7. Blair
SEVEN
blair
“We have a standing appointment with—”
Annoyance churned in my gut the moment this girl opened her mouth and cut my mother off.
“We don’t do standing appointments,” she said, never making eye contact. “And today we are all booked.”
I watched her from behind my sunglasses, type slowly, flick her gaze up and then go back to typing.
“If you looked, we could—”
She had the nerve to huff.
“You need an actual appointment to be seen here. We don’t take just anybody and—”
The laughter spilled from my lips before I could stop it. But nothing was funny.
“I’ll give you about thirty seconds to call somebody up here with manners,” I said slowly. “But that’s all you get before I reach across this counter and put your face through that monitor.”
She reared back as if I slapped her and almost immediately opened her mouth to speak, but I wasn’t in the mood for the bullshit.
“Now you have twenty seconds.”
I pushed my cross body behind me and tipped my sunglasses down.
“Ten.”
When I took a step closer, she popped up from her seat and scurried away. I hated a disrespectful ass bitch, especially when it didn’t cost a thing to be kind.
“You didn’t have to threaten the poor girl.”
“And you didn’t have to accept her behavior, but here we are anyway,” I said coolly, pushing my sunglasses up on my face again.
It didn’t take long for her to return with a much older woman in tow, who wore a gentle smile. But had come with a burly man to have her back just in case.
And I respected that, so much so I pulled my sunglasses off and gave her a smile in return.
“Hi, I’m Veronica Jones, the manager for today. I understand you have a standing appointment with us?”
I nodded and held my hand out for her to shake.
“It’s nice to meet you, Veronica. I’m Blair Phillips and this is my mother Kendra. We do have a standing appointment under the name O’Sullivan.”
Miss attitude’s eyes bucked.
“Oh!” Veronica shot her a look before turning back to me. “Of course. The owner did inform me of this. I apologize for the misunderstanding and—”
“I wouldn’t consider your employee’s behavior a misunderstanding, though. Her attitude is nasty and my mother didn’t deserve to be treated as some peasant. No person deserves that. I hope the Designer Loft takes swift action to rectify the matter or we could find another—”
Veronica’s hands shot up to stop me.
“The matter will be rectified. Let me show you to your private room.”
We weaved through the expansive space and settled into the largest suite they had to offer.
“Your bridal specialist will be in soon. Can I get either of you a glass of wine or champagne?”
My mother accepted the offer but drinking in the middle of the morning wasn’t my thing.
Once Veronica left, I did a quick sweep of the room then positioned myself across from the door.
“You’ve turned into someone I don’t even recognize,” my ma said out of nowhere. “Paranoid and vicious.”
I sighed.
“Vicious would’ve been killing her on sight.”
Her jaw clinched and I rolled my eyes.
“You’re married to a man who’s supposed to be a representative of God. Yet, he’s a criminal and an adulterer who doesn’t repent.”
“Your father—”
“Is the reason you and I can’t sit in a room together as mother and daughter without having this same conversation over and over. Don’t preach to me, ma. I’m surviving the best way I know how, protecting myself the best way I know how. It’s not like I could ever depend on you for that.”
She sighed and I put my attention on the text that’d come through from Esmeralda.
Be there in thirty.
My driver is outside. Give everything to him and wait until I’m finished with this fitting.
I’d just stashed my phone when the door opened and a much younger version of Veronica walked in with my mother’s glass of wine in hand.
“Morning! I’m Andrea and I’ll be your bridal specialist.”
She had a chippy personality but not the annoying voice that usually came with one.
I could deal with her for an hour or two.
“It’s nice to meet you, Andrea…” I stood and held my hand out. “I’m Blair and this is my mother Kendra. The wine is for her.”
She handed the glass over and then took my hand, her grip firm.
I liked her more after that.
“My fiancé set this appointment up and I feel he had something up his sleeves. Am I right?”
Andrea hit me with the brightest smile and my heart gobbled it up. It answered my question and all I could think was how much I loved Sean.
How much I had to make this up to him so we could be happy like before. I needed to hear his voice again. My heart really needed it.
“You’d be correct,” she confirmed, her hazel eyes sparkling. “I had the honor of taking this order and monitoring the progress for the last eight months. Every detail was handpicked by your fiancé.”
Eight months?
It fed me, finding that out, and I wanted more.
“I helped him get your measurements,” my ma said softly, grabbing my attention. “You thought you were being fitted for—”
“The birthday gift you gave me.”
It’d been a custom fitted vintage Chanel coat dress in dark cranberry.
“So you two have been communicating for a long while,” I mused, wondering what other things they discussed behind my back. “Alright, then. Let me see what he came up with.”
Andrea all but squealed and opened the door to roll in a rack she’d left in the hallway.
On it was a single gown zipped snug into a white garment bag, that she removed and hung on a wall hook. I watched with my lip tucked between my teeth as Andrea unzipped and revealed the beauty inside.
