Chapter Ten
Emma - Saturday Morning
After we returned home from dinner last night. I’d made myself a cup of tea after Colton retired to his room and carried it to my room and curled up in bed and read for a while. It didn’t take me long to drift off.
I’d woken before Colton and was sitting surfing through social media when he appeared in the kitchen doorway.
“Morning,” I sang.
“Is it?” he said, running his hand over his face.
“It is. I was just doing some work for tonight’s benefit dinner.”
“Great,” he mumbled, going over to the cupboard.
Ignoring him, I put my focus back on my social media, swiping to the next post, and just as he started the blender, he appeared on my screen. I couldn’t hear what it said at all, but I saw myself off to the side. It was a video from the event last night.
At the exact moment the blender stopped was when I raised the volume on my phone, the sound almost deafening me.
“What the hell, would you turn that shit down,” Colton barked.
Immediately, I stood up and looked at him, a smile on my face.
“What?” he said, rolling his eyes.
“You’re probably not going to believe it but look!” I said, shoving my phone at him.
He glanced at the screen and shrugged his shoulders, not showing an ounce of excitement. “So what? I see myself in these stupid clips all the time. If you’re excited because you saw yourself, you’ll get used to it and it will annoy the hell out of you just as it does me.”
I rolled my eyes and let out a huff. “It has nothing to do with me. It has all to do with the five million views this has gotten since last night. Colton, people are happy for you.”
“What for?”
“Look, just look at the comments. You are Puck-Lit-Loves’ new favorite.”
“Great,” he muttered, drinking down the rest of the shake.
“It is great. This is what we wanted. If they reacted this way to your speech last night, just wait until they get our interviews.”
“Awesome, well, while you do whatever it is you are doing for tonight, I have to pick up my suit for tonight. So, have fun, and I’ll see you later.”
I watched as he rinsed his shake cup out then he left the kitchen. I frowned, then looked down at the screen, smiling to myself. It was working. So far, my plan was working.
I’d gone over many things for tonight’s benefit dinner, including where we were seated and with whom. There were a few donors that Pamela had warned me about, but she assured me that none of them were being seated with our table.
We’d arrived at the hotel the benefit was being hosted at, spoke with the other players, and once guests started arriving, we all made out way to our tables. Once again, Colton grabbed me a couple drinks at the bar, and once again, I broke my own rule about drinking while he had water.
Things seemed to be going well, and so far, once again, Colton was perfect in every sense, following my exact directions, which I was thankful for as it made my job so much easier, especially when I was on drink number three.
With dinner finished, and conversation pouring I was surprised when another couple approached out table, placing their hands on the back of the two empty seats at our table.
“Mind if I join you, Fox?” a man questioned, a woman who I assumed was his wife stood beside him.
Immediately, Colton shifted, and an uncomfortable look came over his face. “Ah, sure thing,” he said, sitting back down beside me after shaking hands with him.
I leaned over to him once he’d sat down. “Who is that?”
“John Martins,” Colton whispered.
I grabbed my phone, quickly pulling up the list of donors Pamela had warned me about, and sure enough there was his name. Since I knew this could turn bad, I placed my hand on Colton’s upper thigh and leaned into him once more.
“Just remember, keep things in check, okay. Just like we went over,” I whispered.
Colton nodded, picking up his glass and taking a drink.
I took a drink and then noticed John was watching us. I gave him a small smile, but he looked away and whispered something to his wife.
“So, Colton, I saw your apology last night,” John said, the entire table turning their focus on him.
“Great, what did you think?” Colton asked.
“Well, let me see, I think that most of it was great, but I don’t believe a fucking word of it when it comes to the two of you.”
I was mid-swallow when he’d finished, and I couldn’t help but begin to cough.
“Why is that?” Colton asked.
“Oh, I don’t know. The two of you don’t really seem to mesh.”
I sat forward in my seat, about to say something to John, when Colton placed his hand on my upper thigh.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Colton said, stopping me before I could say anything.
I grabbed my phone and was about to message Pamela to see if we could get John relocated to another table when I noticed Mark had messaged me.
Instead, of closing the message like I should have I quickly got lost in a replay of a conversation we’d already had, quickly forgetting all about asking Pamela to move John and his wife.
