Say You Love Me [COMPLETED]

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER

“Rhea, honey,” called her secretary Rosemary standing outside her office door looking like she had many questions but was refraining from being impolite. “There’s someone to see you,” she said in an effective voice but signaling her frantically with her eyes.

“Anita, I’m busy. Is it important?” Rhea looking away from her eccentric secretary not even bothering to understand what she was saying. Dismissing the latter, she continued scrutinizing the dossier in front of her. Damn, this was more complicated that she had thought.

“Well, there is a hunk and he said he came all the way from Orlando only to see you,” Rosemary finally blurted which made Rhea immediately look up from her files and felt her heart skip a beat. All the way from Orlando? Only to see her. It had to be Adam.

And judging by the look of extreme happiness on the face of Rosemary, she had recognized Adam too and that was why she was so agitated. Joy engulfed her at the prospect. He had come for her! After two weeks of absolute silence, he had finally realized that she had not run from him but from her own insecurities.

She had missed them so much and was ready to beg for forgiveness for what she had said. For having behaved like such a bitch. But what mattered most was that Adam had come after her even when she had hurt him beyond repair.

And if that didn’t mean true love, nothing else would. Feeling a warm glow engulf her heart, she could barely contain her erratic heartbeats in the anticipation of seeing his beloved face again. Adam. The guy who had loved her imperfections, her insecurities and her stupidities. She hoped he would forgive her for what she had done.

Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she tried a hopeless rearrangement of her hectic appearance before taking a deep breath and asked her secretary to let him in. However, her heart felt like a deflated balloon when she finally saw her visitor. At the sight of the person in front of her, Rhea was so stunned that she sat down heavily back on her chair.

It was not Adam. It was Matt Alvarez. Her mind could only register that one sad fact. Frankly, she did not give a damn what Matt was doing in New York. All she cared about was that Adam had not come to meet her like she had assumed and it had the effect of a bombshell on her heart. It was like an awakening.

As she recovered from the shock, she tried to analyze the feeling of acute disappointment and the excruciating pain which followed. She had missed him like hell at first when he had not bothered to call her for three whole weeks. And that too for a regrettable incident; because at that time she had been so hurt that she had babbled a complete lie.

But Adam should know her better than that. He should know that she would never sleep with someone else in order to drive him away or for any other reason whatsoever. But she had taken extreme measures that day out of pure despair. Couldn’t he see that? He could see through her even without her speaking a word. How come he had missed that simple fact? Or had it been the fatal blow?

The final blow to drive him away permanently like she had been wanting all along?  She should be happy now that she had finally got what she wanted. But instead she was feeling like a void had settled inside her heart. Like she had lost everything dear to her. And it could only mean one thing.

That she loved him too. In her own crazy stupid weird way. How could she have been so stupid? How could she have been so blind into not recognizing what she felt for Adam?

It hit her in the face right now like a splash of ice cold water waking her up from her selfish obnoxious beliefs. How the hell could she have failed to recognize how much she loved him? All her shenanigans had only been a way to protect her heart. But she had been so stupid not to realize that the best way to protect it was to gift it to someone who would guard it better than herself.