I walked out of the hospital and took a deep breath trying to clear my thoughts. I started walking towards my house. I knew that it was late and I should take a subway instead of walking home but I just wanted to clear my head from all the thoughts which were clawing on my insides. And my house wasn't more than three blocks away.

Papa's condition wasn't getting better. I felt alone and lost. Like there was no one I could talk to. I couldn't call Zach because he was out of the city for some work and I knew if I'd call him he'd come to me the very next day but I did not want to bother him anymore than I already did.

He had his own life and I didn't want him to come to me each time I felt lonely. I was supposed to be strong on my own.

I opened the door and entered inside, putting my bag on the couch, I made my way up to my room. I took a bath and came out, not bothering to eat anything, I put on an oversized tee shirt and crawled under the sheets to let the darkness of a deep slumber consume me.

*************

"Yes, I'll be there in five," I told Mr. Rhodes and put the phone down.

Groaning, I hurriedly collected the papers and put them in a folder before shutting my laptop down. Fixing my skirt, I made my way to his office.

"Good evening Mr. Rhodes," I said as I took the seat in front of him.

"Good evening," Mr. Rhodes absentmindedly replied and took the files from my hand and started studying them.

Sometimes when I really thought about it, it seemed that I knew two different versions of this man. I still vividly remembered the day at Kevin's event and how he asked me for a dance and treated me like I was the only thing that mattered and how the very next day he acted like nothing had happened between us.

Like he hadn't felt that spark and that I was foolish to assume that something could ever happen between us.

"Miss Reinhart?" he said and I snapped out of my trance.

"Yes?" I quickly replied as a blush crept up my face.

"Are you alright? I said your name three times."

"Yes, just a headache," I lied and shrugged it off and he nodded.

"I'll be flying to Florida tomorrow morning. I assume you have made my reservations there?" he inquired.

"Yes, I did," I replied.

"Good. For some reasons my stay will be longer than expected so inform the hotel that I would be staying for four days," Mr. Rhodes said and I nodded.

"I'll do it right away," I stood up from the chair and turned around, ready to leave the office and get some air.

"Isabelle?" just as I was about to step out of the office, his voice stopped me short in my tracks. And the fact that he said my name told me that whatever he was about to say wasn't related to work.

"Yes?" I turned around and saw him intently staring at me.

He stayed silent for a while and kept looking at me, like he wanted to say a thousand things and yet nothing at the same time.

Come on say something

"Nothing. You can go," he shook his head and went back to working on his laptop.

***************

Alex saw me standing near the counter and as soon as I saw him looking at me, I turned around and started walking in the opposite direction.

Of course he easily caught up with me.

"Go away Alex, Mr. Rhodes is not here and he would kill me if he got to know that I wasted so much of a second," I whined and Alex chuckled.

"Don't worry sweetheart, I'm going home shortly anyway," he draped his arm around my shoulder as we walked towards my cabin.

"Real responsible," I rolled my eyes.

"I just wanted to ask you about something..." Alex trailed and I furrowed my eyebrows together.

"Well then go ahead. I'm all ears."

"By any chance has Ace called since he left two days before? Or did he say something out of ordinary to you before leaving?" I could hear the concern in his voice he was trying hard to hide.

"No, nothing besides the usual. Is everything okay?" I asked, feeling a little bit worried myself.

"Yeah, it's probably nothing," he shrugged it off and I got the hint that he did not want to talk about it.

"Alright then," I said as we entered the cabin.

"Hey would you go out on a dinner date with me tomorrow night before I fly to Alaska?"

"Aww I wish I could but I'll be working late tomorrow night. I've got to finish that project Mr. Rhodes gave me before he comes back," I smiled at him and he rolled his eyes and muttered a 'screw the project' under his breath.

************

I rubbed my neck and took a sip of the coffee before shaking my head and getting back to tallying the work.

To spend the entire day in front of a laptop screen sucked. Mr. Rhodes was coming back tomorrow evening and I would hate to disappoint him when he gave me four freaking days to complete a project he himself could do in merely two days.

