Forgetting Him (5 page)
Authors: Anna Belle
The next few days, Nathan and Marie only met each other in passing.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Greco." She would tell him.
"Good afternoon to the most beautiful woman in Texas." He would answer her back with a smile.
He could hear her getting frustrated as he turned away from her and walked down the hallway. She would kill him for his playful comments, if she could.
He planned to bump into her as soon as he was done going over the company's books. As much as he loved teasing her, he was there to get some work done as well.
That day, the same story continued to play out. At the same time as he was stepping into O'Conner's office, she was stepping out.
"It seems my work day consists of mainly seeing you, it would be nice if it continued that way even after work." He said as he stood in the doorway, blocking her way out.
"What're you implying?" She asked aggressively.
"Nothing really, I just like to remember the time when you'd run away from your home and into my bedroom and under my covers." He said with a smile as he noticed how red her face turned.
He used that opportunity to lean down and give her a quick kiss on the lips.
"Why did you do that for ?" She managed to get out as her heart raced.
Her eyes were wide open. She couldn't believe that he would kiss her and that, even for a moment, she kissed him back and felt the anxiousness build up in her stomach. She couldn't believe that all of that was happening at the door of her father's office, or the fact that he would have the guts to stop her just as she was leaving.
"It helped me bring back some long lost memories." He said as he went in for another kiss.
"Don't you dare!" She threatened him as she pointed her finger towards him. Her lips were red and her eyes fiery.
Nathan calmly grabbed her extended hand, opened the clenched fist and gently kissed the palm. She just watched him, dumbfounded. Her entire body shook from that one kiss. Her body felt like warm electric waves washed over her thousands of times, covering her completely.
"The door to my office and my house is always open for you." He said as he cherished the fact that she was speechless.
"You're dreaming, Mr. Greco." She woke up from her gaze, stepped around him and disappeared down the hallway.
He turned around him and, since nobody was around and the door to O'Conner's office was now closed, laughed out loud. Before he opened the door to O'Conner's office, he fixed his attire and put on a much more serious, business-like face.
"I almost forgot." O'Conner remembered as Nathan was already preparing to leave his office.
"Yes?" He turned around.
"Tomorrow, around five, we have business partners coming from Chicago and we planned to make a small presentation for them. I hope you will be there as well."
"Thank you for letting me know, I'll be there." He promised.
"Five o'clock, in the main conference room."
Nathan came to the presentation, but he didn't hear anything that they were saying. He sat right next to Marie, taking in deep breaths of her attractive smell and he only thought about how he could get her to notice him.
"You changed your perfume." He whispered to her.
"Oh, God!" She rolled her eyes. She crossed her arms on her chest and looked at him in boredom.
"Admit that you did it because I told you that I loved this smell on you." He played with her.
"This had nothing to do with you." She whispered as she turned around to see if anyone noticed.
She noticed that Bruce was focused on the presentation and wasn't paying any attention to her, which worked out perfectly for her.
"Marie." He whispered to her again.
"What do you want?" She almost screamed at him. But, as she noticed people around her turning around to glance at them, she put her finger towards her lips to tell him to keep quiet.
"Come outside if you can and I'll tell you." He said.
"I'm not playing games with you Nathan."
"This isn't a game." he said as he placed his hand over hers.
"What are you doing?" She pulled her hand away quickly as if his very touch burned her.
She hated that she had to whisper and pretend like nothing was going on. She would have loved to scream at him, to tell him all that was on her mind.
Nathan just smiled and watched her, pretending to not understand what she was talking about. He pointed towards a man that was saying something, who at that moment looked at the two of them. She instantly put on a serious face, smiled, and nodded her head like she had been listening the entire time.
"You'll pay for this!" She seethed under clenched teeth.
"I'll wait for you." He said as he got up and slowly sneaked out of the large room. He easily moved through all the chairs and disappeared through the door.
She remained in her chair and watched him curiously as he made his way to the end. Who does he think he is, she asked herself. She continued to sit, but she couldn't pay attention anymore. She leaned from one hand to the other, looked from one face to the next and wondered if he was really waiting for her or not.
