(The Virtuous Husband) In the name of Love

Chapter 24

Allison

"I think next time I would not like to be threatened like that," I said as I saw Dolores on my door. She just gave me a shrug before she settled down on the seat in front of me.

"But it worked or else I would have been cleaning up all the mess." She told before she set her tablet on the table. Moving it towards me she signed me to look. It was a nice photo of Noel and me. It was one of the laughing moments. He had apologized to me once again between the dinner and we had talked about work and food. If I could I would have written a whole page review for the marvelous food, they served in taste even though the portions were small. However, the taste was too good to ignore that. By the end of the night, I had a stomach full of delicious food.

"It looks good," I told Dolores, but she was busy staring at me.

"What were you talking about that had him laughing?" She asked with curiosity in her eyes.

"Just me begging for food and asking him not to kick me out," I replied generously but when I saw her smile I could see the lights in my head go up.

"Ms. Dolores, what are you thinking?" I asked as she took the tablet back and smiled once again.

"I think you would make a great couple." This time she hid behind her tablet but I knew she was smiling.

"No, we aren't a couple and we aren't going to be," I replied quickly, but she was just scrolling through the tablet and even humming a song, maybe.

"Really, Ms. Dolores. This was a one-time thing. Just a one time, single occurrence." I exaggerated on that point while Ms. Dolores just shrugged at my statement. I knew I shouldn't have gone there.

"I think you can help with this charade a little longer and knowing that he was dating someone who is a working woman, ambitious, and also works with him. The story could come together easily for a while and then we could surely say after a while that it did not work out." I stared at her with narrowed eyes.

"See the clear picture for me, Allyson. It was your idea," my eyes wide at her words.

"I gave the idea didn't ask you to push me under the bus." I interrupted her. Handling Noel for a day could work out for me but doing it on a daily occasion like that was a big no for me. I just really couldn't with the bad history we had.

Yes, I had said I understood him but seriously thinking about what had happened gave me goosebumps. I was just strong enough to not alter my life but what had happened was strong enough to make you dislike a person. If I was a weak woman, I knew I would have cried myself and never saw his face. His reasons might be enough for me but weren't enough for me to go on and date him. I worked for him and that was where I wanted to end the line.

"I wouldn't have if you hadn't handled Cheryl like that." Now here was the real reason behind it.

"I surely wouldn't have done that if I knew it would come to this," I stood from my seat and paced in my office.

I never should have been allured by food. It always got me in the biggest of messes, should have stuck with my ramen and pizza. I scolded myself.

"Well, whatever you did it had them back down from competing with us a bit. I got a call from their Public Relations that they won't interfere in our business until we did. They are backing down but they wanted us not to make any statement about what happened yesterday to anyone. If you ask me, it was the best thing that I had heard from their side from the past three years." Setting the tablet on the table she looked at her hands.

"Noel is to be blamed for this equivalently but now at least I'm sure I won't have to wait for some attack from their side. This war between both of us to end somewhere even though I know it won't end until the truth comes out." She sighed saying this. I saw her guard dropping and her words sounded as if someone has been carrying a lot of burdens around for so long.