12

CHAPTER 12

LUCIANA MILANO

The day at the office goes by quicker than I thought. Ares was busy signing documents and attending meetings whilst I was making appointments and receiving calls for Ares. Thingd have being clam between, not once we mentioned that night an  I don't know whether he still remembers it but I still catch his stares when he thinks I'm too busy to even recognize it. Apart from work I know nothing about and vise versa, it's better if we just keep this professional.

Ophelia had mentioned her new friends Merida and Matteo who I guess is related to aares since that's what Lynn told me that day. My heart soars for my babygirl because she's a bit like me, quiet and reserved, she finds it hard making friends and now that she have two friends who she can not stop talking about I can't help but be happy for her. I haven't seen Ares at school nor have he mentioned his niece and nephew to me, like I said he doesn't discuss his personal life with me, eveything is professional at work. 

The past couple weeks Lynn has been busy with her modeling shoots so I had to take my breaks to fetch Olly from school and then drop her off at my parents till I finish work. It just feel as if I'm not spending enough time with her but I'm doing this for her future. I need her to be successful and an independent woman so she doesn't have to rely on a man for anything. 

She's already growing up so fast, I noticed that she stopped asking about her dad all the time and she's more productive with her homework which consist of mostly drawings, last night we had a paining spree, I brought home a huge white canvas and we went wild with it but of course Ophelia being a little baby she is, had to go and mess up my white carpet with red paint, when she noticed what she did she started crying and apologizing but she's a kid and kids do that so I told her it was okay and then we wrapped eveything up and we just watched movies till we both fell off to sleep on my bed. 

"Miss Milano?" a voice calls me in quickly snapped my head up to look at Ares who is now staring at me with an expression I can't tell. "yes" I answered back and he cleared his throat as he woke up from his chair and made his way towards my table. He leaned against it as I looked up at him from my eyelashes. How is he so perfect? How is eveything about him perfect? He have the perfect job, the perfect life, just eveything. 

"Not Everything is perfect about me Miss Milano" he says staring at me and my eyes l widen when I realised I said that out loud. " no no I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that it's just I was thinking and-" a soft chuckle stopped my awful rant and put my head down in embarrassment, I always get nervous around him and start blubbering stuff out. 

" it's okay" he says as he taps the book that's on my table, I watch the way his fingers move on the book and I admire the veins on his hands since he have this shirt rolled up a bit during the course of the day and oh don't get me started in those black and silver rings he have on his long fingers. 

"are you okay?" he says once again with a smirk on his lips, shit he caught me staring at him, just be cool Luciana. " yes, why do you ask?" I reply back and he shrugged his shoulders. " you seem like you are lost in another world" he says and I lean toward and places my hands under my chin as I look at him " care to join me in that world?" I asked playfully and I watched how his eyes darken slightly as he looked into my eyes and then trailed them down stopping at my chest, I looked down and saw that since I was leaving toward my cleavage was showing alot.

Goosebumps appeared on my skin as I continued staring at him as he kept his eye contact on my cleavage, my breathing picked up just as his stucked out his tongue to lick his bottom lip just as  a knock on the door brought us back into this reality we are living in. Ares quickly stood up straight and adjusted his tie as he look at the person standing next to the ajar door. The same young blonde hair guy from the last time peaked his head into the room. " did I interrupt anything" he says with a smirk on his face as he stares back and forth at Ares and I. Ares looks back at me with the same lustful eyes and back at his friend " no you wasn't" he says as he makes his way towards his friend who now made himself comfortable on the single couch Ares placed in his office. 

"are you sure? I felt like I was interrupting you" he jokes and my cheeks redden. " aw she's blushing, what's your name cutie" he asks and before I can answer him back Ares beats me to it. " Maddox, this is Luciana Milano, but assistant" he starts off and then he turns to me " Luciana, this is Maddox my annoying best friend" he finishes off and Maddox chuckles " he is right, I am the annoying best friend and it nice to finally meet the girl who ran out on my boy" he says and I almost choke on my spit. What did he just say? 

