Chapter Thirty six.

Elena waited for about thirty minutes at the supposed meeting place but there was no Lorenzo in sight, she had tried calling his phone but got no reply. Maybe he was not going to come, at least he should have informed her that he would not make it, instead of keeping her on her tippy toes. 

 She looked around the botanic garden, it was so peaceful, filled with different exotic flowers, the floral odour wafting from the different flowers were overpowering and aromatic. This was supposed to be their first outdoor date, the rest had always been at the villa, though the other dates were quite delightful, but her adrenaline was pumped today, partly because she was going to ask him, no tell him that she really wanted to see her mother, she was not sure what his response will be, but she would take the chance. 

   She had taken the whole of yesterday to practice in front of the mirror, doing exactly as Katie had advised, in fact she was the one that got her in this whole fuss, as she is the one that sent the text message to Lorenzo, asking him on a date, and going as far as choosing the location for the date, sabotaging Elena's plan of telling Lorenzo straight to the point that she wanted to see her mom.

  Now here she was, sitting in this almost ethereal garden, alone. Lorenzo had obviously stood her up, he was not the type to show up at a meeting after thirty minutes may have passed, he was a very punctual person and had his work ethics, but this was not work, she reminded herself, this was a date and he may arrive anytime soon, she kept consoling herself, but she knew it would be futile, to even hope anymore.

  She picked up her phone and dialled Katie's phone number, it rang for some time, then the call ended on its own, Katie was not picking up either, now something was wrong, she thought. she called Katie again and was relieved when the call went through.

 "Hello" She said into the receiver.

The person at the other end said something inaudible and ended the call. 

 "Well, that was strange." she said to herself and rang the number one more time. It went through again and she spoke into the receiver yet again,"Hello, Katie, can you hear me." 

There was no inaudible chatter this time, " Yes Elena, I can hear you clearly, what is it, how is your date going?" she asked.

 " I don't even know what to say to you, I was stood up, lorenzo did not show up and has not shown up as I am talking to you now and I am not sure he will show up any time soon." Elena fumed, her temper rising by the second.

 "oh, I am so sorry for that" Katie sympathized.

 "Of course, you ought to be, you are the one that put me in this pickle, now you have to get me out." Elena scolded like a mother hen.

  " I am extremely sorry but there is nothing I can do for you, if he has not shown up, then that means he has something more important to do and so could not show up, he is a busy man you know." Katie tried to explain in an attempt to cover up the situation.

 " Oh and you did not remember any of that when you sent him that text message? He is not even fucking able to call me and tell me that he would not be able to make it? wonderful, really great, so I have wasted my time and energy, the only thing good about this is the intoxicating smell of these flowers, I really want to strangle that man, and you along side him." Elena vented, one could basically see the fumes rising from her ears and head, just as Katie was imagining it in her mind.

"I still stand that he may have had an important appointment and so was not able to come for the date, it is no big deal, just get over it you big baby". Katie explained but little did she know that all what she was saying was falling on deaf ears.

" You are saying that because it is not you sitting down on this hard ass bench waiting for a hot ass man who you know deep down just stood you up, I am handling this pretty well, for a big baby you know." Elena was not yet done ranting.

 " I do remember that his half sister was supposed to come back today, so maybe he went to go get her from the airport, they are siblings after all." Katie reasoned, but Elena was having none of it, 

" You told me that he does not dote on her that much, so why would he now abandon me for her." 

" You are being ridiculous,he does not dote on her that much but that does not mean he does not have an obligation towards her to keep her safe, let me out this straight to you, Ms Valerie is an international celebrity, she is a super model and as such, there are many people after her life, when you get to that kind of position you will be sure to have stepped on a lot of toes, both influential and not, so she obviously has a lot of enemies who might want to take a swing at her on the basis of revenge, so you cannot want to blame the president for trying to keep his only remaining relative safe. This is just me defending my boss in the most appropriate way. So stop being hard headed and come back to the house real quick." Katie released a huge sigh after her long sermon.

"Are you done?" Elena asked sarcastically.

Katie was exasperated.

"well if you are, I just want to tell you that your devotion and loyalty is admirable, but I'll pass, your boss us in the wrong and he will answer to my fist, just you wait and see." Elena teased, relaxing a lot more, the atmosphere was calm and exotic, she should come her more often.

"As if, you are not even tall enough to get in a good punch" Katie mocked.

" At five feet eleven inches, At least I am taller than you." Elena mocked.

" well, at least Jill is taller than you. " Katie retorted.

" I must say you are the queen of flimsy excuses and clap backs, seriously, that is all you got? " Elena teased, her mind went back to the woman in question, Jill was indeed taller than her, she must be from a family of really tall people.

" Anyway, Katie, you are at the house right now right?" Elena asked.

"No, I am currently at the office, just doing  some few touch ups here and there." Katie replied. 

" oh, okay, I am coming there in about fifteen minutes, guess I am getting bored here. " 

With that she bade goodbye to the sweet smelling flowers and made her way to the car that was parked in the shed.

An exactly twenty five minute drive brought her to the office and she hurried in to get to Katie's office, in her rush she saw two figures talking, one was standing and the other was in a kind of posture, mid curtsey and standing posture.

Elena stopped for a while to view the situation, it did not look any suspicious, but then again some people just knew how to hide it well. The woman that was standing towered over the other, the height and faces of both of them were not really visible as it was a side view. Deciding that she. would not gain anything from just standing there looking at apparently nothing, she hurried off and did not look back at the two women.

