Who is he?
Dora's pov
Every day, Sienna used to drop me off at my house since it was on her way. But after hearing her complain about how Douglas didn’t take her out the other day, Douglas decided to plan a date night.
“Dora, how will you get home?” Sienna asked.
“I’ll book a cab. You guys should go now,” I replied, already looking for a cab on my phone.
“We can drop you. It’s no problem for us,” Douglas said.
“It’s fine. This isn’t the first time I’ve traveled alone,” I assured them.
Sienna and Douglas said goodbye, and just then, I got a notification that Austin, ugh, that guy, wanted to meet me.
“Now what does he want?” I muttered under my breath.
When I went over, he didn’t even look up from his laptop. “Ms. Nur, sorry to bother you, but I need some data urgently. I need the customer satisfaction report for the last quarter. You’ve got 30 minutes to pull it together.”
“Thirty minutes? That’s not enough time! I have to run a program to retrieve millions of customer feedback entries from the last three months,” I said, clearly frustrated.
He stopped typing, ran his hand through his hair, and rubbed his forehead, thinking. Then he asked me, “If two people worked on pulling the data and creating the report, how long would it take?”
“Maybe less than two hours,” I replied, trying to keep my tone professional.
“Is there anyone else from your team available right now?”
“No, they’ve all left for the day,” I said.
“Okay, go back and start retrieving the data,” he said, still typing.
I wanted to argue, but before I could, he added, “If it weren’t urgent, I wouldn’t have asked. I’ll work on it with you.”
I couldn’t help but think, What does he know about creating reports? He’s just a restaurant owner.
I was lost in my thoughts when he asked again, “Is there a problem?”
Suddenly, I blurted out, “Do you even know how to pull data and create a report?” The next second, I froze, mentally slapping myself.
He stopped typing and looked at me, his expression unreadable. “On second thought, bring your laptop over here,” he said. Then he added, “On your way, ask housekeeping to get me a coffee. Black, no milk, no sugar. I hope you remember how I like it.”
Asshole, I cursed him in my head.
“What was that? Are you cursing me, Ms. Nur?” he smirked.
I forced a smile. “No, Mr. Jess, how could I?”
But inside, I was definitely thinking it again. Asshole.
“So get going then, unless you want to spend the night in the office,” Austin said, waving me off angrily.
Reluctantly, I had to sit with him in his cabin. But I was surprised to see his professional side. Even though he’s an asshole, he’s very dedicated to his work.
“Are you done checking me out?” Austin said suddenly, without even looking at me.
You wish, I thought, mentally rolling my eyes. I chose not to answer him and just continued with my work. Inside, I was terrified to be near him. The memories of our passionate night were still fresh, along with the humiliation that followed.
On the other hand, I could feel Austin’s gaze on me whenever I tossed my hair or nibbled my lower lip in concentration. His eyes lingered on my bandaged wrist, and he frowned, probably wondering why he hadn’t noticed it before.
For an hour, we worked in silence, with only the sound of keyboard clicks filling the room. All I wanted was to finish the work and leave as soon as possible. But I was stuck on a coding issue, and it was driving me crazy.
Seeing my frustration, Austin quietly walked over and glanced at my screen. I was startled when he leaned over me and said, “Line 35 of the program, change the syntax and hit enter.”
I rolled my eyes inwardly but did as he said. To my surprise, the program worked, and the required results popped up. I couldn’t help but exclaim, “How did you know that?”
When I turned to him, I realized his face was just an inch away from mine, and he was staring right at me.
“Just so you know, running a restaurant was my passion, but before that, I worked as an anJessst too. Eighteen months of our marriage, and you don’t even know your husband,” he said, his tone more disappointed than sarcastic.
I was speechless, but our moment was interrupted by Douglas’s call.
I silently thanked Douglas for calling at the right time, but I could tell Austin wasn’t happy about it. He looked annoyed, like the call had ruined something. He seemed like he wanted to say more to me, but I quickly used the call as an excuse to step away from him.