"Maddox" Ares warns and I look at them both dumbfounded. "what? I'm just saying it's nice to meet her" he says with a shrug. I let out a breathe I didn't know I was holding and looked up to meet Ares's stare. I guess he was staring at me all this time during this awkward conversation. "can you please stop this Maddox you are literally traumatizing my employee" Ares says with a eye roll as he seats down next to Maddox. "just mind my friend, he is always like this with no fliter in that mouth of his" Ares says as he slaps Maddox's head playfully. I give me a nod as I smile, Maddox is your typically playboy, he is 6 foot something not too tall like Ares, he have these striking blue crystal eyes with messy blonde hair and by the way he carries out himself I'm sure he gets alot of girls. He reminds me of my own best friend Lynn. I'm sure they both would get along well. " it's okay, I also have a best friend who have no fliter what's so ever" I say and they both nod  their heads at me. "blondie right" Maddox say with his full attention, I smile as I nod my head " yeah Lynn" I say. " I last saw her at the party and then she just disappeared like you Cinderella" Maddox say and I laugh. " Cinderella?" I repeat and he smirks " yes, remember how Cinderella met the prince at the Ball and then they danced and she ran away and never returned" he says and my eyes widened at his description " well she had to leave because the clock striked 12 and if her step mother found out she would have being dead" I reply, both him and Ares look at me as if I just grew two heads. 

 " Is that why you left?" Ares ask, his full attention now on me. I swallowed as I took in a deep breathe. I didn't leave because of the kiss, I left because I was scared and I was drunk. If I didn't leave that night I probably wouldn't have had my precious baby with me and I would be alone. I shake my head " ah no" I whisper, the air around us seem to suffocate me. I felt like I was getting squeezed into this tiny compartment and I had no room to breathe, I could feel my heart racing just thinking about that kiss we shared all those years ago, I could still remember how he tasted, how good he smelt and how soft and delicious his lips was and- a throat cleared and when I looked at Maddox he was smirking at both Ares and I, Ares was silent the entire time just staring at me. I couldn't avoid his glaze, it was burning me inside out. It was obvious what Ares and I was thinking because his eyes Darken again for the second time today. 

" so bro what time are you leaving work?" Maddox say trying to lift the awkward cloud that was around us. Ares breaks his eye contact as he looks back at his best friend " ah around 4 maybe" he says and Maddox looks at his Rolex watch on his left wrist " broo that's like couple more hours, I thought you have to go and fetch Amelia from her house" he says and my mood just falls like that. Of course Ares isn't single. He is one of the hottest and youngest bachelor in the city and of course he have girls falling for him in every direction and of course he have a girlfriend.  

" yeah i forgot about that" Ares says out as he wakes up from his seat and walk towards his table. " I will probably leave early since I'm almost done with all these paperwork and plus my meetings are over" he continues as he looks down at me " if you done with your work early you can leave, just lock up the door and keep the keys" he tells me and I nod my head. Looks like luck was on my side because I'm almost done with work and I also promised Ophelia dinner outside our apartment so I'm taking her to McDonald's since she's been hondering me for chicken nuggets and the happy meal because apparently there's some new toy there and eveyone at her school has it so she wants it. 

"yeah sure, I'm almost done with work as well and thank you, I actually promised someone dinner so I wanted to ask you before if I could leave early once my work is completed" I say and his entire expression changed, he looks at me for a couple of seconds and then he nods his head without saying much.  I stand next to my table awkwardly waiting for him to do or anything but all he does is just neaten his table and grab his bag. He walks pass me giving me a nod and walks out his door leaving Maddox and I standing there wondering what just happened. 

"don't worry about him, his moods always changes, sometimes I think he experiences female mood swings" he says as he gives me a wink and I let out a small laugh. " it was a pleasure finally meeting you Luciana, I heard alot good things about you" he says as he walks out of the door leaving me standing alone thinking what the hell just happened.