POSSESSION [Book 1 - DeLorenzo Desire]

V | Lunch

...continued

GRACE

His eyes roamed over my body again lingering in places I wished they wouldn't. "Oh, I know what you want, Grace." He leaned in close to my ear and spoke in a low, husky voice. "I know what you need."

In my head, I saw my hand out shoot out and slap him across the face. I saw the red imprint I'd scorched into his face and the pure anger in his eyes. Then I slapped him again and again over and over until his nose was bloodied.

In my head, I was probably unemployed.

"Excuse me!" My hand shot out before I could stop it and summoned the waiter back to our table. I tried to keep as straight a face as possible as he approached. "Would you be so kind as to point me in the direction of the washrooms?"

I highstepped as best as I could in my work skirt over Giovanni's legs and followed the waiter. I didn't hazard a look back at the table. He hadn't said anything or tried to stop my hurried escape.

Once in the bathroom I leaned against the counter and took a few steadying breaths. My heart was racing and I could feel sweat starting to bead on my brow. I gripped the counter as best as I could but the feeling in my fingers started to disappear. Numb hands. Numb hands always forewarned a particularly bad attack for me.

I focused on my breathing again. There was a single drop of water hanging, poised to fall, on the tap in front of me. I stared at it and thought about water. A trickling stream. A wide river. The beach. The beach on a sunny day. When my thoughts started to stray to sharks and drowning, I redirected them elsewhere.

Hope. I thought about what Hope would be up to at school at this exact moment. Lunchtime. She'd be sitting with her friends eating the lunch I'd packed and probably complaining that she didn't get PB&J on white bread like the other kids. Not my sister. That was way too much sugar. God, she hated our dentist and his very sensible advice with a fiery passion.

I looked up and my reflection smiled back at me. My breathing was normal and the feeling in my fingers was back. That wasn't so bad. The world wasn't ending. Thinking of Hope always calmed me down. I stared at myself in the mirror.

Okay. So, my boss was coming on to me. I couldn't ignore the signs. He wasn't being subtle AT ALL. I hated him (mostly) and needed this job (definitely) so what was there to do? I ran through my paltry list of options and felt myself start to cry. For the love of God, crying was hardly going to help.

What would Angela do? Well she was screwing Luca so her advice would probably be to screw Giovanni. I laughed in spite of my predicament. Maybe if someone were screwing him, he'd be a bit less of an uptight a*s at work. But not me. My job was bad enough without that added chore. And I could only imagine how much of a chore it would be...

Okay, focus.

What would Beyoncé do in this situation? Strike that. What would Sasha Fierce do? Grinning to myself, I washed my hands, splashed some water on my face and stepped out...only to be stopped in my tracks.

**********

GIOVANNI
She had been in the bathroom for a while. I almost thought she had run from the restaurant but her bag and jacket were here. I couldn't see her leaving without her personal phone.

Unless she had climbed out of a window, she was still in there and I hadn't looked away from the ladies' bathroom door for a second. Five minutes passed. Ten minutes. My patience was slipping so I did what any devoted...future husband would.

I crossed the restaurant and stood directly outside the bathroom door. I contemplated whether I should knock or just walk straight in. While I preferred the direct approach in almost every situation, as usual I had to question my actions where Grace was concerned. This woman was going to be my wife and the mother of our children. So far I had made an a*s of a job in wooing her. I couldn't afford to make any mistakes.