Page 18 of Kiss and Makeup
Chapter Eight
Xavier
As usual, when she came to Cruise Media 1307 to meet with Madison about the campaign and see some ads our graphic artists had drawn up, Kristen made my head spin. That was due in part to her fitted business suit with the blue, low-cut blouse that showed just the right amount of cleavage, but mostly… everything else.
What was going on? After she had stormed out of the restaurant a couple days ago, I had tried emailing Kristen to see if she was okay. No answer. Then, I tried texting her. Not very professional, but even after all these years I still had her number, and from the business card I definitely hadn’t “borrowed” from Madison’s desk, I knew it hadn’t changed. Once again, no answer.
That evening, I had been… more devastated than I had been in a long time. I’d been on the verge of calling my father and telling him to just go ahead and start planning who to name CEO. The thought that I had a chance to win Kristen back, then did something to lose her again—I hadn’t been able to bear it.
Fireside contemplation at home the next day had given me the presence of mind to reevaluate the evening. Hanging on every message from her phone, receiving that phone call, leaving suddenly—something had been going on that night and it had nothing to do with me venturing something as inoffensive as “I missed you”.
Still, if it wasn’t me, who was it? Work, maybe? After she had shared with me her tenuous position at BeautyBee Cosmetics, I doubted Kristen would keep something business-related from me. Family? If she had reconnected with her family back home, she probably would have mentioned it at some point.
That just left one more option, one I hated to even consider. She could be involved with another man. Somehow, it had never occurred to me that beautiful, driven Kristen might be happily seeing someone else. I loved Kristen and thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Why shouldn’t other men see the woman I saw and think that too?
I paused in the shadows outside the meeting room where Kristen and Madison had decided to meet, listening to the clear assertiveness of Kristen’s voice giving opinions on Madison’s work.
Had I been wrong? That night, sitting across from Kristen, even though we had only talked about some things we had missed in each other’s lives… I had felt something there. Never, not once in all the years we’d been apart, had I stopped loving Kristen—but that evening, as we laughed and talked, I felt something from her as well.
If her phone hadn’t rung, Kristen could have told me what that something was. Instead, I felt like I had mental whiplash.
I tried to greet her when she walked into the 1307 building today. She just said, “Good afternoon. Is Madison here yet?” then walked off to look for her when I tried to ask if she was okay. When I spotted her down the hall, I gave her a smile. Her eyes slid over me like I was a picture of the Chicago skyline hanging on the wall. Then, when I walked down that same hallway to speak to her, I found to my bemusement that she had vanished after walking around the corner. Had she actually hid from me?
Probably not. Most likely, she had just walked faster around the next corner. But Kristen liked to face problems and challenges head-on. Why wouldn’t she just talk to me?
Finally, an opportunity presented itself. Kristen had brought lunch with her, and when I went to the break room to get some coffee, I spotted her sitting at one of the round tables with a book and a neatly folded sandwich wrap.
Immediately tossing the disposable coffee cup I had grabbed into the trash, I seized my chance and sat down across from her. “Hi.”
She hardly glanced up from the pages. “Hi.”
“Kristen, come on. Something’s clearly wrong. Please tell me?” I went for the best wide-eyed, innocent, pretty-please face I could muster.
“Nothing’s wrong.”
“Kristen, your eyes haven’t moved at all. You’re not reading.”
She unwillingly shifted her gaze from the book to me. “I was until you interrupted me. I don’t have very long for lunch, okay?”
“I just want an explanation, Kristen. You—”You ran out right after I told you I missed you. How do you think I feel?“You seemed pretty worried the other night.”
“I just had to take care of something right away. It had nothing to do with you, and it still doesn’t.” Kristen put down the book entirely, leaning back with a sigh. “I’m serious, Xavier, and I mean it. It doesn’t have anything to do with you or anything you did. It’s something I have to figure out. Please let me eat?”
She reabsorbed herself in the novel and ignored my next question, so I gave up—for now.
Something Kristen had to figure out. Like an ex, maybe? Was it possible to be jealous of someone who may not even exist?
Unreadable eyes followed me as I took my cup of coffee in my hand and left the break room. That same glance had found me often throughout the day, but only when Kristen was sure I wasn’t looking. I could feel her eyes on me. I just didn’t always know what they wanted, thought, or meant.
Ex or not, it didn’t matter. I wouldn’t be happy—or at least satisfied— until I knew everything was alright with Kristen.
Besides, I had admitted to having a fair share of blame in Kristen’s decisions about me, but… This? Call me selfish, but I needed—and deserved—a little more than “it has nothing to do with you.” Things had been going so well, and it was time to stop being such a gentleman and push a little harder.
So, the next day after a presentation our graphic designers had prepared for Kristen, I accosted her in the hallway. “Are you ready?”
“What?” Genuine confusion shattered the forced patience she had adopted as soon as she saw me.
“To tell me what’s wrong?”
