BLUE ICE (ICE SERIES) (13 page)

              ‘Oh, so what do you, my Lord, want from me?’

              Thank God the bell saved me, I would tip this guy more than the pizza’s price itself. I got into trouble with my smart ass comments.

              ‘Pizza is here, grab some plates from that door and take whatever you want to drink from the fridge.’

              I said that and turned around to receive the pizza, but before I got to the door Dylan was already paying the guy. So I went for the plates and drinks and then turned on the TV so he could choose a movie. I sat on the single seat sofa, so he couldn’t sit with me. I was being childish but we had passed too many limits for a day and I was not the cuddling kind of girl. We watched a couple of James Bond movies and ate the entire pizza.

              At some point, I started fighting with my eyes to keep them open and Dylan noticed it, so he stopped the movie.

              ‘Tired, Ms. Bianchi?’

              ‘Yep.’

              ‘So I guess I am leaving.’

              ‘I guess so.’

              I walked him to the door lazily.

              ‘I had a really good time today Katherine, thanks to you. Good night.’

              He brushed back a stray strand of hair that was on my face and I felt that energy again. He leaned in smoothly and gave me one of those “too long” cheek kisses. As soon as he left I went to my room and put on my PJs. I was already in my bed when I noticed some missed calls from Michelle on my cell. The thing started ringing again.

              ‘What’s up C?’

              ‘Katie did you see Dylan after lunch?’ Her voice sounded worried, but I didn’t know what this was about.

              ‘Yeah, he had just left, why?’

              ‘Oh, thank God! Baby he was with Katie, he’s fine!’ she shouted to Marc.

              ‘What’s going on Chelle?’

              ‘Nothing sweetie, today was a difficult day for Dylan. It is his parents’ death anniversary, and each year Spencer and Marc stay with him, but today they lost him and we were really worried.’

              ‘Worried about what?’

              ‘That he would be drinking his ass off.’

              Fuck, I let him go on his own. If I had known this probably I would have entertained him a bit longer. ‘Oh Chelle, but he’s alone now.’

              ‘Have you seen the hour? Is 1 am, it’s no longer the dark day. What were you two doing this late?’

              ‘We got caught in the middle of the storm; we came home and watch some Bond movies.’

              ‘Good girl! You are getting along soooo well!’

              I knew exactly where this was going.

              ‘C, I was falling asleep when you called, I’ll talk to you tomorrow, fine?’

              ‘Fine “Katherine”.’

              ‘Oh, back off bitch, good night.’

              I really had a good time with Dylan and never suspected he was having a hard time.  The whole night I could just think about how nice he had been and recalled every single word he said and every movement he made, but mainly I remembered everything I felt being with him. But there was no a future encounter in our plans, so it would better if I put that in the back of my head.

             
Chapter 11

              On Monday I received a text that put a smile on my face for the entire day. Yeah, I was becoming stupider by the second.

             HOPE YOU HAVE A NICE DAY KATHERINE.

              The day went on until 8 o’clock when my phone started ringing, my heart pounded hard expecting Blue Eyes in the other line.

              ‘Hello princess!’

              ‘Hey mom! How are you?’

              ‘Fine baby, your dad and I haven’t talked to you for an entire week, we miss you.’

              ‘I miss you too mom, how’s daddy?’

              ‘We are fine baby, tell me, any news?’

              I bored my mom to death with details of our new campaign and how cool it was.

              ‘Oh baby it sounds great! As always you’ll do an incredible job. Say hi to John for us. Nothing else to report darling?’

              Oh God, does mommy know?

              ‘Nothing mom, Michelle and I have a new group of friends, some guys from Chicago we met on our San Antonio trip. They’re nice.’

              This way I wouldn’t be lying, I had never lied to my parents and I was not about to start. But I wasn’t even sure if I liked Dylan or if he liked me and I had never introduced a guy to my parents, they were too important for me.

              ‘Oh that’s nice baby, say hi to Michelle and take care. Please call me soon, your dad sends you lots of kisses.’

