Perfection Isn't Ours

Chapter Ten

•••

Mason rushed to his phone, picked it up and frowned when he realised it was a text from Fiona instead.

Baby : Hey, Mason. I'll be late today. So I'm not at home right now or later. And I couldn't cook up something at home. On your way back, have something to eat. Bye.

He sighed and dropped the phone, then put on his suit jacket and purposely left his tie. Just then, his secretary walked in while using her tablet. Her brown hair had two pens sticking out of it and her prescribed glasses were fixed perfectly on top her straight nose. She looked up and smiled cheekily at him.

"Hi, Mace," She said and sat on his desk. He rolled his eyes at her sentence then leaned forward with his hands on his desk.

The people I work with, he thought.

"What do you want? Harry just left and now you? Don't get me wrong, but you're like an annoying sister I wished I had," Mason said and she laughed.

"Oh, come on, Mason. I'm just here to see how you are," she said, pouting her pink lips while narrowing her brown eyes.

Mason raised his arched brows at her incredulously. He'd known her since he knew Harry too. The three of them were like siblings in this company. So, he knew when she was lying and telling the truth.

"Yup. That was a lie. I need you to buy me some new chocolates and this dress I saw online. I have this birthday party I want to attend," she said.

"I thought I got you these same chocolates two days ago, Elizabeth? And I'm sure I'm not your boyfriend, right?" He asked in serious curiosity.

"Pssh. Who keeps chocolate after the day you got them? And ew," She gagged with a roll of her eyes.

"People."

"People that isn't me, bro. Or just give me the money," she added and stretched her hand to his direction.

"I pay you every month, Elizabeth. Why do you always take my own money for lame things?" He asked as he sat on his chair.

"Uh, no. I want to you to buy with your money. Besides, you said I can come to you for anything that I need," Elizabeth beamed.

Mason rubbed his face and pulled out his credit card then gave it to her.

"Just spend a thousand and that's it. Buy your chocolate and the stupid dress," he said and Elizabeth circled the desk and kissed his cheek. He cleaned her saliva immediately in disgust. "Don't do that. Ugh."

She giggled. "I'll give you your card tomorrow. Thanks, Mason," she said, and left.

"s**t! I could've given her cash!"

He dropped his head on his desk.

•••

Mason drove to a stop the moment the traffic light blared red. He relaxed on his seat and put on some music on his radio and Ed Sheeran's Galway girl, came on. He began to tap his finger pads on the steering wheel at the catchy tune, his head bobbing slightly.

He didn't know why, but he glanced to his right and made a double take. Right in the car beside his was Ciara, dancing in a silly way to maybe a song playing in her car. He found himself chuckling.

He picked up his phone and dialed her number. Then watched as she froze in shock before picking the call.

"Hey?"

"Hi, Ciara. I see you can dance well," he stated like the jerk that he was. He watched as her eyes widened, then confusion filled her expression.

"How did you-"

"Look beside you."

He watched her look the wrong way before she looked his way. She gasped and blushed.

"Oh, God. You weren't supposed to see that. Unsee it right now!"

He laughed hard.

"Sorry. It's too priceless. Anyway, why didn't you reply my text?" He asked out of curiosity. He didn't even know when he said it.

"What text? Sorry if I didn't respond to your text. I have tons of messages that come in every few minutes, yours must've mixed up with them that I didn't see it."

He nodded in understanding, since he was the same. He frequently worked at home with his phone or laptop. On cue, he glanced at the traffic light and mentally counted that he had ten seconds to spare. Then an idea popped up.

"You want to eat something? Follow me with your car to that restaurant we went to last weekend. Don't say no, I'm bored right now," he said running his fingers through his voluminous hair.

Five seconds.

He watched as she relaxed on her seat. Before she looked at him and smiled.

"okay."

He smiled and ended the call the moment the cars in front began to move. He looked at his rear view mirror and was glad she was in his own lane. He looked a head to focus.

Did you just ask her out?

What? No! We already hung out last week. So no! She wouldn't think of it like that.

Whatever you say.

He blinked out of his thoughts and drove a little faster.

•••

Ciara parked her car the moment Mason parked his. She put off her engine and packed up her purse. She was about opening the door when Mason did that for her. She looked up at the blue eyed towering man and saw that he was smiling sideways, his pearly whites peaking out. She swallowed at the display then threw one leg out and began to stand but winced.

"What?" Mason asked in full concern, his brows furrowed.

She smiled painfully and pointed at her stiletto heels. He chuckled.

"You women have problems. Don't you have a back up shoe or something? I've seen Fiona pack one," he stated, waving his hand in the direction of her feet.

Ciara blinked and turned around, searching the back of her car. She found her white slides on the floor and turned back.

