18. Rosenna
Chapter eighteen
Rosenna
O ver the next few days, life went back to normal. Well, as normal as it could be. Gavin was still gushing over Beckham. Half the time, I simply tuned him out. Meanwhile, Beckham had essentially ghosted me. Since our confrontation in my office, he had stopped texting and calling.
Kira received an email from Vincent’s assistant, which I initially assumed was confirmation that Beckham had indeed pulled out of the contract; however, the message was simply to gather dates for advertising the art expo. So was he going to pull the contract? Or did he have something else up his sleeve?
Today was Vincent’s Billionaire Brunch, and unfortunately, my normal life was about to come to an end.
Sitting in front of my vanity, I finished curling my hair as I placed a cute flower clip in.
A flower. Ironic…
No… No . Not everything is about Beckham. My world doesn’t revolve around him. He just thinks it does . My subconscious thought it did, too, as I found myself wearing an off-the-shoulder, above-the-knee, light blue, ruffle-fitted dress with pink flowers .
I thought about changing several times, however—
“You look beautiful, honey,” Gavin said, coming over and placing a small kiss on my head before he stepped out of the room.
—I decided not to. My husband complimented me . It had been a while since I heard a genuine compliment from him, and this one came with utter ease. I almost had to do a double take. I wondered what exactly had gotten into him, but I knew exactly what or rather who it was. My only question is why he was all of a sudden being so affectionate. Was it something Beckham said? Did he mention anything?
Slipping on a pair of light pink open-toed, strapped heels, I fluffed my bouncy, wavy curls before grabbing my clutch and walking toward the door, trying to ease my mind of the millions of questions clawing for answers.
“Let’s get a move on, Rose. We don’t want to be late,” Gavin yelled from the bottom of the stairs.
I descended as quickly as I could. How did I get the invitation, but he ’ s more excited to go than I am? Probably because he’ll get to talk to his new best friend.
As we drove to Vincent’s residence, we made small talk before Gavin mentioned the man of the hour once again.
“You think Beckham will be there?”
I bit my lip. Are you sleeping with the man, or am I?
Snap out of it, Rosenna!
“He probably will be. But you never quite know with him.” I shrugged nonchalantly.
“The guys and I are still working on getting him to come to our poker night. Hopefully he’ll make it,” Gavin said. This was about the millionth time he’d mentioned poker night since meeting Beckham. I nodded, gazing absentmindedly through the window.
“Yep... hopefully.”
Soon, we arrived at Vincent’s home… well, mansion, and were flagged down by the valet. He opened the door for me, and I thanked him as I held his hand to step out. Someone immediately grabbed my arm, and I looked over to see Kira doing her usual “fixer-upper” things to my look in order to make me look more presentable.
Gavin rolled his eyes as he watched her fluff my hair. “Why couldn’t we leave you somewhere?”
Kira gave a fake laugh. “I should be asking the same about you, Gav. I actually am here to do my job, you know? You’re just here to smile and walk around. I’d say one of us is more important, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Kira,” I warned as I gave her a look.
She grinned harmlessly. “Kidding as always, Gav! Love you!”
She gave me the side-eye as Gavin placed his arm around my waist, and I rolled my eyes at her, hiding my smile.
We were soon escorted through the mansion and toward one of Vincent’s gardens—that’s one of them. This one was used for guests, events, photo ops. The kind of place that existed purely to be admired.
As we walked toward it, I was in awe. It was gorgeous—stunning, actually. Rows of perfectly pruned hedges framed the open space. The sleek marble wine bar glittered under the sun. The gazebo overlooked the lake that sat in the middle of the garden, its still surface mirroring the sky—
And then it hit me.
I had to come to terms with the fact that an actual billionaire called me on the regular, and I was sleeping with his son.
“Rosenna, my darling, so good to see you,” I heard over my shoulder, and I looked to see Vincent approaching me with his million-dollar smile. He gave Gavin a handshake as he greeted him and smiled as he greeted Kira as well. “Glad to see that everyone found the place and made it in one piece.”
“You have a lovely home, Mr. Garcia,” I said, smiling.
He rolled his eyes. “Tell that to my son. He hated it growing up as a child.”
Gavin spoke beside me. “Where is Beckham, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Vincent took another sip as he looked around. “He should be by the wine bar with his date…”
My eyes immediately snapped over to the bar.
