OPPOSITE ATTRACTION - Part 2 Episode 5

Clara’s POV

I feel nervous suddenly. He is sitting on the large conference table in front of and there is one feet distance between us.

I start counting my chances of escape.

1. The ground beneath suddenly opens up and pulls me down.

2. Wishing that I still have the Menu card to cover my face.

3. Pray to God and just run like a Rabbit.

The first two options don’t really seem to be happening.

So, can only just try the third one. I look at the door and then at him.

He is staring at me intently waiting for me to answer.

I lock eyes with him for a milli second in the process and there goes my heart again.

Would you please stop beating so loudly? I am afraid he can hear it!

I clear my throat and look around the room trying to come up with some excuse that sounds realistic and believable.

But my mind is only thinking about how good he smells and in a minute I feel my mind and body relaxing.

There is something about him, that’s… that’s soothing.

It is strange, considering we have only met three times.

Why does he make me feel like this? Nervous one minute and totally calm the other.

Anyway, why should I come up with an excuse? He is the one who said that he doesn’t want to see my face.

I am just following the Big Boss’s instructions. He can’t blame me for doing that! Yes, Clara! Just tell him that!

I Mister up my courage and look at him. He is staring directly into my eyes.

I don’t know if it’s just me feeling that way, but his gaze is so intense.

And just like that I forgot what I wanted to say. It’s like there are only two of us in the world.

His raises his hand and gently places it on my left cheek. His fingertips touch my ear.

Oh God! Why does this feel so good?!

I get carried away by his touch until his husky voice broke the spell.

“You got a pimple.” He speaks in a low tone and I feel embarrassed.”You didn’t have it before.”

How does he know that?

He is keen at observing things, I must give him that He remembers that I didn’t have a pimple last time we met and he acknowledges it now.

It makes feel both embarrassed and giddy inside that he is paying interest in me.

Oh please! Snap out of it, Clara! It’s just a mere observation and you should be embarrassed about it instead of feeling ecstatic!

I come out of my thoughts when I feel his hand going to the back of my ear and caressing the dark scar that’s behind my ear.

I quickly pull away from his touch and adjust my hair to cover the scar.

He drew his hand back and put it in his pocket.

“Um… It… It was from an accident.”

He doesn’t say anything, but just looks away pressing his lips together before looking back at me.

“So, what’s all that hiding about?” He asks again and I know there is no escape.

I can see that he is teasing me. I can’t let him win this time. First of all,

he is the one who says that he doesn’t want to see my face and when I am following his orders he has a problem with it. Come on,

Clara! You can do this! I bravely look up at him.

“I am simply following your instructions, Mr. Bryant.

You told me to not show my face till you asked me to do so and I am just doing that.”

“Right. By hiding yourself using a menu card.” He is definitely teasing me now. Stay strong, Clara!

“If that is what it takes for me to hide from you, then yes.” Good job!

Stay determined like that! Pat myself on the back for a second there.

“Mm. So, tell me this.” His hands are out of his pocket now.

He folds one of this hand while the other goes to his chin.

I observe that his muscles flex while he does that and I bite my lip. Why is his every move so sexy?

“Are you hiding from me because I told you to or just because you want to?”

“If that is what it takes for me to hide from you, then yes.” Good job!

Stay determined like that! Pat myself on the back for a second there.

“Mm. So, tell me this.” His hands are out of his pocket now.

He folds one of this hand while the other goes to his chin.

I observe that his muscles flex while he does that and I bite my lip.

Why is his every move so sexy? “Are you hiding from me because I told you to or just because you want to?”

What?! I look at him in shock. Maybe deep down I know I am hiding from him not just because of his instructions and it’s because of all the embarrassment I have faced in front of him.

The number of times I have embarrasses myself in front of him is more than the number of times I met him.

I sigh at myself internally. I can’t let him know that though now.

I try to look as confident as possible. “No. It’s purely because you told me so, not because I want to.”

With that I quickly pick up my file that’s beside him to get out of the room.

“If you will excuse me, Mr. Bryant.” I excuse myself and turn around to walk out, but, oh there goes my clumsiness.

My leg hit the chair beside me and I fall… On Mr. Bryant.

Why?! WHY?!!

I let out a gasp as I fall on him. During this process what I didn’t realise it I have hit him with the file unknowingly while trying to grab onto his shoulder.

Oh. My. God! Why do these things keep happening?!

I try to pull away from him, but my leg slips again in the process and I fall on him again.

“I am sorry.” I say quickly while trying to stand again.

This time he helps me stand straight while holding my waist and letting me get my balance back on my feet.