"I've got my slides. Just gimme a minute," she said, flipping her dark hair over her shoulders as she tried to bend. She groaned and sat straight.

"Let me guess, your dress is too tight for you to bend?" Mason asked and she gazed at him in shock. "I live with my fashionista of a girlfriend, remember?"

Ciara chuckled. "Right. But don't wor-"

She felt her cheeks flame up when he squatted and held her right ankle. The soft and warm pads of his fingers on her skin, caused little goosebumps to rise on her arms and a tingling wave down her spine.

"Mason?"

He looked up, blue clashing with green eyes. They held their gaze for a while before he looked down at her laps but diverted his eyes immediately to her ankle.

Ciara watched as he skillfully unbuckled the straps on her shoe. Jerome didn't even know how to put the shoes on for me without many questions this morning, she thought and watched as he slipped the black shoe off. He gave the other leg the same treatment and helped her put on the slides.

She took the shoes and dropped it behind her, then got off the car and pouted.

"I missed being tall. Now you're the tall one," she crossed her arms and Mason rolled his eyes.

"What are you like, 5'4?" He rolled his eyes. "Come on, Ciara. Let's go, I'm hungry."

Her stomach decided to rumble at his words, causing her to blush. He chuckled and she hit his arm.

"Shut up," she said and shut her door after taking her phone and purse.

They began to walk to the doors to the restaurant. As they walked in, she inhaled the delicious scent of freshly baked and cooked food then took in the happy and chatting people. She beamed and dragged Mason with her to an empty table and when she saw SooHoo, she waved her over.

"Hello, my favorite couple," SooHoo Said, flipping her hair over her left shoulder.

"We aren't one!" They both said.

"Whatever, just send my wedding card when you are done talking," SooHoo said bluntly, causing Ciara to choke on her spit for a moment.

"I'd like two slices of pizza and a can of soda, please," Ciara said, changing the topic.

"My usual," Mason just muttered to SooHoo's hearing.

The bubbly waitress bowed dramatically and bounced away.

"She's too much," Mason said and looked at Ciara who just nodded as she checked her phone, probably for his text.

He looked at her left hand, the engagement ring wasn't there today either. He shook his head in humor.

"Oh," Ciara said, looking up at him. "Uhm, I don't know how to answer that. I mean, Jerome and I are great. He-he doesn't need to say anything for me to know he finds me beautiful."

Something told Mason that it wasn't the truth. There was nervousness and something like sorrow and fear in her eyes. He bit his lip and sat straight.

"You don't need to tell me anything. I'm sure we'll get to know each other as time goes on," he sai and watched her smile.

"Of course."

SooHoo dropped their orders on the table and immediately rushed off to attend to a new customer. They began to dig in and Mason couldn't help but find the way she was eating cute. She would cut small pieces of the pizza with her fork and knife then delicately bite it off the fork and lick her lips. He looked down at his vegetable salad and fish before he continued eating.

His eyes flickered from his plate to the door when a suit cladded person he vaguely recognized, walked in. He looked closely and rolled his eyes when Harry saw him.

He waved and walked to them.

"What's up? Who's the lady-Oh, it's you. And you're actually more beautiful in person," Harry said, sitting down beside Ciara who was looking at him in confusion. She gasped.

"You're the weird guy with the stupid question," she said and Harry pouted, causing Mason to drop his fork and laugh out loud.

He didn't care if other customers were looking.

"Hey! You're supposed to support me, you know, not laugh at me," Harry said to Mason who just shrugged with a grin.

Ciara chuckled and dropped her fork after finishing one slice of her pizza. She pushed her plate forward a bit.

"So, I don't really know much about you, Mason. Well just your name," she said.

"Wait, how long have you two known each other?" Harry asked.

Ciara looked sideways and purposely ignored the way his fingers were tiptoeing to her pizza slice.

"I think we met on a Friday night, knew each other officially on a Saturday morning and went for jogging together. That's pretty much it," Mason said and Ciara nodded.

"If anyone sees you two, they'll think you two are an item. You two suit each other. The chemistry is smoking hot," Harry stated, waggling his brows at Mason who scrunched his nose at him in response.

"Shut up, Harry. I'm sure you followed me here. Just so you can know where her friend lives," Mason backfired with a smirk when Harry looked like a fish out of water.

"I will kill you," Harry muttered.

Ciara laughed." Is he referring to Nora?"

He nodded.

It was Ciara's turn to laugh out loud.

"What's funny?" Harry asked, biting into her pizza slice.

She cleared her throat and put a lock of her hair behind her ear.

"Well, she's a lesbian."

Harry choked on his pizza. Ciara shook her head and patted his back.

"Les-lesbian? As in not bisexual? Oh, my love life is ruined. Ruined I say," Harry wailed with dramatic effects, hand on his forehead and the other on his chest.

