Love and Pride

Pride, Love and First Impressions- Ayhan's Bonus

For ValancyDarcy- thanks for the inspiration and for being an all around amazing human 🥰

Ayhan

I met the love of my life when I was seventeen. Tragically for me, he was almost ten years older and completely oblivious to my heart eyes and intense stares.

My starring role as a pining heroine began with my crazy brother in law sending me to check on his very pregnant wife, my sister, on the down-low. She basically refused to stay off her feet when she was, like, twenty-four months pregnant and didn't want to stop working. The poor man was out of his mind with worry but wouldn't dream of asking her to keep her pregnant behind at home.

"Why are you here again?" She eyed me suspiciously.

"Working on my, um, paper about, um, women in business. So, who better to shadow than my sister who runs her own mini-empire? Girl power and stuff," I finished lamely. I should have really thought this through.

"You're on break and I'm pretty sure you're not writing a paper." 

I propped my sneakered feet up on her desk and tried to look innocent.

"Here's what I think," she said. "I think my overprotective husband sent you over here to spy on me." 

I flushed guiltily. “Spying is such a strong word. I’m just here to help you so you don't overdo it. Like a handmaiden of yore.”

"For shame! Where do your loyalties lie?" She said in mock outrage. My serious sister who barely cracked a smile a year ago was presently teasing me. Who would have thought? Love does weird things to people.

"With you of course. But Can does that thing with his eyes where he looks like a giant puppy. And you know I can’t resist a puppy. " I hung my head in shame. "He's so worried about you."

"I know he’s hard to resist, " she said with a goofy lovesick smile on her face. "You can report that I drank that giant vat of water that he insists I carry around and have stayed off my feet." She rolled her eyes. "Now I've got to get to a meeting."

"Maybe I could come with you?" 

"No. Stay here and do not scare poor Cey Cey with that."

"Colin Firth is not scary. He's a fluffy little ball of fluff." I now had a rescue dog which really looked more like a fat rat with a personality disorder. I carried it around in a bag and unintentionally scared people with him. Cey Cey had been terrified of him ever since my sweet little dog bit him. It was a terrible misunderstanding. 

"But it's so much fun to make him blush and watch him hop around like a nervous little bunny." 

"Do not harass my staff." She gave me a death glare and waddled out of the door. I felt sorry for my future nieces and nephews, she had the Don't-You-Try-My-Patience mom look down pat.

I snuck out to the reception area immediately. Cey Cey sat behind his desk. His eyes following me apprehensively.

"Hey, handsome! Love the shirt. Very festive. Hawaiian print pairs really well with the ‘stache,” I said and winked.

He choked and sputtered and started nervously shuffling papers.

"Ahhh, come on! Are you still giving me the silent treatment? It was just the one time I left a fake spider on your desk. How was I supposed to know you have arachnophobia? And Colin Firth here wouldn't have bit you if you hadn't screeched so loud. It was a reflex."

The door opened. I looked up and forgot what I was saying. Forgot Cey Cey existed. Forgot Colin Firth. Forgot my own name. 

"Hey, Cey Cey," a man in a very sharp suit walked in. His light words were as incongruous as his riotous mop of curly hair. The hair was the only part of him that looked adventurous. The rest of him was starchly groomed to within an inch of his life. He was tall with an arresting face that would be termed pretty if he wasn't so masculine. But it was his hazel eyes that wrecked me and rendered me useless for all time. I could tell the hair was the bane of his existence. The signs of him trying to tame it were obvious. I had the strongest urge to run my hands through it. I clenched my fists. My impulsivity was the bane of my existence.

He finally glanced at me, my arms lost all strength and I dropped my bag. Colin Firth ran out like a shot and immediately went after Cey Cey who screamed and darted out of the office with my barking dog in pursuit. Pretty Man reached down with lightning-quick reflexes and snatched Colin Firth by the scruff before he darted out of the door. He looked him in the eye and ordered him to “stop it." His voice was deep and as smooth as those chocolate truffles I was so fond of. My ornery dog who hates absolutely everyone except me immediately stopped barking.

"Is this your..?" He paused unsure what to classify poor Colin Firth as.

"My dog. It's a dog. I'm relatively sure." I recovered the power of speech. Hooray! Then he looked at me again. "Wow," I breathed struck dumb once again. Words, what are words? 

"Your dog needs discipline," he said. He was like an iceberg. A very pretty and well-groomed iceberg and I really wanted to be his Titanic. Oh my God! I had officially lost my mind over a pair of pretty eyes and a glorious head of hair. I tried to clear my head and adopted a mature self-possessed voice. In other words, I mimicked Sanem.

“Is there anything I can help you with?”

“I’m here to see Sanem.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Sanem? You must mean Mrs. Divit?”

He blinked and his cheeks reddened.

I burst out laughing. He was adorable.

“I'm just messing with you. The boss lady will be here at any moment. Make yourself at home.” He sat down as rigidly as he did everything else, it seemed, and my dog jumped on his lap and made himself at home.

He promptly put him back down on the ground and told him to stay in that same deep, stern voice. I willed my eyes not to roll back in my head. My dog apparently felt the same way because he laid down at his feet and gazed up at him adoringly. I feel you doggo. To the depths of my soul.

“I’m Ayhan, her favorite sister, by the way,” I said and he dipped his head in a slight nod and didn’t respond. He took out his phone and was pointedly ignoring me.

I shook myself out of my trance at his rudeness.  As if this gorgeous and self-possessed man was going to look twice at me. He was pretty to look at but my reaction was way over the top. I was used to pretty men, beautiful even. I had been surrounded by beautiful people all my life. Both my sisters were stunners and their husbands were ridiculous in the looks department. This was a side effect of going to an all-girls school. Surely that must be it. Besides, he probably thought I was a kid, which I kind of still was. I was being silly. No one falls in love at first sight except in those spicy romances I was so fond of reading. I still couldn't help teasing him some more. 

“Quick piece of advice: never, ever let my brother in law hear you call my sister by her name. He will murder you in the face.”

“Sanem and I are friends,” he said with some asperity. 

“Really? Since when?” I challenged. I don't know why I kept prodding. Yes, I did. I wanted to get a reaction. To see him lose some of that starch.

“Since I saved your brother in law’s ass by finding the people who trashed his career,” he snapped finally losing all patience. And that was the moment when I gave my heart away to Osman the P.I.