Regal Love

Chapter two

Aiden drove me to the place he and his Dad had already selected, I thought I wouldn’t like the place but to my surprise I liked it. It wasn’t as big as my previous firm but just the right size for us to start with. It wasn’t furnished yet but there was something about the place that had a blissful aura. The white marble floors were well polished and there were plenty of windows. I even had my own office which was a little bigger than my last, the moment I stepped inside my new office I had already decided how I will furnish and decorate it.
“So what do you think of the place?” Aiden smiled.
“Eh” I pretended that I wasn’t really interested after all I did not want to feed his ego that much.
“We can look for a different place then, but I’m afraid that it will take some time” He scrolled down his phone.
“No. I can work with it” I quickly replied before he chose to look somewhere else. Both of us had our own cabins, There were smaller cabins for the senior lawyers and junior lawyers had to work together in a large room. Their tables would be divided by walls. Both of us had our own washrooms attached to our rooms but the others had to share a communal washroom, men and women had separate washrooms. There would also be an area for the interns to work. We decided that having a kitchen was a must.
“He took out a bunch of papers from his brief case, some were regarding the lease, some were regarding our partnership, and one to apply for a loan. It took us about three hours to finish the initial paperwork since we had to be careful.
“We have to make this work anyhow” I said.
“Don’t you trust me?” He said staring at me right in the eyes.
“I just met you, how can I be sure?” I replied.
“Well you’re signing a contract that might as well make you broke or even homeless” He chuckled but I was not amused cause he was right.
“This right here is the biggest and riskiest decision of my life. I’m doing it not because I trust you but because I trust myself” This was followed by an awkward silence which was later broken by the growling of my stomach.
“There’s a cafe downstairs, we can grab a bite if you like” He said.
“Okay” I let out a sigh. I don’t always mean to come off as rude but it’s something that I cannot help.
“The croissant that they serve is glorious, don’t you think so?” Aiden smiled. He actually looks cute when he smiles but not really.
“That’s an understatement” I said as I took another bite. We had already eaten so much food but still we were not full yet.
“That’s the only positive thing you’ve said all day” He remarked. He was right but it didn’t matter to me.
“If you want to hear only positive things in life then you should talk to a motivational speaker not me” He chuckled at this.
“You’re not wrong” He said.
“You could have waited for me” A high pitched voice said. I turned my head to see a beautiful blonde woman. She was of average height, wore a bodycon dress that hugged her in all the right places. She wasn’t fat but she was very curvy. Her hair was short.
Upon seeing her, Aiden stood up and kissed her with a big smile.
“Hi love. How was your flight?” He asked.
“There was a little turbulence because of the bad weather in Tokyo but thank Heavens, I’m back in one piece” She said as she put her phone back in her Chanel bag.
She then looked at me and smiled,
“I’m Veronica. You must be Elizabeth. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too” I faked a little smile.
“Veronica is going to design the interiors of our office” Aiden said.
My jaw dropped. We did not need an interior designer; it’s a goddamn office not a five star hotel.
“I am so excited to take up this project. We have been planning this for months now” Veronica said.
Her phone rang and she excused herself.
“What was that?” I snapped.
“What was what?” Aiden pretended to not know the reason why I was furious at him.
“Why didn’t you tell me that we are hiring your girlfriend to design our office and spending huge amount of money on making our office look pretty with the money that we borrowed from the bank that we might not be able to pay back!”  I was so mad at him.
“Presentation is everything” He calmly said.
“We barely have enough to pay the janitors, the rent and the other services that we will hire. And do you think that I do not have the basic knowledge of how a presentable office looks like?” I stared daggers at him.
“You’re jumping to conclusions. Calm down” Was his reply. The audacity he had to tell me to calm down when he already made decisions for the both of us without informing me.
“Is anything wrong?” Veronica interrupted.
“Everything is fine babe, we are just discussing some office matters” He said.
“Anyway I am so jetlagged, I’ll be heading straight home to get some rest” she said sounding truly exhausted.
“Let me drop you home” Aiden said.
“No babe, carry on with your meeting” his girlfriend refused.
“Veronica, that’s the least Aiden can do since he did not even pick you up at the airport” I tried to get Aiden into trouble.
Veronica simply let out a laugh.
“He has always been very ambitious, I’ll punish him later” She let out a grin.
“I’m sorry” Aiden apologized. What a dog.
“By the way, I like your shades” She said sarcastically and walked out. For a brief moment I forgot that I was still wearing my shades indoors and to my surprise Aiden did not make a single comment about it.
I looked at Aiden and warned him,
“Just so you know, I’m not going to let that Malibu Barbie do anything to my cabin”
“She’s great at what she does. Just trust her.” He said, he looked a tad uncomfortable.
I ignored him and took a last bite of my croissant.
“When shall we conduct the interview?” He asked.
“Today I’ll talk to some newspaper companies and ask them to print ads regarding all the vacancies. You take charge of all the bank works and....” For the next Four hours we talked about the number of lawyers, assistants, janitors that we needed and their qualifications and start up salaries. Strangely we seemed to have similar opinions and agreed upon many matters making our work easier. Veronica will start working from tomorrow and together we will shop for furniture after she is done with her final decisions. Aiden suggested letting her shop alone but I will not risk letting her spend money on useless things.
“I’ll see you tomorrow bright and early” I said as I stood up from my seat.
Aiden offered to pay for our lunch but I refused. He finally agreed on splitting the bill which we did.
“Okay, take good rest” He said and I nodded my head.
Just when I was about to leave he said,
“You should go see a doctor”
“Excuse me?” I said utterly surprised.
“And you should also leave the person who caused the bruises” I gulped, he was talking about the bruises near my lips and my eyes. How did he see that? I don’t know. I went out of the cafe breathing heavily. I did not like it when people saw the vulnerable side of me. I try so hard to put up this tough persona and when people get a gist of how broken I am, I feel naked. I hailed a cab and headed home before Aiden got enough courage to ask me questions.