Darkness

7. Autumn-Rose

Seven

Autumn-Rose

“What time do you call this?” Katy asks with her hand on her hip. What is she talking about? I look at my watch to make sure I’m not going crazy. The only pit -stop I’ve made is to grab myself some tea. Which, I have to still moan about, because it’s not the same as back home, and if I could only get two things from England, it would be my tea, and a good box of chocolate.

“I’m not even late.” I hand her the coffee I grabbed for her, and walk back to my office to drop my bag. “So, what are you talking about?”

“I came to work, and this was left by the door, no note, nothing. So who is it?” Katy places a sunflower on the desk. I stare at it and the only thing I can think is how did he get here before me?

Picking up the sunflower, I wonder why he would give it back to me. “Mr. Cain.” The name escapes my mouth, barely a whisper, but I can’t stop my lips from curling into a smile.

“Mr. Cain? The guy who owns Skyline?” Not looking at her, I get up and grab one of the small vases I have to fill with water for the sunflower. “Autumn-Rose, are you sleeping with him?”

“No. I saw him outside my apartment building, and I gave him the flower, telling him he needed some color in his life.” Placing the flower into the water, I can’t help but think about the sexy, mysterious man. He’s all I can think about.

“He was outside your apartment building?” she asks, sounding puzzled with what I’m saying.

“Yes, with Mr. Upgrade, whose name is Lincoln.” Finally turning to face her, I can’t believe how she's looking at me. It’s like she thinks I have two heads. “What?”

“You think he’s hot? You look a little flushed,” she laughs, then sips on her coffee. “Is he drop dead gorgeous? Is he tall? Does he have a sexy body? I have so many questions.” Ignoring her, I make my way to the front of the shop to get all the flowers outside. “You can ignore me all you want, but we have all day.” Katy helps me get the flowers outside, knowing very well Mr. Cain is going to be the subject of the day. “You know the word is he lives in that building. The top floor of the club.” I stop mid step and turn to face her. “Now it’s got interesting. I don’t know if it’s true, but it’s what people are saying. Hell, I thought Mr. Upgrade was the owner, as he’s the only person I’ve seen there.” Katy continues to get the flowers outside with me, while I progress the thought of him living in front of me.

Does he know I live in front of him? Is that how he was outside my building? Can I see his place from my window? Oh my God, what am I saying? The one thing I hate is stalking someone, watching someone, the same thing that happened to me. I’m now thinking of doing to Mr. Cain.

What is wrong with me?

“So you’re going to answer my question?” Katy asks as we finish bringing the flowers out, and I sip on my coffee as I stand by the counter.

“Which one? You asked a few.” Looking around the shop still thinking about what I want to do for the window display which I need to get started on this weekend. Adding it to the ever-growing list of things I need to do for the shop.

“Is he good looking?” Of course, that would be the one she wants answered over anything else.

“Good looking is honestly not even close to how sexy that man is, but-” I pause for a moment, thinking of the right words to say, without sounding like I’m overthinking it. “-He has this energy around him. It’s fucking dark, but mysterious at the same time.” Sipping my tea, I smile at the lady who’s walked in, then looking back over at Katy who’s smiling like crazy.

“So your Prince Charming is more of a villain in disguise. Who’s going to make all your sex dreams come true?” I burst out laughing at Katy’s words. Only she would think about sex.

“First, I don’t have sex dreams, and second, what makes you think he’s even good in bed?” Have I thought about what he looks like under the suit, one hundred percent I have. No normal woman can walk past him and not think about it. Those sexy green eyes drink me in every time he looks at me, and right now I’d let him drink as much of me as he wants.

Yes, it’s been a while, a long while since I’ve had sex, and Mr. Cain is the first man I’ve even looked at and thought, God, you are sexy. Maybe even out of my league, but a girl can still think about these things.

“You don’t have sex dreams, the biggest lie I’ve heard. Ever. Every woman has sex dreams, has fantasies about what they would like. Lie all you want, but we all watch porn now and again. There are things I’ve seen on there and thought, yes, I want a man to do that to me.” Katy stops talking when the woman who walked in comes to the counter and I give her a smile.

“I’d like these, please.” She places the bouquet I had put together last night onto the counter. I look at the soft summer shades, pink, peaches, lilacs, and I finished it with some soft blue colors. Beautiful.

“Would you like me to write a card?” I ask. This is always one of my favorite parts, when someone comes in and writes a lovely note.

“Would you?”

“Of course, if you’d like to pick a card.” I place the box of different types in front of her. I smile and Katy shakes her head because she knows how much I love this. The woman hands me the card, and I grab my pen and get ready for her words.

“Thank you for ruining fifteen years of friendship by sleeping with my husband-” she stops when I look up at her. Fuck. “-I haven’t finished.” I give her a nod and get back to writing. “I always knew you were a whore. Now you two can be whores together. Get hit by a bus.”

