Chapter 20: DOUBLE TROUBLE.
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Jensen’s POV-
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I almost forgot that Alex could be downright scary at times but amusing all the same. I’ve been on the receiving end of her wrath quite a few times in the past…..guess I just needed the reminder. And how the hell did she come up with all those ridiculously deadly threats right on the spot? What a wild imagination.
I entered my office and my eyes unmistakably spotted Josh who was sprawled on one of the chairs and playing with a crystal paperweight. I couldn’t even bother to roll my eyes and casually walked inside…as usual.
Josh looked up at me and then narrowed his eyes “Why are you going all smiley-smiley dude, it’s creeping me out” he commented and that’s when I realised a smile had somehow managed to spread wide across my face without my knowledge.
As a response to him I wiped off the stupid grin from my face but a hint of it still remained.
“Wait, wait wait…. did you just come from Alex’s office?” He asked leaning forward to look behind me as if he could spot my footprints, the teasing glint on his face gave away that he already saw me, I didn’t bother answering him. “I should have known there was something there, especially when you came to my party yesterday.” He pointed out.
“Whatever.” I mumbled, but my heart wasn’t in it. A part of me was still thinking about Alex and about how easy it was for her to intrigue me, she amuses me. She’s one of those absolutely rare people who can actually make me laugh without even trying unlike Josh who’s always everywhere to annoy me.
“And tell me something …what was that bet with the beer pong, you just wanted to spend some time with her right? Gosh, you’re so meticulous sometimes.” He mumbled.
I glared at everything “what do you care, and why are you here, don’t you have your own company to run?” I didn’t meet his eye, knowing he would see right through me.
Josh made it sound like I came up with an elaborate scheme and trapped her or something, it wasn’t like that at all. I just thought since we got off on the wrong foot maybe we can fix it somehow. Was that so wrong?
“Just drop your grumpy act will you, I’m not one of your employees” he scoffed and I ignored him.
“Oh and to answer your question, unlike all those other times, today I do have a reason to come up here, I know you’re not really interested about the gossip and news, but this dude… you’re gonna wanna check it out” he walked up to my desk and placed a magazine in front of me.
I didn’t even spare a glance as I said “celebrity Gossip? You want me to read about who’s dating who crap? I’ll pass” I rolled my eyes and pushed it back towards him. He ignored my wish and again handed it to me until I took it from his outstretched hand. What the hell is wrong with him today?
“Take a deep breath and prepare yourself for a heartache” Josh joked as I sat in my chair and looked up at him. It’s official. My best friend has gone crazy.
The cover page of the magazine had a full length image of Kyle Brook, everyone knew him, he was the current most popular actor in the industry.
“Turn to page 4” Josh said and I wordlessly did as he asked, since there was no escaping this.
I started reading the article and the beginning spoke about how Kyle Brook is at the peak of his career with his work and never ending fan-following, the article then gently dipped into his personal life and talked about a secret romance with someone and how now it’s all out in the open-
….Our favorite Hollywood gentleman who owns billions of hearts, well he’s gonna get the taste of his own medicine as now he has fallen head over heels for this young woman, a source has revealed that she is an employee of signature heights….
I stopped reading as it finally registered what Josh had been trying to tell me all this while. I felt my throat go dry. My mind was drawing a blank as I couldn’t form any words, I looked up at Josh in complete shock.
“It’s Alex dude, look at the picture!” He hurried and I quickly snapped my eyes to a picture below the article on the next page where they were hugging and I realised that the photograph was from yesterday night after the party, she was dressed in the same clothes.
“So what? She can date anyone she wants, why are you even showing this to me?” I threw the magazine back at Josh in irritation and he caught it. I shot him a glare for rubbing this stupid piece of information in my face. Some friend he was….
“Geez! stop being so moody, so what if you liked her, you didn’t know she was taken…but it’s okay there are plenty of fish in the sea” he said and after a moment he bursts out laughing at my ‘situation’.
“She- I…I don’t like her!” I denied. What the hell is he going on about?
Josh shot me a look “Yeah right! and I’m a goldfish” he said sarcastically.
“That explains your brain capacity” I said, while I opened my laptop to check the mail and ignored his existence.
