Train Me Daddy

“Well, one thing I’m not is successful. At least not as compared to you or what I thought I’d be able to achieve,” she said and I shook my head.

“You’re wrong, Beverley. You focused on your product, on your technical skills while I spent time on my business, to finding investors. Which is why I think that we’d make a great team,” I said and looked deep into her eyes. I wanted her to see me, to truly see me and trust me.

“So, you do want me to come and work with you?” she asked and I nodded.

“Yes, I do. We just have to find a way to make this work on both a professional and personal level,” I told her and she was blushing again.

We were looking at each other, till she drew her gaze away from me and tucked in some of her hair behind her ears.

“I never thought that someone like you could like me. Not in this way at least…like actually be attracted to me,” she said and I stood up from my chair and walked over to her. Beverley craned her neck to look up at me and I pressed my forefinger on her lips.

“I don’t want you to talk that way, Beverley, please. You don’t know how special you are. What you do to me and how you’ve always inspired me to work harder. I’ve always wanted to live up to you. This was never a competition for me, rather I wanted to prove myself to you,” I said and she stood up from her chair.

Silently, she placed her head on my shirt. A few buttons were missing now, from the force with which she had ripped my shirt off my body earlier. I cradled her in my arms and swung her gently from side to side. I had never experienced this raw tenderness before, this feeling of being able to hold a woman in my arms and not worry about what she wanted from me. I was willing to give Beverley whatever she wanted.

Her arms had wound around my mid-riff as she pressed herself closer to me. We had been standing there like that for a relatively long time. I could sense that she was thinking as well, just like my own mind was racing with thoughts. Finally, she raised her head and looked up at me.

I smiled when I saw her face, still ruddy on the cheeks but bright and excited. For the first time, Beverley looked truly happy and I couldn’t believe that I’d caused it.

“When can I start?” she asked and I smiled wide.

“So you’ve accepted my offer?” I said and she nodded her head.

“I want to work with you and I want to be with you, Grant,” she added in a quiet voice and I lowered my face to kiss her on her lips again.

Chapter 23

Beverley

Eight months later

I didn’t walk to work any more, so when I looked at my watch and it was seven already; I wondered where Grant was. We usually left the office together. We worked on different floors. I had my office space with Susan, John and Sasha while he still worked from his own. Usually at six thirty, Grant buzzed me on the intercom and asked me what time I would be finished. This evening, he hadn’t and I pressed the button to reach him.

Instead of Grant, his secretary answered the call.

“He’s already left the office, Ms Wade,” she said and I had my brows crossed. In the past eight months, since I started working at Lonex, Grant had never left without calling me first.

“Is he coming back?” I asked her and she sounded nervous, like she didn’t want to come between a quarreling couple and she definitely didn’t want to betray her boss.

“I’m not sure, Ms Wade. He didn’t leave a note,” she said.

“No problem. I’ll get a hold of him on his personal phone. Thanks,” I said to her, as politely as possible and hung up the phone.

I hadn’t been paying attention to the time, but I would have heard him calling if he had. This was unlike him, and also made me wonder if something had happened.

The past eight months had been a whirlwind of experiences and emotions. We had started off by testing the waters with a few formal dates, he drove me back home on all those occasions till one night I asked him to come in. We hadn’t had sex for a month when we officially started dating, because I wanted him to prove to me that it was more than just about the sex.

After we had been together for three months; Grant asked me to move in with him. I was skeptical initially, not because of my feelings for him which were stronger than ever, but because I didn’t think he knew what he wanted.

I was still in disbelief, that my boyfriend Grant was the same Grant Jennings from college. The King of Silicon Valley. My impression of him was entirely wrong? Everyone’s impression of him? When I agreed to move in with him a few days later, I did so with doubts still whirling around in my head. I was still not a hundred percent sure that this was what Grant really wanted. I often caught myself wondering if he missed his old carefree life. I was his first real girlfriend…one who had lasted for more than just a couple of weeks. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was itching to go back to his old ways.

In the past few days, I had noticed a change in him again. The first few months of us living together was happy and normal and we were getting comfortable together. And now suddenly, in the last couple of days, I saw that he had become a little reserved. He might have even been nervous around me. He was speaking a little less, and sometimes when we lay on the couch watching TV together; I’d catch him staring at me.

So out of the blue, the fact that he had simply left for home without informing me unbalanced me.

I stood up from my chair and grabbed my coat from the rack before heading downstairs. I could take a cab I thought, but I was nervous about how Grant was feeling. Was he cheating on me? Did he have second doubts about our relationship. There was no way of knowing unless I actually spoke to him about it.

The whole way down the elevator, I could feel my heart racing. I was in love with him, had always been and I was desperate to not lose him. But somewhere at the back of my mind, I’d always known that he was way out of my league.