Page 98 of Heart of Stone

“You have a really nice office,” I appreciated.

His only response to my compliment was a slight grunt. I frowned curiously at him, wondering what was up.

The phone on the desk buzzed and Alexander quickly snatched up the receiver.

“You better be calling me with a date and time, Steve,” he said irritably into the phone. After a moment, his face turned sour. Whatever the person on the other end was saying, it couldn’t have been good. “I don’t care what the excuse is. Find another underwriter to get it done. And if you don’t, then I will. I want this deal closed by the end of the week.”

He forcefully put the receiver back on to its cradle, turned back to his computer, and began furiously typing on the keyboard. After a minute, he stopped and appeared to be studying whatever was on the screen. His jaw ticked, while his thumb tapped a steady beat on the desktop. I had never seen him look so agitated.

“Is everything okay?” I asked cautiously.

Alexander looked up from his computer in surprise, almost as if he’d forgotten that I was there.

“Everything is fine. I just hate delays.” And with that, he picked up the receiver again and dialed a number. “Laura, get ahold of Joshua Swanson. Tell him to check his email. I want a progress update by the end of the day.”

He’s on a warpath over something…

“What happened?”

He eyed me strangely, but didn’t answer my question. Instead, he got up from his desk and went over to a file cabinet.

“Here’s the salary and benefit information for you to look over. It includes a severance deal as well,” he said coolly, unceremoniously tossing a manila folder onto the desk. “After you read it, you’ll need to sign a few things near the back.”

He sat back down and returned to whatever task he had been so engrossed in. I was rather taken aback, his frosty reception perplexing. I squirmed uncomfortably in my seat. Between Alexander and Laura, I was beginning to think that there was something seriously wrong with the water at Cornerstone Tower.

“I think I offended Laura the last time I was here,” I stated casually, trying to do something – anything, to break the tension that was in the room.

“Don’t worry about her. She can be fickle sometimes, but she’s extremely efficient, which is why I keep her around,” he absently waved off, not looking away from his flat screen monitor.

Something wasn’t right, and it wasn’t just his frustration over a delay. He was acting different towards me. Cold.

Is this the way he planned on separating our personal lives from work?

I watched him for a moment longer before picking up the folder, the click of the mouse the only sound that could be heard in the room. I opened it and pretended to peruse the contents, but I wasn’t really seeing them. I flipped through the pages, chancing furtive glances at him, in an attempt to decipher the real reason behind his mood.

“Alex, what’s wrong?” I finally asked.

“Nothing is wrong,” he dismissed, again not bothering to glance up. More silence. Another click-click.

Maybe he got what he wanted last night and now he’s done with me.

I fought the familiar internal battle between my insecurities and basic common sense. It was a real struggle not to imagine the worst.

I’m not my mother…it’s better to ask than assume.

“Look, I understand our arrangement, but do you really need to act so rigid towards me? I mean, we’re not exactly strangers anymore.” I received no answer, just a few more clicks. After several minutes of listening to nothing but his tapping on the mouse, my patience slowly diminished, and self-doubting instincts began to override all rational thoughts. In the end, conjecture won out. “I’m sorry, but am I interrupting something of vital importance here? Or is it that last night you got your quick fuck and this is your way of sayingsayonara?”

He looked up sharply, eyes piercing through me like knives.

“First of all, you’re not a quick fuck. I don’t want to hear you say anything like that again. Ever,” he spat out. “Secondly, you left last night.”

Ohhhh, so that’s what’s got his panties in a bind…

“So what if I left? I had to work today and I didn’t have any clothes with me. I had to go.”

And that was the truth. Partially.

“You leave when I say you can leave.”

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