“I feel sorry for you man” I would have believed him if he wasn’t guffawing his heart out while saying that.
“We both know you’re feeling anything but sorry right now” I retorted.
“Stop sulking! You always bury yourself in work when you want to avoid thinking” Josh says and shuts my laptop on my fingers. “I just wanted you to know before you dove in too deep.”
I give him a dangerous look but he seems unfazed “I don’t like her and I’m not sulking! Can’t you just get it through your thick skull!”
“Oh, Okay…I’m convinced!” Josh threw his hands in mock surrender and dropped himself back down in one of the chairs clearly unconvinced. I sighed and attempted to tone down my urge to harm my best friend and flipped open my laptop again.
The phone on my table started to ring and I picked it up. “Yes?” The anger in my voice was evident.
“Who did you kill now?” said the voice of my sister Jennifer. She seemed entertained by my nonexistent greeting.
“No one yet, but Josh is not gonna live a long happy life, I guarantee you that” I smiled. She can make me smile without even trying. Josh smiles wickedly at me, I know that look, it says ‘bring it on!’
I put Jennifer on speaker and told her that. “Hey Josh!” She greeted him chirpily, sensing his presence over the phone. Yeah, it is THAT obvious that he’s always here.
“Hey Jenn, what’s up?” He greeted her back.
“Nothing… I’m just getting bored at work!” She stated.
“If you’re bored, go out. Don’t call me, I have work to do” I suggested.
“Now now, Jensen…is that how you treat your elders?” She teased.
“It’s four minutes damnit, four minutes!” I said grumpily. Jenn and I are twins. She’s older than me by a few freaking minutes, but she loves to use that to her advantage and annoy me to death.
“What’s gotten him so grumpy again?” She was clearly asking this to Josh and he was more than eager to answer.
“Jenn, you won’t believe what’s going on with this one, for the first time in forever he actually liked a girl but she’s already taken, plus, cherry on the top- she’s dating that famous star Kyle Brook.” He summed it up, sputtering nothing but utter nonsense.
I rolled my eyes, expecting Jennifer to console me or something but it surprised me when she snickered and then burst out laughing. I frowned, this is Jenn we’re talking about and she’s a hopeless romantic, she would’ve comforted me and felt sad. What is wrong with her?
“You like Alex?” She managed to ask between the spilling laughter. The way she referred to her, it was almost like she knew Alex. Josh and I both glanced at each other with confused eyes.
“You know her?” Josh asked the question which was on my mind.
Jennifer stopped laughing and then a silence started to stretch when she suddenly shattered it “uh…no, no of course not. I read that article, It’s all over the news.” She forced a laugh. She was lying, it didn’t require a genius to figure that out, I’ve known her all my life and it’s not hard to know when she’s lying. She’s not a very good liar.
Josh on the other hand completely lacked skills and he instantly believed her. What an idiot!
There was suddenly a knock on the door and Josh spotted Alex through the transparent glass, he then turned to the phone to speak with Jenn “Hey hey Jenn, it’s her Alex, you wanna talk to her, she’s really cool.”
“Sure, why not…” she readily agreed.
Josh gestured for her to enter and Alex pushed open the door to walk in. My eyes widened, thinking about all the extremely embarrassing things Jenn could tell her and potentially destroy my reputation, so I immediately disconnected the call. Josh smirked at my action and turned to greet Alex.
She smiled looking at me most of the time and greeted us “hey!” A smile automatically formed on my face but It turned into a frown.
She was with someone else, we only work together, this is a professional bond, nothing personal, this thought suddenly made me upset and some words rolled out of my mouth before I could rethink them “What brings you here Alexandra?”
Josh and Alex were both taken aback by my unfriendly tone, heck i was taken aback, but I couldn’t look at them and just concentrated on my laptop screen.
“You said if I had any questions regarding the charity event planning I could talk to you…So here I am,” she said, biting her lip doubtfully.
“Can we discuss it some other time, currently I’m working on something urgent.” Like managing my emotions, I said while making my face blank, there was no urgent work but I just couldn’t talk to her right now, I couldn’t even look at her. I dismissed her in an unwavering tone that I’ve mastered over the years.
