Rise of the Billionaire actress

Aaron was in the male restroom of the building. After being rudely asked out by Mr Austin, he figured he might as well relieve himself before leaving the building.

On getting out to the hallways, he witnessed Deloise rush out of the office and after a few steps, plopped shakily on the floor with her head bowed.

” Was she…crying?”Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

Aaron thought, unsure of what was going on. He carefully took steps forward, not knowing how to approach the situation. As he got closer, her sobs got louder and the fact she was crying became glaring.

He knew that Mr Austin was pretty angry at the situation and the fact she was a no-show. But he felt it couldn’t have been that bad.

Knowing Mr Austin, it was going to be a warning at most. It wasn’t something he expected his firecracker to be bawling her eyes over.

Aaron stood in a standoffish stance before Deloise. A part of him wanted to move on with his business like he didn’t care but something within him hindered his movement. He couldn’t stand seeing her look so destroyed over something that was probably nothing.

If there was one thing he hated, it was crying girls. He believed that women in general were a nuisance but a crying woman took it to another level.

He tended to avoid situations where women were involved, more less when the woman in question was bawling her heart out. The fact that he wasn’t running the other way was something he couldn’t explain.

” Hey… are you alright? ” He managed to speak before he convinced himself otherwise. For the first time in a long time, he was making an attempt to talk to a woman of his own accord.

Deloise’s face was reddened. Her face was a sight for sore eyes and she had snot all over. Safe to say she wasn’t the prettiest at the moment.

Despite her blocked nose, the beautiful and alluring scent of cinnamon and fresh wood filled her senses as footsteps approached where she sat on the floor, cradling herself.

” Are you alright? It couldn’t have been that bad.”

Deloise was brought to her senses at the intrusion of the voice. A male voice which she found oddly familiar. She let her eyes seek out the owner of the voice and in no time, she was looking at the brown orbs of Aaron.

Upon seeing her face, it took a shitload of willpower on Aaron’s side not to burst out with laughter. Not the mocking kind of laughter but a truly genuine one.

Looking down at the firecracker, all he could see was a little child. One who was making a fuss in order to gain the attention of others around. The fire she once exuded was gone; like it was never there to begin with!

Unknown to him, his stoic facade was cracked and his hidden smile wasn’t so hidden anymore. Something Deloise was quick to pick up.

” What’s funny?” She asked with an eerily calm tone and made to get up on her feet. Displeasure written all over her. ” Is there some joke you want to share with me?”

Aaron wasn’t a fan of her tone and immediately responded with as much attitude.” Maybe if you weren’t such a killjoy you would understand that one doesn’t need a joke to smile. Happiness is free.” He said while sporting a smile that quickly converted into a smirk.

” Yeah right. I’m a killjoy because I am upset I nearly got cut off from a job I’ve prepared my entire life for. All because some prick failed at his job to properly disperse information! ” She said, anger flowing through her veins.

” Okay, now that I wouldn’t agree. You got the prior notice but you choose not to show up. Don’t shoot the messenger alright?”

Aaron was defensive. He couldn’t stand and watch her proportion blame on him for no justified reason. He made sure to personally reach out to her when he was directed to inform her.

She couldn’t pretend like she didn’t get the information he rightly and personally passed across to her. He wasn’t going to let her. At least not on his watch.

” You have no idea what I’m talking about. Maybe you were escorted to the venue but normal people like me, didn’t even get the notice.”

” I hate liars. If you were busy or didn’t feel like showing up at the time, just say so. There’s literally no point lying about it.”

” I see no reason why I should explain anything to you. Why are we even having this pointless conversation again?” Deloise pondered aloud. Not understanding what his problem was.

” Pointless you say? I called you and informed you about the damned meeting and here you are trying to blame somebody for what I believe was as a result of your carelessness. ” Aaron jabbed, still not having it.

Deloise was losing it at this point. Her fist clenched in anger and she saw Aaron in a different light. He was the reason she got in this mess!

If only he’d done his job properly then all of these would have been avoided. The nerve he had to call her careless made the veins in her forehead pulse.

” Oh… you were the person who supposedly informed me about the damned meeting?!”

” Correction. I told you about the meeting.” He snapped his fingers as though trying to get her attention.” The one who called and instructed that you head over to this building? Remember? ” He spoke as one trying to explain things to a little child.

Deloise’s eyebrows creased in confusion as she tried to understand what the hell he was talking about. Suddenly, a light bulb went off in her head and immediately, everything made sense. The only downside was, she wasn’t just angry. She was seething!

” You’re that guy?! You told me to come to the ‘ Administrative block’, you dare to call that an information to come for the meeting?! ” Her eyes widened in disbelief at what he was saying.

” Last time I checked, this is the administrative building.” He said offhandedly. ” You know another bizarre fact about this building? It holds the office of the director. Ring a bell?”

Aaron spoke in the most sarcastic voice he could muster. Which only fueled Deloise’s anger and frustrations at what was fast becoming her life.

” You must be crazy. Hell, are you stupid? In what world does calling a random person and instructing her to ‘ head to the administrative block ‘ translate to my invitation to meet the director?”

” I don’t care what you think. It’s clear that you received the information but decided to play dumb with it.”

” Can you listen to yourself? You caused this and you still have the nerve to show up before me and spew crap? You couldn’t even apologize for what you’ve caused me? This! All of this?! It’s all your fault and you stand there to tell me I’m dumb?! ”

” Okay, that’s enough. It’s not my fault that you want to be spoon-fed everything. I am not responsible for your sheer carelessness and incompetence. I’m not your mother and you can go shed more crocodile tears elsewhere, it’s disgusting.”

Aaron didn’t spare her another glance and walked away. He ultimately regretted speaking to her. Now his mood was soured.

Upon hearing his last words, Deloise felt stupefied. Of course he wasn’t her mother. What was she expecting coming out here alone to pursue a dream that seemed to move farther the more she drew closer.

Defeated, she stood up and walked out of the building, envisioning her bed as she went. She wanted to sleep and never wake up. It seemed like everyone was right about her all along. What was she doing thinking that she was going to surprise them and actually make something out of this?

Just a few weeks in and she was already at the verge of losing everything. She lost her mother, her friends and now she was on the verge of losing the dream that caused her the former things.

The moment she entered her room, her throat tightened as she saw every single negative word thrown at her from the past regain life and torment her afresh.

Filled with self doubt and in isolation, Deloise broke down in the middle of her room and cried so hard she wondered if there were any more tears left in her.

She couldn’t do this. Her mother was tight after all. She had made a terrible mistake coming here and leaving the life she knew all too well into the unknown.

Now she was paying for dreaming too big. It felt like the world was having a laugh at her. As Deloise thought about every single event from Ms Ema, Stella, Mr Austin, Aaron and her supposed colleagues. She was demoralized and with the lowest mood, she crawled into her bed: and for the first time, wished that it was all a dream.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin, Ms Esther’s phone was attacked by a consistent inflow of sweet messages. Sweet and very familiar messages.

At every point in time, her phone beeped with an all new message along the lines of how he was going to wait until she gave him an audience. The last message she got caused something to flutter within her. It read:

” I’m on the rooftop. Please come to me. My Queen.”