Flowers

Becca's POV

I shoot up quickly from my position on the carpet of my office as James pokes his head into my office. As I stand I dust off the crumpled sticky yellow papers that are covering my office floor.

"Becca are you alright? I saw your assistant sleeping in the elevator with a pot of coffee in her hand and she was still wearing the clothes she had on yesterday. And apparently so are you, should I call a doctor or something?" James asks with concern in his voice and I'm about to tell him that I'm absolutely fine when a different voice perks up from under another pile of yellow sticky paper.

"could you perhaps be insinuating that just because 3 strong women pulled an all-nighter, then perhaps those women are insane?" my grandmother asks as she methodically wipes her glasses but I don't think anyone would really take her seriously thanks to the several crumpled up yellow papers in her hair. Or maybe it's just the joint that she had tucked behind her ear, but I'm not really sure if normal grandmas like to smoke pot with their grandkids so let's just say it was probably the yellow papers.

"I would never insinuate something like that Marcella" James says as he tries to sweeten up to her but apparently she's still not having any of that

"It's Mrs. Esposito to you jade" she replies with a stern face even though she knows that his name isn't jade

"It's James, Mrs. Esposito" James says as he tries to maintain his cool

"I'll try to remember that, Joseph" she says to infuriate him even further because why don't we all just play 'antagonize your granddaughter's best friend'.

Aiming to end this stupid staring contest that they have going on, I say to James

"Why don't we step outside and I can walk you to the elevator" I say with a smile as I hope that he catches on and leaves with me so that I can stop all this unnecessary bloodletting.

Thankfully he does catch on so I walk him to the elevator. As we go, I decide that it can't hurt to ask him for his opinion at least before my expert consultants arrive.

"Hey James, if you deeply upset one of your boyfriends, how exactly would you show that you're sorry?" I ask him which causes him to stop in his tracks

"Well usually I just have sex with them and that makes everything better…" he begins to say when he gets interrupted by somebody who just couldn't leave well enough alone.

"That was the first thing I suggested but she said 'I can't do that because it's an emotional problem'. Personally I also think sex solves everything "my grandma says with a very good mock impression of me.

"Well in that case I have nothing. My relationships are usually physical so I can't exactly help you seeing as you are clearly trying to connect on an emotional level. Anyway, let me know how it goes" he says as he steps into the elevator and gives a wave goodbye as the doors close.

"Well Jaden was a complete waste of time" my grandmother says as we resume our former positions in my office.

"His name is James, and you know it so can you please stop being immature and help me figure out how to apologize to Nathan?" I reply exasperatedly at the fact that as old as she is, she still feels the needs to play petty and extremely childish games.

"Don't you dare be angry at me, you're the one who messed everything up when you got drunk and hurt his feelings" my grandma replies.

"Well that's not exactly my fault, like you said I wasn't in the right state of mind" I reply as I throw my hands up at the fact that she could even think of blaming this whole thing on me.

"Bitch please; you're at your most honest when your brain is completely switched off. You wouldn't say that if you weren't feeling it" she replies as the argument begins to get more heated.

We're basically having a good old fashioned showdown when the door suddenly bursts open and in walks charlotte followed by Isaac, Ryan and my very frantic secretary who is basically running in her heels as she approaches me.

"I tried to stop them Ms Esposito, but the little one is really mean and she told me to 'shut up and eat the damn cookies' and then she stormed in here" my secretary says as she tries to catch her breath.

"That's not true. I came in, you were eating a damn cookie so I said to you 'you know those things are what is causing your insecurities about your weight, not the remedy right?' and then when you tried to have me wait till Becca was ready to see me, I told you to shut up and eat your damn cookies" charlotte says as she looks at her nails.

I turn to my assistant who looks as if she's about to cry and say "I'm really sorry about charlotte. Why don't you go home and get some rest Anna and I'll take care of this" I say and she leaves quickly as I turn to charlotte

"What are you doing here? I only called Isaac and Ryan" I ask as she takes a position on my swiveling chair and starts to spin herself around.