In fact, I was so deeply rooted in the conversation that I also forgot that I was supposed to be focused on the now until I heard voices raise.
“It’s not okay. It’s rude!” John yelled.
I lifted my head from my screen to see he was glaring at Colton and then me. I had no idea what he meant by that, but I noticed the entire table was now looking my way.
“Unfortunately, it may come across as rude, but Emma is a very busy executive and sometimes her career takes precedence,” Colton said, looking over at me.
Just as John was about to say something, my phone vibrated against the tabletop once again, this time going off more than once.
“For the love of god,” John said, throwing his napkin down.
Immediately, his wife gripped his arm, quietly reminding him where he was, when Colton turned to me.
“Get up from the table, deal with whatever it is, and get back here,” he said, gripping my upper leg tightly, his eyes burning with frustration.
I didn’t say a word, but I did as he suggested, and as I walked away from the table, I heard Colton continue to apologize on my behalf.
I’d just made it into the ladies room in time for my phone to ring. I quickly looked under each stall to make sure I was alone and then answered.
Mark’s harsh and hurtful words hit my ears, quickly sending me to tears as he brought up another article he’d seen that had just been published, along with the video from last night that had gone viral.
This was why I never drank, because whenever I did, I lost the ability to have a backbone, and I allowed my emotions to take over.
I struggled to compose myself before someone came into the bathroom.
I’d had no clue how long I’d been in the bathroom, but when Mark finally ended the call with the date in which he’d planned to return my key, I hung up the phone, dried my eyes, and then stepped out of the stall to an empty bathroom.
I shut my phone off and made my way back over to the table. Immediately, I noticed John and his wife’s empty chairs. Then I noticed Aurora was with Colton, helping him with receiving donations from the others.
“Where is everyone?” I asked, looking around the empty room.
“They left.” Colton shrugged.
I glanced at Aurora to see a worried and concerned look on her face.
“What do you mean, they left?”
“The event is over. They served dessert while you were in the washroom and did the final presentation, donations have been collected, and everyone left.”
How long had I been in there?
“Did you achieve your fundraising goal?” I questioned, looking at my watch, shocked to see the time.
“Nope.”
I felt my stomach sink.
“Why not?” I asked, swallowing hard.
Colton cleared his throat and looked from me to Aurora, giving her what I could only perceive as a warning glance.
I could tell there was something else he wasn’t telling me, and I was about to ask her what had gone on when Larson approached the three of us.
Aurora quickly thanked Larson for the evening and then excused herself and made her way across the room to where Dylan was waiting to leave with the rest of the guys.
Once they had made their way out of the room, I grabbed my clutch from the chair and went to thank Larson as well before we left, but he spoke before I had the chance to.
“Well, Colton, how much did you raise?”
Colton glanced at me, and then shrugged.
“What do you mean?” Larson said, mimicking the shrug.
“If you’re asking if I hit my goal, I didn’t.”
Larson looked over at me with a disapproving glance and then back to Colton. “How much are you short?”
“Forty thousand,” Colton added.
“I gave you the smallest goal. How the hell did you not hit it?”
“Look, I’m sorry, but why did you seat Martins at this table? You know my past with him.”
“I know your past, but we are supposed to be fixing that, and I didn’t seat him with you.” Larson said, turning his attention to me.
“Don’t blame her. You know better.”
“Colton, I’m warning you.”
“No, I’m warning you. As usual, Martins pissed me off.
He got into my face earlier this evening with his underhanded comments, hitting me below the belt.
Then he started in on Emma, and once she’d left the table, he continued questioning me about my personal issues.
I warned him not to bring it up, but he didn’t stop.
So, when he didn’t heed my warning, that is when he got what he deserved,” Colton said, crossing his arms over his impressive chest.
Panic filled me. I didn’t know what happened after I’d left, but before I had, the only thing he’d said was that he questioned our relationship.
“What do you mean he got what he deserved?” I questioned, gripping his forearm.
When he didn’t answer me right away, I looked at Larson, who now had his eyes trained on me.
“Where the hell were you? Perhaps you were a mistake. Maybe I should fire you and cut his contract on the spot.”
“Mr. Larson, I’d like to draw your attention to the videos from last night.”