In Bad Faith

Chapter 19

It was already two-thirty, and I only now arrived back at the office. The traffic on my way back to MZ Global was even worse than it was on my way to the tailor. As I entered the four-digit code to be able to reach the right floor, I heard and felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. And while I kept the suit in one hand, I tried to take my phone out of my pocket with the other hand. The screen flashed Misha Zaveri's name, which always made me nervous.

"Where are you?" Misha's voice sounded tense, a bit nervous even. I hadn't seen him all day, since he was in and out of meetings the whole morning. That was why I hadn't even thought about letting him know that I had left to pick up his suit. I didn't want to give him any more headaches. "We've got a problem," he continued right away, without giving me the chance to answer his question. I couldn't handle more problems today.  "What's wrong?" I asked him as I got out of the elevator as soon as the doors slid open. "My suit isn't here yet. I just called Macy to check at reception, but she told me it hadn't arrived yet," he spoke, and a grin started to curl my lips. Poor man. I had not seen him this stressed ever before.

But I was about to put him out of his misery, because I was holding that particular suit in my hands. Leona had it ready at the reception, and the minute I got inside the tailor's company, someone rushed toward me to give me the big gray bag. I think they understood the message of me not being very happy. Misha Zaveri was a big customer for them. As he wore his suits to special events and since he was quite popular in the public eye, him wearing their suits was perfect marketing.

"You did tell them the right date, didn't you?" he asked, getting annoyed at me not answering him. But instead of saying anything, I pushed the door to his office open with my elbow. I walked inside while putting my phone in my pocket again, and saw Misha standing at the window, looking at New York's crazy traffic, of which I was just standing in the middle. He had his phone to his ear, calling me, and immediately turned around as he heard the door open. His expression turned from frustrated, to confused, as he eyed me with the garment bag in my hands. "Oh, you're so lucky to be having such a wonderful assistant," I sighed, as if I were the best thing that had ever happened to him. It couldn't be further from the truth, since I was going to be the one to betray him worse than anyone had ever done.

He put his phone away and walked toward me, still visibly confused about this situation. He was trying to comprehend what was happening, and I just grinned at him playfully. My stress level seemingly dropped as I was in his presence again, and I hated the way he had this effect on me. "They weren't able to deliver it before late afternoon tomorrow, so I just picked it up. I'm sorry for not contacting you about it," I started explaining. He, as my boss, was supposed to know where I hung out, and I just left out of nowhere. It was the stress about everything that had gotten the best of me, and now I could only hope he wasn't angry at me for just taking this decision for myself.

But he didn't seem angry, or anything close to that. He looked at me with a lot of different emotions on his face, and I couldn't quite read what he was thinking once again. "You do know how to keep amazing me, miss Fisher," he broke the silence, as he took the suit from my hands. And I didn't know if I amazed him in a positive way, or a negative way, since he turned around to walk towards his desk again, where he put down the suit. I couldn't read his expression anymore, and I got worried.

"I- Eh," I started, a bit worriedly. Why was I so fucking nervous? Nadezeya never got nervous, and neither should Nadya. "I really am sorry. I should've just called you, but you were in a m-" I started, but Misha interrupted me by turning around and shaking his head. "Nadya, stop apologizing, I meant it in a good way," he said, laughing softly. He looked at me with a smile on his face. "You did the right thing, thank you so much," he told me, sincerely, and my nerves started to vanish.

I turned around because I did not want him to see my nerves, even though he probably noticed it already. And as I took off my coat, I heard Misha unzip the garment bag. I couldn't help being very excited about this suit too. I had seen the design, and I loved it. "Leona told me you should try it on today, in case something's wrong. You know, because they usually do a last check before leaving it with you.." I told him as the designer told me, after which I hung my coat on the wall rack.

"Hm," was Misha's answer, as he inspected the suit before fully taking it out of the bag. And it was stunning. I could see the soft but deep red color from where I was standing, and it looked even more beautiful in person than it did through the drawing. "Wow," I said excitedly, and walked towards him. I stood on the other side of his desk, the suit laying in between us. I looked at it, and then back at Misha. "This color will look so good on you," I told him, smiling. I eyed the suit that was made of beautiful fabric, which just screamed money. I rested my hands on the wood, and leaned forward just a little to let my fingertips glide over the fabric. Floyd's voice beamed through my mind as I did this. He was right. Misha wasn't aversive towards anything I did. Why not use this to my advantage?

Misha looked up at me, in silence, and all of a sudden we were staring at each other again. I felt my pulse quicken as he brought his hands to his blazer, which he took off, not once breaking our eye contact. He knew exactly what he was doing, and so did I. But none of us spoke about it.

I was the first to avert my gaze from him, as I started helping him take the suit from the hanger. "You've got courage," he then spoke, surprising me with his words. I looked up at him again, but he was focused on unbuttoning the sleeves of his blouse. He wasn't going to get undressed with me still in the room, right? I waited patiently until he continued what he was telling me, but it took way too long. This man was trying to make me go crazy. As I was about to speak up and ask him what he meant, he looked at me again. "Driving through New York during lunchtime. It must've been very busy," he told me, and I could tell he was hiding a grin. Some day he would be the death of me.

"Uh-huh," I spoke, pretending to not be affected by any of his words or actions. I stood up straight again, letting my hands glide over the bottom of my dress that ended just above the knees. I smoothed the fabric out and glanced at Misha again. "Very busy," I told him. "I'm going to get myself a sandwich downstairs. Do you want anything?" I quickly changed subjects, so I had an excuse to run out of this office as fast as possible. I couldn't handle the tension between us for even a second longer. "No, thanks," he told me, smiling. "Please take your time, so I can try on the suit," he said. "Wouldn't want to ruin the surprise for you," he then told me, grinning. As if he knew exactly what he was doing to me.