The Fashion of Love | Adult F/M Romance [COMPLETE]

ch. 44 - August

Sora spent much of her board meeting the next afternoon with her mind in a Rodeo Drive doctor's office. It adjourned without her remembering a single subject they'd discussed. I should have sat this one out. Cristina would have told me the details. She smiled painfully through handshakes and delayed returning to her office to visit Tommy at the Himura daycare center.

He was preoccupied with his playthings and his playmates. He was a social butterfly, flittering back and forth between stations. He dragged a duck behind him that had his name sewn on the tail feathers.

He wouldn't remember Ravi. Dhiren would have more years without his father than they had together.

Sora waved at Tommy when he caught sight of her. It was the first time today her smile felt real. I'll tell him that he was loved, that they both were.

When Sora couldn't bear one more concerned look from the attendants, she fled the center to go back to her office. There wasn't a chance of her being able to concentrate, she knew that, but there was a Board to pacify and her own worries to soothe. She eventually found a ledger to balance and put her nose to the grindstone. Numbers made sense; her heart wasn't in numbers. The hours slipped away from her while she made sure each department reporting its expenditures to the Office of the CEO was in the black. Sam's was, as expected, the best off, despite the fact that he considered deadlines something akin to polite suggestions rather than rules. I'll have to talk to him about that.

By the time early evening had rolled around Sora had talked herself and her heart rate into an uneasy truce. She would be fine, terrified or not. That all went out the window with a text from Ravi.

Done @ doctor. Coming to Himura.

Sora had been standing to refill her coffee. She couldn't keep it up. She was still staring at Ravi's message when she heard his knock at her office door.

"Come in." Please be okay.

She forced her legs to support her.

Ravi didn't say anything when he stepped into her office. He tried—she saw him try but there were no words. Sora had expected the worse and here it was.

Part of her had foreseen this and planned accordingly. She began packing her things for the night. She wouldn't be getting anything else done. There was nothing else she wanted to do here. She needed to be at home, with him and Tommy, and time.

"I'll take a leave of absence. I'll make the Board understand. We'll go to Rome. They knew how to make you better there; they'll figure out it out again."

He approached her desk. "Sora."

She went on. "It'll be good for Tommy to learn Italian. Dhiren and Enzo can teach him. Is he still there?"

"Yeah, he's there." Ravi wet his lips as if ready to speak, but Sora wasn't ready to hear this, not yet.

"We can take the Himura jet."

Ravi shook his head. "Better take mine. We don't want Anthony complaining to the board about inappropriate allocation of resources. But that doesn't matter, we're not going to Rome—not for that."

"Don't tell me it's too late. I can't hear that. I won't hear that. It's not acceptable."

Sora couldn't have finally found the man she was meant to love only to lose him. Hadn't she faced enough catastrophe?

"You're right, it isn't. I'm not going anywhere. Not now."

Sora gathered her wherewithal. I have to face the music. He needs me. I can't be a coward about this.