I immediately stopped screaming, and my whole body flushed from embarrassment.
The girl who walked in looks slightly younger than me, and I don't know her. Dynasty is a big company, and it is hard to know everyone working here.
The girl hurries into an empty stall closest to her, as if to escape me, or maybe she needed to pee badly
When she comes out after using the bathroom, she chooses the sink furthest from me.
I don't blame her for thinking I'm crazy.
As she washes her hands, I feel her skirting curious looks at me, and I decide to clear the air.
With a polite smile hovering over my lips, I tell her. "I am not crazy, you know."
"Mmmm," she gives me a skeptical look. "And sane people scream at the mirror in a public bathroom."
I blush at her sarcastic words, then relax when I see the smile on her face. She is just messing with me.
Her friendly deposition gave me the courage to open up. I do not have any friends here. And they do say that strangers are the best people to lay your problems on, as they will not judge you.
"Not insanity, just frustration. I am going through something at the moment that makes me want to scream, so I did."
I force a smile, even though inside I am weighed down by sadness and indecision.
How cruel can fate be? To make me fall in love with a man I have hated for years—a man who nearly destroyed me.
"I know what you mean, sis." She gives me a camaraderie smile, as if she perfectly understood what I am going through.
I give her a skeptical look, curious about what she could be going through to make her want to scream.
She looks so young and carefree, yet she carries a burden on those slender shoulders.
She smiled at my unconvinced look before explaining, her smile tinged with sadness.
"Last weekend, I saw my girlfriend of two years kissing another girl in the club," she tells me with a look of sadness in her eyes.
I can see how much she loves this girl, whoever she is, and how hurt she is by the betrayal. My heart went out to her. I would be gutted too if I caught someone I love messing around with another person.
I stifled the guilt that stirred up when I remembered that I am basically doing the same thing to someone else.
Not the same thing.
"What did you do?" I asked, curious as to how she handled the situation.
She smirked, a sly curl of one corner of her lips. "I slashed her tires." She looked so vindictive when she said that, I took a subtle step back. Now, I am the one who is afraid of her.
She loses the look in a blink, her innocent look returning.
Wow. Almost feels like turning a switch on or off.
"I must tell you it is more satisfying than screaming at the mirror," she winked.
I laughed, relaxing now that her honey-brown eyes don't look like she is trying to gut someone.
"I will try that next time."
Then again, whose tires will I be slashing?
Mine, Melissa's, or Ryan's?
She smiled at me before taking her leave. At the door, she stops and says. "No man is worth making you this sad," and then she leaves.
Alone, I pondered her words. Why am I allowing Ryan to torture me this way? I am supposed to be bringing him down, not letting myself be sucked into his life and family drama.
Maybe setting a clear boundary between us would stop this foolishness.
Determined to put an end to whatever this is between Ryan and me, I left the bathroom and returned to the office.
I knocked on Ryan's door and waited for him to ask me in.
He takes his sweet time. Intentionally or not, his not bidding me in immediately allowed my doubts to nearly claw my throat out.
You can do this, Lyra.
Just march in there and tell him, without mincing words, that you have had enough of his games.
Look him straight in the eyes.
Good advice, I think, and then remembered how powerless those magnetic blues render me when I look into them, and I quickly reconsidered.
"Come in," his deep voice reached me through his glass door before I could finalize my plans.
I walk into his office, unsure how to start the conversation. I tried not to let my lack of preparedness throw me off my game.
I marched toward his desk with as much confidence as I could muster, stifling the shivers stealing up my spine due to my anxiety.
"Can I talk to you?" I asked when I stood in front of his desk.
I rejoice when my voice didn't shake. We are off to a good start.
Now for the second part of the plan.
Don't look him in the eyes.
I quickly avert my eyes when Ryan looks up to acknowledge me.
"Do you want to sit?"
Sitting would give him an advantage. I have to tower over him if I'm ever going to pull this off.
I shake my head.
He drops his hands on the table and rests his chin on his palms, his body language relaxed.
I have noticed that Ryan tends to relax so freely only in my presence; with everyone else, he keeps some degree of his guard up.
"Alright, what do you want to talk about?"
"Us," I blurted out, my heart beating like a war drum in my chest.
There was a little pregnant pause before Ryan said. "I didn't know there was an us."
If he was joking, his tone doesn't give it away. But with everything that has happened between us, I am going to assume he is.
I looked at him sharply, warning him to take this seriously.
"Nothing can happen between us," I tell him, my eyes holding his gaze unflinchingly.
"Why?" He asked, his tone conversational, like he was trying to convey mere curiosity, but the look in his eyes spoke otherwise.
I swallow against the lump in my throat before answering him.
"The reason doesn't matter." I avert my eyes immediately, hiding my feelings from his piercing gaze.
My past needs to stay a secret between us until my goal is achieved, and if I am ever going to do what is necessary, I have to get off this path that we are tumbling down.
I waited with my heart in my throat for his response, and when it came, it was nothing as I feared.
"Alright," he says casually and gets to his feet.
I had expected a fight, some argument. His easy acceptance doesn't sit well with me.
I know him, and I am not just speaking from our past. That, though the most terrible thing to have ever happened to me, was a fleeting moment.
"Are you okay with this?" I couldn't hide the suspicion in my tone.
He shrugged as he put on his suit. "You said what you wanted to say, and I heard you; that doesn't mean I accept it. Now, come, I have an outside meeting, and I want you with me."
He heads for the door like our conversation is over, but it wasn't, not when he is choosing to hear what he wants to hear. I need him to take me seriously and understand that I mean it when I say nothing can ever happen between us.
"What do you mean by you don't accept this?" I demanded, hurrying after him.
He stops abruptly, just close to his door, whirls around, and grabs me by the hand, pinning me against the wall.
His movement is fluid and so unexpected.
A shocked squeal spilled from my lips, my eyes wide, gawking at him in fear, uncertain what he plans to do with me.
Judging from the look in his eyes, I will say nothing good.
Have I woken up the sleeping dragon?
"W-What are you doing?" I asked, my heart racing in my chest. I could barely stand the look in his eyes. It is so intense, like he wants to engulf my body in flames with his eyes.
Why does he always look at me like he wants to tear my clothes off my body? I wish he would stop with these smoldering looks; they are driving me insane.
"There is something I want to make clear to you, Lyra," he began, his voice low and menacing. "You are mine."
His possessive tone elicits my wrath, even as it makes the hidden part of me tingle. Chest heaving indignantly, I go to set him straight, but one slender, long finger drops on my lips, shutting me up.
"Shush!" He says gently, his expression softening. "I accept that you are not ready yet, but make no mistake, you are going to be mine. I will be patient and wait; it doesn't matter how long it takes."
The love oozing out from his eyes disarms me, and I forget why I was protesting our union.
Unintentionally, my eyes flicker to his lips, and the hunger to kiss them grips me.