Indeed, there was Beckham, sitting with a smile on his face as he spoke to a beautiful blonde woman. She had the features of a model and the smile of an angel. I watched briefly as she said something and his smile grew wider as he laughed…
So, he smiles for her but not me?
I felt a pinch on my side by Kira, and I looked back to Vincent as his eyes lingered on me.
He looked away and smiled. “Please, enjoy yourselves. Rosenna, don’t wander off too far. I’d like to introduce you to a few more of my associates.”
I nodded, and he walked away as Gavin fixed his suit. “I’m gonna get a drink, Rose. I’ll be back in a minute.”
Once he was out of earshot, Kira whispered, “What was that about?”
I shook my head as I made eye contact with Beckham for a split second before I looked away, not wanting to be subjected to his dangerous gaze.
“Nothing. Nothing at all.”
“Don’t tell me you’re jealous of Beckham’s date…”
I felt my face heat up as I crossed my arms defensively.
“I am not.”
Kira shrugged. “Just asking. Let me know if you need me; we can definitely make this a two-against-one fight for him.”
I groaned internally. “God, I need a drink.”
I left Kira alone and went to the second bar in the garden. Rich people …
I ordered a Sex on the Beach and sipped it occasionally as I discreetly looked over my shoulder to see Beckham still laughing it up with his date.
I shouldn’t be upset. I shouldn’t be angry. I shouldn’t be feeling jealous… but I was. A sick part of me wanted him to notice my dress, notice my hair, notice my effort in looking pretty today… almost as if my husband hadn’t told me that I looked beautiful earlier. His compliment from this morning was supposed to be enough. It wasn ’ t.
Instead, the man who usually couldn’t keep his eyes off of me hadn’t gazed at me once this entire time. All he had done was make me realize how desperate I was, going after a man who would only smile at me when it was for his own benefit or when he was torturing me—and with my husband only a few meters away at that.
And the beautiful blonde, she was all over him, touching at his arm, leaning over as she laughed, leaning in just enough to press against him, angling herself so he had the perfect view down her dress.
Taking another sip of my drink, I could feel my eyes narrowing into slits, my hand tightening on the stem of my glass, ready to snap it.
Someone sat beside me. I looked over to see it was Vincent.
“You seem rather… agitated, darling. Are you not enjoying the party?”
I smiled, letting go of the bubble of frustration I was in as I shook my head.
“You couldn’t possibly do anything that I wouldn’t like, Mr. Garcia. The party is wonderful…”
He hummed as he took a sip of his drink.
“Beckham... actually requested the assortment of flowers on the tables to be… roses specifically.”
I did my best to hide my blush behind my hair. “Well, they’re beautiful.”
He nodded. “His date is actually the daughter of one of my colleagues… She’s been pining after him for months. I wonder why he finally decided to take her on a date.” He shrugged.
I took another sip of my drink. To make me jealous.
After a moment, Vincent stood up as he placed his glass on the table. He held his hand out for me, and I glanced down at his hand.
“I didn’t invite you for nothing, Rosenna… Everyone is looking forward to meeting you, and I’d like to get a head start. Afterward, we can get you seated and fed, and hopefully you’ll have cheered up by then.”
I smiled as I grabbed his hand, allowing him to help me off the chair. He guided me toward his colleagues with a rather protective hold as he placed his hand on my back.
I glanced up at him for a split second. Strange. This was the closest thing to fatherly I’d ever felt… reassuring, present… warm.
I was practically eye candy for the entire afternoon as I smiled, nodded and collected business cards like party favors. Kira joined us, and we basically took over the party. Maybe she’d had one too many shots for my liking, but she was still more than capable of making deals with Mr. Garcia’s rich friends. She was a hustler, that’s for sure, and I couldn’t have been more proud.
When I’d spoken to at least a dozen of Mr. Garcia’s billionaire posse, Vincent gave me the okay to step away. In doing so, he gave me free rein to explore his home, and I did exactly that, a glass of wine in one hand and my clutch in the other.
As I walked around his home, I found myself leaving the scene of the party and entering a more secluded part of the mansion. Going to the sliding glass door, I entered a patio on the other side of the estate, where it was silent.
Taking a sip of wine, I sat on one of the sofas to relax; however, I felt tense when I heard the sliding glass door close behind me. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Beckham leaning against the glass in his white button-down, grey dress pants, and attractively disheveled hair as usual.
As I met his gaze, my heart fluttered as his jaw clenched.
“Did you miss me, Flower?”