Enlightened (Red Flags) (9 page)

"What's wrong?  Are you okay?" I asked, still trying to trace her line of sight.

"I'm fine.  I'm just wondering if you are.  That guy has been staring at you like he'd like to devour you.  Do you know him?"

An uneasy feeling swept through my stomach as I dreaded finding the face that had her so enamored.  Afraid of finding Jason's face in the crowd, I hesitated when Amanda grabbed my arm and discreetly pointed to the face in question.  Luckily, it wasn't Jason.  The familiar greenish-grey eyes that I had seen in the elevator at work were now deadlocked on me.  My breath caught, and I felt a flush of red strike through my face.  . 

Blowing out the breath I had been holding, I quietly answered, "No.  I don't know him."

Amanda looked at me in disbelief and smiled. "Really?  He looks like he's looking at something that he can't get enough of." 

I looked at her and gave her a nervous smile.  When I looked up, the beautiful man was stalking his way over to us.  His seductive smile made me even more nervous than I already was.  I straightened my dress and swallowed hard, hoping to avoid making a spectacle of myself at my very first work related social.

"It's nice to see you again--" he stopped, his voice low and seductive.  I didn't say anything right away and Amanda elbowed me in the hip to get my attention.

"Cara," I replied, trying to bring my calm voice to the conversation. 

He noticed my unease and gave a very cavalier smile. 

"Do you work for the marketing firm?" he asked, looking at Amanda and then quickly back to me.

"Yes, I work for Mr. William Rolston.  I'm a new marketing manager." 

His eyebrows rose and a sly smile slithered across his face once more.

"This is Amanda.  She's Mr. Rolston's Executive Assistant."  She smiled at him admiringly, but I wasn't sure if he'd even noticed.  "What did you say your name was?"  I asked, curious to know more about him.

"I didn't say," he said in his low, baritone voice, then he laughed a little.  After seeing the dismay on my face, he lightened up a bit.  "I'm Damian Rossi.  It's nice to meet you, Cara."  He'd completely eliminated Amanda from our conversation.   

Just as I was ready to indulge him in further conversation, William motioned for Amanda and me to come back to join him, to which we both hurriedly turned back to Damian. 

"Sorry, I've gotta go.  I'll see you around."

"Oh I'm sure you will, and I look forward to it, too," he said, giving me another seductive look over, and then turned and walked over to a group of men who looked to be about as much fun as watching paint dry on a wall.

Amanda was giddy on our short walk over to William.  She had a star gazed look in her eye, and I think that if she didn't have a beautiful rock on her finger, she would have tried to take Damian for herself.

"You said you don't have a boyfriend Cara.  I think you might need to make nice with your admirer." 

I smiled at her, but I certainly wasn't in the mood to jump into anything with another man.  I was still trying to decide how I felt about Jason, and I wasn't about to delve into the sordid details of that toxic relationship.

I politely smiled but didn't offer a response. 

We made it over to William and as he leaned in to whisper that he was about to introduce me to the room, I felt another set of eyes gazing in my direction, only these eyes weren't admiring, they were cold as ice.  Sunny stood with another woman, the leggy blonde from the elevator, and they were both staring in my direction with vindictive smiles on their faces.  I remembered Amanda telling me that Sunny was screwing William and wanted to keep other women at bay.  Honestly, she didn't need to be so protective.  She had nothing to worry about where I was concerned.

The start of William's speech broke me from their gazes.

"Hello, ladies and gentleman.  On behalf of San Diego Sports Management and The San Diego Tide, I would like to welcome you all."  There was a round of applause.   While everyone was clapping, I scanned the room, but caught no glimpse of Damian.  "I'm William Rolston and, for those who don't know me, I'm the Executive Marketing Manager for The Tide.  I've brought on a Junior Marketing Manager to assist with this account, so please join me in giving a warm welcome to Miss. Cara Pinkston." 

The room erupted into applause and I gave an uncomfortable smile as I took my place next to William.  I liked working behind the scenes, so being out in the forefront was not my place of comfort. 

