Connexion

Part 17

Jena refused to back down. "Why do you want to destroy their relationship?"

"You can't destroy a fictional relationship. Even in your own mind!" He shook his head, with a sigh, "For your information, I asked Melanie if she had a partner. Melanie said no. She said she was single. So I asked her out. She accepted." He looked at Jena with speculation, and drawled with silky warning, "Does she know you want to take her place?"

"I told you, I am not here to present as a substitute for her!" She was processing his statements. If he asked Melanie about her relationship status why didn't Melanie tell Caleb about Tony?

The twinkle in his eyes should have warned her, "So, Ms Silva, does Melanie know you are going to try to scupper her dates with me?"

Jena said nothing. Of course Melanie did not know Jena was here talking to him. And Melanie would not thank Jena for the intervention. She would probably misread it, like the man in front her: seeing it as the actions of a woman trying to wrangle a date for herself. But that could not be further from the truth. Jena was sure she had run out of energy and arguments to support her idea. Such a shame that she was making such a hash of this. It had all seemed so simple when she thought about it. Her idea, was simple: find him and tell him that Melanie was off-limit because she was engaged. She would remind him he is a gentleman, then would appeal to his sense of ethical conduct, and that would be it. Exit stage left. Job done.

Except, he was enjoying running circles around her.

Caleb's eyes sparked again, amusement rose to the surface, "So, your meddling would be news to Melanie." He headed for his office door, but before he reached it, he said, "You, Ms Silva, are jealous of Melanie! I doubt Melanie would appreciate your attempt to take her place in my life! My ethics would not consider this substitute." Caleb smiled and told her with frank directness and waited for the fireworks to start.

She read the anticipation in his eyes. The man was deliberately being obnoxious, masked with honey, just to rile her. "I'm not trying to take her place." Jena said quietly and despite being even more annoyed, she made sure she kept her tone neutral.

His brow quirked and he once again took stock of the woman in front of him. Attractive. Tenacious. Stubborn. Confident. Even in her shoes she was several inches shorter than him, and she was not intimidate by him. If anything, his size seemed immaterial, as did his appearance. The scars, his ugly hand's appearance simply did not matter. That in itself was unusual. He had no problem with his scars or the fact the tips of two fingers was missing. The lacerations were now part of his make up and having fingers with no nails made no difference to him. He knew some of the people who met him for the first time in a professional capacity, had difficulty in seeing past his scars. His scars either made them uncomfortable or shocked them into unexpected behavior, which helped his purpose in business. He also knew some of the people in his personal and social relationships, knew his money helped them to disregard his scars. With her it was different. It was as if the blemish were immaterial.

When she was shown into his office, she simply said his name, extended a hand and smiled. He shook her hand. He was sure she would have seen his fingers with no nail. And like his scars, the deformation was noted but did not change her deportment, or the look on her face or the emotion in her eyes. While he processed that unusual reaction, he asked what he could do for her. He thought she was here to ask for charity, to support a particular cause, either to use his name or his money. She flouted preliminary social exchanges and instead she said she was here to ask him to stop dating Melanie!

Deciding to up the ante he pinned her with his eyes. "And contrary to your opinion. I do not have a 'type'." His lips twitched. "Proof, you do not know me, Ms Silva."

Jena rubbed her temple, no point trying to avert a headache. A headache would be respite from this. She sighed, "Perhaps..."

Caleb interrupted, "But you want me to stop seeing a woman of my choice, because, Melanie is not my "type" Is that right? Melanie is not my type, according to you." Caleb jabbed his hand into his pocket, and said with clear conviction, "So for your information, Melanie, is a woman I like. She, not you."

She pushed a hair strand off her forehead, trying to buy time. He quirked a brow and jabbed his hands into his trousers' pockets. She sighed again and said, "Wait a second...."

"You offer yourself as replacement." He retrieved his hand from his pocket and held up a hand to stop her interrupting. He liked the look of her stunned reaction when she responded to the command of his gesture.