Chapter 9
The more I thought of her, the harder I became. And this inconvenient and highly annoying fact became quite aggravating as the day wore on. It made me realize just how stressed I was because my mind was defaulting to her as an escape.
One image in particular kept coming to mind, and it was when she had squatted down for a shot in the vineyard. The sight of her full ass and hips straining against the fabric had instantly turned me rock hard, and it had taken a very upsetting phone call afterwards to bring me back to my senses.
I wanted her, briefly, but since she was still working for Aurora, I couldn’t help but wonder if this would interfere negatively with the wedding. We were already taking a lot of control away from her, and I didn”t want to mess up the relationship between her and the photographer she liked to be added to our list of offenses, or else her grudge might truly become immovable.
Still, I couldn’t help but inform my assistant to be on the lookout for her email and to ask for her phone number. Afterwards, I waited as I sat through meeting after meeting until eventually and quite unexpectedly, at a few minutes past ten that night, it came in.
I was already on my way out, but my assistant forwarded it to me, and I opened the link to peruse the pictures.
I flipped slowly through them and nodded. They were alright, good actually. Perhaps Aurora would love them and find whatever she was looking for in them, but I didn”t have anything else to compare it to. The lighting was good; it was clear moments were captured. I logged out of the link and checked the email that it was sent from. I instantly replied to it. “
What”s your phone number?” I asked and waited.
I had given her my business card, and like most women usually did when they had access to me, they usually didn”t waste any time in contacting me, but she didn”t seem interested whatsoever. Or perhaps she had just been busy with her work. I gave her another half hour, and when she still didn’t respond, I threw the phone aside and forgot about her.
When I arrived at home, I had a guest waiting for me. She was in my living room and had the television on, eating through a tub of ice cream. I had no idea where it came from.
I was exhausted and didn”t really want to entertain any guests, but I was always happy to see her.
“Thought you were going to ignore me forever?” I said as I headed over to the kitchen. After taking my jacket off, I grabbed a bottle of water and drained more than half of it in one go.
”I am, and I”m not here because I want to talk to you. I hate to even be doing this, but I just came to tell you that I don’t care what you all think about my photographer. She”s going to be with me until this wedding is over.”
I watched from across the apartment, and then I went over to take a seat. She pretended to ignore me, but I knew that she was paying rapt attention and waiting for what I would say.
“Why couldn’t David make it today?” I asked. “You didn”t invite him?”
“Why do you think?” she asked.
“You told him I was coming.”
“He”s not scared of you,” she said. “He just doesn”t want things to be more difficult than it should be for me.”
I nodded then. “I appreciate him for that.” However, she was far from happy.
“Why can”t you just let him be?”
“I didn”t interact with—what do you mean?”
“Exactly. He feels like he”s not good enough, and as a result, he keeps working like a dog as though he”s trying to gain the respect of the whole family.”
I sighed then and hated just how tormented she was.
“Rory, let me make something very clear,” I told her. “I don”t have any problem with David. His credentials aren’t the most prestigious, but he has a lifetime to make his name. And if he doesn”t, you’ll be taken care of regardless. So, as long as he doesn”t hurt you, I”m fine. The only place where I want to be involved is the wedding because of your status as a member of our family. This is an opportunity, as I told you, for us to honor business contacts. The owner of the vineyard we”re using is a partner we’ve had an exclusive contract to export their wines for the past fifteen years. We’re not even paying for the venue or much concerning your wedding. No one”s trying to restrict you; we”re just trying to take advantage of the situation, amongst other things. I don”t think we’re asking for too much.”
I stared at her and then she sighed and looked away.
“Someday you’ll understand a bit better,” I said, and she frowned even more deeply.
“And as for your photographer, I saw her work. She”s alright. She doesn”t have to leave.”
“What about the event planner, Victoria?” she asked. “She”s annoyed me from the first moment I met her and she opened her mouth.”
“That”s another one of the business partners we cannot offend. Her father is on the board of Qattara and you know what that means and what that does to our partnerships with their hotels all over the world. There”s no way that suddenly firing his daughter when she”s already months into planning the wedding will bode well for either of our families. So please tolerate her till this is over, and if that gets too hard, then you can put your attention on Evelyn instead. She seems to have a beef as well with her so it might make you feel even better.”
Afterwards, without a word of response, she got up and returned the half-eaten tub to the freezer.
“I”m sleeping here,” she said and went on her way. I couldn”t help my amazement but once again Evelyn popped into my mind, and I instantly got up and headed straight to the shower.