Sebastian.
Swirling the glass in my hand and getting sucked into the whirling view of the honey-brown liquor in it, Orla was looming in my head. She’d actually been living in it rent-free.
Just when did it happen? Six months was so little time for that kind of change.
My train of thought was snapped when the glass was yanked out of my hold.
Tilting to my right, ready to unleash all of my frustration on whoever it was, I found Kaia staring down at me with disbelief in her eyes.
“Seriously?” Her shoulders dropped. “Was this why you refused to come into the meeting with me? And bought off the entire place for tonight, so you can have some space to think?” Precisely. Then she thudded the glass on the wooden bar top.
Heaving a sigh and snidely rolling my eyes away, I grabbed the glass and glided it across, bringing it before me again.
“Is this still about Orla?” she asked, swiveling a bar stool to stand next to mine. “I’ve been trying to call your attention,” she added, getting settled on the stool.
“How did the meeting go?” I asked instead, taking the first actual sip from my glass. If only the ice in it could cool off the steam pulsing through my veins.
“You pulled the strings, Sebastian,” she stressed ‘obviously.’ The director assures me the leading role.” Then flipping her wristwatch over to her face she added, “You’ve been sulking here for over one hour.”
A pregnant silence ensued but it didn’t take long before it birthed the question from her.
“It’s Orla, right?” I swerved my attention to her with an expression void of any shred of humor. “The one who’s making you think your night away.”
Revving my eyes away into space, “I want to deal with her,” I said abruptly. “I want to clip her wings.”
She hailed the bartender with a snap of her fingers, for another glass to join me while I vented.
“I hate to see her the way she is now. I mean, isn’t she supposed to be the same naïve and weak girl I broke up with six months ago? What happened? It’s been just six months, Kaia. Just. Six. Months. And yet, the change is this tremendous. She now even dares to go up against ME.”
“How then do you intend to deal with her?” Grabbing the bottle by its neck and filling the glass just placed on our table, she added in a mumble shrouded by the gurgle, “Because I’m sure there’s more where that came from.”
I shot her a glare, but she intentionally kept her eyes away from me, sipping leisurely from her glass. She was right anyway, I admitted inwardly and straightened my gaze again. There could be more where Orla brought those from. But of course, I was no simpleton to tread without caution.
Just when ‘he’ slid into my thought, an approaching figure slipped into my range of view from the side.
Kaia on hearing footfalls, trailed its source, following the guy with her eyes until he was close enough to us.
He bowed before handing me the small envelope in his possession.
Urgently, I unwrapped the parcel and a pile of pictures spilled over the table.
“Anything unusual?” I asked, flipping through the pictures. Her entire day’s activities were in my palms but it didn’t do much to abate my unease. There was nothing particularly off about them, and I could not tell much of the strings she could be pulling from what I was seeing.
“Nothing unusual about her movements, sir,” he further affirmed and I could feel my infuriation going thicker. Something was definitely unusual.
“Agencies, producers, I need details on everyone and everything she meets. Keep your eyes open like a hawk and never lose sight of her. Ever. Keep me posted at all times,” I ordered.
“Yes, sir.” He bowed slightly and turned around to leave.
“What just happened?” Kaia asked, scrunching her brows suspiciously as she snatched the photo from my grip. “DON’T tell me the ‘her’ is Orla.” The crease formerly between her brows spread out with an agape stare smearing onto Orla’s figure in a nose mask walking toward a black van.
“You planted someone on her tail?!” she exclaimed, gobsmacked when I remained silent, affirming her assumption. “Sebastian!”
“What would you have me do? Sit back and watch her soar to heights she’s never meant to be?”
Her lips clicked shut as she took one hasty sip. “Be honest with me.” Reverting her tone to its normal level, she pressed her head in to reduce her volume to a whisper. “Do you still have a thing for Orla?”
Was expecting the question all along so it took no effort to hold back a verbal reply, ticking my jaw instead and looking away while refilling my glass for the fourth time in a few minutes. The more I thought about Orla, the hotter my insides became. In a bid to borrow the icy temperature from the drink, it ended up adding its heat down my throat and nothing more.
“Don’t you think you’re going overboard?”
“That word doesn’t exist in my dictionary,” I replied, stoic.
“And you think Mateo will let you have your way? I’m sure he’s going to be shielding her like a knight in shining armor,” she remarked humorously but my senses were pretty numb to anything amusing.
“He can crumble along with her for all I care.”
“And to think you guys used to be tied to the hip,” she said but mostly to herself. “So what exactly is your plan?”
“Until I figure out how she got those documents, it’ll be in my best interest to hide behind the shadows for now,” I said, taking a sip only to realize it was the last. Instinctively, my hand reached out for the bottle and I’m almost pissed when I found it nearly empty as well. With a near-aggressive thud against the bar top, I signal the bartender for another.
“I think we should leave for now,” screeching her stool across the floor, she rose to her feet. “You’ll only end up hurting yourself if you keep drinking your night away. And remember, you have a long day tomorrow.”
“Go ahead if you want to.”
“What if – ” she drawled sultrily, tipping my jaw up softly, “I take you home – ” Drawing closer, she cupped my cheeks, focusing my eyes on hers. “and do the needful,” she whispered lastly.
“Go ahead if you want to,” I deadpanned and got her clicking her tongue in a hissy annoyance. Too bad the only thing she managed to get were my eyes. Spirit, mind, and soul didn’t even belong to me right now.
“See you then.” Pouting her lips, she swerved her butt around and clacked her heels out of the room eventually.