Chapter 27-Working together
Jonathan's POV...
The silence that followed my words was deafening.
I felt like reaching out into the air and snatching back what I said, but it was too late. The surprise on her face morphed into stunned realization.
"You don't dislike me?" She asked with uncertainty. "If that's the case, then why do you have so many trust issues? You accuse me based on whatever it is you must have heard..."
"It was a voice note" I cut her.
Her words died in her throat, her lips still parted as she wanted to say more before I cut her off.
"It was a voice note" I repeated. "I got the message the night after the morning you woke from the three days' sleep. It was from an anonymous sender"
I pulled out my phone and played the voice note.
'Lena, I don't want any mistakes or loopholes. I need to use Jonathan's influence to make my name big. I'll pretend to fall in love with him and then use him'
My chest tightened at the last line.
She laughed softly. "That is definitely not me. I don't know how the 'anonymous person' used my voice exactly, but that doesn't sound like me and you know it"
"That's definitely AI. Whoever it was must have extracted my voice from interviews or speeches and used it for that"
I stared at her. She was right. That didn't sound like her. Knowing her this last month, she was not someone that relied on or used other people.
"But, why didn't you tell me about this?" she asked.
"I was mad at you," I admitted.
Her brows furrowed. "What" she muttered.
"Yeah" I nodded. "Earlier that day, you said I gave you an excess dose on purpose. You sounded so sure of it, you didn't even give me a chance to clear things. You just drew conclusions"
She laughed. "You were mad... because of that?" She asked, a smile tugging at her lips.
"Call me petty, I don't care" I shrugged, though not meeting her eyes.
"But I apologised," she said.
"It didn't matter. I had already received the voice note by then and drew conclusions. Besides, I wanted to accuse you the same way you accused me" I said.
She laughed. "You're so petty" she continued laughing. "Who would have thought that the all and powerful Jonathan Ryder was a petty person"
I chuckled when she said that.
"Seriously, this anonymous person is so bad at pretending to be someone else"
I bent my head slowly. I had an idea who it could be. She was the only person so desperate.
She let out a sigh. "Now we've cleared things up, it'll be great... no, good, if we work together from now on and share any news concerning this partnership. Let's work together and not against each other," she said.
I nodded.
She brought her hands forward for a shake. I took her hand and we shook hands. Her hand was so soft, it felt like silk.
"Now let's have a proper toast to our partnership" she said.
I raised a brow at her.
"I know. With a glass of water" she added and I laughed.
"Who toasts with a glass of water?" I kept on laughing.
That moment felt right. We had seen each other wrongly and assumed the worst about ourselves. It was refreshing how we will work together from now on.
"Now, mind enlightening me about trouble in paradise?" She asked as she crossed her legs.
I sighed. "Well, investors are not willing to invest. My tech launch was supposed to be a few days before the scandal happened. It had to be delayed and several other factors furthered the delay"
"So why are they not investing anymore?" She asked.
"I don't know," I shrugged.
She nodded and looked around. Was she looking for something?
She looked back at me. "Why not give them a reason to not back out?"
"I have already" I responded.
"I don't think you have. If not, why are they no longer willing to put in money and I'm guessing they're not the only investors that are not willing" she said and looked at me directly.
"So, what are you saying?" I asked.
"When I was in high school, I really hoped to be an innovator. To be the brains behind any successful company. So, I studied a lot how human beings think so I would be able to bring ideas that no one would reject or be willing to bypass"
I nodded. "Okay"
"You have to give them very good reasons as to why to invest, that is, make them realize that if they don't, they'll be losing out big time"
Seeing her think and speak like that really increased my awareness of her capabilities.
"I'll tell you how to go about it" she said as she took a paper from the table.
That night, we worked around how people's minds worked and possible ways to get them so invested in what you do.
I watched her as she spoke. The way her hair would fall sometimes whenever she bent and she would tuck it behind her ear. The way her lips moved when she was talking and how it would part slightly when she was thinking.
She was so gifted and talented.
"So, what aspects of tech is your launch about?"
I didn't know she said something. I was watching her. She was writing on a paper on her lap. She bit her lips as she wrote.
"What aspect of..." she stopped midway because she looked at me and discovered I was looking at her.
I coughed and looked away. "Sorry, what were you saying?"
She didn't answer. She squinted her eyes as she looked at me. She kept looking at me, and I began to feel uncomfortable.
"Okay, I'm sorry. I was lost thinking" I gave an excuse.
"Sure" she nodded, but I knew she didn't believe me.
We spent the night brainstorming ideas of how to draw in more investors and make them unwilling to back out. Her ideas were so amazing. I was glad I told her about everything.
I opened my eyes slightly. The morning sun was penetrating through the curtains.
I opened my eyes fully.
Audrey and I were leaning on each other and her hair was touching my arm. She rested her head on my shoulder. We must have fallen asleep here after all the work last night. I bent my head and looked at her sleeping face.
Her lashes were pretty full and long. I stared at her lips. They were pink and succulent.
My hand raised on its own and wanted to trace the outline of her lips.
Stop! My brain screamed. My hands froze in the air as soon as I saw her eyes flutter open.
She raised her head off my shoulder and looked at me. My heart was beating erratically in my chest. What was wrong with me?
"What were you doing?" She asked.
My brain tried to come up with a reasonable excuse. Oh my God.
"I... I was trying to catch a fly" I deadpanned myself as soon as I said that.
A fly? Really Jonathan?
She was still looking at me. "A fly, in a standard suite as this?" She asked and chuckled. "You need to be able to come up with better excuses or rather... lie" she said and stood up and went inside the room.
I watched her as she walked inside. Why does my heart beat whenever she looks at me and more importantly, why do I notice every action of hers?
Someone is catching feelings. Ha ha ha.