With thoughts of all that she had to say to him, she moved through the people and went out of the room. There was none in the hallway.
Her heart began to beat faster as her stomach began to turn on itself.
She made her way down the hallway that would take her out of the building. At the end of that hallway, she felt his hand on her waist as he pulled her to the side.
He smiled and put his fingers to her lips, telling her to be quiet. She found herself in his arms, her eyes were lost in the depth of his and even if she wanted to, she couldn't say anything to him.
He bent down a bit and kissed her. That was one fiery kiss, one which she willingly gave into and returned.
"Let's go back and fix what happened before." He said in a cracked voice, anxious from having her so close to him.
"No, this is crazy!" She tried to force herself out of his strong hands.
"Marie..." He murmured her name as he massaged his lips against hers.
"This shouldn't have happened!" She whispered excitedly. The feelings that flowed through her as he kissed her scared her.
"But it happened and it'll happen again." He gently caressed her cheek, wanting to take all the fear and doubt from her beautiful face.
"Never again." She said suddenly as she pushed herself away from him. "You will NEVER try this again." She threatened as she turned around and left the building, leaving him alone.
"But why?" He asked her in a soft voice as the door closed behind her.
This time, instead of going head first into uncomfortable situations, Nathan decided that he would open up his ears more to the "talks" around the office. He wanted to make sure that he got every juicy detail of what was happening in his colleagues lives.
Among the more mundane details, he overheard the fact that Marie has been dating an engineer called Bruce.
At that very moment, he decided to go talk to her in her office. With his folders in his hands and a face which seemed cold, but hid the anxiousness he felt in his guts, he knocked on her office door and entered without waiting for a reply.
"It's you." She rolled her eyes. "Good afternoon Mr. Greco." She said as she began packing her things, ready to leave the office as fast she could.
"I see that you're very happy to see me."
"You need something?" She lifted her beautiful head to look at him.
With her fingers, she moved the few strands of hair that slipped across her face. She seemed very disinterested and business oriented.
"I need your help with these documents." He threw the folders on the table in front of her.
"I'm in a hurry, but if it can't wait ..."
"It can't." He cut her off.
Marie opened the folders and looked at the papers.
"Hmm, ok, I still don't understand why it's so urgent." She said as she looked over the papers.
"I came to an understanding that nothing has changed around here." He said as he put his hands on her table and leaned in towards her. His eyes bore into hers.
"What do you mean?"
"I heard that you're dating one of the engineers." He said, more angrily than he intended.
"That's my own business."
"I'm just curious if Bruce noticed the different taste on your lips when you left the presentation yesterday." He said with a smirk.
"You're lucky that he didn't, because if knew, he'd kill you." She said in a cold voice.
"Oh Marie, do you never learn?" He tried to sound disinterested and provoke a reaction out of her, almost as if he truly didn't care that she was seeing someone.
"I just learned that I shouldn't get caught up with men like you and that I shouldn't believe them." She said as she forced herself to smile. She grabbed his folders and went around her table.
"That lesson, I'll never forget." she said as she placed the folders in his hands, turned around and walked away from him.
As she closed the door of her office behind her, she leaned up against them. Her heart was beating fast and her legs became shaky. She covered her hot cheeks with her cold fingers, hoping to cool them down a bit.
Her whole body was shaking, she lowered her hands knowing that only Nathan's cold look could cool her body down.
She took a deep breath as she tried to stop her heart from beating so fast. At that moment, one of the security officers walked past her. She was all red in the face and leaning against her door. Her shoulder were relaxed, and her arms hung loosely at her sides. Her head was leaning against the door and her eyes looked lifeless.
"Are you alright Ms. O'Conner?" The woman asked as she looked curiously at her.
Marie jumped at the sudden question. She put her finger on her lips, signaling the woman to be quiet and then she pointed towards her office, signaling that there was someone inside.
"Excuse me?" The woman asked, confused.
"I'm alright." She whispered after she took a deep breath. Once again, she gave her the sign to keep it quiet and just keep on walking.