"Well you see, these two bozos were meant to take me to see a movie, but they were talking in whispers so I tortured them with princess songs until they agreed to bring me with them" she says as she comes to a stop

"Also, she's really scary so we try to do whatever she wants. As much as we value our dignity and our pride, we value our lives much more so if she says jump, we say how far?" Ryan says as Isaac nods in affirmation.

"Noted. But I mean why are you helping me charlotte?" I ask

"Well as much as I love to win. I see now that if I won while you and my dad were not together, then the satisfaction would be gone and I want to enjoy winning you, so if it means helping you and my dad get back together, then why not?" she says as she approaches me

"Well thanks for your support charlotte" I say impressed that as young as she is, she knows not to kick an enemy while they're down or helpless.

"Ok let's get down to business" I say and we all sit as we start to brainstorm ideas.

"Here's an idea, have sex with him. Sex always makes everything better" Isaac says with a mouth full of pudding.

'Where did he get that pudding?' I think to myself as I start to feel very hungry and immediately regret my decision to send Anna home. I'm about to reply when my grandmother cuts in.

"I've already floated that idea by her, she didn't like it. Try something else birdbrain" my grandma replies tiredly

"Find another birdbrain to hassle you old hag, this one's mine" charlotte replies angrily and suddenly everyone is feeling a little tense as my grandmother and my future stepdaughter apparently decide to have an epic staring contest.

"I like her" my grandmother suddenly says with a smile and the rest of us let out a sigh of relief cause it would have been really weird if they started exchanging blows or something.

We sit around brainstorming for a few more minutes until charlotte comes up with the best plan we've had all day.

"Why don't you just apologize to his face, no grand gesture or anything, you just say you're sorry" charlotte says

"She's already tried that" my grandmother immediately says which is why I felt really bad when I said "I haven't actually made any prior attempts".

Let's just say that as I stand in Nathan's living room right now, I'm pretty sure I have a concussion and few broken ribs with a possible cranial fracture from all the slaps to the back of the head.

Nathan eventually agrees to sit down and hear what I have to say, but that's after charlotte threatened to torch his crotch in the middle of the night.

"Look Nathan I can't possibly tell you how sorry I am for what I said. I was drunk and I might have said some stuff I don't believe anymore. So do you forgive me?" I say to him as I assess his face for how he'll react to my well written apology. I mean after all it only took me the 3 hours from my office to my apartment to his apartment to write it.

"all I hear is excuses and not the actual word 'sorry' so unless you're going to say that then I don't think we have much to talk about" he says as he folds his arms and leans back in his seat.

"I just told you that I was drunk, what more do you expect from me?" I ask angrily at the fact that he didn't accept my apology

"Again with the excuses, you're hiding behind something else and you're not taking responsibility for your actions. So if you're going to be like this, then I'll see you later cause I have a job to do and I would appreciate it if you could leave so I can go to bed early and be ready for my flight tomorrow" he says as he stands up and heads for his room.

I probably shouldn't have thrown the bouquet of flowers in my hand at him but it did help with my frustration

"Did you ever stop to think for a second that this might also be hard for me? I've never had to apologize in my life so sorry if I can't say it exactly how you want it but at least I made an effort. But you know what? I'm done with this, if you can't be okay with my apology then I'll leave and you can go back to your life where your need to control everything will eventually be the death of you" I say as tears start to stream down my face but he doesn't seem to care cause he walks out. Angrily I get in the elevator and decide to leave.

As I walk out the front door I suddenly notice that it's raining and since Isaac and Ryan were my ride, I have no way of going home. Just as I'm about to start walking a shadow is suddenly cast over me as I turn around to find Nathan standing in the rain with a raincoat on and an umbrella in his hand which seems to be shielding me from the rain.

"we're going to have to talk about you calling me a control freak cause I am not a control freak and I would like you to know that before our date on Friday night" he says with a smile as the rain pours down around us and I find myself returning the smile through the tears that have just stopped pouring.

'I think I might be starting to fall in love with this blue eyed demon' I think to myself as he takes my hand and we start walking towards my apartment building.