Chapter 14
This very moment of verbal exchange made me feel as though I was fighting for my life. Yet, as I saw his interest wane at me and my words, I knew that I was losing him. However, I couldn’t lose this job, and I most certainly couldn’t lose the bet with the girls, so I thought of what to do, what to say to ensure that I got the time I needed to find my footing. Threatening him with the potential lawsuit coming his way should he refuse sounded like the dumbest thing I could ever possibly do, because he was basically the best lawyer in town, so how the heck was I going to get away with that? In fact, it might even aggravate him enough to get back at me, so I didn”t see any sense whatsoever in going that route.
Completely defeated, I nodded in understanding and had no choice then but to take my leave. I had already offended him, argued with him, and now it was over. I felt a bit more relieved than I had earlier, though, because of this confrontation with him. Maybe it was senseless to feel that way, but I couldn”t deny it, so I held onto it as I exited the restaurant. I had to call a taxi to take me back to the office so that I could quickly get my things; however, just before I could hail one down, a dark town car stopped a little distance away, and in the next second, I heard my name. His tone of voice was more than enough to send shivers down my spine, but now I didn”t need to respond anymore or pay him any attention, so I ignored the call altogether.
He, however, didn’t have any intentions whatsoever of allowing me to ignore him. A taxi started to approach then and pull up to the curb, but before I could even reach for the handle to open it, my hand was suddenly caught like a vice. I gasped; my eyes filled with fear as I turned to look at the man.
”I was right?” he said, refusing to let me go even when I tried to pull my hand away. It was all somehow presented as him being nice and friendly, and so even when I thought of making some sort of scene to show how uncomfortable he was making me feel, without the context, everyone around was sure to conclude that I was being pointlessly sensitive and overreacting like a typical woman.
”What are you doing in this part of town?” he asked. ”I just saw you yesterday; I called you, but I didn”t get a response. Are you ignoring my call? I”m pretty sure your boss won’t be happy to hear that I had an update for your company from mine.”
”I don’t work with him anymore,” I replied and wondered if it was appropriate to say so, since I had more or less simply taken a sick day off. Now, and since this job with the firm didn’t work out, then it meant that I was basically unemployed, and I couldn’t have that.
”You don’t work with him anymore?” he asked, still holding onto my hand. ”Well, I guess that can be good news for me. We constantly have openings in our hotels and resorts, so there is no doubt that I can find something for you immediately. Come with me; let’s?—”
”Please let me go,” I asked. ”I can speak to you about this a bit later, but for now?—”
”Let her go.”