Meant to Crash | ✓

Chapter Seventeen

Sebastian's scowled at me for no apparent reason. He was blatantly lying about his emotions last night. He broke eye contact with me and went to the closet in his hotel room, taking out a crisp white button up shirt.

While pushing one of his arms through the sleeves, he turns to me-realizing that I was still there. "Do you plan on watching me get dress?"

"We're in the middle of a conversation, Sebastian," I reminded him. My mind was in a daze this morning, replaying the kiss with my pillow tucked under my chin and my heart pounding as I recalled each detail. That feeling was crushed after I saw him with not just one, but two girls. Who were they anyway? They didn't look familiar or famous. "I have a question for you. How long do you think I'll believe you're not hiding something? I don't know what it is, but I'm going to find out. Give up, Sebastian!"

"You don't shout at your employer like that. I'm the only one that can demand orders. I've been letting that rude attitude slide for a while now, but that right there was unacceptable."

"Fire me then," I challenged, crossing my arms over my chest.

"You can't be serious."

I was putting up a strong front, but I was crumbling on the inside. He couldn't know that though. The last thing I needed was for him to see me breakdown at the sight of him with someone else. If I hadn't spoken to Sebastian before getting this job, then I would've given him a lot of respect for being my boss. But with the way we had met, it changed a lot of things for me. Love them or hate them, first impressions stick.

"I am being serious," I grumbled. "I'll gladly take the next flight back to San Francisco."

"That won't be needed. We still have a lot of things on our schedule here in New York. My usual driver is going to be in from of the hotel in two hours." His hand floated down the front of his shirt, buttoning it up. "I'm going to only say this once, Ms. Clark. Despite what happened the other night, I would like for you to keep things professional between us. What happened was an accident."

"Oh, so you slipped and fell on my lips?" I joked, but he didn't laugh. Not even a little. Sighing in distress, I racked my head around the words he had shared with me. For the sake of keeping my job, I dropped the insults I had spinning in my head. "Fine. I'll keep it professional. But I just want to know one thing. Are you asking me this as Mr. Lockhart or as Sebastian?"

"There isn't a difference."

"Yes, there is a difference. The person I had dinner with last night-that was Sebastian. He wasn't overly arrogant or extremely rude. I had a good time with that person. But the guy before me right now isn't the same person." I said weakly. "If you want to keep things professional and not talk about last night, then I will respect that choice."

Turning on my heel, I walked out of the hotel room with my heart intact. The second I shut the door behind me, I pressed my back against it and let my world fade of existence. For the first time since I walked in that room, my hands stopped trembling. It was easy to lie about where my feelings were, but my hands were a dead giveaway-just as Sebastian had previously guessed. It was almost as if I couldn't get a grip on my own lies.

There was one thing I didn't do in that hallway, and that was cry. I trembled, I shook, I swore, but tears did not run along the side of my face. It took a lot for me to cry. Besides my mother and a small handful of people back home, not many people had seen me cry. I had a lot of pint-up of tears-ready to be shed at any given cue-but Sebastian's coldness didn't make me emotional enough to breakdown in that hallway. I'd be damned to let that scum be the cause of my tears.

What are you going to cry for? Cry for something you never had? You barely know the man.

My thoughts were right. They were brutal, but brutal was what I needed at the moment. I wouldn't let his words cause me to stumble and fall at his feet, begging for him to have some feelings for me.