              ‘I love you two mommy, I’ll call soon.’

              What’s going on with you princess?! Thinking about telling mom and dad about a jackass just because he’s hot!!!!
My brain was right, we weren’t anything.

              Tuesday began as a normal day until I arrived at the office.

              Mrs. Cherry came to me as soon as I entered the office. ‘Ms. Bianchi, Mr. Witter needs you at his office right now.’

              ‘Is everything ok, Mrs. Cherry?’

              ‘He’s waiting for you.’

              This was weird, Mrs. Cherry was never this mysterious, so I hurried to John’s office.

              I opened the door and entered without much ceremony. ‘Good morning John, what’s going on?’

              ‘Sit down kiddo, we need to talk.’

              ‘Is everything ok?’

              I was worried, really worried, he never did this to me.

              ‘Katie, BKY Enterprises has sued us because we used too much of Dylan’s inspiration on the campaign.’ He was serious and worried. This was terrible for us.

              ‘What?’

              ‘Yes, I was notified this morning, so we can’t work with this until it is out of investigation.’

              I couldn’t believe it, my heart lost its rhythm. I knew he was an asshole, but backstabbing was too low even for him.

              ‘I have to tell our client that our campaign will be unavailable for a while and that if they want to take the account to another agency I understand.’

              ‘Oh no John, this is our biggest account, we can’t do that, this must be a misunderstanding. Let me go to talk to Berkeley.’

              ‘Sweetheart, did you talk to Dylan about the campaign?’

              Our lunch!

              ‘Yes, I told him some things, please, please forgive me. I didn’t think he could do anything like this.’

              ‘Don’t worry babe, but now we have to take care of it.’ He was being nice, this was awful and it was entirely my fault.

              ‘He must be overreacting. I’ll go to his office in this moment, ok?’

              ‘Yeah baby, but please if he’s an ass to you just drop it. No account is bigger than you ok?’

              Oh God! This was even worse than I could imagine. How could he?! I trusted him and now he was suing us without even a warning. Poor John, this was entirely my fault and even when I was furious with Berkeley I couldn’t believe he had done that to me.

              I took a cab to his office. I was too hurried and angry to stop by the desk so I took advantage of the guard’s distraction and walked through the doors.

              ‘Good morning, Ms. Bianchi.’

              Fuck!
Apparently I am not as clever as I thought, but he just let me pass without checking in. I went to the top floor and that nice blonde was at reception, she was smiling wider than the last time.
She‘s weird
.

              ‘Good morning, is there a chance I could see Mr. Berkeley really quickly. He called me to bring something and I am in a hurry.’

              She smiled at me in a weird way. ‘Of course Ms. Bianchi, go in. Jonathan is not here yet, but I’ll let Mr. Berkeley know. You already know where he is, just go inside.’

              ‘Thank you.’

              That asshole would have to explain himself before I would kick his ass. I opened his door and entered in a crazy rage.

              ‘Oh Dylan, you must be fucki…’

              I was stopped on my feet, Meredith was there; sitting on Dylan’s desk, laughing, Dylan was watching at her from his chair. That stupid bitch that I hated! I felt as if I had interrupted a really intimate moment and I was nauseated. We weren’t anything and I wasn’t allowed to be jealous; but seeing Meredith with him was a punch in my stomach. I always said he didn’t like me, but this was the worst confirmation.

              I needed to leave but I was frozen, Meredith looked really annoyed. I forced my legs to move and walked away, I didn’t want to appear hurt. I didn’t have any right to be hurt and I didn’t want Meredith to feel as if she had stolen something from me. I walked quickly and saw that stupid blonde smiling at me, she knew and she wanted me to see that. If only I had checked in at the desk I would have avoided my stupid performance.

              I walked away. I didn’t know where I wanted to go, but I wanted to walk and walk and walk. I texted John to let him know I was not coming back. I didn’t want to talk about Berkeley and how I was humiliated in my way to find an explanation.

             JOHN, I AM TRYING TO FIND BERKELEY, I’LL BE BACK AFTER I TALK TO HIM.