Why am I so nervous around him? Why am I so clumsy?

His hand is still on my waist and my body is pressed against his lightly.

For some reason, this feels very familiar. Too familiar in fact.

His touch doesn’t scare me. I don’t want him to let go of me. He helps me stand up.

“Are you okay?” I can hear the clear concern in his voice.

I look at him and there are those eyes filled with concern for me.

My heart skips a beat. I nod my head.

“Yes.”

His hand is still on my waist and my hand is still on his shoulder.

I remove my hand and move a step away from him, causing him to drop him to let go.

Once they are gone, I immediately miss his touch.

What is wrong with me? Why am I feeling this way?!

“Thank you.”

“You need to be more careful, Cara.

Cara? I look at him confused. “What?”

He stands up from the table and adjusts his suit.

“You need to be careful, Ms. Edwards.” His tone suddenly sounds more business-like.

I nod my head and turn around to leave. This time I move the chair from in front of me and walk to the door.

Then I remember what I wanted to say to him. Turning around again to face, I find him already looking at me.

‘Mr. Bryant.” He waits for me to continue. “Thank you so much for firing Sam and giving importance to such matters.”

“No need to mention. It’s my responsibility, Ms. Edwards.

And bear in my, anyone and I mean it, if anyone causes such troubles to you…” He pauses. “Or anyone in the office for that matter, please bring it immediately to Chris’s attention or you can report such matters directly to me.

It will be taken care of.” My respect for him rises as I hear him say that.

“Will do. Thank you.”

“You are welcome.”

I give him a small smile a turn around pulling the door and leaving the room this time.

Once I am out, I breath in air. That was intense in there.

Oh God! He is so intense! Also my mind stops working when I am with him.

I remember the incident of falling on him and face palm myself. My fingers touch the pimple on my face.

Oh yes! The Pimple! I dash towards the washroom and out the file beside the sink.

Looking at myself on the mirror, I see the red pimple sitting on my cheek happily.

How can he observe such thing? I mean, I am not his girlfriend and we have only met twice before today and from both the times, I can say he doesn’t like me.

So, why this Pimple?! I touch the Pimple and look at his from all angles making weird faces while doing so.

Maybe he is just a playboy! I don’t know. I don’t think so too. He is a mature man.

I sigh and wash my face and glance at my pimple before poking it one last time.

My face turns red as I remember his touch and the way he touched. It’s intoxicating.

I wash my face again, this time trying to snap out of his spell that’s still clouding my mind. Taking one last look at my face, I walk out of the washroom to go to my table.

Putting the file on my table I sit down in the chair.

And just when I place my hand on the keyboard I am suddenly surrounded by Nick and Tia, Kevin is looking at me from his place.

All of them are looking at me with eager eyes.

“What?” I ask them.

“What happened after we left? Why did he ask you to stay behind?” Tia asks. I stare at her dumbly not knowing what to speak.

“What happened?” Nick asks as well. I think of something to answer and I feel like I am in a pool of shit again.

Why do I always get stuck in situations like these? Urgh!

“I… Uh…” What am I supposed to say? Is there any way I can escape all of this?

I look at their faces and I know that I can’t escape. “Mr. Bryant just asked me to report about any sexual harassment cases that come to us.

” I try to cover up. I am not going to tell them all the clumsy things I did. I have already done enough damage for today.

“He can tell that to Tia as well.” Nick says and I kick myself.

“Oh well, Tia left the room already feeling emotionally, so he instructed me to and he asked me to tell you to same.

” I look at Tia as I speak. It’s not completely a lie.

“Oh.” Nick says. I look at him feeling confused.

“What do you mean by that Oh?” I ask.

“Nothing.” He shrugs his shoulders. “Just oh.”

I look at him suspiciously. He is always up for some juicy gossip. I shake my head at him.

“I will report anything that comes to me.” Tia says and I give her a smile.

“Are you okay now?” I ask her. She left the room crying.

“I am fine.” She replies smiling.

“You guys should have told us about Sam you know.

We are not just colleagues, we are friends.” Kevin says and I look at Tia for a second before looking back at him.

“We thought to, but we didn’t know how you guys would react and what if you guys didn’t believe us. So we decided not to.”

“Why wouldn’t we believe you?” Nick says and I just don’t have any answer to that.

I hear him sigh. “If anything like this happens just let us know.

Sure enough Mr. Bryant has taken steps to prevent it, but we are your friends and you guys can share anything with us.”

It almost brings tears to my eyes. “Thank you.”

