Chapter 11: Explanation

It felt as if my whole day was wasted being stuck in that gigantic place. I wanted to be earning my money to pay for my apartment. It wasn’t as if I had moved out of there, so I still was paying to live there.

Dax had gone to work hours ago and wasn’t back yet. When he got back, I wanted to yell at him some more. He had no idea how much he screwed up my day. I didn’t feel as productive as usual, since I had nowhere to be.

After a few minutes passed, I decided to call Lola. I wanted to see if her day had gone better than mine had.

Maybe she would help calm me down by talking to me. Normally talking to her was almost therapeutic. She knew I only called when I needed to vent or cool off from being angry.

“Hey Lola.”

Lola spoke in a worried tone, “Is there something wrong?”

“Yeah. Someone really got on my nerves today.”

“Was it Dax?”

I laughed bitterly and answered, “Yeah it was. He made me stay in the mansion all day.” I added, “I don’t have my job anymore either. He said I don’t need it now.”

“That’s not okay. I can’t believe he did that to you.”

“I was so mad that I almost wanted to hit him. Maybe I should have.” Suddenly I remembered that I wanted to calm down and asked, “How did your day turn out?”

She seemed caught off guard by the topic change. There was a pause before she said, “Oh, it was average. Some creep hit on me while I was at work.”

It annoyed me that someone had done that to her. I always disliked when that happened to me. This was one thing I hated about my work. Sometimes a guy would hit on me and keep doing it the whole time he was at the restaurant.

I was about to continue our conversation until I saw Dax walk into the living room. He was still in his work clothes, so I guessed he had just made it back. I hadn’t even heard him come back, since I was distracted with my call.

He began heading right for me, which made my blood boil. I was still mad at him for keeping me in the mansion the whole day.

I had to cut the call, so I could see what he wanted. “Lola, I’ve got to go. Something suddenly came up.”

“Okay. I’ll talk to you later.”

After I had hung up, Dax had the audacity to sit right next to me. I was about ready to stand up, but he motioned for me to stay where I was.

“What do you want? Haven’t you done enough already?”

Dax said, “I want you to hear my explanation. Give me a chance to tell you why I did those things earlier.”

I told him, “Fine. I’ll hear you out.”

He frowned and told me, “I wasn’t making you stay in the mansion for no reason. It was for your own well-being.”

“I don’t see why it was for my own good. You took away my job for Christ’s sake.”

I knew I was probably being too hard on him, but my anger towards him had resurfaced. He had no clue what it was like from my perspective.

Dax looked into my eyes and said, “I did those things in order to protect you.”

I felt my face begin to heat up. Though he had gone about it in a brutish way, a part of me was pleased that he was so worried about me. I couldn’t name the feelings that his concern stirred inside me, but I liked them.

Dax noticed my flushed face and said, “Don’t take it the way you’re thinking. I want to protect you in order to keep my future child safe.” He added, “I apologize if you thought I was talking solely about you."

His words hit as if he had slapped me hard across my face. He only really cared about the baby and not me. How could he be so cold to me? I thought he’d have some genuine concern for my well-being.

I tried to regain my composure after being hurt by his words. Then I thought that I should try to get some changes made. I wasn’t going to happily stay in the mansion every single day. I needed to get out and do other things, so I wouldn’t go stir crazy.

I confidently told Dax, “I’d like to negotiate something with you.”

He seemed intrigued and asked, “What would you like to negotiate exactly?”

This had to be carefully worded. I wasn’t going to lose the chance for more freedom, even with new rules in place. No one had ever restricted my life to such extreme measures, and I didn’t enjoy it. Earlier it was like I was in a cage and couldn’t leave.

“I’d like to be able to leave the mansion. I won’t be happy staying here all the time.” I added, “It’d be nice to go and do things while you’re gone too.”

Dax stayed silent for a moment before saying, “I agree, but on one condition. You will be accompanied by a chauffeur at all times. I don’t want you to ever be alone when you’re out.”

Was he kidding me? I didn’t need a babysitter. I was far too old to need someone coming with me everywhere I went.

I had to try to convince him to let me go without accompaniment. It wasn’t something that I wanted to do. I didn’t want to draw extra attention to myself either.

I looked up at Dax and said, “I won’t agree to that. I don’t need a chauffeur with me.”

It was a risk being defiant like that, but I had to stand my ground. I wasn’t going to back down that easily. He wouldn’t get me to be so compliant for him.

Dax shook his head and stepped closer to me. He got about a foot away from me before he said, “Why do you have to be so stubborn? I won’t let you leave by yourself. It’s too risky.” He added, “Not agreeing means you can’t leave the mansion during this time at all.”

I was tempted to roll my eyes at him like a teenager but didn’t. Instead, I decided to go with his demand.

At least I’d be able to leave here whenever I needed to get away from him. It was better than being stuck with him 24/7. I’d have to give up and accept this annoying condition.

I moved a step away from him and said, “Fine. I’ll agree to this condition.”

“I’m glad that’s all been settled,” Dax told me.

Dax walked away without another word to me.

That was fine with me, as I had nothing left to say to him either. I had my quota of the day for talking to Dax. Honestly, I had seen him far more than I had wanted to.

We had been so good at avoiding each other until now. Why hadn’t it stayed that way? I liked it more when I hardly saw him around. He always ended up irritating me after we saw each other anyway.

I planned on getting a break from him for the following day. I couldn’t stand being around Dax much longer, or I’d be tempted to walk out of his life forever.