              I didn’t want to talk to him again, I didn’t want to see him again. That’s what happens when you let some asshole in, you get disappointed. He had betrayed me with my most precious possession, my job and when I wanted an answer, he was with that bitch. From all the women in the world, he chose my personal torturer.

              I walked and walked and at some point I noticed where I was… the Bethesda Fountain.
How on earth did I get here?
I checked my phone for John’s response and I noticed 20 missed calls from Dylan. He could kiss my ass 20 missed times. I sat on the fountain and gave my back to the tunnel, I didn’t want to see that place. I was being such a stupid girl. We were nothing, and I was totally overreacting.

              How could he use information that I gave him in a social lunch to sue us? That was betrayal and any jury would take it like that.
How could he have been that cozy with that bitch!?
I knew he was the kind of man that messes around with anyone wearing a skirt, but Meredith? She had made my life a living hell for all the years we were in school. She was one of the mean voices that I heard in my head every time I thought I was too fat, too ugly or too worthless and now she had made a point about it. She was the one good enough for Dylan, not me. I was just his now boring challenge.

              Out of nowhere I saw him walking down the stairs, I didn’t want him to see me defeated; no one ever sees me like that. I grabbed my purse from the floor and started walking, but he stopped me.

              ‘No Katherine, you are not running! Tell me what’s happening?’

              I pushed him with a closed fist against his chest. ‘How dare you, asshole!’

              ‘What? What happened? You came to me all angry and then you disappeared!’ He was truly concerned. Good. Guilt would be killing him.

              ‘I wanted you to explain me! To tell me why the hell you threw my trust away!’

              ‘Ok, I don’t understand what you’re talking about, but let’s discuss this. You came to my office and you saw that girl there, you must have felt something about it.’

              Oh no! We were not going to discuss Meredith! I had no right and he couldn’t give himself that much importance in my life. Even when he had broken my heart he didn’t know he had the power to do so.

              ‘Where do you get off, you bastard?! Believe it or not I am not interested in fucking you, so in my book you can be with any bitch you want. I couldn’t care less! I don’t feel, don’t you know that? That’s kind of my thing. You are just too full of yourself to notice! I am not interested in you, I am not one of your bimbos. I have run away from you since the moment I met you, so no, I don’t give a shit if you were with her.’

              ‘Katherine, you are impossible! So how did I offend you then?’

              His voice was louder, he was angry and my little speech just fueled him.

              ‘Why on earth did you decide to take everything I told you about our campaign to sue us? Why you didn’t say something if it bothered you? Why did you go behind my back?! You are fucking with my career Dylan!’

              Don’t cry baby.
I hadn’t cried in public in more than 10 years and I was not about to start, but I really wanted to.

              He didn’t flinch. ‘Katherine I don’t know what you are talking about.’

              ‘BKY Enterprises sued the agency for taking too much inspiration of you on our new campaign. And don’t play innocent Dylan, I know I was the only one stupid enough to tell you about it. I trusted you…’

              He took my face in his hands and stared at me firmly in the eye.

              ‘I give you my word that I didn’t do that, I have no problem with your campaign. I’ll fix it ok?’

              I knew it, I knew this was a misunderstanding, but I was still hurt and I wanted to hurt him back. This explained the lawsuit, but it didn’t explain Meredith. I’ve always used indifference as a weapon and now was a good moment to do so.

              ‘I don’t give a damn’ about your word.’

              I turned around and walked away, but just as fast as I entered to the Angel’s Tunnel I was pushed against a wall. Dylan cornered and kissed me, kissed me hard, even harder than the last time. He was trying to tell me something, to show me something with that kiss. There was anger, confusion and desire, there was everything in one hard kiss. I was too angry to open my mouth, but again I needed to breathe so I opened my lips a little and again he took complete advantage of it. The kiss grew and grew. I was fighting, but soon my energy was absorbed by his strength. One hand on my face, one on my hips, pushing me, I was completely oppressed by his firm body against the wall.