12 New connection

Jenna's POV

After I went to the bathroom to clean myself, I prepared Henry a vegetable soup to help with the flu. I put the dish on a tray, went upstairs and into his office. I found him sitting at his desk, focusing on the three monitors positioned on next to another in an almost straight line.

"The soup is ready!" I said placing the plate in front of him. He nodded and I was about to go, but I stopped when I heard his voice.

"Tell me about your family!" he demanded, fixing on me with his eyes while leaning comfortable in the leather chair.

"Why this sudden interest?" I asked, puzzled by his request. In the past he made it pretty clear that he didn't want to know anything about my personal life. Honestly, I preferred to keep it that way. He shrugged, lightly swaying on the chair.

"Call it a revelation. I want to know more about Jenna Mills." he said with a coy smile that revealed his prefect teeth, unwillingly making me blush. I stood next to the door, praying for something to happen that would save me from the torture of storytelling, but of course, as usual, nothing goes well for Jenna.

"It's not much to tell, honestly..." I said hoping he will let it go. The worst part was Henry never let anything go until he was satisfied with the result.

"You said you had a brother and he died. You can start with that." he added pointing to the chair facing him.

"I don't have time for this, I have to go and clean the house, you had a party last night, remember? "I asked grabbing the doorknob.

"If you are going to leave this room in the next 10 minutes, I'm going to come for you, find you and sneeze in your face...again." he said firmly, but even if his voice was authoritarian, I could distinguish a spark of amusement in his eyes as they watched me attentively.

"Fine!" I said irked. I took a sit in front of him and noticed the pride in his eyes that were now a little teary. I got back a couple of inches just in case he was about to sneeze again. "My brother and I were orphans since I were 10 years old. As an older brother, he tried to protect me the best he could. We were adopted by some fucked up families and stayed in the system for 3 years until my brother became an adult and soon after we managed to move together." I stopped, being invaded by all sort of memories, good and bad starting from moving together for the first time to his gambling addiction and endless white nights of searching for him, thinking the worse. I hesitated and he noticed.

"Go on!" he urged. I sighed, trying to gather my thoughts. After a few seconds passed, I continued.

"After that point, he became my legal guardian and for the first time in my life I felt happy that I belonged somewhere, I could finally be free to pursue my dreams, fall in love, have a family..." A faded smile appeared on my face, but it felt bitter knowing what followed after.

"Ok, this looks like a promising start. What happened then? Did you fell in love and didn't go as planned?" he asked smirking. I wished I could wipe that smile off his sadistic face, but I knew there was no point in trying, instead I got up and went towards the door irritated.

"I will not tell you anything anymore. You're an ass! You're asking me to open myself to you but all you do is mock and bully me every time!" I burse at him feeling my eyes filling with tears. His expression changed abruptly from 0 to 100 in a couple of seconds. The grin he had moments ago disappeared and for a second I thought it was going to be replaced by fury and hate, instead he looked worried.

"Wait! I'm sorry...You're right. I am an ass. I didn't mean to upset you." he said softly. I see his chest pulling air rapidly and his eyes closing quickly. "Achoo!" he sneezed loudly like usual, the sound resonating in the entire room followed by blowing his nose which was much worse. "Please continue! I want to know what happened." he stated, but before I could open my mouth and tell him I'm leaving, a higher power made it possible. His phone rang and I knew that was my queue to get out of his office instantly. Without saying anything, I left and went downstairs and into the kitchen, spiritually prepared for the general cleanup. After a couple of minutes wiping the dust off the living room furniture, I heard the door bell and went to the door. As soon as I opened it, Mark's excited face popped in, pulling me into a strong hug after which he moved his eyes on my body, a coy smirk appearing on his face.

"Beautiful Jenna, it's so glad to see you again!"

"Same here, Mark. Come in!" I said politely. He entered the house and measured the place as in search for someone.

"Is Strauss home?"

"Yes, he's in his office, but I warn you he's contagious." I followed with a cheeky smile. His eyes went wide open at the hearing of the news.

"How so? What happened to him?"

"He has a flu since this morning." I replied and saw his eyebrows frowning, glaring at the stairs as if thinking twice about going up to him.

"Listen to me carefully, Jenna!", he said" ...whatever you do, don't get close to him cause his flu is mutating somehow." I burst into laughter, not because of what he told me, but because how he did it. He slowly got closer to me, his face only inches away from mine goggling into my eyes with a certain uneasiness while he told me the news. His face was serious though, so I puckered my lips trying to control my temper.

"I think it's already too late for me, I'm tainted..." I said trying to maintain a poker face for the sake of the discussion. He took two steps back as if I was a leper and raised his hands defensively.

"Well, I'm going in! Wish me luck!" he told me and began walking up the stairs to see Henry. Meanwhile, I had to do laundry, therefore I went to Henry's room the take the basket with dirty clothes followed by mine as well and separate them based on color. As I was searching the pockets of the jeans I wore the other night when I served the guests, I stumbled upon Phill's business card. Curiosity made me take a look and I was surprised to see he was actually Henry's lawyer, owning a couple of successful bars in the city center. I heard about "Johnsons' Prestige" being one of the best lawyers' companies, but I never thought the man was actually the owner. Thinking I had a lot a spare time today and craving for a breather, I dialed the number as soon as I finished with the washing machine, drying of the clothes and arranging them. After three rings, he answered:

"Hello! This is Phill Johnson? To whom do I have the pleasure?" he inquired amicably.

"Hi Phill! This is Jenna..." I made a short pause to wait and see if the man remembers me or not. Fortunately, not only did he remembered me, but he got excited hearing my name and immediately replied:

"Jenna, I'm so glad you called. I was just going to grab something to eat. Would you like to join me?" he asked and I didn't hesitate to answer.

