Page 24 of Heartless
Madison
Parker wanted to torment me with the small, funny smelling room in the main building and yet he didn’t know that it was bigger than my entire apartment back in New York.
The saw in the bathroom gave me pause when I first noticed it, but I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of me complaining about it. Everything he could throw at me, I would handle. That was what I had been doing for as long as I remembered. I pushed through and made the best out of everything.
It might have been a lucky coincidence that Annie Foster called at that moment of my life, but I wasn’t the one to let an opportunity like that slip through my fingers. I missed my life in New York, but I had to face the music. The bridges there were burned. Correction: I burned the bridges. And now I had to build new ones.
And Parker Wilson was all bark and no bite. I could destroy him even on his own territory. I had plenty of time to play with him before I went for the jugular. Annie and Roger’s schedules allowed them to get married in early May. Which meant months of preparations. However, there was one big problem.
Parker’s reluctance to deal with the seating arrangements issue was a red flag. His obvious emotional attachment to the gardens solved nothing. The restaurant would never fit three hundred people, so what other choice did we have except changing the gardens? Build a new restaurant? The gardens were so vast, it wouldn’t even matter that much.
I suspected it would be a struggle to convince him to accept the change, so I decided to wait for him to approach me about it, instead of forcing the topic myself. But I already had set up a get-together with an architect my father recommended. Next time Parker broached the subject, I would have a solution ready.
I was on my way to meet with said architect when I passed through the lobby and saw a box in front of the reception desk and a scowling Parker standing right next to it.
I bolted towards the box. “Finally.”
“Is this yours?” Parker asked, his voice like a whip.
“Maybe.” I scanned the surface of the box for the shipping details.
“May I suggest you keep your personal belongings in your room? This box doesn’t go well with the furniture in my lobby.”
“Do you always have to growl? I didn’t know it had arrived.” I shot a quick look behind the reception desk, and of course, found Mel there. She was behind this. She didn’t inform me on purpose, hoping that Parker, who loved his order, would get pissed.
“Mel?” Parker narrowed his eyes, expecting an answer.
“Someone ripped the shipping details off the box, sir. I didn’t know who to contact.” The smile she tried to hide hinted that she was lying. She had probably ripped the details off herself.
Something else caught my attention in their exchange. Melany’s voice. She sounded like she didn’t have enough oxygen when she addressed her boss. Our boss. And she looked at Parker as if she was a lost puppy, begging him to take her home and love her.
Yikes.
“Didn’t I mention I expected a box the day I moved in?” I asked. I remembered doing so, and she was the one on shift that day.
“Not that I recall, Ms. Hartley.”
“It’s not Melany’s job to take care of your belongings, Madison. You are not a guest here.”
By the way he defended her, it appeared that the infatuation was mutual.
Double yikes.
I hated men that slept with their subordinates. I was pretty sure it had something to do with my father’s affairs with every PA he had ever had.
Whatever the reason, I felt grossed out by those two. I wouldn’t let Mel here with the impression that she had won. “You could have moved the box in the back, instead of inconveniencing our guests by leaving it in the middle of the lobby.”
Parker cleared his throat, looking at me with disapproval written all over his face. Apparently, he didn’t enjoy me challenging his pretty doll.
“Mel, please arrange for someone to remove Miss Hartley’s box immediately.”
“Yes.” I plastered a fake smile on my face. “Please, Mel.”
“Of course, sir.” She emphasized on the word sir, no doubt just to make it clear she wasn’t talking to me.
I started towards the exit and heard her calling someone. Another thing I heard? Footsteps following me.
“You seemed pretty excited about receiving that box,” Parker said. “What’s in there?”