William went on to give a little background about the team.  He explained that the team had undergone a dramatic overhaul since the previous owner had to sell due to bankruptcy. 

"So the final piece of this puzzle is the owner who is going to restore this team back to glory.  Please help me in welcoming Mr. Damian Rossi." 

My hands clapped as my mouth dropped to the floor. Damian Rossi was the owner of The San Diego Tide?  He didn't look old enough to be an owner.   He had an air of sophistication to him--his low haircut, the light stubble that framed his mouth and face, and the huskiness of his tone validated the mature side of him.  The thinness of his face still made him look quite young, though.

"This is getting juicy," Amanda leaned in and whispered. 

"What do you mean?"  I asked, unable to peel my eyes off of Damian who was gliding up to the podium.

"You know what I mean," she said through clenched teeth. "He wants you."

I shook my head and continued clapping, trying not to make our awkward situation painfully obviously to everyone in the crowd.  Damian shook hands with William then took to the podium to give a short speech.  I only caught the tail end of it due to my daydreams and lack of focus.

"… so I look forward to building this organization from the floor up with these wonderful people behind me.  We're going to make an awesome team." He said the last part with a wicked smile on his face, turning to look directly at me. 

A few photographers stepped in front of us and Damian slid in between William and me for the picture.  He put his left arm around my waist and his right over William's shoulder.  I took a peek at Amanda who couldn't hide her satisfaction, a large grin planted firmly on her face.

We stepped away from the stage and William said a few words before shaking hands with Damian and bidding Amanda and me farewell.  The three of us were left standing, in an awkward filled circle, with nervous smiles, and slight glances at one another.

"Well, I'm pretty tired and my job here is done, so I'm calling it a night," Amanda said, patting me on my back.  There was no way I was about to be left alone with Damian, so I quickly gave myself an out as well.

"Yeah, I think I'll join you."  Damian looked at me through narrowed eyes that burned me. A slight curve of his lips made Amanda smile even wider.

"I'll walk you ladies out."

I didn't say anything on the walk out to our cars.  What was there to say?  Damian was incredibly good-looking, but finding out that we were now business associates drew an invisible line that shouldn't be crossed. 

I had unknowingly parked my Civic right next to Amanda's Mercedes Benz.  Damian scoffed at my car as he saw me take out my key pad and press the unlock button, causing the lights to blink.  I didn't care. 

"A beautiful girl should be driving a beautiful car.  Something that accentuates your beauty," he said, looking from my car to Amanda's and back.  I didn't respond. I just simply opened my door and slid in.

"I look forward to working with you, Mr. Rossi," I said, smiling, trying to keep the formality in my tone.

"It's Damian and yes, I look forward to working with you as well.  Have a good night."

He shut my door and after looking over to Amanda and waving goodbye, I drove off with my thoughts banging loudly in my head.  I was being pursued by my new business associate, and even though a part of me liked it, I couldn't keep the thoughts of Jason from smashing back into my head.

Chapter 8

Chelsea's running up and down the stairs was my wake-up call early Sunday morning.  I stumbled out of my room, yawning repeatedly because I wasn't fully ready to start my day.  She saw my tired eyes and apologized for waking me, but didn't stop to talk.  She had to meet her parents for church and breakfast because, they had a surprise for her and they wanted to tell her in person. 

I shuffled down the stairs and into the kitchen, grabbing an apple along the way to the fridge to pour a glass of orange juice.  My purse was sitting on the island and I heard the distinct sound of my phone beeping, notifying me of a message of some sort.  When I dug my phone out of my purse, I saw a text message had been left by Jason.  Apprehensively opening it, I found more sweet words from him.

From Jason

Wishing you a good night and that I were there to hold you and make everything all better.  Until my time, I'm here.

I Love You, Gorgeous

A surge of compassion and then anger zipped through me before I could figure out why I was feeling either emotion.  Hunter was right, I did still love Jason. Unfortunately, the animosity built up because of Jason's numerous faults wasn't going to go away easily.  I sat my phone down on the counter and took my glass of orange juice into the living room to watch some morning TV. 