Douglas had called to check if I’d reached home safely. It was a sweet gesture, but I could see it stirred something in Austin. What really seemed to bother him was the smile I had while talking to Douglas. What he didn’t know was that Sienna was on the other side of the call, chattering about Douglas’s unexpected romantic side. But soon, her excitement turned into anger.
“What do you mean you’re alone with him?” Sienna yelled, making me pull the phone away from my ear. Douglas was trying to calm her down. I could feel Austin’s gaze on my back, so I excused myself from the cabin and stepped outside to talk privately.
“Sienna, calm the hell down now!” I snapped at her, losing my patience.
“Fine!” Sienna sounded taken aback, but she quickly turned snobbish.
“I can handle this. Sooner or later, I have to work for him, and I can’t let personal issues affect my work. Are we good now?” I said firmly. Hearing my confidence, Sienna didn’t argue. After I ended the call, I could almost imagine her turning to Douglas and saying, “Remember I told you about her being a badass bitch? She took it seriously, she snapped at me. Can you believe that?”
And Douglas would probably reply, “Yes, I can. We can only support her, but in the end, it’s her who needs to fight this. We’ll always be there for her.”
When I returned to the cabin, I was smiling, thinking about Sienna’s reaction. But to Austin, it probably looked like Douglas had made me smile.
*Is he the reason she changed all of a sudden?* Austin must have thought, his eyes fixed on me.
“Who is he?” he suddenly blurted out.
My smile faded, and I frowned. “Excuse me?”
“Excused. Who was on the call?” Austin repeated, his tone sharp.
I rolled my eyes and went back to work, choosing not to answer. I’ve always believed silence is better than unnecessary drama. Even during our marriage, whenever we argued, I’d stay quiet. It avoided complications and spared me the guilt of hurting others with my words. But Austin never liked that about me. To him, it always came off as arrogance.
Taking my silence as arrogance, Austin marched over to me, turned my chair abruptly to face him, and leaned in. “Who was on that call, Dora?”
My heart started racing when Austin suddenly turned my chair and leaned in, his breath fanning my face. I shivered when I saw the rage in his eyes.
“That Mr. Jess is none of your concern,” I replied, my voice shaking.
“Answer me, dammit, or you won’t like what I do next,” Austin thundered, his words sharp and breathless.
I was frightened. To make things worse, I was alone with him. But that didn’t mean I’d let him walk all over me again. This was it, I thought.
“So be it then. He’s one of my clients,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. I was scared of him at that moment, but his behavior hurt me more than anything.
He grabbed my neck when he heard my reply, but the next second, he loosened his grip when I said, “Isn’t that what a whore should do, Mr. Jess?”
He lowered his head and stepped back, as if realizing what he’d done. He was still angry about me talking to Douglas, but my words seemed to hit him hard. That day, he hadn’t meant to call me a whore, it was his jealousy that had taken over when he saw other men at the club looking at me.
He rubbed his temples while I coughed, trying to catch my breath. Before I could fully recover, he snapped, “Get out, right now!”
I felt humiliated. First, he called me in for reports, then yelled at me for no reason, and now he was throwing me out after I repeated his own words.
I didn’t wait for a second. With trembling hands, I shoved my laptop into my bag clumsily and left without looking back.
Who does he think he is? I’m not his toy that he can play with whenever he wants, I thought, fuming.
In my anger, I lost track of time and distance. When I finally came to my senses, I realized I was on a main road, far from the office, and the area looked almost deserted. Luckily, I managed to find a cab and got in.
What I didn’t know was that Austin had quietly followed me. He’d even hailed the cab for me without me noticing. Whether it was his possessiveness or some strange gentleness, he’d interrogated the cab driver before sending the cab my way. He followed the cab until I reached home safely, and only then did he turn his car around and leave.
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