Chapter 43: Chapter 43

Chapter Forty — Three

Ava's POV

The moment I entered the building, I ran — walked over to the elevator. Worrying that Jasper and I would run into each other and I had to face the awkwardness again. I was lucky that Jasper got a call and got busy on that, otherwise I would have arrived into the building with him.

Which certainly would not have been good …

The elevator arrived and I walked inside it. There were two people inside it who walked out on the first floor. Pressing the button on my floor, I leaned against the side wall. The morning had been quite weird. Especially when Jasper chose to ignore me so hard. I was not going to break either.

Nor I was going to apologize for it. It was not my fault what happened. My actions were unintentional. And so, I should not be punished for it. I certainly did not deserve silent treatment from him. And for what? If it was my fault, then so was he. I was not alone in this.

However, the real problem was not even him. It was Charlotte. Now that I knew about her affair, I did not know what she would do. Will she sabotage my work? And what if she takes out her personal anger on my work?

Damn, and she happens to be my direct boss. Who would supervise my work directly.

Out of all the things …

*Ting,

The elevator tinged open, and I walked out of it. I inhaled a deep breath and calmed myself. Today I would avoid going out as much as possible and only focus on work. With that mindset in, I walked inside the office. It was as it should be. However, one thing, or should I say one person, stood out.

Kevin.

He was working on his normal space and looking busy with whatever he was doing.

Thank god. It was a good thing that he was busy with his work because I certainly did not want to see him less than meet him again.

To be very frank, it was a shock that he did not report me to the HR or even Charlotte. I was pretty certain that they had strict policies regarding physical violence. What I had thought of Kevin was entirely different from what he turned out to be.

The moment I slapped him, from the look of his face I really had thought he would certainly get back at me but when I didn't even see or hear from him for days, I relaxed. Now, seeing him here was bringing all the memories back to me.

Anyway, ignoring me, I began to walk back to my seat, greeting all the people that fell in my way. However, I made sure to keep my voice barely above a whisper, otherwise if Kevin ended up noticing my presence, then I was sure he would come to see me. Or not. But still, I wanted to avoid drawing any attention to myself. In the case of 'what if.'

I noticed that my employees took note of me, whispering their greetings. I saw some of them even glancing at each other but none of them said anything, which I was grateful for. I felt it would be better not to be called out at this point. Nevertheless, I reached my seat and sat down. I picked up the book that had rough sketches that I made from yesterday and decided to polish those sketches. Soon, I would need to turn them for feedback to Charlotte. Where she would finalize my work and see what more I should do or what skill I should learn next.

Without further ado, I began working on the work.

It was only a few minutes before I started to work when I felt a shadow over me. Unwittingly, I tore my eyes off the sketch that I was working at and peeped up to see who was disturbing my peaceful work time. And who else could it be apart from Kevin?

He stood behind me with his hands in his pockets and what appeared to be guilty and serious expressions on his face. He was wearing a black shirt and blue jeans, looking more like a sales worker than one of the employees from our team. And he was staring down at me.

As soon as I met his eyes, I wanted to groan.

I had so many things to do and many to deal with. I was already dealing with many of them already. I did not want anything else on my plate at the moment. Furthermore, I just wanted to be left alone at the moment. Wanting to get all the work done in peace and his appearance brought anything but those things.

I closed my eyes to calm myself down and stood up.

“Listen, Ava …” Kevin began speaking as soon as he saw me standing up, but I stopped with a raise of my hand.

“Listen to Me, Kevin. That day … I should not have slapped you, but you pushed me beyond my limits with your actions and words. I lost control of my temper that day.” I told him. Furthermore, I exhaled loudly before continuing again.

“And I am sorry about that. So, if you are here to talk about that, then please just …” I said.

He cut me off.

“I am here to apologize to you.” He said. His sentence gave me a pause, and I knew that he noticed the shock registering on my face. Rubbing his neck, he spoke again. Looking nervous as hell.

“I should not have said or done whatever I did to you. You deserved none of that. I was just — I was just … I don't know what came over me. Not only that, but I was not being myself. I was behaving like an asshole. I am sorry. I hope you can forgive me for what I said and did to you. I hope there is no bad blood between us, anymore.” He explained it to me. My ears pricked up at those words.

Bad Blood?