The woman walked away as she shook her head.
"This is just what I needed today." Marie sighed.
As she heard Nathan's footsteps inside her office, she shot up from the door and disappeared down the hallway.
Nathan stayed in her office, he turned around and sat at the edge of her table, he crossed his arms on his chest and stared towards the door, completely lost in thought.
A lot of times in his life, consciously, he would do things which weren't right, a hundred times he swore to himself that he would stop, but somehow, his pride would always win out and he would make the same mistakes that he made before.
He knew that he loved to see her smiling more than anything, but everything he did simply annoyed her, and he continued doing it, knowing full well that she would only get angrier and angrier with him.
He thought seriously about talking to her about what happened and finally leaving the past where it belongs. However, he felt that he still wasn't ready for that, he still wasn't ready to let the book close on him.
He knew that logically, what he was doing was a long shot and not even worth pursuing, but for some reason he kept trying to follow his heart rather than his brain.
She wasn't to blame because she couldn't love him enough to leave the man that she was dating, he started to think logically again. It would be best if he simply forgot the past and everything that happened between them and simply establish a professional relationship with her, which was necessary for him to finish the work that he was sent there to do in the first place.
It would be nice if he could only have the courage to stand in front of her and wish her all the happiness in the world with her new love. And then he could finally man up and realize that there are plenty of other fish in the sea.
He stood there for a good while, trying to persuade himself to forget about the hurt that he felt and the promise that he made to himself that he would have her once again.
He planned how he would finish the business he had here and realized that the only way he could get any work done is if he locked himself in his office and just throw himself at it.
But, that wouldn't last and he knew it, he simply couldn't forget about her. He left the office, not even knowing where he would go.
Suddenly, he remembered a small restaurant in the city that he would go to with Marie. It was a small family owned place that always made him feel good. He sat in his car and drove there.
When he pulled up to the parking spot he noticed Marie's car. For a few seconds he sat in the car and thought about if he should just stay in there or not. In the end, he got out, all the while remembering the times they would go to the restaurant together and he would spend the time getting lost in her deep green eyes.
Nathan caught himself as he looked through the window of the restaurant. He saw groups of people enjoying their food, engaging in lively conversation all around, and then he saw her.
His gaze suddenly stopped on her. A smile appeared on his face without his will. She stood at the front of the restaurant, ready to be seated. She wore dark pants with a dark grey dress shirt. Her hair was tied in a bun and she seemed to look more like a teenage girl than a young woman.
Her face look relaxed and soft, her eyes, wandering and curious. Her hands would reach to her neck, then face, then they would roll through her hair, as she made sure that everything was as she wanted it to be.
He wanted to go in and approach her, but he realized how quickly that happiness would fade from her at the simple sight of him. He gave up on that idea, but not on the enjoyment that he received from reveling in her simple beauty.
Suddenly, her phone rang and she picked it up. It was probably her boyfriend, Nathan figured, a bit annoyed at the fact that the very thought of him erupted feelings of jealousy within him. As he looked back inside, he saw the hostess show her to her table and had her seated.
He went to the front of the restaurant and walked in.
"Good afternoon sir, please wait to be seated." The hostess said in her bubbly voice.
"I'm not looking to be seated. I just have a request."
"How can I help you then, sir?" The hostess asked with a smile.
"The woman over there." Nathan pointed towards Marie. "Can you order her a bottle of Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage Port?"
"Sir, that is our most expensive wine." The hostess looked up from her paper.
"Yes, it's her favorite. I'll pay for the whole bottle right now." He said smiling, remembering the many times they've enjoyed a bottle together.
"As you wish sir, that will be $1,100."
Nathan handed her his business card and looked back at Marie as she sat at her table, texting. He didn't feel jealousy at that moment, just happiness, happiness that he could bring a small drop of joy into her life.
"Thank you sir, would you like anything else?" The hostess asked as she handed Nathan his card back.
"No, thank you." He replied as he turned around and walked out the door, happy that he could see her smile again.
