THIRTY-EIGHT

Her hair, her eyes, her skin; she looked like her. And it was said that she had been Gabriel Monroe’s secretary. Her eyes widened even more as she read the article carefully;

‘……the reason for her being in Gabriel Monroe’s family house was unknown, but all that was known was that she was the third body found in the remains of his house.’

She suddenly felt nauseous reading it, she felt nauseous staring at the picture of such a vibrant young woman that reminded her so much of herself while knowing that she had died painfully in a fire. She couldn’t imagine how she must have felt being trapped and burnt to death. A lone teardrop which she hadn’t known was lurking close went streaking down her cheek, sniffling quietly, she wiped it off before setting her phone down.

‘Everything about you reminds me of everything I do not wish to remember’ Alexander had said to her, and she couldn’t help but think it had something to do with Nadia. Perhaps he had known her, perhaps they had been close, perhaps seeing her reminded him of the tragedy. That was logical, but what wasn’t logical was why he had kept her around for so long, why torture himself for so long?
She blinked and more tears left her eyes, more followed soon after and she didn’t bother wiping them off. She wasn’t sure what she was feeling at the moment, she wasn’t sure if it was grief or fear. Alexander had a dark past and something about him remained dark till now, what scared her was the fact that she seemed very much like Nadia; he had even made her his secretary. Something about the whole thing just didn’t sit well with her.

She lay there shedding tears over people she didn’t know while getting even more confused by the second, and it went on and on till sleep snuck up on her and lulled her into a dreamless slumber.

Her eyes sprang open to the sound of her phone ringing softly, she jolted up immediately as her gaze scanned around to take it her surrounding; it was all bright, and she was disorientated. It took a moment for her to snap out of it and realize that her phone was still ringing, she picked it up quickly and swiped on the answer icon on seeing that it was Jaxon.

“Hi.” She said, her voice sounded a bit louder than normal due to the fact that she was still trying to gather her bearings.

“Hey. You sound rather enthusiastic today, Ms. Harris.” He replied smoothly. “Good morning.”

She cleared her throat quietly, awkwardly.

“Good morning.” She said as she brushed her hair from her face. “I just woke up; I literally jerked upright.”

He chuckled humorously.

“Sorry I woke you. Wanted to inquire if we were still on for this evening.”

On for this evening? Why did he make it sound like they had made plans for a date or something? Nonetheless, she nodded.

“Sure.” She replied.

“Great. I’ll pick you up by 8pm. Is that okay?” He asked her.

She nodded though he couldn’t see her.

“Yes, yes.” She replied.

Somehow, Jaxon hadn’t been on her mind much for the past two days; she had been so occupied with Alexander and everything else that she had thought much about her newly discovered interest.

“Alright then, Ms. Harris. See you later.” He spoke.

She nodded one more.

“Sure. Thank you.” She said before lowering the phone from her ear.

She waited for him to disconnect the call before blowing out a heavy breath. She had obviously overslept once again and her head felt rather fuzzy, it was probably due to the fact that she had cried a lot last night, or it was due to the fact that she had been so confused. Whatever the reason was, she wasn’t going to dwell on it.

She climbed out of bed and headed to the bathroom, she needed to have pulled her shit together before 8pm; she couldn’t go around acting weird around Alexander when she saw him. It felt almost wrong, the fact that she had snooped around and made discoveries about his past seemed wrong, she felt like she had pried.

The fact that Alexander had never said anything about his past meant that he didn’t want her knowing about it but yet she had gone ahead and done some digging, and she found herself more curious than she had ben even before she learnt what she had learnt. Standing underneath the running warm water of the shower, she found herself lost in thoughts as the warm water cascaded down her body.

She had so many questions, tons of them; how had Alexander managed to get away without a single burn? He didn’t have a scar; she knew that well enough. Was her resemblance to Nadia a coincident or had he deliberately kept her around because of it? If so, why would he keep her around because of his father’s secretary?

After a long moment of intense thoughts, she decided to snap out of it. Her head was beginning to hurt from all the thinking and she was beginning to feel faint from having stood underneath the shower for so long. It was time to start the day.

……

At exactly 8pm, Yalda emerged from her apartment dressed in a long navy-blue silk dress which hugged her curves perfectly before gracefully fluttering down her knees, it left behind a short but elegant trail as she walked. It had long snug sleeves and an almost completely open back which was just the right balance between elegance and provocativeness.

She hadn’t done much to her hair; she had simply held it up and let loose two tendrils which framed her face perfectly. Her heels accentuated every step she took; it caused her hips to sway impeccably. Her make-up was light as was her perfume, she didn’t want the fragrance making her even more lightheaded than she already was.

Jaxon was standing by his car, tapping away on his phone when she stepped out and closed the door behind her. The sound of her heels had him prying his gaze from his screen to look up at her, and she watched his eyes widen in what seemed to be awe as she made her way over to him. His gaze raked over from over and over again, it lingered on her lips before settling on her eyes.

“Hi.” She said when she got to where he was standing.

“Hey.” He responded as his gaze once again raked over her. “You look heavenly.”

She smiled.

“Thank you.”

The intensity of his gaze did nothing to her; she was used to men looking at her this way, she was used to holding their gazes, but what she wasn’t used to was having Jaxon close the space between them and engulf he in a hug. For a moment, she wasn’t sure what to do; she just stood there breathing in the regal scent of his cologne which she found soothing. She chuckled awkwardly but did nothing to pull away.

“You have no idea of just how captivating you look.” He told her. “Like an angel sent from hell.”

She chuckled once more but said nothing. Something about his hug was comforting, and she needed all the comfort she could get right now.