3 She's Not Her

—Alexander Harris's POV— 

"Mr. Williams sent his daughter to negotiate the deal with you, didn't he?" Lexington Durfort, my best friend and my ex-future cousin-in-law (as he liked to tease), said as I took a drag at my cigarette. 

"He sent his daughter to negotiate with my team," I answered, shaking my head. 

The woman was obnoxious, to say the least, always asking my team when I would meet with her.

"She's pretty," Lex said, his smile not quite reaching his eyes. 

"She's not—" I stop myself before telling him something I would surely regret. 

"She's not her?" he completed my statement giving me a knowing smile.

Her, his cousin, the woman that after all these years I couldn't get out of my mind. 

I was about to rebut and say we ended things before she even married that cunt, when his phone began to ring and he gave it a curious look.

"This is important," he said, with a more serious tone, clearing his throat as he lifted it to his ear.

I simply nodded, knowing that there was very little that Lex treated so seriously or allowed to interrupt our weekly lunch meeting.

"Well, this is a call I didn't want to get," his tone suddenly shifted to a playful one, drawing my attention. "I'm guessing Grandpa won this bet, it hasn't been five years."

I froze in my seat, eyes wide as I heard him say those words.

There was only one person in the entire world who could be at the other end of that call with him.

Blonde hair, green eyes, fragments of images of her raced through my mind, consuming my every thought.

"Of course, I knew that," he said, nonchalantly, but I know Lex well enough to be aware that he was fighting to keep calm, just as I was fighting the urge to take that fucking phone from him and talk to her. 

Just the thought of hearing her voice again made something shift within me, love? Hope? Obsession?

"No, just catching up with an old friend, so what can I do for you, Lilith?" he drew out her name, making sure that there was no doubt in my mind who he was speaking to.

Lilith Durfort, the only woman who I would ever let close to me. My ex-fiance, hopefully, this call meant she was my fiance again.

There was a long pause I as I drowned in my memories of her, only brought back to the present when he spoke again, "Maybe I could pick you up?"

She was coming home?

I arched an eyebrow at him, asking him for more information. 

"Sure, I hope you don't mind if a friend tags along?" he declared, smiling at me comically like a Cheshire cat.

I waited patiently to hear what she was going to say. Would she agree to let someone from her past see her?

Was it even a smart decision to let Lex drag me along to pick my Lili up?

Fuck, I needed to stop thinking of her that way. Four years and I still wasn't over her.

"Oh yes, someone you trust," his gaze met mine as I glared at him. I definitely was not someone she trusted, at least not anymore.

"Perfect," he said smiling like the closed the biggest damn deal in the world and I was certain this was better than that. "Welcome back cousin, I'm sure the Durfort family is glad to have you back."

"Anything for you, cousin," he said as he finally ended the call, smiling at me.

"What?" I asked, glaring at him, schooling my expression, but I knew it was too late.

Through out that entire call he had with Lilith I had not hidden what I was feeling. 

He knew there was a past between me and Lilith, one beyond the arrangements of our family, but he never asked for the details, he just knew.

"I hope you don't mind the intrusion," he said, knowing that I fucking didn't.

"I was going to Durfort Manor to speak with your Grandfather anyway," I said, brushing off the little side trip he was planning. 

"Right, you haven't stepped into that manor since she left," he chuckled.

Fuck him.

"You know, you could always just say you want to see her, to make sure she's safe, I'm sure that would lessen the drama," he chuckled.

"It's not that fucking easy and you know it," I grumbled as I took another drag at my cigarette.

"You know she never liked that habit of yours," he pointed out.

"And I fucking care, why?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Because it's her and I'm sure you care, now put that out and spray some of that manly perfume she likes," he teased me as he waved a waiter over to pay for our bill.

"I got it," I said, signaling his assistant to settle the bill. "Let's go, we're taking your car."

He laughed and shook his head as we got up and walked out of the restaurant I owned. 

As we sat silently in his car nearing the location Lilith had given, Lexington looked up at me, his eyes clearly full of worry.

I raised an eyebrow, asking him what was wrong.

"Do you think she'll be happy to see us?" he asked.

"She called you," I said with a shrug. "She'll be happy to see you at the very least."

"You'll be there for her, won't you?" he asked me.

"As if you ever had to ask," I said, giving him a rare kind smile.

He then took a deep breath and took out his phone, sending her a message. 

"Well, we'll find out soon enough," Lexington said as we drove through the tasteless stainless steel gates. 

What the fuck did Lilith ever see in this man?