Serendipity

Chapter 25

Raffaele

"Yes, thank you, George. I'll let you know when the documents are ready," I tell my employee before hanging up. The fact that I receive that news from George instead of Elodie tells me enough. She's avoiding me. Fine. Totally cool with me. Who cares?

I sigh, rubbing my knuckles over my chest in an attempt to ease the knot that's been tightening there ever since I left my casino last night. I think I care...

But if she doesn't want to talk to me like an adult then I won't force her to. Not yet at least. I'll let her play this little game but eventually, she has to face me again. We have a job to do, after all.

Either way, no time to waste on it. I have to get the fake documents ready for tomorrow and Sarina is bringing Matteo in two hours.

The documents shouldn't be anything too wild just yet. I'll feed Dubois a little bit of false information on my next deals before I start planting my lies in a way that'll affect his plans. In the short run, my next goal is to stop his batch from getting shipped off and sold. Endgame is getting rid of him for good, one way or the other.

So yeah, too busy to worry about a certain woman anyway.

-

The next day, I spend a good fucking hour searching for Elodie. Her exchange with Dubois' man will be soon so I wanted to talk to her first. About the job, of course. Just make sure she knows not to talk if not necessary, how to act without raising any suspicion in the crowd and so on.

My plans are thrown into the wind when I can't find her anywhere in my hotel while my pride keeps me from calling her. By the time six pm rolls around, I know I've missed my chance so I resort to hoping she won't fuck up.

My agitation spikes all the same. Like, where the hell even has she been all day? Not in her room or the gym or any other public place in my building. I even drove by her old house only to find it empty as well. She's supposed to keep me posted about her whereabouts but it seems she can't even do that right.

No matter her personal feelings toward me, her behavior is unprofessional and childish. She regrets what happened between us, that sucks. A lot. But it's no excuse to disregard our deal.

-

It takes another thirty-one hours of overthinking and turning shit around in my head until I can't take it anymore. I finally cave and take the elevator down to the first floor beneath the lobby, knowing I'll find my stubborn little Frenchwoman in the gym despite it being after closing hours. Luigi has been told to keep an eye out for her so when she entered the gym multiple hours ago, he notified me.

Call me a stalker, I've been considered worse.

The first thing I hear when I enter the dark gym is a loud grunt. Then, after the door audibly clicked shut, a deafening silence descended on the space. Guess that means she knows I'm here.

I let my eyes adjust to the dim light, scanning the different areas for her. When I finally find her in the corner furthest away, on the mats we use for sparring and standing face to face with a dummy, I head over. The closer I get, the more about her I notice and by the time I'm a few feet away, I'm dead certain she doesn't want me here. Her tense shoulders and shallow breaths are an indication if I had to guess. Same are her clenched fists.

"How did the exchange go?" I ask, attempting to sound as curt and professional as possible.

Elodie breaks out of her stupor and hits her dummy hard in the face. I distantly realize her technique is admirable but her voice sounds before I can waste too much thought on it.

"Well." That's all I get. A reply through gritted teeth, followed by a kick to her dummy.

"You didn't give me a report on it," I go on. Fuck, this is weird. Pretending we're work associates or whatever after what went down three nights ago is just strange. If I let my mind wander, I can still see her that night, as clear as day. The way her cheeks flushed and especially her expression when she came for me. I can almost feel the way her body felt in my hands and my mouth waters at the memory of her taste.

Yeah, weird.

Elodie ignores me, keeping up her assault on the dummy as if I weren't here.

"You need to stop avoiding me," I finally say.

"Don't know what you're talking about," she quickly retorts. So full of shit, this one.

"Yeah, right. Listen, if you regret what happened then I'm willing to apologize and pretend it never happened but you are still working for me and I don't enjoy not being able to find you when we have something to discuss," I tell her as neutrally as possible. There we go, olive branch.

But Elodie doesn't seem to appreciate the gesture since she finally faces me, hands balled at her sides as she levels me with a glare. "I don't need a fucking apology," she grits out, her eyes blazing. Damn, what the hell? I'm not usually one to offer apologies easily so her not appreciating what I thought was a nice gesture just pisses me off.

But I remind myself to be a professional and take a deep breath. "No apology then," I reply calmly.

The wrath in front of me seems to get even angrier at my words. "Stop with the fucking bullshit."

That's enough to ultimately confuse me. I'm here trying to salvage whatever fragile understanding the two of us had had for a short period of time and all she does is cuss me out for it. Before I can ask what the hell her problem is, she goes on, stepping dangerously close as she does.

"And don't look so fucking confused. What the hell is wrong with you!" she snaps.

"What's wrong with me?" I ask, my voice rising as the frustration that's been building for days now bubbles up.

"Yes, you! Why the hell are you acting this fucking way? Why can't you just be a fucking jerk!" she yells, getting in my face. Her words stun me. Why can't I be a jerk? Why would she want me to be?

And that's when the pieces click and I realize I've been an idiot for not getting it sooner. I don't think Elodie regrets what we did. I think she hates that she doesn't.

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Here we go with his pov... if only ppl in real life were able to piece shit together like this... oh well

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