Esmerelda the Flower

Chapter 13: Esmerelda

Dinner was absolute hell. It didn't turn out the way I wanted it too, but I had decided that there was no point in dwelling on the past. Chris promised me that he'd never invite his mother over again, but I told him I would love to be able to get to know his Dad more, since he seemed like the only decent parent among the two. My night wasn't completely terrible though, since Chris made it up to me in a way or two.

It was Tuesday morning. After all the work Chris put onto me the night before I was glad I had a later shift that day. Currently, the lab I was working in was doing some extensive research on some new drugs to treat HIV. At 12 noon I got ready to head to work. Chris had left way earlier to do his CEO duties and he packed my lunch and put the sweetest note inside my lunch bag.

When I arrived to work, the atmosphere was slightly different. It felt like everyone was looking at me, and at first I thought it was my anxiety but it turned out that everyone was looking at me.

Hating the attention, I quickly rushed to my laboratory. My new lab supervisor, Karen, wasn't a Karen at all but she too gave me a strange look as I entered the lab.

Ignoring the eyes on me, I did my work. Later on, she pulled me aside and whispered to me.

"I don't mean to be nosy, but are you dating Christopher Banks?"

I looked at her in surprise, I considered lying but I was a terrible liar. "Who told you that?" I asked.

"I don't know if you know this, but a couple of employees were talking about it and there was a picture posted of you two kissing in a restaurant yesterday."

"What?" I shouted, getting the attention of my coworkers as I blushed and lowered my tone. "Do you have the picture?" I asked her frantically.

She pulled out her phone and showed me the picture. And to no surprise, it was a photo of me and Christopher at an exclusive restaurant from weeks ago.

"I guess people are surprised to see him finally dating  someone. You know he's on the Forbes 100 Richest and he's a a popular bachelor, well, not anymore of course."

I thanked her for showing me the picture, she let me go early since I needed time to debrief. I knew Christopher was an important person, but I never gave it much thought and I never thought about the idea that our relationship could be a topic of gossip.

I was going to go meet him in his office to ask if he knew about the photo but I realized it would've been a bad idea if someone saw me going inside his office so I decided to head home.

When I arrived home, Camryn called me.

"Esme? Are you okay?" She asked.

"Okay? Yeah I'm fine why wouldn't I be fine?"

"Oh, well okay then..." she said, I could tell she had more to say.

"What is it?" I pressured her, "what did you really want to tell me? Camryn you're my best friend, don't hold out on me.

Camryn sighed deeply, "It's um, you know, the internet, they've been saying some nasty things and I called to check on you but I guess you haven't seen any of those things so please don't check."

I was shocked. People were saying harmful things about me? I knew Camryn was trying to look out for me but there was no way I was going to check on whatever was being said about me. I told her I wasn't going to check and dropped the call and immediately typed my name.

News articles popped up, flashy titles talking about the handsome CEOs new fling.

I read some of the articles, most of them were just going off the photo of us, not much to say, but some others were just doing the absolute most.

One said I was an actress that he was hooking up with and another said I was a childhood friend turned lover.

Those articles were from sketchy propaganda websites so I ignored them but I came across an article that seemed to be accurate. It talked about me being an employee at MitoBeta.

I was surprised and scared at how they were able to find the information so fast but then remembered I had a LinkedIn account for professional reasons.

I scrolled down through the articles comments, seeing the most hateful things I had seen in my life.

"He's a billionaire but he's going for that?"

"He could do soooo much better than her."

"He went from hooking up with A-list actresses to some boring simpleton."

"Shes black, lol."

I turned off my phone. I couldn't believe it. People disliked me? They disliked me from being with someone who simply liked me? I couldn't understand.

I broke down in tears, wishing that I listened to Camryn's advice. It all dawned on me. Chris could do much better than me. And it's not like he hasn't before. I researched him once and saw photos of him years ago with beautiful women  during his party days.

I ignored them because I thought that was his past and that he had me now, but I remembered that men were heavily flawed. What's to stop him from hooking up with some woman right now? He had everything, the money, the looks, who was I even kidding?

I continued to cry, drowned in my thoughts as I headed to the bedroom to lay down and cry myself to sleep.

Hours later when I woke up, Chris still wasn't back home. It was 7 and I assumed he was still busy at work. I decided to distract myself from everything by going down to the kitchen and baking.

I decided to make simple chocolate chip cookies, I rummaged through the pantry and fridge, getting all the necessary ingredients when my phone started to ring.

It was an unknown number, usually, I would ignore these calls but something in my gut  told me to answer.

"Hello Esmerelda," a woman's voice that I recognized spoke through the phone.

"Who is this?"

"It's Christopher's mother, Ellen. I wanted to call about those photos that came out with you and Christopher and honey, leave while you can. I know my son, while your relationship may seem sweet now, it won't work. The internet is already tearing you apart, and soon Chris will just get bored of you. So please, do yourself a favor and leave."

I couldn't believe the words that were coming out of her mouth. I stayed silent, trying to find a fitting insult to spit back at Ellen when she dropped.

I was on the verge of tears again but decided to stop and continued baking to distract me. Moments later, Chris came home, immediately coming over to me and hugging me.

"I don't know how that picture of us got out, but I promise you I'm going to sue the hell out of whoever posted it."

"It's okay, Chris, that's just how the internet is but it's just hurtful. I don't want people to think so badly about me. And also....your mom just called me and basically told me to break up with you."

"What the fuck?" He shouted, "how the hell did she even get your number? Gosh, she's always been like that. What a manipulative bitch! Whatever she said to you means nothing, I really like you Esme and no stupid photo or woman is going to change that.

I smile softly at him, "you know if you help me bake these cookies maybe we'll both feel better."

The rest of the evening was spent enjoying each others company and eating the cookies we baked but I still couldn't get my mind off what his mother told me. What did she mean that Chris would get bored of me?