Alex was frowning, clearly confused at my behavior. She tried to mask her emotions but I saw the hurt shining in her eyes before she covered it up and I felt like a total jackass.
“I’m doing you a favour Jensen. Don’t make me change my mind.” There was a fire in her voice, burning just beneath the surface and it caught me off guard.
That’s what I like about her, she won’t let anything get to her regardless of what it is or who it is. Wait a minute…‘like’? Seriously?
Leaving the file with me, she turned and walked away, Josh accompanied her to the door while I tried not to hunch dramatically in my chair as I heard them talking while standing at the door frame, in the deafening silence I could hear them clearly.
“Okay, what’s wrong with him again?” She directed this question towards Josh this time.
Josh shrugged at her, but then said “he’s just suffering from heartbreak.”
And that’s when I decided to break my friendship with him or at least break a few bones in his body. Alex chuckled, but the humor didn’t reach her eyes, I could tell.
“But, what is this I’m hearing about Kyle the movie star huh?” Josh asked and waved the magazine in front of her, wiggling his eyebrows in a way which was downright annoying.
At that moment I was looking up at her expecting her to say something. A part of me wanted her to deny the news, saying that it was some false interpretation by the media or something, anything…. “Not now Josh, don’t even bring that up” she dismissed the topic and turned to face me. She left with a small nod, silently closing the door behind her.
I stared at my door aimlessly even after she was gone and felt guilty. It was I who suggested that she could drop by anytime, if she wanted to discuss and now I made it seem like she was an inconvenience. Why the heck was I behaving like this?
I was left in absolute silence after she left before Josh decided to shatter it “That was harsh,” he said, making me feel more rueful than I already did. Thanks dude.
“It’s not her fault, you know,” Josh said, like I’m some kid who needs to understand a fact.
“I know that!” I said.
Josh was not at all bothered by my outburst and he asked “Then why are you behaving as if……?” I don’t know. Gosh he’s right… I dropped my gaze to the floor and just stared at it with numerous thoughts in my head.
Josh shook his head while looking at me and he suggested “You should apologize, after all you like her…”
I whipped my neck towards him, “I do not like her!”
He rolled his eyes at that “Oh come on, admit it, the first step is acceptance.”
“There is nothing for me to admit!” He’s gonna give me a headache and I don’t have a alcohol problem!
“You know, the sooner you admit it, the faster we can start our plan of breaking it up between Alex and Kyle” he said and shrugged like it’s nothing. His offer was quite promising…but c’mon I didn’t like her, we hardly even talk.
No matter how annoying Josh could be, I knew that he would definitely do that for me. We’ve been that way since college days, always competing with each other but supporting one another at the same time and now we are best friends and business rivals…. figures.
I chuckled at his absolutely bizarre idea “some other time.” I replied and he nodded in a ‘your loss’ manner.
He then walked out of my office while looking at his watch and groaning. I shook my head… probably late for another meeting, again.
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I’ve been staring at my laptop screen for who knows how long? Every little thing was annoying me and I didn’t know what to do. Break time had passed while I was busy working and it wasn’t a problem since I wasn’t hungry anyway, the clock seemed to have slowed… cause the day was dragging on and on. It felt like I overworked myself and now there was nothing else for me to do.
Josh’s words kept repeating in my mind and I wanted to bash my head against the wall just to make it stop. Instead I let it drop on my desk.
Me? Liking Alex?
Impossible!
We don’t even know each other, we don’t even talk much…all we do is avoid each other, at least she does. There’s this tension whenever we are close, this intensity that prevails around us and I would rather not have this weird tension between us, I mean, of course not, but that doesn’t mean I like her. Groaning in annoyance I ran my fingers through my hair.
I was arguing with myself. Great, just great!
Slapping my laptop shut, I stood up hoping to do something productive. Looking around my office I spotted that file I requested Kate to make copies of since the printer in my room has suddenly stopped working, I picked it up and walked to the printing room to make those copies myself.
I pushed open the door and spotted no one else but Alex there. What the hell? She was the last person I wanted to see right then. Masking my real feelings I walked in but stopped short at the scene in front of me.
