Penny For An Italian Thought

Part 11: Starting Over

"I know that you do not take drugs, Miss White. It took a lot of time to get the drugs out of your system, but we cleansed you off it before it could cause any permanent damage. You have your friends to thank for that."

I didn't want to cry, but my eyes watered when I heard how great my friends have been.

"Especially Mr. Armenti, he has not left your side this whole week that you were unconscious," the doctor said appreciatively. I should have freaked out about being unconscious for a week, but instead, I felt an amazing, cozy warmth spread through me. I smiled at him and he smiled back, his handsome ear to ear smile and relaxed his shoulders. He was obviously anxious for my reaction to all that.

"Okay, I'll leave you with your friends now. We will just get a few check ups on you and then you will be free to go home. But I would advice rest for sometime," Dr. Lockhart smiled and left.

Alex sat next to me and held my hand. The moment he touched me, a delectable feeling raced through my hand, upto my belly. His warm hand sent shivers down my back and I shifted my position. He looked into my eyes, narrowing his ocean blues.

"I'm sorry, Brianna," he said quietly, and kissed my hand while he held it. His soft lips felt like cotton on my skin but yet pricked my senses out of order. I had an irrational desire of pulling him towards me by his collar and kissing him senseless, but I knew better. And I was very aware of our audience in the room who were now staring with their mouths wide open. 

I looked at them and cleared my throat.

"Er..."

"Er... Um, we're gonna go. We just remembered..."

"...that we had a thing, um, see ya."

They ran out after that.

Applause for the subtlety.

"Brianna..." he started, but I stopped him mid sentence,

"Look, I understand why you were upset. I just began ignoring you out of nowhere. But I just did it because you are my boss. It would be wrong to pursue this further."
It was partially the truth.

"I know, I understand. But why does it matter if I'm your boss? Can't you feel this tension between us? The strong hold that we have towards each other? I have never met anyone like you and want to know you. I want to know what you like to eat, your favourite colour, your hobbies, you know et cetera, et cetera. Please? We can start over. What do you think?"

He's never met anyone like me?

"Well, I like Italian and Chinese, I'm not biased toward any colour and I paint."

"You paint?" he chuckled, "but, that's not what I meant."

I knew what he meant and my subconscious was screaming yes in delight, but my more rational mind said, 'run as fast as you can in the opposite direction'.

If I say yes, it will be easier for me to access his room and the old records too. Maybe I'll find CCTV footage that can prove me innocent.

But I knew that searching for evidence wasn't why I wanted to say yes, it was the attraction I felt towards Alex. I never felt something like this for someone. What was Alex doing to me?

I looked at Alex and smiled.

"Okay, let's start over."

Oh well.

He smiled genuinely and bent forward to kiss my forehead.

*****

The next day.

I felt a little weak while sitting in Alex's car. He insisted on taking me to his place, something I found really weird by the way, saying his house would provide comfort and complete rest to me. And that his cook, Lilah, could take care of me. But David reasoned that there would be no need, since both he and Ellie would take care of me. So after a long discussion, Alex reluctantly agreed to David's argument and allowed me to go home with David and Ellie. But, I couldn't talk him out of dropping me home so there I was, trying to break the silence between us by humming Taylor Swift's Superman. He kept glancing at me as if trying to decipher my thoughts.

"You have a nice voice," he said, breaking the silence.

"Really? How can you tell when I'm only humming?" I asked, teasing him.

"I don't know. I just can," he shrugged his shoulders and winked at me. The entire ride after that, we were quiet, but in a comfortable silence.

He left me to my apartment and only after a lot of persuading and assuring, did he leave for work. David held me by my waist and led me to my bed, while Ellie got me hot soup in a small bowl. I rested onto my bed, and crawled in my blanket. I took a sip of the hot soup that felt like precious gold going down my throat. David arranged my tablets and wrote down my tablet schedule. Ellie went to the living room and after a few minutes, she came back...

"Bree, someone left this for you in the mail." She tossed the white envelope in front of me. It wasn't stamped which meant it was dropped by personally. David and Ellie left the room and I hurriedly opened the envelope. My cheeks flushed and paled at the same time when I read the contents of the letter.

Burke had drugged me. 

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