C18 Avoidance Mistakes

Chapter-18: Avoidance Mistakes

Aria Anastasia

My goal for today: avoid Zaiden Storm.

I won’t even be professional with him, I will simply avoid him.

Last night, after he locked his lips with mine, I pushed him away and ran from there. I got home straight and went to sleep to keep my mind sound and clear. I knew running away wasn’t the right thing to do, but I had to do it.

My mind went blank when his soft luscious lips met mine, and when I realized what was going on, the first thing I thought was to never appear in front of him again.

Zaiden didn’t follow me, in fact, he didn’t even call me on my phone last night. Thank God, he didn’t try to contact me, but today in the office, I knew he would try to talk to me.

Damn it, I should’ve called in sick today instead of arriving at work. Why didn’t I think of it before stepping into the office?

I looked at the private elevator, only to find Zaiden standing there. Without wasting a single second, I turned to the other side, and got into the normal elevator which was used by the employees.

I had to avoid him, whether he liked it or not. Every time I would see him, it would remind me of the kiss.

My chain of thoughts broke when the elevator dinged and I was finally on my floor. I thought it would take half an hour at least, depending on the number of people. Some got out, and some got in—making it short, it was really annoying.

“Good morning, Ma’am,” Yana greeted politely.

“Good morning, Yana,” I said with a small smile. “Did you enjoy the party last night?”

A tint of red shade appeared on her cheek as she simply nodded. “What about you, Ma’am? You disappeared before the dance. Is everything okay?”

I cleared my throat, saying, “Yes, everything is okay. I was feeling sick so I went home.” I couldn’t tell her my real reason for leaving the party. “Anyway, do I have any important work today?”

She checked her notepad and said, “You have to mail a few documents to Mr. Raymond, as you have promised. He also told me to give you a reminder when I was at the party.”

“Oh, right,” I breathed out, mentally cursing myself for forgetting such an important task. “I will send these now after revising it.” With that, I got into my cabin.

I sat on my chair and turned the laptop on. I opened the documents and started to recheck them for the last time. I tried to focus on my work, but my mind drifted to the kiss of last night—the way his lips moved against mine, it was so hot.

“I should just do my work. Focus, Aria,” I mumbled to myself and downloaded the revised documents. When I was attaching it with the mail, I thought of Zaiden and how worried he was when I almost drank the poisonous coffee.

A smile formed on my lips, and I clicked the ‘send’ button.

I was confused about my feelings for Zaiden. It was all so complicated, or maybe I was the one making it complicated. He didn't clearly answer whether we were dating or not which was driving me crazy. Therefore, I had to be sure of my feelings before taking a step. I needed to know whether I liked him or not. But how would I find out? I had no idea.

Besides, when the women asked last night whether I and Zaiden were dating or not, why did he say ‘are we not?’ What did he mean by that? We weren’t dating, and even if we were, I didn’t know because he never made it clear to me.

___

I heard my door burst open all of a sudden, making me flinch. When I looked in the direction, I found Zaiden throwing daggers at me with his eyes.

Oh, my God, was he going to kill me because I was avoiding him?

I stood up from my chair and took slow steps, asking calmly, “What’s wrong, Zaiden?”

He had an angry look on his face, as his nose flared in anger. It was the calm before the storm. The last time he got angry at me was at the beginning of me joining the company when I forgot to bring a file to the meeting. He yelled at me a lot, yet today, his look petrified me.

“Zaid—” I was interrupted by him.

“Aria, how can you do this?” he said in a calm tone, but I could feel the rage in it.

I stuttered, “Wh—what did I do?”

He let out a humorless chuckle. “Of course, you fucking don’t know what you did,” he stated in an obvious tone. I waited for him to speak further and he said, “Aria Anastasia, because of you, we lost our deal from Mr. Raymond and you can now stop dreaming of getting a deal with the Harbors now.”

I raised my brows in confusion. “Because of me? And I thought Mrs. Harbor said she would talk to her husband on behalf of our company.”

“It’s all because of you!” he snapped, making me shiver at his loud tone. He took a step towards me while I took a step backward in fear until my back hit the wall. “You sent the wrong documents to Mr. Raymond and he is so furious right now. He called me and canceled the goddamn deal.”

“What?” A gasp escaped my lips and I gulped in fear seeing the deadly glare of Zaiden. How did I make such a mistake? I sent the documents today after revising them and then… I was thinking of Zaiden and maybe by mistake, I selected the wrong attachment. Oh, my God.

“Tell me, what should I do to you because of the huge loss we are facing now?” He demanded, “Answer me.”

“Zaiden, I am sorry,” I managed to breathe out.

“Sorry?” He caged me in between his arms. “You are fucking sorry? Will this sorry bring Mr. Raymond back?”

I wanted to cry at his behavior, but I didn’t want to fall weak in front of him. “Sorry,” I said meekly.

Giving a humorless chuckle, he stepped back and ran a hand through his hair. “You are sorry, huh?” When I nodded, he pushed the new coffee machine on the counter nearby, breaking it into pieces.

I could feel my heart getting out of my ribcage, as I jumped at his sudden temper. I hissed in pain when I felt something prick my leg.

“Why are you doing this?” My eyes were stinging with tears right now, and it was getting harder to speak in a straight voice.

“Shouldn't I be the one to ask you that? Why did you do this? An amateur mistake like that? Is the new intern affecting you that badly?” he spat out.

“Well, it's all your fault!” I yelled at his face. I was thinking about him and his ridiculous actions which made no sense to me. One moment he treated me like I was his queen, and the next moment he treated me like this—trash.

“How can any of that be my goddamn fault?” He raised his voice again at me.

“You said that we are dating when we are not. Why did you say that?”

“I'm fucking losing billions here, and you are stuck on that? It just shows your unprofessionalism, Aria Anastasia.”

His words were like a bulldozer running me over and over again; that's how much he was hurting me. “Great. One mistake was enough for you to forget all the things I have done right until now. Fine, fire me if you want.”

I didn't wait for his response and pushed him away from me. I avoided the pain that stung my foot and stormed out of my cabin.

I knew I made a mistake, but Zaiden had no right to treat me like trash just because I was working under him.