My heart melted the more my gaze took it in.
The details were…
I stepped closer and swept my fingers down the tiered ruffled skirt, across the sweetheart neckline and cinched waist. It was exactly as I’d described to him at twenty.
What had been a playful conversation was suddenly real and in front of me.
“Can… I want to try it on.”
Andrea opened the fitting room door and waved me inside. I glanced back at my mom to find her eyes glued to me before slipping in and undressing.
“Your fiancé truly adores you.”
I smiled and as she helped me into the gown, thoughts of Sean running rapid in my mind.
“He’s the best. I wouldn’t trade him for the world.”
She buttoned me in and as I stared in the mirror at myself, the tears I’d been holding back burned the corners of my eyes.
They were falling by the time she finished and stepped around to stand in front of me.
“Oh no! Are these happy tears or—”
The fitting room door opened before she could finish and through the mirror I got a look at Sean with a frown marring his handsome face.
I spun around, shocked to see him, and got tangled in my dress. He reached out, kept me balanced and helped fix the layers of ruffles, too.
Once our gazes met, it was hard to look away from him. Sean wasn’t the sixteen year old I’d fallen in love with anymore.
He was a grown ass man and a goddamn fine one at that, with smooth dark amber skin, beautiful unkempt eyebrows that framed the brownest down turned eyes.
The beard he’d been growing since twenty-one had thickened over the years and the urge to push my fingers through it hit me hard.
Sean stepped completely into the room and Andrea without a word said to her, left.
I looked down and wiped my tears away.
“I didn’t know you were coming.”
Silence filled the space and my heart ached to hear his voice. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could take the silent treatment.
“Did I get it right?” he asked, that deep tenor wrapping around me and holding on for dear life.
He lifted my chin gently and I had no choice but to look into his eyes again. Sean was about six-foot-five and at five-foot-eleven, I still had to look up.
Something about it made my heart race.
“You got it right. Thank you, Oisin. For always thinking of me.”
I could see the sarcastic response dancing on the tip of his tongue before he said it and braced myself for the impact.
“I can never switch up on you, Amoy. In my eyes, we’re a team. You could’ve told me if it wasn’t the same for you anymore.”
“That’s not fair, I—”
“Not your turn to talk,” he cut in, a slight tick in his voice that told me to back down and go with the flow. “First step you can take to get back on my good side is telling me why you hired Jaslyn.”
I took a small breath of relief, grateful it’d been something I could easily comply with.
“I wasn’t the only one who suffered inside of that church. Most of the women I’ve been in contact with were violated in ways I can’t imagine. Jaslyn is helping me right those wrongs.”
He hummed and took a step closer, the smell of coffee and chocolate drifting with him and straight to my clit.
“Are you in danger?”
I shook my head.
“Not yet but I can’t guarantee it’ll stay that way.”
“Does Landell have anything to do with your father?”
“Yes,” I answered without hesitation. “But I don’t know exactly what he’s up to. I was following a trail and stumbled across a job for a hacker that matched what I was looking for. At the time I didn’t know it was him but after expressing interest I put two and two together…” I moved into his personal space and gripped his coats lapel. “I kept everything for you. All the correspondences, the code embedded into Niamh’s system and the source code given to me by Landell. It would’ve exposed your routes but I changed it to expose me instead.”
He leaned forward and pressed his forehead to mine. It gave me pause but only for a brief second.
I would take what I could get.
“I can’t tell you everything yet.”
Was it even worth keeping from him at this point? I needed time to think on it.
“Had a feeling you’d say that,” he mumbled. “I’m not exactly mad, Amoy. Just… disappointed. I thought you trusted me.”
And then he took this giant step back and left me with an aching heart.
I wanted to scream for him to make it better but had no right to. Not when I had to face the consequences of my actions like a big girl.
When Sean found out what I been up to all these years, how I’d weaved myself into his world and planted roots he never expected to grow, disappointment wasn’t the only thing he’d feel.
He might actually want to wring my neck. Or maybe he knew and simply wanted me to tell him on my own. I wasn’t sure.
“I trust you, Oisin,” I told him, knowing it wouldn’t stick like before but laying the foundation for later anyway. “I trust you with my mind, body and soul.”
It wasn’t about trust but greed.
I craved to be seen as his partner in not only life but business, too. For him to rely on me in ways he’d rely on his brothers or cousins.
How could I tell him, I wanted to be his second-in-command, if I wasn’t worthy of the position yet?
“Give me a chance to show you better than I can tell you, okay? Can I have that?”
Sean’s eyes searched mine for a long while but eventually he nodded.
“You can have that…” he turned and opened the door but paused under the archway and glanced over his shoulder at me, brow raised. “Be home by eight and not a second later, got it?”
I nodded quickly.
“Don’t make me come looking for you, Amoy.”
Maybe I want you to.