In Love With My Rival

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: manly mood swings

A scary silence enveloped the office as Ava and Zeus walked in. Ava was ahead of him. The muscles on her back and shoulders tensed in annoyance just all because of her suitor’s presence. She did not like it. With a force and thud, she put the bouquet of red roses on her desk. A rose fell down making her look down at it on the flower. She scowled at it before addressing the scowl on the blue-eyed blonde guy in front of him.

“What is this all about?” She hissed, her hands gesturing to Zeus’s form in front of her. “Why are you even here?”

“There’s a board meeting. Of course, I have to be here.” Zeus reasoned out and shook his head. “Don’t you like flowers?” He added, pointing at the nicely wrapped roses he picked up from a flower shop on his way to the company.

“I don’t like red roses.” She said, gritting her teeth and squinting her eyes at him. “I don’t like flowers in general.” She quickly added, realizing that he might be going to ask what kind of flowers, in particular, was her favorite. White roses and red tulips. Those were her favorites but she would never tell him that.

“Oh. My bad.” Zeus hummed. “What do you want then?”

“Nothing.” She spat out. From you. She wanted to add but kept her mouth shut anyway and leaned her back on the surface of her desk.

“You were just happy when you took them with you. Was that just all for a show? So that your bodyguard won’t think you are not being rude?”

Ava’s eyes did not even widen. She did not show any signs of a shocked reaction. She should feel offended but surprisingly, she was not offended at all.

“No offense.” Zeus held his hands up. “It just kind of hurt to just see you not even appreciating what I’ve got for you.”

Ava suddenly felt bad hearing the obvious hint of sadness and disappointment in his voice. She felt bad that he was true about just putting up a show earlier. However, it was not because she wanted to look appreciative of her suitors in front of her ‘bodyguard’ but because she obviously wanted to get a reaction from Zephyr. And she successfully did. She never missed the stare Zephyr gave to Zeus. Not just that, but also how tight he gripped Zeus’ poor hand. They were killing each other with their eyes, especially Zephyr.

She felt so lovely of herself right now, a little bit satisfied that she successfully got a reaction from Zephyr. She saw him taking deep breaths and she did not know why. She did not even know why he reacted that way and she did not want to get her hopes up to believing that her bodyguard might be feeling something for her.

Wow. You are so confidently beautiful without a heart.

“I did not mean to offend you too.” Ava sighed. Leaning away from her desk, she rounded it and sat on her chair. While she was getting her things ready, the door to her office opened. She looked up to see Mason walking inside and he just stopped in his tracks when he saw Zeus standing in the middle of the room.

“Oh,” Mason said, scowling at Zeus’ back before walking past him and to Ava. “Hi. Good morning, Madame.”

Ava rolled her eyes at her assistant. “Don’t call me that. Jeez.”

“Fine. I just want to inform you that the board is set and ready.” Mason said. “We should go now.”

“Yes. Let’s go.” Ava stood up from her chair and followed Mason out of the office. Zeus followed them and they were finally out of the door, she just stopped on the doorway and took a deep breath and turned to look at someone on her right.

“I’ll follow.”

That was all he said and she took it as a cue to continue her way to the elevator, following after Mason. The air around them when the four of them got in the lift down seemed normal for Mason, but it was already uncomfortable for the rest of the adults, especially for Ava. She realized it was all because of her that the tension between Zeus and Zephyr was just scary. She could feel it, especially that she was stuck in between them at the back. Mason was in front of them, utterly clueless about what was going on.

Ava suddenly regretted acting so nice when she saw Zeus waiting for her with nicely wrapped red roses. It was all to make Zephyr jealous. She regretted it because Zephyr was starting to act weirdly. She could sense that he did not want to talk. She felt a pang in her heart when Zephyr just took a step aside and way from her a little. That made her take a shaky breath and she almost sighed in relief when the lift finally came to halt.

She hurried out of the elevator after Mason and headed to the board room. Mason hurried after his boss to push the door open for her. Before she completely got inside the room, she turned her head to her left and saw Zephyr just standing on the side, facing ahead a very serious façade on. He stood there almost like a statue.

Shaking her head lightly, she walked deeper and proceeded to her chair at the very front of and the end of the long mahogany table. The board of directors hadn’t arrived yet. That made only three of them in the room—Ava, Mason, and Zeus.

Everything was set up and all she had to do was wait for the oldies to arrive. Her parents would be around along with the other respected members of the board. But, that was just what she thought—that they had to wait—when the doors suddenly opened and walked in the oldies right when she was just about to take her seat. She straightened up and stood on the platform. She locked eyes with her father shortly before looking away to smile at her mother who was already walking towards.

“Hey, Mom.” She greeted, giving Julia a warm hug.

“Honey, you look so amazing.”

“Not as amazing as you are.” Ava winked and chuckled.

When they let go of each other, all of them were already seated around the long mahogany table.

Here we go again.

Ava thought as she cleared her throat and faced them with confidence.

On the other side of the door was a sulking man. Zephyr did not get why he felt like the world was on his shoulders. There was no reason to sulk and feel upset at all. That made him want to punch his own face for being so stupid.

But, damn it. Why can’t I be at ease?

He turned his head to the left, staring at the closed oak doors. His eyes lingered at them for quite long seconds before he looked away from it and faced ahead. He wondered what was going on inside. He wondered if she was doing fine there. Was that blonde staring at her now?

Of course, i***t.

His brows furrowed as he frowned. He hated thinking about it. About them. It was too annoying to think about it. However, he just could not deny that he could not erase those images in his head. It happened so fast that he could not even think of an immediate response. He was just unresponsive.

He couldn’t ignore the smile on her face when she received those lovely flowers from Martins. She let him hold her waist. They fit each other. Rich. Indeed, they were compatible. He then remembered she mentioned she had many suitors. He should get used to those kinds of scenarios where he had to watch different men giving her flowers or other things that could make her happy. Only rich men could do that.

Funny of me to be surprised.

Clearing all troubling expression on his face, he put on a stoic façade and patiently waited for the meeting to be adjourned. Just earlier, he came face to face with Adam O’Kelly. They locked eyes and he bowed in respect. Julia, however, came up to him and hug him. Ava did not have to see that.

“It’s good to see you again.”

Those words the exact words Julia told him as he awkwardly patted her back while the husband was walking inside the room. He smiled at her tenderness and soft smile at him. The woman was such a kind person, the utter opposite of her husband’s personality.

He figured out that Adam already knew he was actually his daughter’s bodyguard and not some supermodel Ava was talking about. After that steamy encounter last Saturday, they laid in bed and talked about random things. He ended up asking about the call with her father where she apologized. All she said was his father was angry that she lied about what he really was.

They don’t know.

Thinking that there was no point in acting all softly knowing that he could never blend in with the people like them, he decided that from now on, he should be his place. Not near yet not so far. From her.

He was not sure how long he should be waiting. He was already getting bored so he fished out his phone out of his slacks’ pocket and went through his contacts. His thumb hovered certain someone’s name. He contemplated whether he should call the person or not. Sighing, he locked the screen and put his phone back in his pocket.

He missed the person but he was not ready to talk to that person yet.