In The Car

Chapter 45

In The Car.

Lyla Atelo.

"Get In the car, Lyla." Sage's voice came in a little stronger this time as he looked over my shoulders. "Unless you want your colleagues to keep speculating that something is going on between us."

Our eyes met when he said that, and I paused to think. Did he also have in mind the same question I had? I wanted to ask if there was actually something going on between us, but I didn't dare voice my question out. I didn't want to sound desperate, but still... something that Michelle said earlier egged me at the back of my mind.

"What do you think about Ivy?" I averted my gaze from his face and looked down to the tarred road. I looked everywhere else but at him. "Is it true you're into older women, and I'm just one of your conquest?"

I suddenly felt the cold night wind hit my skin, and I looked up in alarm to see Sage backing away from him. He stared at me with an emotion I couldn't decipher before spinning his car key between his thumb and index finger.

"Older women?" He scoffed. "How old are you? Twenty four? You consider that old?"

"Ivy should be up to thirty five..." I shot back.

"So? What does that have to do with anything?"

"You're avoiding my question!"

"And why would you ask me such a question? Why does it concern you?"

He was right. Why did such a question concern me?

"Mr. Dominic, are you heading home?" I felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured over me as I heard Ivy's voice... just when I had been gossiping about her.

Why was she still here? I thought they had all left for home, and I was the only person in school.

"Miss Ivy." Sage gave a small smile. "Will you like to join me? I wouldn't mind dropping you off. At least I know we are going the same way."

He smiled! At another woman! Sage who was all cold, closed off, and mostly angry at everything and everyone was smiling at Ivy and asking to give her a ride home. I felt stupid. Why did I think I was special in any way? What if Michelle was right, and he really liked older women and that was why he treated them well. I was overthinking his niceness.

I snorted and hid my disappointment. "Hello, Ivy. I'll be on my way home. Good night, Mr. Dominic."

I turned on my heels when his cold voice stopped me. "Did I dismiss you, Lyla?"

Huh? Dismiss me? Who did he think he was to dismiss me?

I bit my lower lips hard to keep me from overreacting. "I'm sorry?" I inched closer to him, cocking my head to the side.

His eyes darkened even further. "I said I never dismissed you. Now, get into the car and stop with your tantrums." He turned away from me and began to lead Ivy towards the front seat of his car. He opened the door for her, bent low to smoothen her hair, holding her purse as she entered the car.

I stood there, watching. Trying to make sense of what he was doing. Was he trying to humiliate me? After he closed the door, he turned to me, surprised that I was still standing where he had left me.

"Aren't you coming?" He raised a brow in questioning and he opened the passenger's door for me. "You'll have to walk miles and miles away from the school before you can find a cab, plus you know that cabs aren't allowed inside the school. So, how are you going to go home? Your car isn't here, and I'm the only one around that can offer you a ride. What do you say?"

He made me stuck here! He knew I would have no choice but to follow him in his car. Everything he said was true. By the time I get home, it will be around the weekend hours of the morning. I could call my husband, but I wouldn't count on him to come pick me up. I doubt that he would do that, especially with the distance.

I had to make a fast choice, and I chose to enter Sage's car. I was helpless against his antics, and he was smarter than I was, and he knew that.

"Relax, Lyla. What he is doing is for your own good." Ivy said from the front seat after the door was closed, and Sage was turning around the car to enter the driver's seat.

"My good?" I scoffed. "Yeah, right."

"He spoke with me about it earlier, and he is trying really hard to protect you. I don't know why you don't see it, not why you can't tell how lucky you are that he favours you."

"Ivy, if you want to mock me..."

"Can you just calm down and think about why he's doing this?" She cut me off harshly.

"Isn't it because he likes you? He's into older women? He's trying to embarrass me in front of everyone!" I told her indignantly.

From the rearview mirror, I could see her reflection. Her lips twisted into an ugly smile as she shook her head. "Did You notice anything when he bent low to smoothen my hair?"

What was she trying to do? Get me more jealous?

I folded my arms across my chest and leaned back into the seat, watching as Sage slid into the car, turning the ignition on.

"Did you notice it?" He asked Ivy the minute he began driving out of the school's compound. "Which angle did it come from?"

"The admin block. I saw it. The flash was clear as day." Ivy responded, while I sat at the back feeling left out of the conversation.

"Which part of the admin block?"

"The principal's wing, of course." Ivy concurred. "Someone was obviously taking the pictures from there."

My blood ran cold on the statement she made. Pictures. That was it? He was using Ivy as bait to catch who took the pictures and videos of us last time? And here I was throwing tantrums like a little child when Ivy was right all along.

I covered my face in shame, bending my head low.

"Is everything alright, Lyla?" I heard Sage's worried tone, and I felt worse than I was already feeling.

"I'm fine." I muttered with the best voice I could muster. "I just need some air."

Ten minutes later, Ivy was dropped off to find a cab, and something strange happened. Sage left the steering wheel of the car, and the driver's seat turned inward to face me. I looked out of the window in alarm, but calmed when I saw the car was driving itself and now it was just Sage and I in the car. Alone.