"That would be great! Can you come and pick me up? "

"Sure thing! I'll come by in about 10 minutes. You're at Henry's place now, right?"

"Yes."

"See you later!" he followed and, as soon as he hanged up, I quickly changed into a loose v neck black pullover and a pair of dark blue skinny jeans. I raised my hair in a bun but I didn't opt for a make-up as I considered my face looked better without it. After a last glance in the big mirror on the living room wall, I smiled, satisfied of my appearance. I went upstairs to let Henry know I will be going out for a couple of hours, instead I found the two men brawling like some teenagers.

"What the fuck?" I mumbled, more to myself, watching petrified the scene as Henry had one arm around Mark's neck, holding him tightly while the other was clenched in a fist, squashing his head frenetically and asking:

"Who's my little bitch?"

The other man was struggling to release himself from Henry's grip, ultimately kicking him in the stomach which had an immediate effect. Henry's hands immediately moved to his abs while he moaned, lightly bent over from the hit he just received.

"YOU are a little bitch and I just kicked your sickly ass!" Mark shouted pointing the index finger at him confidently, after which he made a small victory dance.

I cleared my throat, trying to capture their attention. They looked stunned once their faces turned to me, their mouths dropped open and for a couple of seconds there was an awkward silence. Finally, the two men gather themselves and straightened their backs, looking haughtily but their eyes seemed to avoid me. Henry grabbed his robe which from the floor, probably during their fight while Mark broke the ice.

"Jenna, I didn't see you there. We were just discussing some pr..."

"I don't want to know the details!" I said raising my hand to stop him. "I will be gone for an hour or so. Are you going to be ok without me?" I asked Henry.

"Yeah." he said indifferently without glancing at me and I walked out, leaving the two men to their business.

While I was walking down the stairs, Phill called to let me know he arrived. I went out the door and passed through the large courtyard to get to his car parked on the other side of the tall fence. He was waiting for me with a big grin on his face, leaning from the side of the car and opening the door for me to get in. As soon as I was in the vehicle, he rapidly made his way to the driver's seat and pushed the pedal to the metal, flaming the tires. I yelped at the sound of screeching tires which made him reduce the speed considerably.

"I'm sorry Jenna, I got carried away!" he pleaded.

"No worries! I guess you want to get rid of me as fast as possible..." I said with monotonous tone in an attempt to tease him. He didn't seem to get the joke, instead my words disturbed him as he turned his head to face me while we stopped to a red traffic light, nervousness written all over his face:

"Jenna, I don't want to get rid of you...I was actually looking forward to this moment... I blew it..." he said mostly to himself, disappointed that the entire moment backfired. I giggled, amused by his stammer and the fact that he took my words seriously.

"Do you always take things seriously?" I asked and saw the corner of his lips raising. He looked so handsome, smiling playfully while focusing on the road ahead.

"Usually when there's a beautiful woman next to me, I get intimidated." he answered amused. "You look beautiful by the way." he added flirtatiously which made me turn my head to the opposite side, trying to hide from him the smile blooming on my face.

"Thank you! You don't look bad yourself." I followed on the same tone and he chuckled.

Shortly, we walked in a restaurant with a futuristic design that offered you an instant feeling of coziness, where people were eating and socializing. It had short wide black tables with soft red bean bags that were a vibrant delight to the eye in contrast with the black and white wallpaper filled with abstract shapes which gave it a modern appearance. At the entrance there was a bar where a short stature man in his 40's with grey hair and moustache was preparing drinks, and at the end of the room a big all-you-can-eat buffet filled with various dishes that looked mouth-watering and smelled amazing.

We sat at a table for two, close to the entrance being greeted soon after by a petite blonde girl with green eyes and a big smile on her face. After we ordered two cokes and decided the buffet is a must-try, we grabbed two plates and, I for one grabbed a little bit of everything, enjoying the variety. Phill had a steak with some salad and mushrooms on the side and seeing me going bananas, he chuckled.

"Well, you sure have a big appetite for someone so small as yourself. Where does it all go?"

"You don't want to know..." I said and we both chortled while returning to our table.

"I really like you, Jenna. You're a breath of fresh air!" he told me between bites.

"Thanks, Phill you're so sweet. How come you're not doing this with your girlfriend?" I asked innocently, testing the waters.

"Oh, no! Unfortunately, I didn't find a woman that could put up with my schedule. Only Henry's company takes half of my time, plus clients, court hearings, contracts...I am a very busy man unfortunately." he said pressing his lips and crinkling his eyes and I couldn't help but feel sorry for the man. After another hour spent talking about our past and possible future, he walked me back home, and since we both enjoyed the so called "date", we decided for another one, same day, same hour.

Going inside the house, I noticed Henry sitting on the sofa with a grimace, pretending he doesn't see me as he was browsing the channels quickly.

"Hi! Are you ok?" I asked knowing something happened while I was gone. For a moment, I thought his brawl with Mark transformed into an actual fight, so I waited patiently for an answer. He stood up, facing me emotionless, placing his hands in his robe pockets while approaching me slowly.

"Where were you?" he inquired or better said, demanded to know.

"With a friend to grab something to eat..." I answered blandly.

"Well, that's interesting..." he sneered and added" ...because I didn't remember Johnson as being one of your friends."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that I think you two lovebirds have too much time to spare and I thought of changing that."

"I don't think it's your problem who are we spending time with as long as things get done." I said defensively and I could see small veins swelling up the temple area as if treating to blow up at any second.

His nostrils were flaring and I took a step back as I knew his temper too well and the fact that he might blow up at any minute. Instead, he just went upstairs without saying another word and I knew in that moment things were about to change.