“Bad Blood? Did you just give a Taylor Swift's song reference?” I asked him. Curiosity and mischievousness filled my voice.

I was listening to his apology, but when he uttered the word Bad Blood, everything faded and my whole attention shifted to the word. I was not a big Taylor Swift fan, but I liked her Bad Blood video and the reference made to her song was so different. Especially coming from a man like him.

“Yeah … No.” He said. He seemed confused by his answer. Like, he was not sure if he should answer that question or not.

“Is that a yes or no?” I probed, weighing on my both hands, using them to inquire about him. Not only was he confusing himself, but he was confusing me too.

My question made him break into a smirk, and I caught a glimpse of the same arrogant look that he had given me on my first day.

“I had heard that song, but I was not trying to use it as a reference. It just happened to come out that way.” He answered me.

Oh!

“Oh …” With both my eyebrows raised, I nodded. Ah. Right. It was just a coincidence. And here I thought that he just picked up a song and quoted its lyrics to me.

Kevin seemed to quiet down after answering my question. Suddenly, I raised my head and noticed that he was grinning at me.

“What are you grinning at?” I asked him.

“I gave you this lengthy apology, and all you seemed to focus on was the fact that some of my words seemed to match a song.” He told me. His words brought me back to reality and I sobered up.

All of a sudden, I was reminded why we were having this conversation to begin with. Because of how he behaved with me. He was apologizing for a behavior that could not be forgiven. Although his apology seemed to be honest and true, I could not forgive his behavior from before.

I did not know if I should forgive him or not but his words, moreover, his expression told me that he was being genuine with his apology. He really appeared to be wanting to solve the mess he created earlier. Therefore, even though I knew I should not, after knowing what he had done, against my better judgement, I accepted his apology. And decided to forgive him.

Everybody screws up once in a while. Especially when they are desperate. However, people change and everybody deserves a second chance. My life also gave me a second chance to improvise my life and choices. He should be given a second chance too.

So, I forgave him.

“What you did was not okay. But I appreciate your apology. And I also appreciate that you are trying to improvise yourself and your behavior. Therefore, I forgive you.” I told him.

Right as these words left my mouth, his face brightened, and he smiled.

“Thank you. You are right, I should not have done what I did. And I will make sure to never repeat that mistake again.” He told me. His words sent a shiver down my spine.

There was a glint in his eyes that passed just as quickly as it entered his eyes. Making me fail to notice what he was thinking or what was going in his mind. Although, I was not certain if I had caught that glint in time, then I would have been able to decipher what it meant.

It made me suspicious about him, but I decided to ignore it. There was no point in imaging it now that it had passed. However, I pinned a note in my head to still stay away from this man and keep guard on place near him.

Forgiving someone did not equal trusting them. That was entirely different.

“Good. You should not make that mistake again. I am giving you a second chance. Not everybody gets it. Hence, you should use it wisely and you better not waste it.” I told him. My tone was serious, and I emphasized everything I said. Meaning every single word I said to him. There was a subtle warning in my words too, which I hoped he noticed. I did not want him to repeat the mistake. Otherwise, there will be a hell of a lot to pay.

“Don't worry. I Will use it wisely and sure as hell, I will not waste it.” He confirmed it.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up at his words.

I nodded my head, trying to appear encouraging and understanding. While I pretended not to appear creeped out by his words.

The tone of his voice …

It just did not give me good vibes.

I forced a smile at him, and he gave me one back of his own. The same boyish looking smile that he gave me when we met on the first day of my work here.

“I will see you later?” He asked as he took a step back.

I smiled and nodded excitedly so that he would leave fast. Finally, he retreated and went back straight to his work seat, the one he was working on from before.

The moment he walked away, it was like a weight was lifted from the surrounding environment. Like something heavy had lifted off my shoulder. I glanced at him over my shoulder to see he had begun working again. It was like he could sense my gaze, he looked at me too and gave me a wave.

I smiled and swirled around.

Something was off with this situation. Especially with this man.

Whatever.

With a shrug, I picked up my sketch and began working again.

The time went on and I kept working. Nothing happened, and I successfully managed to avoid Charlotte and Jasper.

It was not hard because he worked on an entirely different floor from mine. And Charlotte never showed up in the office, so I did not have to make much effort with that either. Which I was thankful for.

After lunch, I received a message.

“Hey. I know it is a bit of an odd request, but I need your help.”