He’s Good At Pretending

I couldn't help but leave the house feeling a bit relieved; Ethan had let me go without a fuss. Usually, if I'd cancel out on our plans, Ethan would give me the silent treatment, and he'd take it to extreme levels. If I'd cancel on him, he would ignore me all day, every day, no matter what's happening.

Yes, I could be dying, and he'd still act as I abandoned him.

As I was about to call Arden and ask him where I was heading, I noticed he had already sent me directions to the restaurant. I ended up making it there within 5 minutes—entering the restaurant; I was immediately greeted by the refreshing aroma of the many dishes that were being served.

My stomach clenches with hunger as a guy swings past me with a tray of many steaks; the smell lingers its way inside my nose and rests on my tongue, causing me to shiver in my shoes.

I vaguely searched the restaurant for Arden as I was starting to feel a bit uneasy from standing here too long until I noticed Arden sitting at a booth not too far from the entrance.

He seemed not to have noticed me as I made my way towards him. Sitting across from him, he suddenly stops his eyes from wondering and places them on me as if he found what he was looking for.

He slides his phone out of his hand and into his pocket as a boyish grin form on his lips, flashing his wholehearted dimples.

A burn begins to grow just from the nape of my neck to my cheekbones as he mouths a 'you look amazing.'

I mouth back a 'thank you,' gaining a soft chuckle from him.

He smiles at me once more before finally speaking, "Thanks for coming"

I shrug my shoulders, "it's no problem at all," I wave off, sending him a smile back.

He nods, straightening out his form against the seat before he goes to speaking again. As he continues to eye me ever so softly and send out little flirtatious laughs and compliments, he completely disregards why he brought me here.

I narrow my eyebrows as I suddenly became aware of Arden's attire. He came well dressed, almost the same as the night at the club, except he doesn't have small strands of hair hovering over his forehead and his skin appears polished since his bruises are nearly gone. Without those minor changes, he looks the same, smiling and flirting the same as if he was purposely trying to play me out to be a fool. Like he's playing some sick game.

As if he's been planning this the entire week since we had coffee together. After so, we went back to work and back to our same routines like nothing happened, me running errands while he orders me around, but since then, his whole demeanor had changed.

He'd smile at me more; he'd have me in his office doing more and more things in there that I usually didn't do, he'd fetch me himself as if it was more important than usual, he'd even give me soft smirks and lean close to me intentionally making it noticeable that he was coming onto me.

Don't get me wrong; old me wouldn't be complaining since it could be a sign I was about to get laid, but that was like one of the phases of me grieving, which only lasted up to that night.

A sudden personality change.

His similar looks in attire.

The same smooth smirk.

What did he think he'd accomplish here? Another quick fuck to satisfy his needs and then back to the same routine?

Feeling suddenly eager and annoyed by his stalling, I instantly cut him off, "Why did you want to meet me? What precisely did you want to talk about?"

I found myself quoting precisely as I felt scarcely bothered by my theory against his actions.

His gaze loosens, and his eyes shift down at the table away from me. He let out a breathy sigh then looks back up at me, but this time his look was different. It was the look of regret, pain. Like he just received terrible news and couldn't do anything about it because the bad news was ultimately his fault.

His expression didn't last long at all. Just as fast as it came, it was gone in a blink of an eye, and the odd thing about it was that I understood everything.

"I'm sorry if I made it seem like I had something important to talk about" he gives me a soft mixture of a frown and a smile before taking a sip of his cup of water a waitress had brought just a minute ago.

"I enjoyed our time together at the cafe; I wanted to have another relaxing evening and talk with you." He tried to regain himself, but I hadn't bought a second of it.

His talk hadn't seemed genuine anymore. He was stuttering all of a sudden, and his smile was undoubtedly forced.

"As I said before, Miss Evans, my grandfather occasionally took his assistants out as a thank you, that is all this is, a friendly dinner with my assistant."

I looked up at Arden in disbelief as he now tried to keep things formal when he wanted us on a first-name basis.

"I had an assistant right before you, and I kept it close with her; I wanted to have a solid friendship so things wouldn't get awkward or uncom-"

"Did you fuck her before you hired her too?"

Silence pours around us as my words echoed through the entire restaurant; I was furious that I hadn't expected my words to come out that loud, let alone come out at all. That sentence was just a thought; it was never supposed to be said.

People begin to whisper while eyeballing the two of us; I nearly forgot Arden was a businessman and was prominent in New York. Everyone knew who he was, and if they knew he was fucking his assistants, the news would follow him forever, and he would probably lose everything, but right now, I didn't care.

The water in my body was boiling, and I was ready to knock him upside the head if he denied any of my accusations.

He clenches his teeth which immediately made the veins in his neck emerge and his jawline sharpen. He gives everyone around us a death glare, and they automatically turn back to what they were doing like nothing ever happened. After these friendly conversations we shared, I had completely disregarded the fact that he still had power over many and scared almost all to death.

He looks back at me and shakes his head slowly, assuming it was a response to my question. I give him a look of disgust while folding my arms over my chest, ready to yell everything else out.

Before I get the chance to speak again, he jumps up from his seat, grabbing me by my fragile arm and dragging me out of the restaurant. He pulls me to the side of the building, entirely out of sight from anyone.

My back immediately occupying the wall, Arden towers over me with his boyish expression replaced with a powering son of the devil's glare.

His fingers are clenched into a fist as he stares down at me; I instantly fear for my life, regretting I had ever embarrassed him, but he eases my tension as he takes a step back, snatching the warmth from me and allowing the cool air to circle my body.

He runs his fingers through his hair, ruining his hairstyle as he takes a deep breath; he stares at me with his emotionless green eyes as his chest slowly rises and falls with his fingers still clenched together but slightly apart.

"What the hell were you doing back there" he finally breaks the silence raising his voice.

I wince at the demanding sound in his voice while still hovering against the wall.

"don't be foolish, Mr. West" I mock his name as he stares back at me, confused.

"Be foolish?" He raises his eyebrow loosening his grip around his fingers, "what are you talking about?"

"You, Arden"

"What-"

"I'm talking about you!" my voice increases as I confidently stand upright.

"Out of all the weeks I've worked for you, this is the week that you decide you were gonna acknowledge my presence and come onto me after you completely ignored the fact that we already had sex" My words begin to take over me as everything I've felt and built up started slipping out before my eyes.

"Then you ask me to come here tonight with this friendly bullshit so that you could fuck again like I'm some fucking joke!" I felt my face slowly begin to burn as I had let out most of my energy.

He dared to stand there and look away. I wanted to hit him in his face, but the most I could do was push forcefully, but he barely moved. He just stood there like a brick wall

Tears were beginning to form in my eyes as I felt ridiculous; why was I doing this? Why did I care so much that he didn't care? Why do I care so much that I lost my virginity as a one-night stand? I can't even remember anything, so why was I fussing so much about this?

My throat tightens as my anxiety starts kicking in, and I couldn't speak anymore; I was boiling, I wanted to say more, but nothing would come out. All I could do was watch Arden stand there speechless.

I got what I wanted to say out, but why wasn't this weight lifted from my chest already?

"Mia," Arden finally speaks after staring at me sympathetically for what seemed like hours. He reaches for me, but I immediately move away from his near touch.

"Mia, it's not like that at all. Let me explain" He reaches for me again, this time with a crack in his voice.

I shook my head and left. I left without another word. I didn't look at him. I couldn't look at him; if I did, he'd see the pain in my eyes. He'd know that it wasn't just a One Night Stand for me, that it was more to my reasoning of going there.

He'd see that he was weakening me; everything he did and the way he acted was draining me, and the feelings I have.