Chapter 8

Rosalee had just entered her office when she noticed a stranger standing by her desk. “Who are you and how did you get in here?” He was cute and had a nice smile but was wondering how he got past Bonnie.

The man looked at her and smiled, but not before checking her out from head to toe. “My, and who do we have here? You can’t be Ace’s assistant, you’re way too beautiful to be working for that jerk.”

“I’m Mr. Thatcher’s personal assistant. The question is who are you and how did you get in here?”

“I’m Evan Campbell and Bonnie let me come right in. I’m here to see Ace. I didn’t catch your name.” Ace, you lucky son of a bitch, he said to himself.

“Do you have an appointment?” she asked, going behind her desk she looked at the appointment book.

“I don’t need one, he’ll see me. You still haven’t told me your name.”

“Rosalee Keller and he’s a very busy man so you might not get in to see him. Why don’t I book an appointment for you, say, tomorrow around one?”

He walked over to her. “No need, like I said, he’ll see me.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because I’m his brother. Well, half brother, his father knocked my mother up but wouldn’t give me his last name. He said it would cause a scandal. You see, Ace’s father was a man whore, just like him.”

Her face turned red. “I don’t think you should be telling me this.”

“Evan, what the hell are you doing here?” Ace’s voice roared out, causing the other two to turn their heads in his direction.

“I’m here to see you big brother but I’m having fun getting to know Rosalee.”

“Office, now,” he snapped at Evan, ignoring her.

“Don’t go anywhere sweetheart, when I’m done with Ace I’d love to take you out for a coffee,” he said, giving her a warm smile.

“Why the hell are you here?” Ace asked when he closed the door.

“You know why I’m here, it’s that time of year. You could save us both a lot of time and trouble if you would just give it all to me now.”

Ace sat down behind his desk and stared at Evan. “We both know that would be a huge mistake, you’d blow it all within a year. Our father had put it in his will that you would get a check twice a year and he put me in charge of doing it.”

“Don’t call that man my father, he was never a father to me. Just write the check and I’ll be on my way.”

Just then Rosalee walked in with two cups of coffee on a tray with some cream and sugar. “I wasn’t sure if you’d want a coffee or what you took in it so I just brought everything,” she said, placing the tray on the desk in front of Evan.

“Thanks, doll, I could use a coffee but I would have preferred to take you out for one.”

She glanced over at Ace before answering him. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I’m much too busy to go out,” she said, then left the room.

“Your assistant is cute, are you banging her?”

Ace finished writing out the check and handed it to Evan. “Stay away from her.”

Evan’s eyes lit up and he smirked evilly. “Oh my, I guess you are either banging her or you’re hoping to.”

“I’m not banging her as you put it, but she’s a nice woman so stay the hell away from her.” When he saw Evan getting up and looking through the glass at her, he felt the blood in his veins boiling. He got up and went over to him, getting right in his face. “You can have any woman you want, so leave her alone.”

“You like her, don’t you?”

He looked through the glass over to where she was sitting. “She’s sweet and innocent, and I don’t want to see her get hurt.”

“That’s what you thought about Clarice, and look how she turned out.”

Ace glared angrily at him. “Don’t ever mention her name, now leave before I throw you out. From now on, I’ll just mail you the check so you don’t have to bother coming back here.”

“Nah, I prefer coming in person, especially if she’s going to be working here. See you, bro,” he said and walked out. But instead of leaving the office, he went over and sat on the edge of her desk and started talking to her.

Ace waited a couple of minutes, and when he still didn’t leave, he swung the office door open and shouted, “Rosalee, I need you to take a dictation, now.”

Evan swiped his tongue over his bottom lip and smirked. “I guess I better go, if you change your mind about going out with me, give me a call. Here’s my number,” he said as he wrote down the digits on a piece of paper on her desk.

She went into his office and sat down in the chair across from him with her pen and paper handy. “I’m ready.”

“What were the two of you talking about?”

She looked up at Ace. “I think that’s between him and me. But if you really need to know, then I’ll tell you. He asked me out, but I turned him down. So then he gave me his phone number in case I changed my mind.”

“You’re not going out with him.”

She looked at him with anger. “Excuse me. What I do in my private life has got nothing to do with you.”

He sat back in his chair and tapped his fingers on the desk. “Rosalee, I know him and he’s nothing but trouble. And if you go out with him, he will only end up hurting you.”

“What does that matter to you?”

“I just don’t want to see you get hurt,” his voice softened when he spoke.

She saw something in his eyes; it was almost like he cared about her. “The only reason I turned him down was that he’s related to you, and I don’t think it would be proper to be dating the boss’s brother.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“He’s your brother, and yet I get the feeling you don’t like him.”

“He’s my half-brother, and I don’t care for the person he is. He’s greedy and selfish and has never worked a day in his life. He lives off the inheritance my father left him in his will, which he gets paid twice a year. Unfortunately, my father put me in charge of taking care of it after he passed away. I wish I could just give him the full thing, and that way I would never have to see his face again.”

“Why wasn’t he given it all in one large sum instead of twice-yearly?” She knew she had no right to ask him such personal questions, but the nosy part of her was curious.

