"Do you take this woman to be your wife and stand by her, to love and protect her in sickness and in health?" Vince's eyes found mine, and I give him a nod of support and encouragement for him to say yes. "I do," he finally responded, making everyone in the crowd sigh in relief. Tears roll down my cheeks as I watched the man I was in love with kiss his bride, who was not me. ~~~ Orabella receives a break-up text from her boyfriend the night before she goes for the biggest job interview she has ever gotten an opportunity to go for. To clear her head and forget about her heartbreak, she goes to a bar and drinks the sadness away, but not enough to get drunk as she cannot afford to go to her interview with a hangover. Orabella meets Vince, a charming man at the bar, and they agree to a one-night stand. Things fall apart when Bella goes for her interview the next morning to find the man she had slept with last night, sitting at the head of the table. What happens when she gets a job as his secretary and finds out that he is engaged and set to get married soon? When a one-night stand between a billionaire with a reputation to protect and his secretary turns into two ā and more ā how will Bella and Vince handle the Domino effect of their actions?
Chapter 1 THE BREAKUP
Bella
Richard <3: I want us to break up.
My brows furrowed as I read the text from my boyfriend so much that I lost count of how many times my eyes scanned the text to tell if I was seeing right.
My hand quickly went over to the dial button, hoping it would be a prank.
The line was silent when he picked the call at first, but I finally heard him sigh.
"Orabella," he said.
He never called me that.
"Richard," I replied. "I don't understand. The text you sent..."
"It wasn't working, and you knew it as much as I did," he stated.
"What do you mean by that? We're perfect. We're working just fine. I don't-Please tell me you're joking," I pleaded.
Richard was someone who made a lot of jokes, but I knew when his tone was serious. His tone was completely serious right now, and that sickened me to my stomach.
"What do you mean, Bella? You barely even have time for me anymore. We haven't seen each other in about a month now. Do you really think this makes sense?" He scoffed.
"Come on, Richard. You know I'm preparing for my interview at Hera. The interview is tomorrow, and you know how excited I've been about this for the longest time. You can't do this to me." I shook my head.
My voice was starting to waver as tears filled my eyes to the brim.
"I found someone, Bella."
That was the straw that broke the camel's back. My tears flooded down my cheeks, and wiping them did nothing but fuel them to come down faster. Of course, he had found someone.
"It's not your fault, believe me. I didn't want you to find out from anyone else before I could get the chance to tell you. I can't get into a long-distance relationship with you, Bella, I'm sorry. I really hope you find someone there. I don't want to hold you back. Good luck on your interview."
I wanted to spew curses of spite at him. I wanted to wish him all the bad luck in the world. I wanted to tell him that I hoped the new girl would break his heart the way he just did mine.
I did none of those things. Instead, I hung up the phone and flung it onto a couch, covering my face with my palms and sobbing into them.
"I can't believe he did this to me," I said to nobody but myself, standing up and gathering the notes where I had scribbled down possible interview questions and the best answers for them.
I kept the notes on my coffee table and walked out of my apartment and into the car which I had spent most of my life saving up for, driving straight into the livelier parts of Manhattan.
There was nobody to talk to. I only moved to Manhattan about four weeks ago for the job whose interview I would be in for tomorrow, and making friends was not something that came naturally to me, so I was stuck with a broken heart, all by myself.
I found one of the places I had gotten quite accustomed to since I moved to Manhattan ā a bar right in the middle of town. It was somewhere you went whenever you wanted to see other people live their happy lives and you wanted to forget about your shitty one.
I found an empty stool at the bar, ordering myself a glass of rum and making a mental note to drink, but not enough to knock me out and give me a hangover that would jeopardize my interview at Hera ā one of the biggest jewelry companies in the country.
"That is tough," I heard someone comment when I tipped the glass of rum back and chugged down the liquor at once.
I swiveled in my stool and found a pair of brown eyes examining me.
"I'm just going to take a wild guess and say you got dumped?" He raised a brow, waiting for my answer.
"It's that obvious?" I groaned, frustrated. He laughed at my reaction, taking a fine sip of clear liquid in a low-ball glass.
"Very." He nodded to confirm. "I do have to say, though; he's an idiot for losing a person like you. What kind of person messes up this bad?"
I laughed, stuck between wanting to agree with this stranger and wanting to defend Richard.
"I have a job interview tomorrow. I just hope I don't break down tomorrow in the middle of it. I might just go crazy," I admitted.
"An interview, huh? What job?" He entertained.
"A secretary to the owner of one of the biggest companies around. I don't think I'm allowed to inform strangers about it, unfortunately. I heard the owner is very keen on keeping his private life private."
We sat there for a while, staring each other down. It almost turned into a competition, with neither of us wanting to look away.
"What's your name?"
"Orabella. Bella, if you'd like," I replied.
"That's a beautiful name," he complimented.
"Thanks. I never got to know your name, either," I reminded.
"Vincent. Vince, if you'd like," he joked, using my own words against me and causing me to laugh.
I soon learned that Vince and I were from different spectrums of life that night. While I was born into a family which didn't have much to offer even through the blood, sweat, and tears, he already had his future laid out for him since birth, and he had taken over his father's company at the age of twenty years old.
While my boyfriend just broke up with me and I was finding a way to forget the pain, he couldn't tell if he had ever fallen in love before or not.
"That's not possible," I laughed after he confessed to not knowing how it felt like to be in love. "You're twenty-five years old!"
"And I still have a long life ahead of me. Why rush? I mean, no offense, but you just got your heart broken at twenty-two. Not the best path to take," he pointed out.
"You're not exactly wrong, but I think it's proper to feel a spark with someone, even if it's fleeting."
Once again, he stared at me, and I stared back.
"A fleeting spark, huh?" The corners of his lips curved upwards, and my stomach flipped in reaction.
It felt as though I could read his mind and we were communicating telepathically. He took my hand and led me out of the bar after sorting the bills and telling me not to worry about it.
He drove me off to one of the expensive hotels close by.
When we got into the room, I turned around and smiled at him. "Should we be doing this?"
"Do you want to?" He retorted.
He had played a huge role in making me forget about Richard. Turning around and going back home would be the reawakening of the feelings I had been trying to hide.
Maybe this would be a fresh start. It would be for one night. Maybe a good round of sex would be my boost for tomorrow's interview.
"I want to," I finally answered.
Without another word, he grabbed me by the waist, and our lips clashed with each other, roughly grazing in heated desperation before we both found our rhythm. His hands went everywhere, and he made me forget the very existence of Richard in the hours that I spent with him.
He drove me back to the parking lot of the bar, where I bade him good night and drove back to my apartment in a completely overturned mood.
By the next morning, I was prepared for my interview with a bright smile on my face.
"Orabella Azarie." The woman, who called candidates into the interviewing board's room, finally called out to me.
I straightened my skirt and walked into the office with confidence in how prepared I was.
All of my confidence shattered to the ground when I found the last person I expected, sitting at the head of the conference table in the middle of the room.
Vince.
Other books by Merit Stone
More