"I'm Evangeline by the way." I reach my hand out for him to shake as I introduce myself before remembering the old bloody gauze on my knuckles. I didn't have time this morning to change them, but Emiliano always has extra wraps in his office. "Oh, sorry you probably don't want to touch these, I wouldn't blame you." I laugh, not even giving him the chance to think about reaching out to take my hand before I rip the wraps off and stuff them in my pocket.
"It would've been okay to keep them on, I didn't mind," he mutters, taking my now unwrapped hand in his tattooed ones. "These are pretty gnarly...you sure these are just from fighting?" His thumb gently traces over my wounds as he looks up to me with his dark chocolate eyes.
"Y-yeah, they're just from fighting." The way he narrows his eyes at me makes me feel like he knows I'm lying. Like he knows the extra cuts are from what my father did to me last night.
"I see," he hums, pulling out his phone to send a quick message to someone before it's put back in his pocket. "So, little fighter, who did you fight to earn these hm?"
"Well I mean it technically wasn't supposed to be a fight, but I got carried away and let my emotions take over the demonstration." He hums again, now taking my other hand so he's holding both of them in his. The way he touches my wounds so softly and carefully sends shivers up my arms with each pass of his thumb. "So what–"
Before my question makes it fully out of my mouth, the conference room door is swinging open. A man who looks to be a similar age to myself walks in with a box in his hands. He sets it down next to the man holding my hands then quickly leaves.
He releases one of my hands so he's able to open the box and grabs what he needs. I watch as he pulls packages of gauze, hand wraps, and some wipes out of the box before closing it.
Silently, he opens all the packages then takes one of the wipes and begins to clean the skin around the wounds. "I'm sorry," he quickly apologizes when I hiss in pain and my hands jolt away from his touch. "It's supposed to be an alcohol free wipe."
"It's okay, I don't think it was the wipe. The cuts are still a little tender so even the slightest amount of pressure makes them hurt." He mutters another apology while gently taking my hands back in his. "So...how old are you?" I blurt, using the first question that came to my mind as a means to start a conversation.
"I'm twenty-one," he answers shortly, still trying to rid my skin of the old blood. "And you are?"
"Oh, I'm twenty..." I trail off letting my eyes stray to his face where I am now able to get an up close view of him. There's something about him that I can't quite put together. Something that seems so familiar yet foreign.
His wavy black hair is messy at the same time neat with his bangs reaching just the middle of his eyebrows. The lower half of his face is covered in a light scruff that looks to be trimmed and shaped to perfection.
He's dressed to impress in a nice suit that almost looks to have no one wearing it. Pressed and ironed perfectly with zero wrinkles. His black dress shirt looks to be silk with the top couple buttons undone allowing his tattooed chest to peek through.
"So what do you do for Emiliano?" His question pulls me from staring and when my eyes meet his, I have to fight the blush of embarrassment when his eyes flicker with amusement letting it known he's caught me in the act.
"I have a couple of jobs with Emiliano. I'm his main receptionist and personal assistant and I'm the head trainer for most of the classes taught at the community center. What do you do for Emiliano?" I volley the question back to him, taking note of the subtle pause of his hands and the way his shoulders tense.
"W-we're business partners," he stutters, making my eyes slightly narrow towards him.
"Business partners?" I ask skeptically. "Is this a recent business...agreement?"
"Uh, well not particularly."
"Interesting."
"Interesting?" His eyebrows raise as he takes the moment to stop what he is doing to look at me fully.
"Well it's just that I've never seen or heard about you or anyone that was in this meeting room or even what this meeting was about. So it's just a little...interesting," I explain with a shrug of my shoulder.
"We-Well I mean. Uh–you know..." He continues to tumble over his words, even as the conference room door opens for the second time, only this time it's a very irritated looking Emiliano.
"What are you still doing in here?" The tone of his voice has me tensing and pulling my hands away from the stuttering man next to me as I stand abruptly. "Don't you have work that needs to be done, hm? Instead of making small talk and sitting on your ass?" He all but yells.
He's never been mad at me before. Sure he's lectured on occasion but he's never spoken to me like this, especially in front of other people. "I-I'm so sorry, Emiliano! First I was late, then I interrupted your meeting, and now I'm just–"
"Woah, woah! What are you talking about?" Emiliano promptly cuts me off before I have a chance to finish my apology.
"You're mad at me, which is understandable...I'll just get to work now." I say a silent goodbye, to the man I still don't know the name of, out of the corner of my eye while I rush my way towards the door.
"Now hold on a second." As I go to squeeze past Emiliano, but flinch away when his hand comes up to clutch my arm. His eyes narrow at my reaction and they bounce to the person standing behind me before they land on me again. "Okay let's all just take a moment. I'm not going to hurt you, I know my interrupting your conversation the way I did was the wrong way to go about it but I'm not mad at you...I'm mad at him."
His pointed gaze is set on the nameless man while Emiliano gently places a hand on my shoulder. "I'm not mad at you, Pequeña, I'm just glad you're okay. Everyone is late on occasion. It's a common thing in this world and it's my fault I didn't inform you of the meeting, not yours. Get something to eat and drink and get yourself settled. It's a slow day today so take it easy okay?"
He uses his hold on my arm to gently guide me out of the room before ushering me to the break room before roughly shoving the man back into the conference room, slamming the door shut behind them.
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One hour...that's how long Emiliano has been in the conference room with the handsome mystery man who took the time to clean and rewrap my knuckles with his soft touches and lingering gazes.
First there was yelling and a lot of it, though it was only being done by Emiliano, then there was silence. It didn't even matter how loud he was yelling, I could barely tell what he was screaming about.
I even tried pressing my ear against the door once the silence commenced and I could only make out the soft murmur of their voices.
Emiliano wasn't wrong about it being a slow day. I've only received one phone call, but it wasn't for me they accidentally dialed the wrong extension. Meaning, the only thing I've been doing for the past hour is staring at the conference room door wondering what they are talking or screaming about.
"And I better not see you anywhere near this building unless it's for the meeting that is already pre-scheduled in your calendar, understand." The sudden opening of the door has me startling and turning my attention to my computer as I try to make it seem like I've been working this whole time.
When they make it a little ways past my desk, I look up to find Emiliano pushing Mystery Man towards the elevators. "I'll see you around, little fighter." He winks over his shoulder, chuckling when Emiliano shoves at him harder.
"Wait I didn't catch your–" I start to call down the hall, cutting myself short when Emiliano succeeds in making sure he's in the elevator with the doors already closing. "Name." I sigh, sitting down while looking at the elevator in disappointment. "Uh, Emiliano? What was his name?"
"I don't know," he shrugs, his face and voice both void of any emotion as he walks past my desk and into his office, not bothering to actually stop and speak with me.
What a nice way to start off the morning.
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Hi my loves! Sorry for such a lack in updating, things have been a little busy recently! I'm going to try and upload an updated chapter at least once a week, praying I don't get writer's block lol!
Anway, enjoy the new chapter! Don't be a silent reader! I love hearing your opinions and thoughts!
Love yall! <3