job I actually enjoy.
I grow nervous as I watch him step out of his car with a straight expression on his face that he quite so often wears. I swallow the lump down in my throat and take in much needed oxygen as I was not breathing while watching him.
“You are soooo checking him out, Lena.” Reneè acknowledges my staring and blush creeps up my cheeks at being caught.
“I am not. Just simply…” my voice gets quieter as I watch him round my car. “Observing.” The sudden knock on my window knocks me out of my observation or maybe I was indeed staring. I press the button on my car door, biting my lip as the car window slowly goes down and reveals Gabriel’s gorgeous face that is loaded with a poker stare that he so often has in the meeting room.
Oh God.
Even when he is mad he is… hot .
I open my mouth, but he cuts me off as soon as his name leaves my lips. “I am going to do this the nicest way possible, Elena. Get out of the car, you are not driving drunk. If you get a fine, send it to me and I will take care of it.”
I tilt my head to the side in confusion of his words. “That was the nicest way?”
“Do not tempt me to lose my gentleman card with you Elena. It will not end well for you.”
“That is your gentleman card?” I ask with much confusion. I hiss as I get a hit on the side of my stomach. “Ow,” I curse at Reneè through gritted teeth. “Sorry, I sounded rude. Gabriel, I am not drunk and I am sorry for wasting both of our time. I am more than capable of driving and do not need a chauffeur.”
I grit another noise of hurt at Reneè when she hits me again. I glare at her but she only nods with her head to the side where Gabriel’s car is. I shake my head at her audacity.
“You’re right, you do not seem drunk.”
“See!” I shout in excitement but clamp my mouth shut with my hands immediately after the word left my lips.
“I can tell,” his voice turns even more serious than it already was. “You couldn’t even pick up my sarcasm.”
“That was you being sarcastic?” Reneè chimes in from the other end.
Gabriel’s eyes seem to darken as they shift to my best friend. He clenches his jaw before looking back to me with a softer expression.
I let out a harsh breath as he doesn’t seem to budge. “Gabriel, I appreciate you but I can drive on my own.”
“Normally I wouldn’t judge your ability to drive but when you have drunk what? Four, five glasses then I am sure as hell leading to your death if I let you drive.”
“Five glasses of champagne cannot get me drunk.”
He shakes his head.
“Okay, maybe they can, but I am sure I am just tipsy.”
“There is not a chance I will even let you drive tipsy.”
“You can and you will.”
I can tell his patience is wearing thin the longer I argue with him. He takes an agonising deep breath in, closes his eyes as he breathes out. “Elena,” he calls out my name, making it sound like the finest art piece at a museum. That does not make sense. “Get out of the car. Please?”
“I am tired of you guys arguing.” Reneè groans and throws her head back with much frustration. “Elena, stop being petty and get the hell out of the car.”
She shoves my shoulder and I stare at her with a sour expression, mad at her. I watch her with my mouth slightly open as she opens the car door and steps out, slamming it shut at the end.
Gabriel arches his eyebrow at me. Without much more argument, I cave in. I power down the engine and pack the keys to my car in my bag. Gabriel grabs me by my forearm when I try to get to the backseat of my car. I look up to him, his dark eyes stare down at me. My heart starts to race and there are a few seconds of silence, before words come one, the deep tone in them, the worry in them makes my stomach turn. “What are you doing?”
“I need to get my dress,” I say quietly. “I hate wrinkles.”
The warm feeling of his large hands leaves my arm, a shiver runs along my body as the cold breeze of the summer air hits me. “I’ll get it for you. Get in the car.”
“I can get it myself.” I say, trying to pass by him and just as I reach the car door handle, he beats me to it and opens the door. He reaches for my dress that is wrapped in a bag, throws it over his forearm while holding the bag with the same hand.
“I know you well enough to know that you can, Elena. Just get in the car. I’ll get it for you.” A weird warm feeling expands in my chest at his words.
He slowly closes my car door with his free hand. I shut the doors close with the button on my keys and throw them back in my handbag. A warm hand caresses my back, I slightly jump up at the contact. Gabriel leads me to the passenger seat of the car, opening the car door for me.
I give him a quick glance before I sit down on the leather seats of his car, I chuckle when I sit down on the leather seat. I watch him in the rearview mirror as he opens the back truck and carefully places the bag with the dress inside along with the shoes.
“Leather seats. Seriously?” I ask him as she shuts his door close and revs the car to life. He just winks at me as he places his hand at the back of my seat and drives out of the parking spot in reverse.
I am not one to admit but who knew that a guy driving would be this hot.
I chuckle when I look back to Reneè and she mouths an ‘oh my God’ as she is just as in love with his veiny hands as me.
For the twenty-minute drive to Riri’s apartment, I spend it by looking out the window and admiring the view London has to offer. I have always loved the view that London has and I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Okay, lie. I would trade it for Monaco view but that is the only exception.
I feel a pair of eyes burning through me but I ignore his intensive staring and try to keep it low with my movements.
His presence makes me nervous.
He makes me nervous.
Describes why the hell I have my legs crossed and clench them to get some kind of friction because he is making me act weird and sending signals all over my body.
The tension on the car heatens and my breath hitches when a message goes through my phone.
Unknow n : I miss you, Lena.
I smile at the ridiculous desperation Ben possesses and pass my phone to Reneè in the backseat for her to handle him. “Write to him whatever you want. At this point it is just ridiculous.” I tell her. She snatches the phone from my hand and before I know it, she is deep diving into the conversation, or rather she is deep diving into the argument she is about to start.
“Who?” Gabriel asks as he turns into Reneé’s street, his eyes glued to the road.
I tilt my head as I chuckle because I will sound ridiculous when I mention his name. “My ex.” I counter. “Again.”
“He is not leaving you alone?” He turns his head to me for a mere second as he asks me, as if he is trying to find out if I am amused or rather… scared.
I shake my head. “He has been rather clingy than I would like him to be.”
“He still is?” His question catches me off guard. What does ‘He still is?’ mean?
I furrow my eyebrows; his question make questions appear in my head. “Still? What do you mean?”
His eyes widen slightly from the view of his side profile. He presses his lips to a thin line as he shakes his head. “Nothing.”
The car comes to a stop. The back door unlocks but I do not seem to care enough as all kinds of answers swarm my brain. Reneè knocks on the passenger window, she hands me back my phone as soon as I open it. She leans against the door. “Thank you for making my day off…memorable.”
I chuckle at her word of choice. “I will not call it memorable if buzz kill showed up.”
“Excuse you?”
I look over my shoulder to Gabriel, who looks at me with an eyebrow raised.
“You heard me.” I shrug my shoulders.
“I would call it memorable because I got to ride in Da-“
I close my eyes and shake my head, in hope that she will not say what I think she is about to say.
“In Gabriel’s car,” I let out a sigh of relief when she did not say the nickname she gave him earlier. “So, thank you.”
“That’s a first.” Gabriel comments.
“Shut up.” Reneè shoots back at him without a second thought. I believe anyone can tell that they met once before and they did in fact try to kill each other, or so has my best friend told me.
“Just get to your apartment before you kill each other.” I suggest to keep an argument from happening. “I love you, and good night.”
She blows me a kiss before she moves away from the car for Gabriel to be able to drive out. Before she disappears from the mirrors on the car, she mouths the word ‘details’ and expands her fingers in the air, insinuating to tell her everything if something were to happen tonight. I shake my head at her and her ridiculous mind. I have long forgotten why Gabriel is even here in the first place but she apparently has not.