Communicating Vessels [COMPLETED]

Chapter 36

"You're going to hate me," Arthur said from behind me while I did my makeup in front of the mirror.

"You sure know how to start a lovely conversation."

He chuckled.

"VDO's is hosting its yearly fundraising gala this weekend. I have to go and I need a date. Will you be my date?"

All kinds of alarms went off in my head. VDO's? Gala? Date? Those were the ingredients of a deadly cocktail.

I set my makeup brush down on the sink. Arthur put it in the cup that contained my other brushes.

"The whole company will be there?" I asked.

I couldn't care less about who was and wasn't coming, but there was one person in particular that I did not want to see. For obvious reasons.

"Most of them, yes."

"And you want to introduce me to all of them?"

"I mean, I don't need to parade you around and show you off, but since I need a date anyway, I figured I'd bring my very own girlfriend. Insane, right?"

I ignored the sass but glared at him for using the G-word. He raised his hands in surrender.

"Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to say that. But you get what I mean."

"How many fundraisers per year do you attend?"

"A few. It's for a good cause, you know?"

"Is it? Or is the good cause just a front for you rich people to show off the insane amount of money you can spare?"

"Can't it be both?" He laughed and I smacked him on the shoulder.

"Anyway, I'm not going. VDO's people are not my type of crowd."

More specifically, one very hot CEO could not see me come to this event at the arm of his son. That would be a disaster of another category.

Arthur's face dropped.

"Please? I'll stay with you all the time, and we'll keep our interactions with other people to a minimum."

"It's funny how you're not counting yourself as a VDO's person whose company I don't enjoy," I tried to joke my way out of this dangerous conversation.

He laughed a little but did not let go. "Abril, please, this is important to me. I cannot show up without a date. That would be embarrassing."

Not more embarrassing than your date causing a scene with your daddy, I guarantee you.

"Why don't you take Carol?" I suggested.

"You want me to take my PA as a date?"

I gave him an incredulous look.

"Okay, point taken. But that was different. I liked you, the fact that you were my PA was purely coincidental. I would have found a way to ask you out eventually anyway."

"You liked me before I became your PA?"

That was news. I was genuinely curious, now.

"Don't try to derail the conversation, Abril."

"I could say the same to you. You can't just be dropping bombs on me and not expect me to react. I thought you hated me after our encounter at the store. Hell, God knows I hated you!"

He brought a hand to his heart. "Ouch. And no, I did not hate you. I was . . . irritated by your behavior, that's for sure, but mostly I was mesmerized, and slightly endeared."