Chapter 294: Changes
Days had gone by and Mina was settling into her apartment with her new roommate. Emma was clean, quiet, and polite.
Although Mina was unemployed, the money she would make from renting her spare room to Emma, would help her to skirt by until she found gainful employment. Since her resignation, Oric and Cylus had been sending Mina several contracts to review, but she could not choose between them.
In truth, Mina did not see why she could not do both. Cylus wanted her to model for the jewelry line his grandmother created when she was young. The line was widely known as the company that helped Madam Rue launch Rouge Entertainment.
At the other end of the spectrum, Oric wanted Mina to act as a translator during business meetings. Although Mina would be a translator, she was fully aware that both Oric and his father planned to capitalize off her appearance.
Both positions were on call, and neither would interfere with the other, but neither man had been willing to compromise. The last email Mina sent listed out her days of availability. For Cylus, Mina was willing to make herself available Thursday through Saturday, and Monday through Wednesday for Oric. She was still waiting for a yes or no answer from either party.
Olivia was also staying with Mina, although she was a temporary guest. Mina did not mind the girl's company. They would often lay in bed chatting into the night about one thing or another, and Mina was sure Olivia enjoyed the semblance of freedom being with Mina gave her. She had stopped mentioning Peter completely, but she was a little angry that he had not returned her device. Fortunately, her older photos had been backed up; she had only lost the new ones.
One night, over cookies and ice cream that Mina had made experimentally, she asked Olivia about the rumor Zane had spread, but Olivia had not heard anything. She had already replaced her device and her number remained unchanged, but no one had contacted her.
Mina was worried, but Olivia did not care much about it. The change in how scared Olivia was had occurred slowly over the last few days, but it became noticeable after Dom spent the entire day watching movies with them. The girl hung off every word Dom spoke as if it were law, and Mina had a sinking feeling that Olivia was extremely interested in the uninterested man.
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Olivia received a text from Cylus wanting to know if he should arrange a wedding for her. When she questioned him, he told her that she was spending too much time with Mina. She knew he was jealous, and she had tried to put in a good word for her cousin several times, but Mina remained unmoved.
Each time Olivia tried to probe, Mina would just say it felt wrong, and Olivia had relayed that to her cousin. She was aware of the nasty things Cylus had said about Mina. She also knew that Mina believed apologies were shown, not given, so she pressed her cousin to continue his pursuit through actions of sincerity.
Olivia had a lot of time to get to know Mina, who was calm and sweet. She knew she would love to have Mina as a part of her family and she also believed that Cylus could benefit from a woman like Mina. As of current, the only woman Cylus had been 'seeing' was a woman named Vanya.
Although Vanya pretended she did not want a commitment from Cylus, Olivia could tell by the way she looked at Mina the night they had met, that it was a lie. Even Mina must have felt it, because as soon as she saw an opportunity, she and Vanya switched seats. Only then did both women relax.
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Finished with arranging the set she had come to work on, Olivia sent word to her cousin that she would be returning to Mina's apartment. It felt good to have a place she could hide. Somewhere Cylus didn't come to get her. Where she could unwind and just relax. The presence of Dom only made things better.
To Olivia, Dom was the total opposite of the kind of man she wanted. She wanted someone more subdued, but as the man had told her; Women should be weary of the quiet ones. Before those words, Olivia had been set on Peter. She knew that he dated many women, but now she could say with confidence that he was doing more than just dating. Had she known before, she probably would have given up her crush sooner, but she was in love with Peter's impression.
"Olivia," a shaky voice called out. Her whole body tensed, and she refused to turn around. "I just wanted to return this to you." Olivia felt a presence behind her and then saw a hand placing a cracked device, she recognized as her old phone, on the small table in front of her.
"Thanks," Olivia replied. She was grateful the man had not come to apologize. She was not sure she was ready for that yet.
Not wanting to stick around any further, Olivia finally turned around and started to leave, but the man stopped her by grabbing her wrist.
"I shouldn't have assumed," Peter said.
'You wouldn't be the first,' Olivia wanted to say, but she thought about Jay, Mina and even Emma and Dom, before she allowed the words to leave her mouth. "Somethings are easy to believe when you don't really know a person." With just enough force to make it known that she did not appreciate him touching her, Olivia removed Peters fingers from around her wrist and left. It was not the kind of closure she was expecting, but she felt great about it.
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Tavin sat in his lab scrolling through detailed reports of things he had missed during his hospitalization. Since he had been drugged at an event that could be seriously impacted by the news, he was forced to take his vacation time, instead of just informing the Lee's of his whereabouts.
As Tavin looked over all the negative impacts the drug he was researching could have in women, he could not help but to think of Harley. Even if the woman lied about being a friend of Luna's, she had helped him in his time of need, and for that he at least owed her a little acknowledgement.
Tavin had never used his familial ties to the Rue family for anything. The lines were so thin that to him, they meant nothing, but this time, he swallowed his pride and got his Uncle Charles to get him CEO Cylus Rue's contact information.
Tavin could tell that his distant cousin was surprised to hear from him. The pair never truly interacted and had met by chance when Dr. Crow pulled Tavin in on his dementia project. Cylus was not rude though, he was aware of the situation and had been working hard to figure out who the target of the spiked drink was and why. The only problem was that there was no record of a Harley at the event.
"She wore a white backless dress," Tavin said. A brief silence came over both men.
"Are you sure her name was Harley?" Cylus asked.