Loving My Enemy

Chapter 8 - His Glare

Eleanor gradually opened her eyes, squinting against the bright light. Her body felt weak but she felt like sitting up and weakly shaded her eyes with her hands. She could hear Rickard’s voice, as usual, he was giving someone hell over the phone.

“Out of all the useless details you gave me, you forget the most important fact that---” He stopped when he glanced at her. His eyes widened and he took the phone off his ear.

“I’ll talk to you later.” He hung up the phone and turned to her. “How do you feel?” 

Eleanor stared at him in confusion. For a moment, she was unable to recall what happened to her and where she was. Then it all came back to her. She was in Rickard’s office then she had felt weak and that was when everything had gone black. She realized she had fainted and she was aware of the reason although Rickard looked like he just found out.

“Yeah, I feel better,” Eleanor said staring at Rickard who was then glaring at her. She could tell he was angry at her but why? She looked away instead of asking him, she felt too weak to do anything. As she glanced around she realized she was in a hospital. Her head turned back to Rickard and she stared at him in disbelief. Just then a nurse came in carrying a huge trolley full of food. She scurried to Eleanor’s side and arranged the tray in front of her.

“Ms. Harrington, you need to finish all this in order to feel better. Your blood glucose level was very low when Mr. Hansen brought you here. We have given you an injection but it’s not enough for your glucose level to come back to normal. You need to eat.”

Eleanor stared at the tray and her eyes widened. She looked back up to the nurse, who nodded and confirmed her suspicion. “Yes, you need to eat all this. After that, we will need your medical history. Thank you.” And then the nurse left, leaving Rickard behind who kept glaring daggers at Eleanor while standing in the corner of the room.

Ignoring him, Eleanor took a sip of juice first and then started to eat. Rickard let out a breath of relief seeing her eating and sat down on the couch. Leaning with his elbows on his thighs he kept furiously typing on his phone. For a moment, Eleanor wondered who he was texting but then shook the thought away. It was none of her concern. After a while of eating, she felt quite well and decided to check her phone.

There were several missed calls from Rebecca. Wincing, she sent a voice message to Rebecca and from the corner of her eye saw Rickard staring at her. She ignored him and kept checking her phone.

“Have you eaten?” He asked standing and coming towards her.

Nodding, Eleanor said, “Yes, I think we should leave now.” She carefully placed the tray to the side.

“Only if your doctor says so,” Rickard said and went out of the suite to call the doctor.

Eleanor let out a breath of relief she didn’t know she was holding when he went out. His glare made her irritated to no end. She couldn’t understand what was so wrong that he was that much furious with her? She could understand it was bad that she hadn’t mentioned her diabetic condition and then she had fainted on him but being angry with someone who had no control over her blood glucose levels was not fair. She wondered if her job was in jeopardy and began to overthink.

For the last two months, she had outdone herself trying to do the best at her job. She couldn’t afford to lose it. After her outburst at Rickard for not giving her real work, he had given her request some consideration and involved her more in the financials. And the almost kiss… She could feel the tingle in her body at the memory. His scent she still remembered and was reminded of whenever she stood near him. They had never talked about that episode again and acted as nothing happened. She had promised herself that she would never get angry over him again but his behavior provoked her like it was doing then.

Rickard came inside with the doctor and Eleanor quickly wiped the annoyance off her face. A nurse came in and checked her blood sugar levels which were back to normal and she got approval from the doctor for discharge.

When Eleanor inquired about the bill at the reception, she was told it was paid already which made no sense. She never paid it then who did? She glanced at Rickard who was waiting for her to get her medicines.

Of course, you did. She thought, staring at Rickard.

When they sat inside the car, Eleanor heaved out a sigh. She was relieved that she was finally going home.

“Mr. Hansen---” She was going to ask about the work but when she saw him glaring at her, she stopped. What was his problem?

“Why are you glaring at me?” She asked lifting an eyebrow and narrowing her eyes at him.  “I don’t recall offending you in any way. What’s the matter with you?”

“Eleanor, I don’t have time for rubbish. Stop it,” he said lowly.

She nodded looking away and gritted her teeth. “No, you can’t keep glaring at me and then not answer me when I ask what your problem with me is.”

He pressed his lips together like he was trying to control then turned to her, glaring at her again. “You’re diabetic and I am just finding out?”

Eleanor narrowed her eyes at him and waved her hand. “I forgot to mention I accept but it’s not that big of a deal. Now you know.”

“You have zero consideration for my time and my work. When you can’t take care of yourself how would you take care of my work?”

“Really? If my well-being was wasting your time, you should have left me unconscious. It isn’t your concern if I live or die.”

“It is!” He said. “Your wellbeing concerns me, Eleanor. You are… my employee.” He said looking into her eyes and for a moment Eleanor was speechless. She could swear she saw a swirl of emotion in his eyes.

“And you dying in my office wouldn’t have done any good for me,” he continued nonchalantly and looked away as if trying to avoid her stare.

Eleanor mouthed ‘Wow’ and shook her head. “Then thank you for bringing me to the hospital and taking care of my bill as well. I will make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

“Yes, please. I will be grateful to you. And it was your medical insurance, not me.” He muttered sarcastically. Eleanor knew that he was lying. He was too bigheaded to accept that he helped her out.

Furious, she looked outside the window and directed her glare towards the cars that passed by. When she was performing her best, he never appreciated her but when she lacked and that also due to her health, he didn’t let go of that chance to insult her. Ungrateful arrogant man. Who did he think he was?

Your boss… A voice inside her mind said to her. Of course, that was why she was going to ignore what he said to her.