Chapter 8

The following morning, Ceci informed Dukia that a courier from Donovan Enterprise had arrived at the office.

Except it was not a courier.

It was Alex.

Dukia looked up from her desk to see him standing at her door, dressed in a navy suit that seemed like it was tailored just for him; which it probably was, a leather portfolio tucked casually under one arm like he hadn’t just personally delivered a document that any junior associate could have emailed.

“Mr. Donovan.” She kept her voice even, though her heart was currently running a sprint race. “I was not expecting you.”

“I was just in the area.” Alex said, stepping into her office without waiting to be invited. He closed the door behind himself. “Thought I’d deliver the finalized contract myself.”

Dukia knew it was not that simple, the man owned practically half of the city. He did not seem like someone who had the time to just be “in the area.”

He placed the portfolio on her desk and remained standing, close enough that she had to tilt her head a bit to hold his gaze.

“The contracts are signed. All three revisions approved, exactly as discussed.” Alex paused. “I could have had my assistant bring it over.”

“Yes, you could have. But you didn’t.”

“No, I didn’t.”

Dukia flipped the portfolio open, scanning the pages, not for any real need to crosscheck his work, but more for something to do with her hands. Everything was in order, of course. Alex Donovan did not make careless mistakes.

“Well thank you for delivering it personally,” she said closing the folder. “Will there be anything else?”

“Have dinner with me.”

“Mr. Donovan…”

“Alex.”

“Alex,” she corrected herself. “We’ve talked about this before.”

“Nothing stops us from seeing each other even with our business relationship Dukia and you know it.” He leaned against the edge of her desk and crossed his arms over his chest.

“I am not asking you based on our business relationship. I’m asking as a man who would like to take a woman he finds interesting out to dinner. Nothing more than that.”

He tilted his head, studying her the way he had in the conference room days ago. It left her feeling very self conscious.

Standing, she walked over towards the window, deliberately trying to put some distance between them. Below, City M moved along in its usual bustling hum, cars crawling along like ants that had someplace important to be.

“Mr…Alex, I honestly have a lot on my plate currently. I do not have the room for anything that isn’t work.”

“All work and no play Dukia.” Alex said. “In just how many days since your arrival you’ve done what many managers before you couldn’t, what not even Cox could. You work so hard, you should also find time to just relax.”

She turned to face him. “You’ve been keeping track of me?”

“I keep track of everything that interests me.” He walked towards her.

The air between them felt thinner somehow, as if charged with energy. She took a small step back before she could stop herself.

“I’m not going to chase you across a room Dukia,” he said his voice barely a whisper now. “But I would be lying if I said that I would stop asking you to dinner.”

“Why?” The question slipped out of her mouth without her even thinking it through. “Why me? You could have your pick of a thousand women in this city.”

Something shifted behind his eyes, they became softer somehow, if that was even possible.

“Because everyone I have ever met is either terrified of me or wants something from me.” He said. “But you have done neither of that since you walked into that conference room that day. You looked at me like I was just a man. Plus I have never seen a woman as difficult to read as you. I would love to get to know you. To know what goes on behind those pretty eyes of yours.”

Dukia felt the corner of her lips twitch despite all her efforts to keep it still. She righted her face quickly, but not quickly enough.

Clearing her throat she said,”I have a meeting in ten minutes.

“I won’t waste anymore of your time then, I will see myself out.” Straightening, he buttoned his jacket unhurriedly. At the door, he paused, hand on the handle. “the offer still stands. Dinner whenever you are ready.”

“I never said I would be ready.”

“You didn’t say you wouldn’t either. Have a good day Ms. Chen.”

With that he was gone, the door clicking shut behind him.

Dukia exhaled slowly, sinking back into her chair.

She pressed her palms against her eyes and groaned quietly to herself.

“Get it together Dukia.” She muttered to herself. “You have a company to run and a whole lot on your plate right now. You do not have the time for the expensive distraction that is Alex Donovan.”

Her phone buzzed on the desk, a text from this same distraction.

‘Tulip again? Or should I switch it up next time?’

Despite all her earlier pep talk, Dukia laughed out loud, the sound a contrast in her quiet office.

She didn’t reply right away. She set the phone down, the screen dimming as she tried to remember exactly when Alex Donovan had gone from an inconvenient distraction to something she looked forward to.

It hadn’t been the flowers. It hadn’t even been the call.

If she was being honest with herself, it had started that first day in the conference room when he had looked at her like she was the only person in the room worth paying attention to.

This is business, she reminded herself for what felt like the hundredth time that week. Strictly business.

She picked up her phone anyway.

‘Surprise me,’ she typed and hit the send button before she could talk herself out of it.

Three dots appeared almost immediately.

‘Careful Ms. Chen. I intend to.”

Dukia set the phone face down on the table, unable to suppress her smile this time around.

Ceci knocked and poked her head in a moment later. “Your meeting is ready Ma.”

“Thank you, I would be there shortly.”

”Ma’am are you alright? You seem… different.”

“I am fine Ceci.” Dukia stood, straightening her blazer. “Let’s get to that meeting.”

But as she walked out of her office, there was a lightness in her steps that hadn’t been there in five long years.

She wasn’t sure whether to happy for it, or afraid.