Call It Business ( Book 3 of 'Call It' Series )

Chapter 81 | Wedding Bells

Dragging a hand through his jaw, "While you are all invited," he drawled tentatively and leaned back against his high-back chair, "May I see the invitation?"

"Let me see if it is here," Ben replied, flipping through the blue folder in front of him. He pulled a piece of paper between the pages and half-rose in his seat to extend it to Gerard.

And all Macy's feigned professionalism vanished in the thin year as she was crushed by the alarm swirling in her veins reaching a new height. Pushing her chair, she stormed to the end of the table and got the villain instinctively snatch his arm from the armrest to make a space for her as she perched her hips there.

"Gods, no," she drew the protest in exhaustion, almost falling from the small spot if it wasn't for the villain's arm wrapping around her to pull her back. Too tired to scold him for inappropriate intimacy in the middle of the meeting, she leaned forward to eye the invitation better.

"You are cordially invited to the wedding of," it said in black ink. Under it, their names were written in vibrant red continued, "Macy Cordelia Wallace and Gerard Theodore Blanchard—"

"Theodore," Macy verbalized slowly, the surprised amusement eclipsing all the itchy emotions as she fired him a frown.

"In your words, my evil great-grandfather," the villain explained, rolling his eyes before craning his neck to smirk at her. "Cordelia," the name rolled off his tongue slowly in question as if he was tasting it.

"We don't talk about Cordelia," Macy grumbled in warning, redirecting his face to the invitation with the touch of her fist. "But we can talk about how your aunt got our secrets exposed and sent it out there if you are interested, sir, I mean," She paused, her eyes widening in alert as she tapped her ice-blue nails to the thick paper. "Our names are written in red! That's bad luck. We can't—"

"Gerard, Alexandra McFarland is at the lobby and wants to see you," Adelaide dived into the conference room and announced nonchalantly, her eyes firmly focused on the tablet in her hand.

"Who is Alexandra McFarland?" He asked, making a face and tightening his hold on her waist as she made a move to get up.

"Seriously?" Cameron deadpanned, shooting them an unimpressed look. "With all due respect, your excellency, but everyone in this building seem to know about the wedding more than you do, and that's—"

"Cameron," Gerard interrupted in a bored warning.

"Right," Cameron cut it short, feigning his judgmental grin back on his features. "Alexandra McFarland is your aunt's assistant. We are accustomed to her enough to call her Lexi because she keeps calling the magazine to snatch a meeting with you and Barbarella."

"And as you requested," Ben added, "We told her that you are busy every time."

"Another reason why you should hire an assistant, really," Adelaide deadpanned, still resentful that Gerard refused to hire an assistant, which was funny to Macy, truly, and proved that she'd successfully traumatized the stupid man.

Gerard gave it a slow nod. His gaze clouded as he contemplated on a strategy to avoid their uninvited guest while Macy sighed and stirred on the small spot to lean on his shoulder, practically collapsing on him. The wheels of her mind spun relentlessly to come up with an excuse, anything to send her away, but no one would appreciate a zombie apocalypse right now. These were some boring mortals—

"I can tell her you are not here." Adelaide's basic solution cut the tension off flatly, lifting the unbearable weight in the atmosphere. "But it is a short-term solution. She will come back tomorrow."

"That's tomorrow's problem," Macy groaned under her breath, feeling a throaty chuckle rumbling in the villain's chest under her palm with her following words: "I will gift you a vase collection if you do that."