Page 78 of Passing the Red Line
It takes another half hour after everything is done for Kalen to finally walk into the room.
The second that I see him for the first time in ten years, I have the strongest urge to strangle him and make sure that nobody is able to find the body.
He still looks the same as he did when we were eighteen. The only difference is that his dirty blond hair is longer and he has more muscle on his body.
But he still very much looks like the self-centered, didn’t care who he hurt, cheating bastard that he was all those years ago.
“Hi, Lia,” Kalen says to me as soon as he steps into the room as if we are old friends about to catch him. The fact that he still calls me Lia just irks me and makes me grind my teeth.
“Kalen.” I say my tone sounding very much annoyed.
“Long time no see. You look good,” he says, letting his eyes travel up and down my body as if I were a prize for him to win.
I’m not. I never was and I will never be.
“I wish I could say the same about you,” I say before moving the conversation to the topic at hand. “Go ahead and get your jersey on. This is a quick process and it will not take more than ten minutes.”
“Do you mind if I just change here?” he asks, already making the move to lift his shirt off, but I stop him before he gets any further.
I try to resist the urge to roll my eyes. “Yes, I do mind. There’s a changing room down the hall. Use that.”
“But you’ve already seen everything before. Where is the harm in that?”
Is he being serious right now?
“For one, this is a professional setting. You are more than welcome to get undressed here, but know that if you do, I will be calling HR. You wouldn’t want to be released from your brand new contract, and lose everything now, would you?”
I can tell by Kalen’s expression that he knows I’m not bluffing. He wants to test my limits, well I’ll test his.
With a grunt, Kalen grabs his jersey from where it hangs on the small clothes rack, and walks out of the room.
I take the time alone to collect myself. It’s been ten whole years since I was last in a room with the man and the anger and hatred that I felt all those years ago is still there. The only difference between then and now is that the anger and hatred is two fold and a lot more prominent. So prominent that just hearing him breath is pissing me off. Knowing that he is even in the same building as me, working for the same team, pisses me off beyond belief that I’m seeing red everywhere I turn.
Instead of enduring Kalen on my own, I call in the social media team into the photoshoot, that way they don’t have to wait for the photos. They can transfer them as we go and not wait on me to send anything over. Not only is having them there a little faster, it also helps keep my anger at bay and Kalen quiet.
For the whole photoshoot, he doesn't say a word. I don’t know if it’s because he doesn’t want me to follow through and call HR if he steps out a line. Or he’s quiet because there are other people around and he doesn’t want them to hear anything that he might tell me.
My guess is that it’s the second one, but I don’t give a shit. I’m not going to put myself in a position where I will be uncomfortable. Especially while doing something that I love.
“Alright, I got everything. If we are in need of anything else, someone from my team will set something up after the morning skate,” I announce, wanting Kalen out of my space as fast as possible.
“You won’t be doing it?” the fucker asks, and as soon as I turn to look at him to tell him no, I will not take any pictures of his willingly, he asshole decides it’s the perfect time to pull his jersey off, leaving him shirtless and in a pair sweat pants that I’m sure has some of the other girls here with me blushing.
What the fuck is he trying to play here?
I don’t bother asking him. I just roll my eyes at him.
“I’m pretty confident that I told you that there was a dressing room for you. This is very much a professional setting and if you can’t respect that I will have to go to the higher ups. This is your one and only warning. You disrespect me or someone on my team again, I will make sure that the front office hears about it.”
I’m being a hard ass, but I don’t care. After everything he has put me through, he doesn’t deserve my kindness or even my respect.
Kalen stares me down as if I will become a puddle just by having his blue eyes on me. Maybe when I was eighteen but no way in hell is it happening now.
When he sees that I’m not backing down from my stance, he gives me a smirk and raises his hands up in mock defeat.
“Okay,” he says right before he closes the distance between us and leans down until his mouth is close to my ear. I try to push him away but he doesn’t budge. “You better be nice to me, Lia. You don’t want those pictures getting out, do you?”
His question causes a shiver to run down my body.
