Him

4

I walked over to couch and looked at the painting he was working on.

I felt butterflies in my stomach when I saw that it was me. The me from last night, when I had turned away from him to unclasp my bra. The painting was so realistic and beautiful. He did it in hues of blues.

I grabbed the inappropriate painting and stuck it under the President's desk for it to dry before I could tuck it away.

Mary stuck her head through the door.
"Crisis avoided. You're incredible Astrid." She said and I thanked her.

My phone beeped and I opened it.
There was a selfie of Carly with the kids.
My jaw almost dropped at how much they had grown.

My finger lingered on the picture, my jaw clenched and I closed it. Deleting the picture off my phone.

A message came through from Carly.

'I met them, Astro and Caro you're missing out on so much. They're incredible.'

I deleted that message too.
I ate lunch alone because Ellis had no intentions of returning to work again today. While I was eating Nico walked into the restaurant.

He was looking around the building, he smiled when he saw me and waved. I waved back.

He walked towards me and grabbed a chair.
"Hey, why are you eating alone?" He asked and I shrugged.
"Life finally caught up to me." I said taking a sip of my water.
"what do you mean?" He asked.

"I made a mistake and instead of correcting it I ran away from it and it's haunting me till now, I doubt it'll ever stop haunting me."I answered honestly, sparing him the details.
"You can't correct it?" He asked and I thought about it.

"It's not necessarily that I can't, I just don't really think that I want to, that I'm
Willing to correct it."
"If you're not willing to fix the problem, you can't be upset that it's upsetting you." Nico said and I nodded.
"I know, I know.." I said taking another sip of my water.

"I've never seen you like this." Nico said and I replied.
"Me either, I'm a fucking joke." I said before calling a waiter.

"You want anything?" I asked and he shook his head.
"Already ate."

I gave my card to the waiter.
"Work calls." I said and took my coat off from behind the chair.
"I'll see you." Nico said as I walked away.

My schedule is jammed packed from there, prepositioning farmers after farmers. Meeting up with stores and trying to renew contracts.

By the time I arrived at the Alesi household it was 10 and I was exhausted. I immediately went over to my designated bedroom and crashed on the fresh bedsheets.

I couldn't help but hope Ellis had been the one to change them and hadn't waited for the poor maid to do so.

I couldn't even be bothered to take off my makeup or my heels. I just crashed, falling asleep almost immediately.

When I woke up things were different from when I went to sleep.
My hair was out of my way and in a bun. My makeup had been taken off leaving my face feeling fresh and moisturized. My shoes had been taken off and my formal shirt unbuttoned.

I even had a bandage wrapped around my index finger I had gotten a deep paper cut on.
I put my head in my hands, I looked over at the floor. I see the small painting of myself sticking out of my purse.

Ellis gentle smell lingers in the room.

I took a shower and prepared myself for work. I got dressed and headed down to breakfast Ellis was already there eating French toast and talking to his step sister.
He doesn't even lift his head in my direction just continued talking to his sister.