I didn't know what time it was and honestly, I didn't even care. It wasn't like there was anyone waiting for me back home to come early. Working at least kept my mind off of certain things I didn't want to think about.

My phone rang and I answered it without looking at the name flashing on the screen.

"Hello?"

"Hey Isabelle," Alex spoke and I smiled.

"Hi what's up?"

"Uh—I need a favor," he said in that boyish tone he used whenever he needed something.

"Alex you know I'm busy. Mr. Rhodes is coming back tomorrow," I said while scribbling down on the paper.

"Yeah about that. He's back already," Alex said and my hand stopped short.

"Oh..."

"Yeah...so would you do me a favor now?" he asked with a little more hope in his voice and I rolled my eyes.

"Depends. What do you need?"

"You know I'm not in the state right?"

"Yeah."

"Well........don't get mad but I need you to go to Ace's place right now," he quickly said and I scoffed.

"Oh hell nah."

"Come on Isabelle. He's mad at me and worst thing is that he doesn't even know I left while he was gone. Only you can save me from him now."

"You're not making sense," I told him, relaxing back on the chair and taking a gulp of my coffee.

"Look.. Ace thinks that I'm in town and I have that file he so desperately needs right at this moment. I cannot let him know that I left tonight when I was supposed to leave tomorrow afternoon. Now the thing is.... I don't have the file. It's in my office and Ace thinks that it is at my place. This is where you come in. Ace called me to let me know that he landed like ten minutes ago and now he's asking me to get him the file. I told him that I had somewhere to be and I was in the office so I gave the file to Isabelle, who would now deliver it to you. Now would you be so kind to save your friend's ass?"

"Oh....wow. You're an asshole, you know that, right?" I stood up from my seat and fixed my clothes while talking to him.

"Yeah I know....now would you? Pretty please?"

"Fine. Tell me where is the file?"

*************************

I took a deep breath as I stood right in front of his mansion digging my nails into my palms.

Something told me that today was not going so well.

And the fact that Alex told me that Mr. Rhodes wasn't at his best right now and would probably lash out at anything so I was supposed to stay pretty much silent made me even more nervous.

I knocked at the door, hoping for Elizabeth to open so that I could give her the file and run away from here before Mr. Rhodes knew about my presence.

The door clicked and I was seconds away from turning around and flying back to the street.

Mr. Rhodes opened the door.

Of course.

"Uh...Good evening Mr. Rhodes," I said and tried not to get too distracted by his looks.

His hair was wet, probably because he just took a bath and his eyes were bloodshot, either because of lack of sleep or excessive intake of alcohol. He was wearing sweatpants and a tee shirt and suffice to say, he looked like a model who came straight out of Calvin Klein shoot.

"Good evening. Come inside," he said and I saw his eyes taking in every inch of me which made me even more self-conscious.

Damn it, should've dressed better than this.

The lights were out and I didn't see Elizabeth anywhere which indicated that either he was alone or she was hiding somewhere in a room.

Mr. Rhodes led me to the living room and turned the lights on before taking a seat on the sofa and asking me to sit.

"Mr. Kingston told me that you needed these files," I said in a timid and soft voice in a attempt to make conversation before the tension ate us alive.

"Yeah. I kinda need to e-mail it to someone tonight," he said and leaned back on the headrest.

He looked exhausted. I wish I could just suggest him to take a few days off or maybe work less and take more care of himself.

"Alexander told me you were still at the office? It's almost nine," he said after a moment of silence and I nodded.

"The Ohio project still needs some revision," I told him and I saw something flash in his eyes....if I wasn't going crazy, I could have sworn it was something close to admiration.

"Hmm," he said and closed his eyes and rubbed his temple.

God, he looked miserable and I hated the fact that I was helpless.

He opened his eyes after a moment and before I could move my eyes away, he caught me staring. He saw with the same emotion I was never able to decipher and I tried to look through his facade. We kept staring at each other, I didn't realise how many moments had passed before the bell rung and broke us out of the trance.

"I'll be right back,"he said and I nodded as I watched him leave.

***********

Don't forget to leave a vote you all ❤