Page 23 of Kiss and Makeup
Chapter Ten
Xavier
It took physical effort not to march after the guy when he broke off his conversation with Kristen.
You’re overreacting.The stern mental reprimand did nothing to rein in my wildly racing imagination. Who was this guy? Why had he shown up here to talk to Kristen? She clearly hadn’t expected or wanted him here. I saw her initial reaction when she looked pissed at the sight of him. Her demeanor had been cautious, even hostile. After a moment or two of talking, her face had softened and they shook hands.
Rather, she shook his hand. She had started it, reaching out to him.
He was probably just a business associate.No, that didn’t make sense either. In that case, he would have shown up at her office in her place of work. Not followed her here, to my company’s building….
Maybe I could still catch him. I glanced at the door, estimating the time that had passed, wondering if he had reached the reception desk yet….
“Xavier, where do you want the product we’ve finished with? The product that’s already been used in the shoot?”
I glanced up at the Cruise Media employee holding up a box of makeup. “What?”
She shrank away from the coarse word. “Never mind, I’ll ask Madison. Thanks.” She was halfway across the room before I could think to answer.
Running a hand through my hair, I sighed. The moment was gone. I would never catch the guy now, which meant if I wanted to be able to relieve my mind of this anytime soon, I would have to confront Kristen.
I didn’t even know if she knew I was in the room during her conversation. Minutes before, I had left to sign for a truck of product received from some other company for their own contract with Cruise Media. That shouldn’t have been my responsibility, but the creative director for that contract had left for lunch and I didn’t want the truck driver to have to wait around for an hour.
The entire rest of the day since our work day began, I had been in this room. I knew I was being paranoid, but… Was there a reason Kristen didn’t want me to see her with the man? The timing seemed a little off.
My imagination had taken my mind and run away with it. My eyes followed the efforts of the camera crew and actors, but not a single word stuck with me.
He could be an ex. The man hadn’t been wearing a suit, but he had a look about him that screamed business. He was tall, fairly handsome… Yes, he could easily be an ex. Kristen must have dated countless men between our college days and our reconnection. Someone that beautiful would never be alone for long.
Or… wait. Kristen had told me Emma’s father and mother—
No, I couldn’t even think that. Kristen wouldn't do that. Would she? Would she lie to me about Emma’s parents?
She hadn’t wanted to tell me about Emma at all, and I could understand that. When I knew her, she didn’t have a kid, and then this contract brought us together, and she didn’t know how I would react. That was what she had told me, and that was what I thought and believed, anyway.
She had tried hard—harder than warranted—to convince me to stop asking her what was wrong so she could keep Emma from me. Maybe, the reason for that wasn’t nervousness at how I would react to Emma.
Maybe it was because her father was still in the picture. The guy had brown eyes and brown hair, just like Emma. It wasn’t a stretch to believe they were related.
Thinking Kristen could lie to me so easily hurt for so many reasons. I had felt so much between us since she told me about Emma, and I looked forward to seeing her and spend time with her. Every moment spent with her felt genuine and filled with mutual affection. It wouldn’t be like that if she was lying to me…
I shifted in my seat, almost guiltily watching Kristen as she spoke to Madison about something. Quite probably, this was nothing. The guy just knew her from work or something, and I was overreacting on a massive scale.
It didn’t matter how much I tried to use logic and reason to calm myself. I had just gotten Kristen back. She still had feelings for me, and she was willing to let me into her daughter’s life. I couldn’t lose that.
Restless, I earned myself a glare from the woman holding the mic when I let out a loud sigh. This was going to be a long day.
* * *
Wrong. Not only was the day long. The entire week ended up being one of the longest I’d ever gone through in my life.
Call me jealous, possessive, suspicious—maybe all three of those things—but I couldn’t get the visit from that man out of my mind. I blamed the length of time we’d been apart for my un-suppressible feelings and insecurity.
And that was the thing; I knew every doubt I had was probably pointless. I just couldn’t stop having them.
Kristen noticed almost immediately, and this time it was her turn to ask me what was wrong. I almost—almost—asked her about the other day, but I ended up saying something about not feeling well because of the cold. Accusing her when all I had were speculations could ruin what had grown between us.
Still, I couldn’t let this go. Again, Kristen noticed whenever we spent time together, but I could never tell her.
