Perfect Harmony Read Free

his
office without permission, for not telling anyone I was in the building, for being
unprofessional and for sobbing to his face.  For everything.
    But I don’t care anymore.  I’ve lost everything else that
mattered to me today - I might as well lose my job as well.
    “I see,” he says after the longest pause of my life.  I can
feel his admonishing gaze bearing down on me.  He’s certainly a tall man, and
right now I feel like a field mouse waiting to be squelched under his gigantic
shoes.  “You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”
    “What?  I don’t know who you-.”
    “-The man,” he says sharply.  “This ex of yours.  The one
you lost.”
    “Who?  Richard?”
    “If that is his name.”
    “Why would you think I’m crying over a man.”
    A sensual curve forms on his lips.  “To weep and run and not
want anyone to see you - to be afraid of what they might think if they see you
react this way.  Something that powerful and humiliating can only be over
love.”
    I let out a little laugh, but it’s sombre and full of pain.
    “I’ve just had the worst day,” I say.  “I went to the gym,
as you can see.”  I swish my hand out, as if presenting my sweatpants dressed
body to him like department store mannequin.  “I thought about losing some
weight, maybe getting fitter, but the people there...  I went home, and I don’t
know if Liz, my roommate, if she thought I was going to be out longer or at the
store or work or something, but I came back home earlier than she thought and...”
    “And?”
    “...And found her and my boyfriend.  On the sofa.  Really not
being discreet at all.”
    Chase brushes my arm with his palm.  His other hand comes to
rest on my shoulder.  “I’m very sorry.”
    Is this sympathy he’s showing me?
    It’s so unexpected.
    His hand leaves my arm and cups my cheek.  A spark thunders
from the touch of his fingertips and rushes through my body.
    I lift my head and stare deeply into his dark green eyes.  I
feel adrift in an ocean of emeralds, lost and searching for something I can’t
name but I know in my deepest thoughts is there.
    The lightning touch still pervades my body, like a whirlwind
sweeping across my skin and burning every inch with an intense heat, all the
way from my parted lips down to my nipples pebbling beneath my bra and to below
my waist.
    “I can’t understand why a man would do that to someone like
you,” he says.
    “Someone like me?”
    “A beautiful young woman,” he says, almost in surprise.
    He called me beautiful.  Me?  It must be a joke or a game
he’s playing.  You don’t live my life if you’re a beautiful woman - you live it
if you’re plain and ordinary and weathering every day until the next one
starts.
    “Now who’s lying?” I say, a note of hurt in my voice.  I
knew Chase was powerful, but I never thought he was cruel.
    He frowns.  “I am not lying.”
    “Yes, you are.  I’m not beautiful.  I’m not one those people, and I know it.  And I’m not that clever and I try to lose weight but
it’s just so hard, and for you to stand there and tell me otherwise... It’s
cruel.  And it’s patronising.  And, quite frankly, Mr. Strong, it’s
disgusting.”
    He stands over me, a face like stone.
    The lump in my throat has grown to the size of a wrecking
ball.
    I just told off my boss.  Worse, I called him names and
insinuated he was a horrible horrible person.  I am such an idiot.  No job, no
boyfriend, no best friend.
    “I’ll get my things,” I say.
    I try to turn away to leave, but his hand grabs my arm and
stops me.  He spins me around and stares down at my misery ridden face.
    “Well, aren’t you an interesting one,” he says.  “I
complement you and you resign?  I can’t say I saw that one coming.”
    Interesting .  My heart leaps for a moment, filled
with the connotations of the word: engaging, exciting, arousing curiosity.  But
then it comes crashing back down to Earth when I realise