I turned the TV on to the Sunday morning news station. It was a real estate piece highlighting homes in San Diego, displaying impressive and expensive homes that I could only wish to live in.  Just as I was getting bored of the show and had my finger on the button to change the channel, the commentator spoke words that made me drop the remote.

It seems that beautiful La Jolla property owned by our favorite father-to-be is now up for sale.  That's right.  Jason Bradley has listed his immaculate home for $2.7 million dollars.  Maybe the Bradley's are in need of an upgrade, but at $2.7 million, the place is a steal.  Contact Mary Burgess at Tidal Realty to schedule an appointment.

I sat dumbfounded.  Was Jason really moving?  If he was, why was he spending so much time contacting me?  The words
father-to-be
replayed over and over in my head. The more I heard them, the more disgusted I became, and the less I cared what he was doing with his home or himself.  The repeated slap in the face that was Stacey reminded me that those days were over, and that I truly did need to move on.

I spent the rest of the day busying myself with laundry, trivial chores, and market campaign work.  I was determined to not consume my thoughts with Jason, further confusing myself with the assault of the roller coaster emotions that I felt for him. 

<>

I didn't sleep much that night.  Chelsea came home, ripping through the condo like a category five tornado, telling me all about the engagement party plans that her parents had put together.  I listened as she went over every detail, leaving nothing out.  We stayed up until about 2 a.m., when I could no longer keep my eyes open, and I fell asleep.

I walked into work with a heavy feel of exhaustion.  I wanted to hurry up and make my way to the fifth floor so that I could pour an enormous cup of coffee, since I was becoming quite the coffee drinker. 

I tried to breeze by Sunny without making eye contact, but it was unavoidable, and she scowled at me, the very same scowl that I had received from her every morning, since the first day I'd started work.  Rather than play into her petulant game, I gave her a curt smile and kept walking to the elevators.  I leaned up against the wall as the car took me up to my office floor, and after breathing a long, deep sigh, I stood straight and prepared to make my way into my office.

Amanda greeted me with a couple of messages that had been left earlier that morning.  As I walked into my office and got settled in, she sat down in the chair in front of me. 

"Do you need anything, Cara?  You look beat."

Unable to say anything, I looked at her and smiled.  If I looked anything like I'd felt, then she was right, I
was
beat.

"Anything?" she asked.

I smiled.  "A cup of coffee would nice."

"Coming right up," she said, quickly standing and making her way to the office break room. 

I looked over my messages that she had written down.  A couple were from the guys in finance wanting to discuss budgets for upcoming promotions for The Tide.  There was a message from the print shop, asking about billboards that were to be made, and then there was a message from Damian that simply said;
Call Me!

His message grabbed my attention immediately, more than the others, even though there were only two words scribbled down on the paper.  I knew he wasn't looking to discuss work, and since I felt it was crossing an arbitrary line to discuss anything with him that was not work related; I pushed his message card aside and called the finance department.

Amanda returned shortly after, holding a piping hot mug of coffee.  The aroma as she entered my office had me craving it. I was beginning to feel like I was growing addicted to coffee.  She sat it down on my desk, and waited as I wrapped up my conversation.

After hanging up the phone, I had a paper full of scribbled numbers, and a cup of coffee calling my name.

"Mr. Rossi has his eyes on you.  Saturday night was fun," she said, not even giving me a minute to settle in from my phone call.

"We will be working together, so it'll be a working relationship," I said, trying to stave off any other attempts at matchmaking.  I was done with matchmakers.

"You can't deny he's very attractive, and who knows, maybe working with him will be a good thing." 

I frowned, which only made her smile wider.  William calling for her pulled her away from my desk.  I was thankful because I had a ton of work on my desk left and I wanted to tackle it in peace.

<>

Noon came quickly and I was broken from my intense marketing strategies session by the buzz of my office phone.