Chapter 7 DANIELLE

DANIELLE'S POV

I glanced at my phone, which hadn't stopped buzzing with messages and calls that I had intentionally been ignoring. I let out a sigh and picked it up, going through the messages that had come in.

Shoot, I checked my wristwatch and checked the time, seeing I had about twenty minutes left of my lunch hour, but I didn't let that derail me. I knew Lucas very well, and since he had promised to come to my office if I didn't show up at the café, something I couldn't let happen, I needed to meet him as soon as possible.

Still bent over my bag, the boss' office opened, and I watched as he walked towards me. I put my phone into my bag and stood upright.

"Are you going to have lunch? Let's have lunch together." He said, and I looked regretfully at my phone that had started buzzing with another message.

He studied me, as if just seeing I didn't look like I was headed to the cafeteria. "Where are you going?" He asked, his voice mildly curious.

"I have a lunch appointment I must make." I informed him, feeling the pressure of every second I spent talking to him.

"Looks like it's important. We can meet tomorrow or something." He said, making me feel guilty. It was obviously the wise decision to take, as I knew the cafeteria would be buzzing with gossip and people staining my reputation. One of the reasons I'd intentionally closed my mind off to eating lunch until I'd checked my phone.

"I'm sorry." I apologized and silenced my phone as it began ringing again. I was so going to kill Lucas. I just needed to make it to him in time, plus I wasn't really anticipating our meeting.

"It's fine. What of dinner? We have some plans we need to re-discuss since the news has already spread."

I nodded. "That will work." I wanted to ask about Julia. After her hissy fit before she'd left, I hadn't been able to ignore her, and I had a feeling she wasn't going to let me just go like that. Maybe I should have been the one to ask about past partners from him before I'd agreed to the marriage, but I didn't forget everything was going according to plan. Well, not exactly everything, I thought as my phone began buzzing again. Lucas was supposed to have accepted my decision with meekness, for crying out loud.

"You can go. Sorry for the delay." Jonathan said, and with a grateful nod, I left him standing there, my mind going to the way I could escape the company without any employee seeing me. This wasn't really a good time to explain to them. Something I knew they would want to get.

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The elevator dinged for the ground floor, and with one deep breath, I stepped out, seeing immediately that my wish/prayer hadn't been answered. It was like I had been anticipated to arrive at that very time, with the fact that nearly everyone was there, and all eyes turned to me the moment I stepped out of the elevator.

"Please don't come to me." I whispered, increasing my footsteps, but I had to stop as two employees I hadn't seen before stepped in my way.

"What's the rush? It looks like you're running away from something when you behave like this." The man said, and I didn't miss the other employees nodding their agreement.

"I have an appointment I'm already late for." I said and tried escaping, but the woman stepped closer to me, making me take a step back. What happened to privacy, really?

"Is it true?" She asked, eyes lit up in curiosity, and I stepped back again as the remaining employees there moved around me, so I was in the middle of about thirty employees. What nonsense did people say about men not being gossips, again because about half of them were men and looked as curious as the women?

I tried feigning ignorance. "What?" and realized that was the wrong step as the fake smile donning their faces dropped. The woman, the ringleader, moved closer to me.

"You know what exactly I'm talking about." She sneered. "I've worked in this company for the last three years and never has the boss given any woman any second glance, regardless of all our advances. Maybe except Julia." She finished as an afterthought. "So, tell me, what's your secret?"

I shook my head. "Nothing." My phone buzzed again, and I felt my eyes widen. 'You're not responding; I'll soon be in front of your company. Did that jerk stop you from coming outside?' The text said.

I looked at the faces of the people around me; more than half of them, including the women, looked over twenty years older than Jonathan. It was a wonder what they thought they could use to seduce him. Their ages? But of course, since I wasn't suicidal, I didn't say any of that out.

I put on my best charming expression. "We met since college, and we've liked each other since then. When I applied for the position of his secretary, I didn't know he was the owner, since I had transferred in my freshman year and we met then. Old sparks were reignited, and now we're getting married." I explained the fake plan we'd come up with. Since we were in the same age group, it had seemed better than trying to convince people we had fallen in love in mere months.

The woman's jaw dropped, and she grabbed my hands. "That's so cute."

I batted my eyelash, trying for innocence, and made my eyes water. At this rate, I ought to be awarded for best actress. "I know. I didn't expect to meet him again. We were both each other's first love, and it's just fate and destiny that brought us together again."

The woman nodded. "I knew it. That was why, even with so many more gorgeous and better dressed women at the interview, he had picked you. My instinct never fails me." She winked at me, and I smiled back, knowing that hadn't in any way been meant as a compliment, but I couldn't focus on that right now.

The woman and the other employees, obviously uninterested since they hadn't gotten what they had wanted from me, my humiliation, I could guess, soon dispersed, and I checked my phone again. Since the last text Lucas had sent, he hadn't tried to reach me again. That was a recipe for disaster.

I dialed his number and rushed towards the entrance and stopped in my tracks.

"Danielle." I heard his voice both from my phone and physically as he was about ten feet away from me. In front of my company, where it had just been announced I was getting married to my boss. I headed towards him, and he grabbed my hands, worried.

"What's the rush? Why wasn't I able to reach you?"