Enraptured

Chapter 62

I tapped briefly on my phone's screen, making it light up with a wallpaper picture of Demetri and Theo squatting side by side of each other in the garden with dirt littered all over themselves. I smiled at the picture, but what I was more curious about was the time.

11:53 AM.

7 more minutes before Demetri arrives with Theo at my office to have lunch together. He sent me a text half way through the morning, telling me about how Theo was doing on his first day at his office and asking to try out a new café down the street for lunch. And even though I was swamped at work with meetings, I didn't have the heart to tell them no after I saw how happy Theo looked sitting in Demetri's ginormous office chair in the picture that Demetri attached to his message.

Thus, I ended up rushing through my morning meetings and pushed off a few of my afternoon meetings to make room for an hour long break for my boys. But, I was still running a bit late despite cutting my morning meetings short and I knew that Demetri was one to always arrive on the dot if not early, something about wanting to treat his queen right.

The first time he told me that, I tried to refute his words. He was a busy man and already treated me better than anyone I've ever known. There was no way I could ask for more, but I had to quickly give up on trying to argue him after he threatened to retire early and spend all his time waiting on me instead.

My finger tapped anxiously against the edge of my tablet as I waited for the elevator reach my floor. It felt like it was taking ages to climb one floor at a time.

Even though I couldn't get Demetri to concede, I at least didn't want to make him wait for me after he went through all the trouble to take time out of his workday for me.

My ears perked up as a familiar ding rang out from above me.

But right as I was about to make a beeline to my office after stepping out of the elevator, I was blocked by a group of girls waiting in front of the elevator.

I gulped as the elevator doors closed, leaving me trapped between in their little semicircle.

Mr. Harlow only had three VPs for his company, and I was the only girl of the three. Although I didn't work directly with any of these girls, I recognized them as managers reporting to the other two VPs, and I knew that they didn't exactly like me for some reason beyond simply being the only female VP.

The girl in the center with shoulder-length dark brown hair arched her eyebrow when she caught sight of me. She politely greeted, "Hello, Ms. Caddel. We were just talking about getting lunch together. Would you like to join us?"

An uncomfortable feeling crawled down my back. I pulled my tablet closer to myself and quietly murmured, "It's alright. I already have lunch plans."

She walked closer toward me, towering over my tiny stature with her heels. With an odd glint in her eye, she pouted and loudly announced, catching the attention of all the other people on the floor, "We just wanted to be nice to you and invite you to lunch, Ms. Caddel. But I guess it can't be helped that you can't make room for us in your busy schedule." Her eyes darkened with a small smirk as she leaned down closer to me and whispered in my ear, "After all, you must be busy getting under every man in the office to climb the ranks. To think you even hooked yourself a bit fish like the head of the Nikoloas Industries to boot."

I pursed my lips, biting back my words.

This was part of the reason why I didn't like bringing Theo to my office. I didn't want him to see how pathetic his mother was, getting harassed by both men and women alike. I managed to hide it from him well enough for these last couple of years, but Demetri was much too observant when it came to things like this, and I knew I wouldn't be able to last much longer if they decided to spend any more time than they already did at my office.