Mason groaned. "You've not even seen her and you're falling for someone? Typical. Anyways, Ciara. You asked a question before this animal said something, yes?"

"Hey!"

"Yeah."

"My full name is Mason Beck Rivers, 26. My mom Mexican and my father is from here. I work as a branch manager of the real estate company called The Deon's Realty and-"

"Oh, God! You own the neighborhood we live in? That means you're the one who lives in the biggest house-more like a mansion- in the neighborhood," Ciara gushed in naked admiration.

Mason smirked. "Actually, The Deon's own some of the estates and neighborhoods in England here. I just manage it. The mansion I live in is my property, which I got from them."

"Yup and I'm his work mate, Ciara," Harry added.

"I wish you'd stop working with me," Mason said.

"Aw, that hurt," he said, touching his chest. "Well, I'll introduce myself too. I'm Harry Kingston, his age buddy and  I'm from Liverpool and you, my lady?"

"Well, I'm Ciara as you already know. I work in a publication company, I'm 24 and I'm just a normal girl," she said and glanced at Harry who was staring at her in a different way than before. She was curious.

"Er, Harry?" She called and he blinked. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Yeah, I saw that too," Mason added.

"Nothing really. I swear I've seen you somewhere before," he replied then his phone rang. "'Excuse me."

They watched as he left.

"Hmm. I wonder what he meant?" Mason said under his breath.

Harry got back and stood with his hands on his waist like a Lady. He even posed as one.

"So, a friend of mine is here. And for it not to be awkward, Ciara you'll sit beside my mate, Mason while my friend and I sit together," Harry stated and Ciara hesitantly did.

Mason adjusted on the two sitter leathered chair for Ciara and inhaled softly when he got a whiff of her scent. Roses.

He watched Harry sit and how he kept his attention on the entrance. He just mentally shrugged and continued his meal. He looked beside him and saw Ciara struggling not to laugh.

"What?" He asked.

She bit her bottom lip and covered her mouth. She removed her hands and scooted close to him. He watched her pick up his napkin from his laps and began to dab his chin and the corner of his mouth.

"What the bloody hell, Ciara?!" Jerome barked, tossing her empty plate aside.

The duo shook and the restaurant got quiet. Ciara stared in fear at her fiancé whose eyes were blood red in rage, fists clenched and breathing hard.

"I-I-can-"

"So you're back to having an affair, huh?!" Jerome barked.

Mason didn't know what happened but he stood up quick and pushed Ciara aside to stare at Jerome.

"Why would you say such a thing in public?!" He demanded and felt Ciara hold his arm.

"Please, Mason. Don't do that."

"Oh. Now I get why I recognised you. Jerome's my mate and you're his girl he spoke about one time," Harry said. "But chill, Jerome. They're-"

"Can it, Harry! And you! Come with me!" He hissed and grabbed Ciara's hand and things. Then dragged her out the restaurant.

Mason tossed his plate aside.

"Damn it!"

•••

"Jerome!" Ciara pleaded as soon as he pushed her harshly into their living room when they got home.

He shut the door and locked it then threw her things aside. He marched to her and gripped her arms too tight, making Ciara whimper.

"What were you trying to do?! So, you don't learn your lessons?! You go behind my back to sleep with men? You're such a slut!" He barked and pushed her to a wall.

Ciara whimpered again as hot tears flowed down her cheeks. She tried to wiggle her way out of his grasp but he held her tighter and banged her head against the wall. She cried out.

"What makes you think I wouldn't find out about your infidelity, huh?! You're about to get married to me and you're-Ugh!" He growled and let go of her.

Ciara frowned hard at his statement. She stood straight and spun him around.

"Don't you dare talk to me about loyalty. Just Friday night I found you in bed with another woman and you dare talk to me about loyalty?! Who the hell do you think you are?! You're the animal, the man w***e, the-"

Ciara fell to the ground the moment Jerome slapped her. She held her stinging and throbbing cheek, tears blurring her sight. She gasped when he gripped her hair and neck tight.

"I am a man and I have the right to touch, sleep or look at any woman. You're my woman and you are to remain that way! Oh, I see all these are acts of revenge. You were practically on his laps and he was looking at you in ways he shouldn't. When I'm done with you, you'll reconsider cheating on me!"

Ciara groaned in pain when Jerome hit her head on the floor. She held her head and tried to pry his fingers out of her neck. She coughed hard.

"I'll take your phone and if I see you anywhere close to him again, I'll not hesitate to act out on him. Now get up and cook for me!" He left her aching neck and walked upstairs.

Ciara folded herself on the floor and cried softly. She hugged her thighs and touched her hot and aching neck.

"I'm so sorry for hurting you, Jerome," she whispered.