Chapter Four

Sidney called her mother as soon as she got back to Queensbury, and she heard the message she left for her in the machine.

Her mother had left her a message that she wanted her to take over her step-father’s boutique that was in Queensbury.

Who left that kind of message on a voice mail? Why would she even think she would be interested in taking over his business? 

When her mother picked up, she refused the offer outright. Her pride and thoughts of her father wouldn’t even allow her to consider the option.

Claire on the other hand knew that she would turn down the offer because she knew the kind of strong-headed woman her daughter was. Apart from that fact, she knew she would feel guilty, but what Sidney didn’t know was that her father wouldn’t have minded at all, in fact, would be proud of her.

Claire had helped her gotten her job where she worked now with so much pestering before she accepted.

Her words were that she didn’t want to be dependent or indebted to her and her new husband. 

She tried to convince her but Sidney was adamant about accepting the offer. It was the last time she would allow her mother to meddle with her life.

After Sidney dropped the receiver, she picked her jacket and her bag and headed to work. A few minutes later, she pulled into her space in the company’s garage. 

Williams manufacturing company deals in wine and fruit juice, and she worked as the head of the human resources department of the company. It was located on the fourth floor of the building.

Walking briskly towards the elevator, she entered and pressed the button to the fourth floor.

The door opened, and she stepped out into the wide receptionist's office and walked her way into her office. 

Before she left her office the week before, she had left some work undone, so it was the first thing she attended to. 

“Good morning, Sid.” 

Sidney didn’t have to look up before she knew who just popped into her office. There was only one person that referred to her as Sid. It was her poky head girlfriend that worked in the next office. 

She looked up from the paperwork she was working on with a leveled smile. “Good morning, Val.” She said. 

Valerie Madison had been her colleague and best friend ever since she could remember. She had always loved to poke her nose into Sidney’s business, and Sidney loved her that way. She was friendly and generous.

With Val’s friendliness to lean back on, she found herself feeling more cheerful at work every day. 

“We are having a meeting at nine o’clock this morning with some company that produced wine too. They were bankrupted, but it was recently bought by a company that pulled it down and rebuilt it from scratch, so the new buyer wanted to give them the contract of working as the producing partners of their wines.” 

It was the first time she heard about a meeting like that. “And what company bought this wine company you talked about?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Today is the first day I heard about the deal.” She replied.

Sidney nodded. “Okay, I’ll be there soon.” She said.

Valerie nodded and said. “And you have to tell me if you did anything exciting this weekend.” She winked and danced playfully. 

“Get going, Val. I have so much work to do, and I still have thirty minutes.” She said, avoiding what she said before.

If only she knew how true that was. Her weekend wasn’t only interesting, but also fun with the most handsome man she had ever seen. 

Valerie laughed. “See you at the boardroom.” She said and backed out of her office. 

Thirty minutes later, Sidney walked into the boardroom with a smile on her face. She winked at Valerie, as she walked past her.

She stared around at the people that were in the boardroom, and she spotted a man, seated at the end of the long table. 

Bradley Humphrey!

Her eyes widened in surprise, but she quickly changed the expression on her face before anyone else noticed. 

She was beyond surprised that he was here.

His company doesn’t deal in the winery business so what could he be doing here? Well, she would find out pretty soon. 

As the meeting commenced, she got to know that he was the one that bought Connors and rebuilt it from scratch.

That explained why he was in the meeting.  But why didn’t he mentioned it to her before now?

Well, they never talked about his business and that wasn’t the first thing to tell a stranger you don’t know. 

Throughout the meeting, he kept staring at her, and she just couldn’t decipher what was on his expression. His expression was blank but the fire that burned in his eyes told Sidney that he was feeling something. 

His gaze never left her for once, even when she kept avoiding his eyes, and she could tell by the scorching heat she felt on her skin, and the butterfly she felt in her stomach.

After two hours of torture straight out, the meeting ended and she quickly stood up picked the files, and rushed out of the boardroom, but the way she rushed out didn’t go unnoticed by Valerie. 

She picked up her jacket, she followed Sidney out of the boardroom into her office. “What’s going on Sid?” she asked as she sat down on her desk. “You look flushed.” 

Head down and shoulder sagged, Sidney went to the window and opened the blind. “It’s nothing. I’m okay.” 

“Don’t gimme that crap, you don’t even look fine.” 

Sidney sighed, and told her about her weekend in the cabin, and the boardroom. 

Valerie listened as she narrated everything, and judged that her friend, after many years of suffering heartbreak at the hands of her ex-boyfriend was finally falling in love. 

“And according to the look in your eyes, you’re falling in love with him, right?” 

The look Sidney gave Valerie could make the room temperature go down ten degrees.

“Okay, but I think you already love him,” Valarie said.

“How can I meet someone for the first time, stay with him for almost two days, and just love him already?” 

Valerie shrugged. “Love at first sight, obviously,” Valerie said. 

“I’m not in love with him.” She sid as if trying to convince herself, rather than Valerie. 

Valerie decided to let it slid. She had work to go back to, and she didn’t want to pursue the subject with Sidney right now.

She agreed with her with a nod and told her they would discuss it later.

When Valerie left, Sidney sighed. She knew Valerie was right, she was falling in love, if not already in love with him but that was where the problem was.

She wasn’t ready for that kind of thing, not after what Rob had done to her in the past.

He had promised her marriage after two years of their relationship when she went to his apartment one night to surprise him and cook for him, but she ended up being the one surprised. 

She met him in his kitchen with a woman’s head buried on his lap, giving him a blowjob. So much for love. She had given her everything; her love, affection, and care, even respect, but it wasn’t enough. It was never enough in all her relationships. What she couldn’t give was what they all wanted.

The sex!

She didn’t think abstinence was a sin, as in fact, it was her choice, the choice he said he was okay with when they started dating.

Since Rob, Sidney had locked her heart and threw the keys in the sea, somewhere far away. 

Falling in love now came as a surprise, because she wasn’t expecting the feeling two years ahead.

She would try as much as she could to avoid seeing him in the future, that was the only possible way to resist the feeling she had for him and all the things she felt every time he was in a room with her.