Chapter 4: Grant pov

“Hahaha, I told you not to.”

“Oh, shut up.”

He pouts like a child and not the twenty-eight-year-old man I know he is, and I laugh harder, causing him to throw his napkin at me. We get a few curious looks but for once I don’t care.

“Come on I have a meeting at two, it’s time to leave.”

“Ugh fine.”

Ellis stands with me and we begin to make our way to the counter to pay.

“You owe me for the coke stains on my jeans and you are going to pay for them to be cleaned.”

“No, I don’t and no I am not, now if you would please leave, you are causing distress to the other customers.”

“Bullshit! You poured my drink in my lap, I should have you fired.”

“You are disrupting the peace, please leave.”

He reaches out and grabs her wrist and in that moment is when I see it, just like when Ellis held her hand on Monday. Her body freezes and her pupils dilate, then her breathing begins to increase and I see perspiration forming on her brow.

“That is quite enough.”

My voice rings out clear, even though I did not shout the silence in the room is palpable.  I rip his hand away from her with ease before spinning him around and marching him out of the door with his arm pinned behind him.

“Hey! Hey, let go of me!”

“Sure.”

I release him with a small shove once we are outside and he stumbles slightly, before turning around and glaring at me.

“Derek! That’s enough, let’s go.”

I look and see the other kid, Seth, glaring at his friend as he and the girls he is with, also exit the café. He meets my eye, and I can see that he feels that same as I do, and I respect him for it. This kid has his priorities in place, and I look forward to seeing what he will do in the future, but he should choose his friends better.

Once I ensure they have left, I reenter the cafe, but I walk in, to chaos. Ellis is standing close to the kitchen door, looking worried and when he catches my eye, he beckons me over.

“Something is wrong Grant. After you walked the kid out, her colleagues bundled her into the back room, and I haven’t been able to get any answers.”

“Okay, stay here.”

I walk past him and shock everyone by walking through the door, ignoring the staff only signs.

“Angel! Angel, open the door girl, you’re scaring us.”

The other waitress is talking through a door, that appears to be the staff bathroom. There is also a male in chef attire, so I infer he is from the kitchen.

“Come on Angel! Answer us or I’m breaking the door down.”

His words are little too aggressive, but he has the right idea, if she has locked it and is unresponsive, then anything could happen to her.

“Move aside.”

They jump at my command and look at me in shock, as I step forward and try the handle. It is locked, so I listen through the wood for a moment, I can hear heavy breathing and possibly sobbing. But it is faint, so it seems safe to barge through as she doesn’t sound as though she is against the door. Bracing myself, I step back a little and then rush forward ramming the door with my shoulder.

The lock pops from the frame and the door bursts open, there is a moment where she screams in surprise, as I step in and her eyes roll back in her head as she collapses. I manage to catch her before she hits the floor, saving her head and I clutch her close to me.

Her body is warm against mine and I feel a shiver run through me at our contact. I take note that her makeup is streaked from her tears, but her beauty is still breathtaking this close.

I lift her up and carry her out to the main room, where she can lay down comfortably. Her colleagues use a jacket to raise and support her head and one is placed over her to keep her warm, while we wait for her to regain consciousness.

I take this chance to look at her properly. Her dyed hair is still tied in a tight bun, but she has a long fringe that usually hides the left side of her face. Now, as it falls away from her eye, I can see she has her eyebrow pierced as well as her nose and lip that I had noticed before.

The colours of her hair do compliment her and I find it attractive, yet before now I would have avoided associating with anyone who dresses the way she does. Her face is quite attractive, and her features are perfectly proportioned, her eyes evenly spaced with dark eyebrows that are shaped nicely, unlike the odd unnatural shapes that girls seem to favor recently.

Her nose is cute, a small button nose that I can imagine may have had freckles once upon a time. But her makeup is applied so thickly it is impossible to tell what her skin is genuinely like beneath. This disappoints me as I feel an urge to see her without her mask on and my fingers twitch with an illicit urge to touch her skin.

I was also surprised when I lifted her, at how light she was, and her body felt much slimmer than her outfits suggest, but not in an unhealthy way.

“Can one of you find a cool damp cloth to place on her head?”

“Yeah, I’ll be right back.”

The cook quickly goes to the kitchen and when he returns, Ellis follows him in.

“Ellis cancel my meeting.”

“Oh, um yeah of course. Is she okay?”

“Yes sir, she will be alright, I’ve seen her do this before.”

I look up and face the male that has come back with the cloth.

“You have?”

“Yes, she thinks we don’t remember as she doesn’t like to make a fuss, but this happened the last time someone put their hands on her aggressively. She had a panic attack and fainted, but it took us twenty minutes to get the door open that day. She had to go to hospital because she hit her head on the sink. Tom changed the lock after that, as we were all worried it would happen again.”

I am pleased to hear they care for her in such a way, but I don’t like hearing that she has such a severe reaction to being touched. Conversation dwindles as time slips by and after about fifteen minutes, she begins to stir. We all breathe a sigh of relief as her eyes begin to flutter. They open and my breath catches as I see them fully for the first time, they are a beautiful stormy grey and when she looks at me, I feel as though she sees past all my barriers into my soul.

“Angel! You’re awake, thank goodness.”

She looks around confused, before focusing on her colleagues and ignoring me, which makes me frown.

“Jack, why are black coffee dude and umbrella guy standing in the staff area?”

My eyebrows raise into my hairline at how she refers to me and Ellis, and he scoffs behind me trying to hold in his laughter.

“Uh, well they were worried about you and we couldn’t get you to open the door, so he broke in and you fainted.”

“Oh, so you will be replacing the door then?”

“Excuse me?!”

“Hmm no you aren’t excused; you broke my boss’s door and now we can’t use the bathroom. It’s normal to expect a replacement.”

“I was right, you have no manners.”

“You showed me none either. Fair is fair.”

“You bumped into me!”

“You left me sitting in a puddle!”

“You didn’t even apologise for walking into me.”

“I didn’t get a chance.”

“Urgh what is wrong with you?”

“None of your business.”

Huh? That’s not the usual reaction that question gets and the others in the room are standing around shocked.

“Wait, you are the rude guy that Angel told me about on Monday? She got a fever and fainted thanks to that.”

“I’m not responsible for her not taking care of herself.”

The girl cowers under my glare.

“Hey! Leave her alone!”

I turn back and find Angel is glaring at me and something in me is drawn to her again. Her severe expression from defending her friend is intimidating, but I find it sexy at the same time.

Instinctively my hand reaches out wanting to touch her cheek, but she flinches back, and I stop my advance, frowning. A flash of fear appears in her gaze and my frown deepens which only makes things worse. I drop my hand with a sigh before pulling back and addressing her one more time.

“Try to take better care of yourself in future, come on Ellis, we should leave.”

I stand and walk away without looking back, my heart is conflicted, and this is a distraction I do not need right now. I have a divorce to finalize and business deals pending that are detrimental to the expansion of my company. That meeting I cancelled was one of them, Ellis is hot on my heels as we leave the café. As well as being my best friend, he is my PA and as we enter the car, he turns to me.

“Grant, what happened back there?”

“Nothing forget it. Contact Cole’s PA and offer another meeting that fits to their schedule.”

“Oh, I don’t think so, I can see that you like her, however much you will deny it. And I already did that, we are meeting them tomorrow morning, early, it’s in your calendar.”

 I don’t respond or look at him as I drive back to the office all I can focus on is the fact that she drives me insane but at the same time I like that she challenges me.