She's Mine [COMPLETE]

She's Mine: Chapter 18

Happy Valentines Day! :)

-M

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Chapter 18

Eliza stood in front of her table with her hands behind her back and a large smile on her face. After standing for ten minutes, she was already shifting her weight in a new pair of unbroken heels. She should have listened to Emmy when she said not to bother packing them.

Luckily, the masses were gathering inside of the auditorium to listen to Bluestar's Keynote Speech. In a way, Eliza was glad that she didn't have to be inside of the room to watch, but she wasn't going to be able to avoid hearing him. With only a few stray clients lingering around the hall, Eliza was in the clear to take a seat behind their Bluestar booth.

"If my feet are killing me, I know yours are," John groaned before snacking on a piece of room-temperature fruit in a cup.

"If I have feet? I can't feel them," Eliza sighed.

Her lips curled into a smile, hearing John snickering at her joke. It wasn't the first time she put one on her face for the day. In the morning, she spent time on the phone with Emmy and received the picture of Lulu still fast asleep. What made Eliza happiest was the crotchet feeding blouse that Lulu snuggled next to.

She missed her so much already. Her soft, delicate skin. Her scent. Even Lulu's ear-shattering cries had turned into something she longed for. Time was moving by too slow for her. It was turning her mindless. All she wanted to do is go back to her hotel suite and pick up her phone to hear Lulu gurgling to Emmy. Her daughter's photo was on her phone's screen. Some pictures were blurry, but they never went to the trash. The clenching tension in Eliza's mouth forced a sting in her nasal passage. With remorse, Eliza was halfway through Lulu's photo album when she stopped mid-swipe.

Eliza listened carefully to the voice she hadn't heard in a long time. A voice that held enough comfort to pull her from thinking about missing her little baby to remembering what it's like to be in the presence of that Southern baritone.

Troy didn't say a word to her since they first laid eyes on each other at the airport. Even after his surprise seating adjustment, he didn't even give Eliza a cursory glance. His silence from the previous week was unbearable. She wanted him to go; she wanted her space. But she dismissed more than his concerns. He took his smile, his laughs, his greetings, and even the secret glances that she enjoyed catching across a room. It wasn't enough for Troy Daniels to simply exist– an acquaintance needed more.

Eliza opened her laptop and loaded the slides she executively approved before the trip. Last year she was too busy to watch Troy give the keynote. In fact, she didn't really care to listen then. He was just some friendly, handsome face that Blackwell randomly took a chance on to better the business and not because she was supposedly swooned by Southern charm. Everything was so fast-paced, but Eliza had to ask herself what was wrong with change. With all the amendments, all she has been forced to do, lately, is slow down.

After a promising applause heralded behind the closed doors, Eliza closed her computer with her own mental congratulations. But she was pulled from the words she would like to say to the keynote speaker as soon as the doors to the auditorium parted for an outpouring of chatty potential clients.

"Back to work!" John said with excitement, but the look he gave to Eliza was riddled with exhaustion.

She quietly agreed with his sentiments, but hated that he didn't understand that she would be working twice as hard. Not only did she have to put on a happy face and sell Bluestar's brand, she had to keep Lulu's father in her line of sight to know when to run.