Chapter 8 - The Big Reveal
By Friday evening, I desperately needed to do something that didn't involve architecture.
Or Solara.
Or Adrian Vale's hands.
Especially Adrian Vale's hands.
So bowling with Maya, Ben, Ethan, Daniel, and a few others from work sounded perfect.
And surprisingly, it was.
I couldn't remember the last time I'd laughed that much.
Ben was loudly competitive, Maya was terrible and blamed the shoes, Ethan kept stealing fries from my plate, and somewhere along the way, nobody even cared who was winning anymore.
For a few hours, I didn't think about work.
I didn't think about deadlines.
I didn't think about Ms. Stone.
And I definitely didn't think about the large hand that had been around my waist yesterday.
Mostly.
By the time we finished, my cheeks hurt from laughing and I felt lighter than I had in weeks.
Everyone eventually headed home.
Maya and I weren't ready to call it a night yet.
"Ice cream?"
"Obviously."
The place Maya picked was small and bright, with far too many flavors written across a board behind the counter.
We got our ice cream and claimed a table near the back.
For the next ten minutes, neither of us did anything particularly productive.
Maya scrolled through Instagram.
I scrolled through mine.
She showed me a dog wearing sunglasses.
I showed her a video of a woman dropping an entire birthday cake.
Life was peaceful.
Then the door opened.
I barely looked up.
A little boy and girl came running in, giggling about something, followed by an adult several steps behind them.
The girl immediately pressed herself against the glass display.
"Daddy, I want this flavor."
A voice answered behind her.
Deep.
Husky.
Familiar.
"Of course, bug. Show me which one."
My thumb stopped moving.
My heart skipped a beat.
No.
There were millions of men in Miami.
Some of them probably had deep voices.
Some of them probably-
I looked up.
And in that moment, I found out a lot of information.
The most shocking one was-
Adrian Vale was smiling.
I stared.
Actually smiling.
Not that almost-smile I'd occasionally wondered whether I'd imagined.
Not the tiny movement at the corner of his mouth when I said something ridiculous.
A real smile.
Who knew this man could smile?
Had anyone at work ever seen this?
Did Maya know?
Did Ben?
Was this documented somewhere?
Because I felt like HR should have informed us.
The little girl pointed enthusiastically at something through the glass, and Adrian leaned down to see it.
His smile widened.
I blinked.
Wait.
Was that-
Oh my God.
Was that a fucking dimple?
I stared harder.
It was.
Adrian Vale had a dimple.
Why?
For what possible reason did this man need a dimple?
Looking like a Greek god wasn't enough?
Deep blue eyes weren't enough?
That stupid voice wasn't enough?
And what was the point of having a dimple if there was no use?
I'd worked with the man for a year and had never seen it once.
Apparently Adrian Vale had been walking around with an entire dimple hidden from the general public.
The audacity.
The boy said something I couldn't hear.
Adrian turned toward him.
"I don't want what she has."
"Alright, buddy. What do you want?"
And apparently that was the exact moment my brain decided it had received enough information for one evening.
I looked at the boy.
Then the girl.
Then Adrian.
Then the children again.
There was something-
Oh.
Oh.
Maya's phone slowly lowered beside me.
"Angel."
I didn't respond.
The girl had apparently selected her flavor. Adrian was talking to the person behind the counter now, one hand resting lightly on top of her head while the boy continued examining the choices with the seriousness of someone making a major financial decision.
"Angel."
"What?"
Maya stared at me.
Then at them.
Then back at me.
"Adrian Vale is married!"
I looked at her.
"And a father of two!"
And somehow, until Maya said it out loud, my brain hadn't actually processed that part.
Adrian Vale was married.
And a father of two.
Something happened inside my chest.
Pain.
No.
Not exactly pain.
Something stranger.
An emptiness.
A sudden, inexplicable emptiness right behind my ribs.
I looked down at my ice cream.
What the hell?
Across the shop, the three of them moved to a table.
The little girl climbed onto her chair and immediately started talking.
Adrian listened.
Actually listened.
Not the way he listened at work, where you could practically see him evaluating every sentence for structural weakness.
He leaned toward her.
Answered something.
The boy interrupted.
Adrian turned to him.
The girl interrupted the boy.
The boy complained.
Adrian said something that made both of them laugh.
And his entire face changed again.
I took a spoonful of ice cream.
I couldn't taste it.
The girl somehow managed to get ice cream on her cheek.
Then her nose.
Adrian stared at her for a second.
She grinned.
He shook his head, reached for a napkin, and wiped her face.
She squirmed away, laughing.
"Hold still, bug."
She didn't.
He caught her chin gently and tried again.
I watched him.
This man had screamed my name across an office.
This man had once looked at a material sample like it had personally betrayed him.
This man considered hello an unnecessary conversational luxury.
And now he was wiping ice cream off a little girl's face with seemingly endless patience.
Who the hell was this?
I looked down again.
My hand was shaking.
Only slightly.
But enough that the spoon tapped against the side of the cup.
Maya noticed.
"You okay, Angel?"
"Yeah."
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
I wasn't sure why she was asking.
I wasn't sure why my hand was shaking.
Nothing had happened.
Nothing was wrong.
Adrian Vale had children.
Adrian Vale was married.
Neither of those facts had anything to do with me.
Absolutely nothing.
I looked up again.
And Adrian saw us.
His expression changed.
Not dramatically.
But the open softness disappeared, some of the familiar control sliding back into place.
Maya lifted her hand and waved.