I look up at her, and she smiles at me. “No, love from?” I ask, which makes her laugh. “Let me rewrite this with a little more aggressive handwriting.” I turn to show her the card, and how I’ve written it in cursive, nice, sweet lettering. Which makes her laugh even more, and it honestly seems like it’s the first time she’s laughed in a while.

“Yes, please,” she answers, waiting for me to re-write it for her, and Katy, being Katy, continues the conversation about Mr. Cain.

“You know if it’s true, and he lives in front of you, show him the goods-”

“What?”

“I’m not telling you to stand in front of the window naked. All I’m saying is that wearing sexy nightwear could help.” She raises her brows at me a few times, and I tell her to shut up, but she doesn’t as the woman stands listening to Katy. “Come on, you said he’s hot.”

“He has spoken a handful of words to me, and not once has he even shown a tiny amount of interest in me.” Shaking my head, I hand the card to the woman and place the card machine in front of her to tap.

“Thank you, and I’m with her. Life is too short to settle. I say have fun.” The woman picks up the flowers and leaves the shop, and I turn to Katy.

“Can we please not have these conversations in front of customers?” I sit on the stool, and get my notepad out and get ready for the day. Katy is talking nonstop about the one person I don’t want to talk about. Oh what fun I’m going to have today.

***

It’s been a busy day, which is surprising for this early in the week. It’s normally Friday and Saturday’s which have been busy. I’m not complaining at all, it’s nice to have a busy shop like this.

I’ve come up with a good idea for the window, but I still need to work on a few things for it before I’m one hundred percent happy with the idea. When I’m done, I’ll let Katy know about that, too.

By the time the cleaning is finished, it’s almost nine before I close the shop. Normal closing time is seven, but it was such a busy day and there is a lot of mess to clean up. It was stupid of me to send Katy home early.

Disarming the alarm, I drop everything on the floor and go straight over to the window. Why? For one reason only, to see if I can see his apartment from my window. Counting the floors, I’m going to say the whole eighth floor will be his apartment. There’s nothing. Not even one light is turned on, but the club is still open, so he might be in his office, or on a date, or with his girlfriend, or wife.

Oh my God, I never once thought about him being in a relationship with someone. I need to stop thinking about Mr. Cain and his tattoos, and his eyes. “Shut Up Autumn-Rose,” I shout to myself.

Walking towards my bedroom I need a shower. Cooling off seems like a good idea at the moment. A clear mind once I’m out of the shower, some dinner and binge watching some stupid reality TV show is just what the doctor ordered.

Grabbing a pair of shorts and tank top, I throw them on the bed, and make my way to the shower, and without meaning to I look out the window, once again. My living room and bedroom both face his apartment. But it could be the back of it, and I’d never see him walking around.

I need to get laid.

Stopping mid track when I hear a loud noise coming from outside of my door, I quickly grab the baseball bat, and run over to the door to look through the peephole.

There is no way he can find me. I covered all my tracks. I’m sure I did. If I’m right, he should think I’m in Canada, and have no reason to think I’m here. Yet, I know the fucking crazy man has connections, and with how obsessed he had gotten with me, there is nothing he wouldn’t do to get me back. I have to laugh at my own words. I was never his from the start. He lived in this fantasy world which I was never a part of and never will be.

I don’t see anything, but loud bang hits the wall, making me jump. I grab my cell to see if I can see anything on the camera I have out there. I have four cameras, keeping me safe. I have two on the door, then two on the windows. Now I know there is no way he can get into my apartment as it’s on the eighth floor, but I wasn’t going to risk it.

I’ll never risk it again. I slide against the wall and sit on the dark wooden floor, leaning my head on the bat handle. Turns out It’s only the couple who live two doors down from me, slamming each other against the wall as they make out.

Taking in a deep breath, I close my eyes as the tears build up. When am I going to be able to live a normal life?

“You looked beautiful on the ice.” The sick feeling in my stomach returns when I hear the bastard’s voice. “But you always look beautiful.”

“Leave me alone-”

“Now we both know I can’t do that. We’re meant to be together, you’re just making me work hard.” He takes a step closer to me, but I take one back, and he grabs my arm hard, pulling me in closer to him. “You’ll always be mine, remember that.” He slams his lips into mine, and I try to push him away, but he’s three times the size of me. How can I fight him? How can I get rid of him?

He’s getting bolder with what he’s doing now, too. Getting into my apartment, even though I’ve changed the locks, he still gets in. This morning there was a gift on the kitchen counter from him, but I never opened it. Anything from him I never open. They go straight into the bin.

“One day I’m going to get what I want, and you’ll feel it too. How we’re meant to be together. We fit.” His hand moves up my thigh to the gap between my legs.

Opening my eyes, I don’t want to waste any of my time thinking about him, ever again. I glance over to the only place I can see. Mr. Cain’s apartment, as much as I feel the danger around him, there is something pulling me to him. I feel as if he can protect me from everything and, more importantly, anyone.

A chilly breeze moves through the apartment, and I rub my hands over my arms, I get up and I slowly walk over to the window once again, placing the baseball bat on the couch.

Are you my villain in disguise?

Can you protect me from the past if it came down to it?