When she got to Katie's office,she opened the door and found Katie sitting at her usual position, she was looking down at her desk and did not bother to look up at Elena as Elena located her favorite spot.

"What's up with the moodiness." Elena asked.

"She's here" was the short reply, Elena did not need any psychic or seer to tell her who the SHE was, for some reason her stomach did not have that feeling of dread that was always there when Valerie's name was even vaguely mentioned, she just sat there, feeling completely indifferent, a moment if silence reigned and then it was broken by Elena,

"She is here, in the country or at the office." Elena asked, still feeling numb inside.

"she is here, in the country and in the office as of this moment, we need to keep out of her way. " Katie mused despairingly.

 Elena did not quite see the point of being scared, Valerie was not some kind of goddess, " I do not quite understand why you are so worried, it's not as if we are so sure that she would target me, she might even be so overworked that she would not even have time to disturb us, we will be in our own lane and she will be in hers, no big deal about it, and the fact that you said that there was no problems between the two of you, she might just snub you and that would be to our benefit, stop worrying so much. "

Katie cleared her throat to say something but then decided against it and kept silent instead. 

" I mean she is a super model, in your own words, so she must be busy with her brands, I do not think she would have much time to be petty, I would not if I were in her shoes" Elena reasoned.

"Yeah right" Katie replied in an almost sarcastic tone, "you don't know Valerie, she will always make time to make somebody's life miserable, she may be busy but her first priority is to disturb other people and make them feel like dust before her, I am not the only person that is dreading this return of hers. Everybody that knows her will feel for themselves as she has now returned, not only her, her circle of friends too" 

" I still think that you are being scared baselessly, I mean what could they possibly do to harm us, my whole body is insured thanks to you and I am sure yours is as well, so they cannot physically harm us, emotionally, what do they have over us that could possibly make us scared, absolutely nothing, so that is that, they don't know any of our secrets and will not be exposed to them in the nearest future, so that is checked out, what could they possibly do to us" Elena tried to lift the depressing countenance with her reasoning but she only got a dampening reply from Katie.

"You do not understand, you will come to understand soon enough what I am going on about, there are many different ways that they can come up with to make our lives hell, we just have to hope that they find another target and leave us be" Katie grimaced.

" This sounds so stupid, they sounds like some fucking high school bullys, look Katie, you don't need to worry, Lorenzo chose you to be my assistant and manager, he must not have been oblivious to his sister's habits and the relationship you two share, how was properly informed, so to speak, so don't fret, he has everything under control." Elena did not back down, but Katie also persevered in her pessimism.

"Everything seems so simple to you, I can only pray that what you are saying is right. Because if not, then we both are dead meat in the hands of Valerie and her gang" Katie replied.

" Of course I am right, I am hardly ever wrong, do not doubt me, let me rephrase that, do not doubt your boss, he would not just throw us in the middle of the ocean, you are the one that defended him earlier are you not?"

" Yeah whatever." Katie smiled, finally letting go of her pessimistic views.

"That's better."  Elena motivated.

"You know what Elena, I still feel like we have a lot coming our way, but I am prepared to help you walk through all the obstacles, hand in hand. The boss had put us together to walk hand in hand until we reach the top, no Valerie nor her gang can stop us, let them try, we will be ready." Katie had regained her vigor and enthusiasm.

There was a moment of silence.

"You said you were doing some touch ups, but it looks to me like you are just here worrying about non existent problems, let's go out and get some treats, that will ease the worries on your mind, I know a place that serves completely healthy desserts." Elena suggested, breaking the prevailing silence.

" Fine, let's go, there is no point in staying here anyway" Katie agreed.

" cool"

  They left they office hand in hand only to come face to face with a woman, a tall beautiful, hot lady, she was really gifted with the right body parts and she knew how to dress to show case her natural gifts. 

"Hey abomination, have you told your little changeling over here how disgusting you are" The woman taunted.

"Not now please, just buzz off Valerie" Katie pleaded, tugging at me, to get out of the building.

" Hey you changeling, don't let her fool you, she is an abomination" she addressed Elena, who let herself be dragged away by Katie out of the building.

Valerie let out a hearty laugh, her breasts bobbing up and down alluringly, drawing the eyes of passing men and clearly enjoying the attention.

Outside Katie breathed a sigh, and Elena began speaking.

" well, I guess there is no need to lay low, we have already been spotted." Elena stated a fact

" Right" Katie replied, she still looked visibly scared and shaken.

" Now, I don't believe anymore that there is no bad blood between you too" Elena looked at Katie quizzically.

" you know what, let's ditch that healthy restaurant, let's eat some junk food right now, screw the rules, I feel like shit right now" Katie confessed.

" Well, we can start by you telling me what that was about. " I will, not now, let's just get away for now" Katie responded.

 With that they drove off without a care in the world. 

Author's Note:

Hey guys, your daily update came early today 🎊, I hope you enjoyed this one as well. As you can see now, the chapters are longer and I am trying to make this book more engaging, please drop a polite review for this book🥺🥺🥺 it would make me so happy, I know you guys will do it for me, thank you again for reading this book, y'all are the absolute best 😘🥰🥰.  Follow me on Twitter too  @cancerzodiac9 . See you in tomorrow's update 😘 😘🥰.