The children noticed immediately.
Both waved back.
Of course they did.
Adrian did not.
Of course he didn't.
A few minutes later, they walked over.
I had no idea what to do with my face.
Adrian stopped beside our table.
"Maya."
Then his eyes moved to me.
"Ms. Stone."
Of course.
"Mr. Vale."
The little girl looked between us with open curiosity.
"I'm Elena."
Maya smiled. "Hi, Elena."
The boy spoke next.
"Lucas."
"Luke," Elena corrected.
He frowned at her. "I can say my own name."
"Then why didn't you?"
"I did."
Adrian closed his eyes briefly.
For some reason, that nearly made me smile.
Nearly.
"I'm Maya," Maya said. Then she pointed at me. "And this is Angelica."
Elena looked at us.
"Do you guys work with our daddy?"
"Yeah," Maya said. "Your daddy is our boss."
Elena's eyes widened slightly, as though this was new and impressive information.
I wondered what Adrian was to them.
Probably not Adrian Vale, Founder and CEO.
Not the man who could terrify an entire conference room by setting down a pen too hard.
Just Daddy.
The thought did something uncomfortable to my chest again.
So I stopped thinking it.
We didn't stay much longer.
Maya finished her ice cream.
I pretended to finish mine.
We said goodbye to the kids.
Goodbye to Adrian.
Then we left.
I didn't say a word on the drive home.
Which, apparently, was concerning enough that Maya checked on me three separate times.
"You okay?"
"Yeah."
Five minutes later-
"You sure?"
"Yep."
At a red light-
"Angel."
"I'm fine."
She looked at me.
I looked out the window.
She didn't believe me.
Neither did I.
By the time I got home, my head was still blank.
Which didn't make sense, because apparently there were also about four hundred thoughts inside it.
I changed clothes.
Washed my face.
Sat on my bed.
And stared at the wall.
Surprisingly, I felt empty and heavy at the same time.
There was a weird feeling in my chest.
I'd never felt anything quite like it before.
But why?
Why did Adrian being married and a father bother me that much?
We hated each other.
Simple.
Except-
No.
Maybe I didn't hate him anymore.
Not after finding out little things about him.
Not after spending so much time around him.
Not after the late nights.
The black coffee.
The stupid crooked house tattoo.
Not after discovering that somewhere underneath the permanently irritated CEO was a man who could actually be funny.
And definitely not after yesterday.
His hand around my waist.
The warmth of his palm through my blouse.
The size of it.
The way he'd gone completely still afterward.
Give me a second.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
No.
Fine.
I didn't hate him.
But I strongly disliked him.
Yes.
That was accurate.
I strongly disliked Adrian Vale.
And him?
He probably still hated me.
No.
He absolutely hated me.
He called everyone else by their first name.
Maya.
Ben.
Ethan.
Daniel.
Everyone.
I was the only person who remained Ms. Stone.
That had to mean something.
And it definitely didn't mean anything good.
But it didn't matter if he hated me or not.
He was married.
A father.
This had nothing to do with me.
Absolutely nothing.
Then why?
Why did my chest feel like this?
Why had my hands shaken?
Why hadn't I been able to finish my ice cream?
Why had I spent the entire drive home staring out the window like someone had just delivered terrible news?
Am I-
No.
No, no, no, no.
Absolutely not.
Don't even think about it, Angelica.
Whatever ridiculous direction my brain had been about to go in, it could turn around immediately and go fuck itself.
There was nothing to think about.
Was I overthinking those moments?
The late nights?
The way he'd stood too close?
Yesterday?
It was nothing from his side.
Obviously.
He had never given me any hints.
Never flirted with me.
Never said anything.
Never acted like there was anything between us.
He moved me out of someone's way.
That was it.
A practical movement in a crowded project room.
So he'd needed a second afterward.
Maybe he'd been surprised.
Maybe he hated being touched.
Maybe he particularly hated touching me.
Entirely possible.
And I'd turned it into something in my head.
Apparently.
I groaned and dropped backward onto my bed.
"Oh God."
I covered my face.
This was humiliating.
And then, because my brain apparently hated me, it gave me another image.
Adrian with his children.
Not Adrian Vale, CEO.
Not the man who yelled across offices and rejected designs with one word.
The man I'd seen tonight.
I couldn't stop seeing him with them.
The patience in his voice.
The way he'd listened when Luke talked.
The way he'd wiped ice cream from Elena's face while she tried to squirm away.
The way his entire face changed when he looked at them.
I'd spent a year thinking Adrian Vale was incapable of softness.
Apparently, he wasn't.
He just didn't bring it to work.
And for some reason, knowing that made the strange feeling in my chest worse.
I reached for my phone.
No.
Absolutely not.
I put it back down.
Three seconds passed.
I picked it up again.
This time, I knew exactly what I was looking for.
Nothing useful.
I tried again.
Vale Architecture.
Projects.
Interviews.
Awards.
The same things I'd already found.
Nothing.
No wedding photos.
No obvious family pictures.
No smiling woman standing beside him.
Nothing.
Of course there wasn't.
The man didn't even have Instagram.
Why had I expected him to provide the internet with a convenient photographic tour of his personal life?
I locked my phone.
Then unlocked it again.
Searched once more.
Nothing.
Eventually, I put it facedown on my nightstand and turned off the light.
Adrian Vale was married.
He had two children.
And absolutely none of this had anything to do with me.
I repeated that to myself until sometime after three in the morning.
Apparently, my brain remained unconvinced.