She was almost wrestling with the printer and brutally kicking it while muttering “Why does everyone have to be so damn stubborn in this office! First Jensen and now this stupid machine! I can’t ever catch a breather….”
Her words trailed off as soon as she noticed my presence there. She quickly retreated from her aggressive position and paid mercy to the machine. I was very much amused and wanted to laugh at the ‘busted’ look on her face, but managed to maintain my poker face.
“What were you doing?” I asked, mostly to see what she would say.
“Haha…” she laughed nervously. “I was just… I-I was just…” she wasn’t able to think of an excuse. I stared at her, waiting for an answer. “I was uhm, kicking the printer?” she mumbled under her breath, or at least that’s how it sounded to me.
“What?” I asked again, urging her to speak up louder.
“Well, it depends on how much you saw…” she nervously looked up at me and I was forced to stare into her deep brown eyes.
There was that weird tension building up in the air again and in an attempt to break it, I rolled my eyes at her words and walked towards the other printer and chose a few settings according to my requirement for the copies.
“Mr. Black-….” she started to speak but stopped. I immediately frowned at the mention of my last name. Are we back to that again? “Is it okay if I give you the new estate file by this Thursday? It still needs some tweaking.” she was asking me to push the deadline?
I remembered the next day I had to sign the deal with the advertisement company, “No, it has to be tomorrow by all means.” I spoke curtly, like the heartless robotic boss that I was.
She looked confused and taken aback at my rigidity and scowled cutely.
‘Cutely?’ Dear lord I was losing my mind!
The room was filled with silence, the only meek sound came from the printing machine until she spoke up and broke the ice.
“W-why are you suddenly being like this?” She asked, clearly suppressing the fury and frustration which wanted to break the surface.
‘Because I’m confused and annoyed and feeling all these other things I don’t want to deal with.’
I turned to face her and walked closer, looking straight into her eyes, she stood where she was, didn’t move a muscle and held her ground, even at our close proximity. “What do mean ‘suddenly’, just because sometimes I act a little friendly, doesn’t mean we’re buddies, this is professional and let’s keep it that way.” I couldn’t understand if I was explaining this to her or to myself. I saw that every word I spoke, I could never take them back and it would form a wall between us, I bit my lip, but it was too late.
Her gaze was piercing, like she could see right through me, like I was transparent, like she knew I was burning bridges while she was trying so hard to build them. She kept looking at me, almost like she was suddenly seeing me in a different light and I had to divert my eyes elsewhere when it got too much for me to take.
Why do I ever open my mouth when I’m well aware of the fact that nothing good is going to come out. Ever. That’s it! I’m going back to my office and I’m gonna staple my mouth shut. Yes, that’s the plan.
As soon as the copies skipped out of the printer, I immediately picked them up and left after loudly slamming the door behind me, angry at myself. Once in my office, I loosened my tie in frustration and threw the papers on the table, making them float and fall all over the place.
I just stood there and stared at the mess of scattered papers floating around and then dropped myself on a chair to calm down, minutes turned into hours and time just passed around me while I sat there.
Glancing at my wrist watch, I realised it was time to leave and I sure wasn’t complaining. It’s been an awfully long day and I wasn’t even working.
Whatever happened with Alex, swam behind my tired eyes, I just couldn’t rest easy.
What was I doing?
Getting mad at her for… for what.. seeing something that no one else ever noticed. Seeing me for who I am?
It made no sense.
I made no fu*king sense!
My sister always told me that I distance myself from everything thinking that I’m always better off without an attachment. That I push people away, everyone, because I don’t know who’d leave or who’d stay, but I dont give them a chance and shut them out.
‘If you push someone long enough, you’ll be in a place where you’ll never reach them back even if you need them.’ Jenn had said to me and at that time I just laughed at her words.
Was she right? Was I doing that now?
The words I had said to Alex played in my mind like a broken record and I cringed. I was being a jerk.
The thought of pushing her too far didn’t sit well with me, it made me uneasy and unbelievably anxious. Shit!
Picking up the file she left at my table I rushed to her office, hoping I didn’t miss her. Damn it! I messed up. So what if she’s not available… She’s still important.
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