“No need to mention.” Kevin says and I smile at him.

We go back to working as usual and soon it is a busy day.

No matter what, his face, his scent and his touch keep invading my mind and every few seconds I lose focus.

I have to bang my head on the table next time. At one point I started typing so fast that Tia and Nick looked at me like I have lost my mind. Maybe I have.

“Are you okay?” Nick asks and I nod my head.

Once I am done with my work, I look at the time and there still ten minutes before we can go home.

My mind instantly goes to the incident that happened earlier today. I caress the pimple again.

Biting my lip I can’t help the smile. God! What is happening?!

I have lost my mind or what?! I shake my head to get his thoughts out of my mind.

Out of curiosity, I search his name on Google.1

Dalton Bryant. There! I click search. I open the Wikipedia page to learn about him.

Oh! There comes a picture of him! He is sexy!

Starting from his birth date to everything appears on my laptop screen.

Oh, he is five years elder than me. That’s new. But, why did I have to count that? Stupid brain!

Moving on to next information, I find his mother passed away in a car accident and his father has passed away recently due to cancer.

I read that he donated a huge amount to cancer supporting foundation. Wow!

“What are you looking at?”

“Ah!” I almost shout out loud startled by Nick who is right beside me now. “Nick!”

“Sorry. Now, what are you looking at?” He looks at my screen. “Ooh, stalking our Big boss, huh!” He says loudly.

“Shh! No one needs to know. I am not stalking him.” Looking away from him, I scroll my mouse going down the Wikipedia page. “I just want to know about him.”

“Hmm. Me too.” He says still looking at the screen.

I click on the Career option. Now both Nick and I are reading it. “Wow, he worked in Military before.” Even I am surprised.

“No wonder he is so uptight.” I nod my head. He is uptight, but then again, I don’t know much about him.

“Go to Personal Life.” I eagerly click on it wanting to know more.

Does he have a girlfriend? So what if he does? It’s none of my business.

Much to my disappointment, it says that he keeps his relationships very private.

For some reason, I feel very heavy inside. Does that mean he is in a relationship?

Or maybe he is in many relationships before, so to hide them, he keeps them private?

Then the bulb in my mind dings. My eyes become wide in sudden realization.

Maybe he is a womanizer like I thought before?! Maybe I am going too far.

But now that the thought is in my head, it won’t leave.

“Mm, interesting.” I snap out of my thoughts once I realize that Nick is still beside me. “Keeps relationships private?”

“Fishy, isn’t it?” I ask.

“Kind of.”

“Do you think that maybe he is a womanizer?” I ask Nick and just when he was about to answer, we were interrupted by Tia.

“Guys, ready to go?” Tia asks and we nod before packing our bags and heading to the lift together.

Kevin, Nick, Tia and I wait for the lift to arrive.

“I don’t think he is a womanizer?” Nick says and we all look at him.

While I understand what he is saying, Kevin and Tia look confused.

Nick notices it too. “We are talking about Mr. Bryant.” He explains. They nod their heads.

“I don’t think so too,” Tia says.

“I don’t know him enough to say anything.” Kevin says. Always the smart one.

“What if he is gay?” When I say that, the lift door dings open and we all walk in.

“Who? Mr. Bryant?” Nick asks.

“Yeah.”

“I don’t think he is gay either?” Nick says.

We are so involved in our talk that we didn’t see if anyone else is in the lift.

“Guys.” Tia calls, but we are in our own world.

“But, that maybe a case. We can’t rule it out.” Nick says taking it into consideration.

“My guess is either he is gay or a womanizer.” I say out loud.

“Guys. Drop it.” Tia says from behind us.

“Fine,” we say without turning back. The lift doors open and we all walk out.

I turn around to speak to Tia and my eyes land on the person walking out of the lift that we get got off. It’s Mr. Bryant. That means…

Oh my God! Did he hear everything? He must have.

He was in the same lift as us. We even used his surname.

He surely knows we are talking about him. What if he fires me for gossiping about him?

His eyes meet mine and I just want the earth to open up and take me in right now.

I find his lips curl up for a second in amusement or maybe that’s just my dream.

He quickly glances away and walks out of the front door before going to the car waiting for him in the entrance of the building.

I stand there shell shocked till his car leaves the building. Nick doesn’t even notice him as he is speaking on his phone.

“Did he hear everything?” I ask Tia nervously.

“Everything.”

I am so done. I better quit voluntarily before he fires me. “Don’t worry. All will be fine.”

I sigh.

Why do I always make a fool of myself in front of him? Also, why does this kind of seem familiar?