Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
Madison
T he day was going so much better than I had anticipated. No major crises had come up yet, and it made me realize just how scared I was that we would have had to cut the entire trip short and return to New York.
Sighing and needing a little while to myself without any watchful eyes, I got onto the bar stool and took my seat. Just then, his whiskey was delivered, which made me relaxed that he hadn’t even touched it.
I stared at the drink, and with no further choice, I took it over to him. He thanked me for it, and I decided to head over to the bathroom. With all this intense staring he was doing, I needed to be sure that I looked good.
Just then, however, a door from the men's bathroom swung open, and someone almost ran into me. I looked up, ready to apologize, but when I saw who it was, the words died on my tongue.
“We meet again,” Felix said. “Is it just me, or is the universe trying to bring us closer together, but you’re avoiding it?”
I managed to smile but didn’t bother saying a word because he was making reading him even more difficult for me. Smiling, I tried once again to move away from him, but he caught my hand.
“Not so fast,” he said. “You’re always so cold whenever we meet. I’ve apologized for that night. I’ve told you that it was just a misunderstanding.”
I really didn’t want to engage with him. There was no point whatsoever, but I had to do something to stop him from thinking that it was okay ever to come up to me.
“Really?” I asked. “You apologized? Because I haven’t heard any apology from you.”
The smile instantly left his face.
“I spoke to you earlier,” he said. “I told you that I didn’t have any bad intentions towards you.”
“Saying it isn’t enough,” I replied. “But I feel like you did, so I’d really like it if, as a result, we keep our relationship and interactions solely professional.”
“Have I been anything but?” he asked, and I tried to pull my hand out of his grasp, but he wouldn’t let me go.
“This is what I mean,” I said. “You can’t do this.”
“No, you absolutely can’t,” came the sudden voice, and my heart nearly stopped in my chest.
I turned to see Hunter before us, and his gaze was as sharp as daggers. He was glaring so angrily at Felix that I almost wanted to step in the way so that he wouldn’t hurt him.
“It’s alright, Sir,” I said. “He was just trying to apologize for that night.”
“Don’t speak on my behalf,” Hunter said.
“The fact that he gives you free rein to do whatever the hell you want around him because you’re letting him fuck you doesn’t mean that anyone else should.” Felix replied.
My eyes widened in shock.
“W-what did you just say?”
He smiled.
“Isn’t it obvious? You think that you two can hide the fact that you’re fucking each other's brains out at night? I don’t mean to be offensive, Mr. Swift, but I do think that despite the leeway you give to your secretary, she should learn to be respectful to your business partners. Speaking to me so rudely is unacceptable because I do have a company of my own and staff to manage, while she, on the other hand, is nothing but a meager secretary.”
I was close to tears; however, I would truly have rather killed myself in that moment than to show how hurt and ashamed I felt. And so, I managed to work up a smile, wanting this moment to be over. Needing this humiliation to have never happened.
“I was just heading to the bathroom; I’ll be out soon,” I said, not to no one in particular, and continued on my way.
What I heard next, however, was the agonized shout of a man as he was punched so hard his body was slammed against the wall.
Something wet splashed over me, and I was so scared that I nearly screamed. For a split second, I was sure that it was Hunter, so I turned around, ready to intervene in the best way I knew how. But then I soon saw that it was Felix and that he was melting down the wall like wax. He held his face in his hand and couldn’t stop yelling or bleeding for that matter.
“You broke my fucking nose!” he yelled. “You fucking bastard, you broke my nose.”
Hunter, on the other hand, looked as though he hadn’t even moved a single muscle. The only evidence was the fact that by his side, I could see him flexing his right hand.
“Avoid me for the rest of this conference,” Hunter said. “I don’t want to see you in any of the meetings we attend, and when people are greeting, I don’t even want to see you in the vicinity, or you’ll have to explain to them why I will be breaking your nose for the second time in the same week.”
“You...you fucking asshole!” he yelled, but he didn’t try to go after him. I was so petrified and shocked as I looked at both men because I couldn’t even process what was happening and the consequences that would ensue. The consequences!
Hunter was going to lose this deal. It was a small one! It was his entrance into Asia. This was why he never wanted to have any relationships with the women he worked with. This was the reason why he always separated his personal life from his professional life. This was all my fucking fault. Now he was upset and, on my side, but it wouldn’t be the case tomorrow or even a week from now.
“Sir,” I immediately turned to him. “I think this is a misunderstanding. He was just trying to be friendly with me.”
At my words, he gave me the most furious and angry look I had ever seen on his face. It seemed even worse than the way he had looked at Felix, and it was more than enough for me to keep my mouth shut.
A small crowd was gathering, and in their midst were two of the officials we had been having lunch with. I couldn’t believe it. He left me there, and then he left the clubhouse. I couldn’t follow. I couldn’t be in the same car with him; I was sure he wasn’t going to wait for me, so, I returned to grab my things and then left the clubhouse altogether.
I didn’t want to go to the hotel at first, but then I realized and recalled that we weren’t in the same room. Though it was side by side, he did have his own room, and I had mine, so I could stay there comfortably without being scared that I would run into him.
How the hell had things escalated so badly? I couldn’t believe it. It took a while for me to get myself together, but soon enough, I was able to grab a taxi, and he took me back to the hotel.
When I arrived, the corridor was deadly quiet, as well as his room. There were no sounds coming from it.
I wondered if he had even returned to his room or if he was still somewhere within the hotel. It didn't matter. All that did was that I was hidden away where I couldn't run into him. After heading into the room, I locked the door, which was completely fruitless because I was sure the door connecting to his room was open. Yet I couldn't dare lock it because he was sure to hear it, and that in itself was another huge drop of blood in the well of contention that was now between us. I couldn't believe just half an hour earlier we had been all over each other, and now I was more or less hiding from him. Without even bothering to take off my clothes, I got into bed and tried to think of where exactly I had gone wrong.
I knew he was angry with me because of the way I had interfered, because of the way I had tried to cower and diffuse the situation. But what else had he expected me to do? Fan the flames? Felix, that asshole, was absolutely right. I was nothing but his secretary. And so, I had to act like one, but instead, I had caused such significant damage to his business operations.
Knowing him, I knew that was unforgivable. He never let anything, or anyone come in between his work, and I would be no exception whatsoever.
Sure, he was furious right now on my behalf, but would the same be the case later on? Would he even care? All he would see when he looked at me was the woman who had made him lose a huge deal. And that was something that Hunter would never find acceptable when he came back to his senses.
This, unfortunately, and despite how worried I was, was one of those things where there was no immediate solution. We both had to calm down, and we both had to come to our senses and resolve this logically. He, as well, had to recall that I was nothing to him but his secretary and the woman he slept with. He couldn't mess up his business relations for me, no matter what.
Sighing, I shut my eyes and tried to get to sleep. My current way of thinking was the truth, but it didn’t change the fact that it was incredibly painful. But I was okay with approaching things this way because to me, he wasn’t just my boss and the man I slept with. He was someone that I cared incredibly deeply about, and I didn’t want, as a result, to negatively influence the thing that he cared deeply about.