The Billionaires Ex Wife

16.Armani Knight

"No, no, no! I will fall on my face!" I whisper my complaints as we are standing in the literal line of the ice rink.

"Relax." Adam smiles down at me. "You will be fine. Of course, your knight in shining armani will be here to save you."

I give him a dry look. "I'm going to pretend I did not hear you say that."

"Aww. Alyssa. You don't like puns? That is a terrible thing to find out. Pity. Just when I thought we were starting to work like a pair of skates." He winked nudging me.

I stared at him in horror and finally, thankfully, and graciously we got to the counter.

We got our skates and tickets as the guy behind the counter seemed to recognize us and was gobsmacked for a good few minutes.

"Uh...r-right now is happy hour. It's going on for another 20 more minutes. And next hour is also happy hour or wait n-no I mean next hour is couples themed. Here's your change!" The teenage boy rushed out and handed us our change.

As we start walking towards the benches of the rink, I hiss at Adam, "Why don't you let me pay."

He shrugged. "You were almost unwillingly brought here so the least I could do is pay."

"Aha! So you do admit that I was unwillingly brought here. Tsk, tsk, tsk." I sit down on one of the benches

By now people have began recognizing us, pulling out theur phones to record us, and whispering and staring as they walk by us. In (give or take) ten minutes this place will be swarmed with paps.

"You also do realize the whole world will see me fall if we stay here right."

"No. The whole world will see your armani knight saving you from falling. The captions will be 'Billionaire lady saved by her knight in armani in the skating rink' or 'Henson and Johnson:love on ice.'"

"Why not Johnson and Henson? Why does your name have to be first?" I huffed.

He grinned. "Well Johnson and Henson is close to being Johnson&Johnson so there wouldn't be a very new ring to that would it?"

"I suppose not but-" I got cut off as I was desperately trying to get my laces tied and Adam tutted me and instead pulled my skate towards him to tie it himself.

"Thank you." I said a little confused but dismissed it.

"No problem sweetheart." He grinned once again.

As we got up and were about to go inside, a little girl looking like she was 7 or 8 walked up to me with wide brown, doe-like eyed and whispered, "M-miss, are you Ms.Johnson?"

"Hey sweetie." I smiled, "Call me Alyssa. Ms.Johnson makes me feel old."

The girl nods quickly and smiles a toothy grin. "You are amazing. You are my inspiration. I wanna grow up and be like you." She smiled.

I was breathless for a long moment. I couldn't believe this girl's words. I looked to Adam who softly smiled and titled his head as a 'go on' look.

I smiled back at the girl and knelt down to her level. "And what's your name?"

"Desiree." The girl whispers a bit shyly.

"Well Desiree. I know that you are going to grow up to be someone amazing. I know you will. You will go on and do some awesome things. You are beautiful, have a wonderful smile, and a kind heart. Thank you for saying all of that. Here." I pulled out a gold rose pin. A pin that many of my employees and I sometimes wore for our company.

"Some of us wear this a lot in my company. It's not our logo. But it reminds us of red. Of passion. Of drive.  Why we are doing it. I hope this keeps you going forward like I did." I smile at her and place it gently into her hands.

I stood up and the girl rushed to hug me and I hugged her back.

I never thought little girls would look up to me until this girl came up to me and said it. It was unreal. It was indescribable.

I took Adam's hand as we got on the ice itself. I was feeling so much lighter than before. I didn't pay attention to the occasional camera snap, the whispers around us, all I could think about was the girl and her words.

As I struggled on the ice, I was lost in my thoughts until Adam pulled me out of them.

"Alyssa, you okay? Are you good? We could go back if you aren't feeling comfortable. I swear, I thought this was a good idea but if-"

"Adam, I am okay." I laughed. "I was just thinking.

"Penny for your thoughts then madam?"

"I was just thinking about the girl. And I was also thinking about other friends and women in my life that have voiced about lost opportunities. I...I want to start a program for young women leaders through my company. I just don't know how to go about it. I don't know if this is the best time either for me to focus on that because so much is going on too."

"Alyssa, I think that is a great idea. And, I think now would be the best time to start it. No time like present. And hey, I can help you out. I'm invested in a few organizations for women and I bet I could bring in some of the head women if you wanted to talk to them. Besides, now that you have more publicity too, you can really get a lot of traction for this idea."

"Thank you. That means a lot. I'm paying the next time we go out though. You are doing me too many favors mister."

"Next time huh?" He wiggled his eyebrows then rushed to catch me as I flailed on a rougher patch of ice.

"See? Armani knight." He smirked, pleased with himself for the continued pun.

"Oh please. I totally could have been able to support myself there. You see, I have the fine balance of a lady."

"Oh really. Well go ahead and get to the end of that corner by yourself" He pointed.

"Is that a challenge?" I smirked. Maybe I was a little too overconfident. But he didn't need to know that.

"Yes Alyssa. Yes it is."