“Money runs through his fingers like water, and my father knew that if he gave him the whole thing at once, it would be gone in a year. This way he’s taken care of.” He looked at her, and a small smile appeared on his face. “I don’t know why I told you all of this.”

“Maybe it’s because you know you can trust me not to repeat it to anyone. I’ve always been told that I’m a good listener. Anyways, what did you want me for?”

“That was just a ruse to get you away from him. I was wondering since your car is in the shop, do you need a ride home?”

“No, Brett is picking me up and taking me to get my car.”

“Brett,” he said with a scoff. “I don’t know what you see in him, he’s all muscles and probably no brain.”

She got to her feet in anger. “I would appreciate you not putting my friend down. For your information, he is very intelligent and treats me with respect. Now if there’s nothing else, I have work to do.”

“You can go,” he said, picking up some papers and started reading them. He gave his head a shake— he had to stop thinking about her with other men. She had a right to be with someone that could make her happy, and he had no right to interfere. But later, after the workday was over, and he looked out the window and saw her getting into Brett’s car, he felt a twinge of jealousy. The only thing that made him feel better was knowing that soon he would be going to New York with her and away from that man.

When Brett saw her walking out of the office building, he jumped out of his car and opened the door for her and gave her a hug when she got close. “How was your day, gorgeous?”

“Interesting actually, but I really can’t discuss it with you,” she said as she climbed into his car. But she did tell him some of it but not the personal part.

He listened as she told him what had happened with Ace’s brother and guessed she was leaving out certain parts. “I told you this before, and I’ll tell you again, your boss has the hots for you. I still think that there’s something you’re not telling me, like if something had or is going on between you two.”

“There is something I haven’t told you, and I’m a little embarrassed about it.”

“Hey, I’m your friend, and you can tell me anything. I won’t judge you.”

She had grown close to Brett and knew that she could trust him with her secret. So after telling him everything, she looked at him to see his reaction. “You must think I’m a real slut.”

He glanced over at her and smiled. “I would never think that about you. But you were taking a chance going off with a stranger and having sex, but thank God nothing bad happened to you. It must have been so awkward finding out he was your boss.”

“Oh, you can say that again, but we both agreed to never mention it and to forget it even happened.”

“And yet here you are still talking about it.”

“Because you keep asking me, and since we’re friends, I figured why not. So now I never want to talk about it again or think about it.”

After picking up her car from the garage, Brett followed her home in his car. When they got home and got to their apartment door, they heard Eve screaming from inside. Rosalee quickly opened the door, and they both went inside. She screamed for Rory to get off of Eve when she saw him on top of her, slapping her face. But Brett raced over and pulled Rory off of her, raising his fist he started punching him.

Rosalee rushed over to Eve and put her arms around her shoulder, telling Brett to stop hitting Rory.

“Eve, call the cops, and we’ll have this prick arrested,” Brett said as he stood over the man.

“No, let him go.”

Both Rosalee and Brett stared at Eve in disbelief; they couldn’t believe that she wasn’t going to have him charged with assault.

Eve sat up and looked at Rory. “Get your stuff and get out of here. I never want to see you again. If you come anywhere near me, I will call the cops on you and have you thrown in jail. Then we’ll see how many of your little girlfriends will want anything to do with you after knowing you beat women.”

Once Rory was out of the apartment, Rosalee watched how tender and caring Brett was to her. It was then that she realized who he had once talked about, the time he said he was in love with someone but she was with another man. Eve was the woman he was talking about. It all made sense now, how he didn’t like Rory and how he was always around when she was home. All this time she thought it was because of her when in fact it was Eve that he was wanting to be with. This was why he so readily agreed to just being friends; it was because his heart belonged to someone else.

Much later after Brett left, she sat down with Eve to comfort her. “I know it was never any of my business, but I have to be honest with you and tell you that I was never comfortable around Rory. He never really treated you all that well.”

“I know, but the sex was so good. I always suspected him of cheating on me, and we often had some very heavy fights about it, but this is the first time he ever beat me up. I’m so done with him this time; it’s over.”

“You know this isn’t my place to say, but I do know a really wonderful man that I believe is in love with you.”

Eve looked up at her and wiped the tears from her eyes. “Who?”

“Oh, Eve, isn’t it obvious? It’s Brett; he admitted once, he said he was in love with somebody, but he never told me who it was. Then when I saw the way he attacked Rory and how sweet he was with you afterwards, it became clear to me. You were the woman he was talking about.”

“You want to know something, Rosalee?”

“Okay, what?”

“I’ve always had feelings for him too, but I always thought that he just considered me a good friend. If only I had known, I would have kicked Rory to the curb a long time ago.”

“Eve, you need to march over to that apartment and tell Brett how you feel about him. He’s a really good man; don’t let him get away.”

“I can’t go see him looking like this; my face is covered in bruises.”

“Oh my God, girl, he loves you, and he’s not going to care what you look like. So just get up off your ass and go over there and tell him how you feel.”

Eve smiled and got up off her chair. “You’re right, I’m going to do it. You might not want to wait up for me.”

Rosalee felt so happy for the two of them, and all this time they could have been together. She had a good feeling about them and knew that they would be together for a very long time. She knew Eve wasn’t going to come home tonight when after two hours, she did not return.