Sparks Fly

Chapter 4

The next morning my face was all over the magazine with Dakota at the restaurant he had taken me too. Selena was in another article making out with some guy at a club, drunk off her ass. The magazine claimed Dakota and I were now an item and I was no longer hiding in the shadows. Lydia McGarth seems to have come out of hiding and found an interest in billionaire, Dakota Lester.

I couldn't help my snort as I read it at my desk. Dakota stepped off the elevator, looking at his phone. He stopped at my desk and looked at me. "Oh, I see you've seen our picture and the article," he said. I nodded, "They caught a really good angle of us. Not a good one of her though." I showed him the picture of a drunk Selena and he chuckled. "I think that angle is rather charming. So you're not mad about that?" He said referring to the article in my hands about us. I shrugged, "Let them think what they want. What matters is what is actually going on." He nodded with a small smile before going to his office.

I was typing away on my keyboard, filling out forms, trying to get us ready in case the storms knocked out the power in the next couple of days when a woman I recognized in magazines came in with a younger woman who I also recognized. Dakota's mother Caroline Lester, and his younger sister Maggie Lester.

"Is he available," his mother asked me politely. I looked at his schedule and nodded, "Yes ma'am." As soon as I spoke he opened the door to his office. "Hello mother, Maggie. What brings you in?" "For you to have a talk with your sister," His mother said. He sighed and let them into his office.

It only took a few minutes before a screaming match began. I decided to make myself scarce and go get me a quick snack from one of the vending machines. Lord knows, it was best to not catch any of what they were saying. Given the current events in Mr. Lester's love life though, it wasn't hard to figure out what it was over. I got back to my desk as they were leaving, Mr. Lester, glaring daggers at his mother's back until she was in the elevator. "How much did you hear," he asked me. "I went to the vending machine when the yelling started," I told him, holding up the candy bar I had gotten. He nodded and shortly after that, he left for a meeting. I looked out the window, at the black clouds above. It threatened to begin it's downpour any second, as if it were waiting for the most inconvenient time.

When Mr. Lester came back, he had Chelsea with him. She came over to me tentatively, "Hey Ly." I glared, "What?" "Please come home," she told me. I noticed Dakota was standing off to the side in case I used my safe word. "Why? So you can say I'm making excuses to not going out? So I can have you continue to try and get me to be that girl again?"

"I didn't mean any of that," she tried. "Dont bullshit me Chelsea. You meant it, and so much more you didn't get the chance to say last night. You're tired of feeling guilty over shit that's not your fault. I'm tired of feeling like a damn victim. So I think it's best we wash our hands of each other. You go off and live the life you love, like you always have, while I continue to try and learn how to be a person again. Your other friends and Perkins would agree with me." I told her. The words were stabs to my heart but I was tired of feeling like a victim. I wanted to be treated like a person.

"Lydia, please," she said her eyes welling up with tears. "Come home at least till you get a place of your own. You can't stay at the hotel for too long before you're on the street in the middle of the shit storm that's about to happen. I'll be with Perkins, so you'll have the entire place to yourself." I shook my head, "I'd rather be on the street than be around someone who feels like they have to walk on glass around me. Now good bye Dr. Chelsea."

She knew I was too stubborn to go against my word so she left without another word. Once the elevator doors shut, I felt myself deflate. Dakota held out a hand to me, "Come here." I took his hand and he lead me to his office. He made me sit on the couch while he made a cup of hot chocolate. He handed it to me before he sat next to me.