Chapter 59: Chapter 59

-57-Apology

"Your regret won't last. Your shame won't last. So don't worry about whatever happened. Just let it go and put effort to improve your actions." [Christian]

Riley settled on a chair. And took out her phone. Running her tongue across her lips to moist them.

'I should call him.'

'Yeah. You should. What you did was humiliating to go through.'

'If it was me, Probably I will flip the table, or maybe dump all my food on your face.'

'But our relationship is not real.'

'Even if it's not. Do you think, you can handle everything he did, in front of his face. A wife flirting.

Her subconscious voice sneered at her.

Inhaling a deep breath, she dialed his number. Waiting for him to pick up.

Christian's eyes narrowed reading the document. What he was afraid of was the only truth. Even if there could be an omission in interrogation. One thing he was sure of. It was that he had stolen Riley from Stuart.

The ringing of his cell phone disturbed his flipping of the pages. His brows scowled. He ignored it. And continued watching their pictures of young age together.

They looked like they were 6 or 7 years old. Wearing white. He guessed It must be of her father's wedding. Riley was laughing while he was kissing her cheek. There was another picture, in which Stuart held her hand, and she was wearing a paper ring.

They seemed too sweet. They seemed to be in love. Even in childhood. He clenches his hands and exhales.

'It was only when you were not in the picture.' He tries to reassure himself.

'Really? Then what about today? We're you not in the picture today?' A question popped up in his mind. And his anger rises again. His lips turned into a scowl. And he rubs his temples in frustration.

His phone buzzes again. But when he looks at it, anger leaves his body, and a small hope emanates from his eyes. He slides the screen and places it against his ear.

He speaks in A softer tone.

"Hello."

There was some sound of exhaling from the other end.

"Hello. Mindy. It's me."

"Riley?"

Again a vague sound of inhaling.

"Yeah."

Though he wanted to behave as nothing happened. But it would be deceiving himself. So he exhales and asks in an uninterested tone.

"What is it?"

The heaviness in his tone saddened her. She understood he was unhappy with her.

While Christian wanted to bite his tongue because of not controlling the slight quivering of his voice. He did not want that. He wanted to behave exactly the way she did. Careless. Reckless.

Riley hears his sharp intake of breath.

She grips on the cell phone. "I am sorry for today."

He gave off a dim chuckle. One that Riley felt was anything was particularly scary.

"Sorry. I don't understand. What are you apologizing For exactly?" He could not believe Riley Brown was apologizing to him. The woman who had once thrown her heated coffee on his face. And had not said a word. The woman who had stepped on his foot with the heel without thinking about the result. Was apologizing to him.

He walks up to the window and looks outside.

"For my behavior. For ignoring you. For not trying enough to make you comfortable. For everything that happened today."

He laughs softly.

"I know, I can not change what happened earlier. With just an apology. However, I know it did affect you, Mindy. And I just choose to apologize to you, because it wasn't intentional. It will never be. Believe me when I say, that I will never hurt you intentionally. Because I always want you to be happy."

Her words propelled him to calm down. She was the one whose behavior had saddened him the most. Otherwise, there were very few people in the world who could manage to bring out emotion from him. Yet, the moment she had said sorry, his heart melted. And there were no more grievances in his heart for her.

He inhales, "Riley."

She was continuing her speech when he says her name. And she halts.

"Yeah."

"I love pasta."

"Huh. What do you mean?" She was confused? What does he mean by that? Does he love pasta?

"Don't you like Pasta?"

"Yeah. I do. But I was apologizing."

"I don't want words, Riley. I want your efforts. Actions. I want to eat pasta today."

The shame returns in Riley. It would have been better if he would have said some mean words to her or just had yelled at her from the cell phone. She would have felt better. She would have felt, her apology was accepted. Her conscience reprimands her.

'How cruel woman you are Riley Brown! How can you do something that selfish to him? A man who thought about you even when you were the one who had saddened him. Who took care of your ego before his self-respect. How can you be ignorant to such a kind man.'

"Riley?"

There it was again, him calling her Riley. Never made her feel good. It made her feel worse.

"Yeah, I hope you can come early. I will be waiting for you. Of course with your favorite Pasta."

"I will try my best to come back early."

"Great."

"Yeah. Great."

Riley didn't want to hang up. Christian did not want to cut the call before her. It was the first time she had called him.

She took a strand of her hair and roll it between her fingers. Noticing they needed a cut. Split ends were forming at the end. After a lot of thinking and awkward silence, she finally thinks of a reasonable question. And asks him.

"How's work?"

"It's going good."

"Good."

"Yeah."

"So? At what time will you be back?"

"I am not sure, but I will make it as early as possible."

"How are the people there?"

"They are nice."

"That's a relief."

A knock on the door with Cynthia's voice disturbed their breathing voices and silence.

"Sir. Your meeting is in 5 minutes."

"Is your boss around?"

"No."

"But I heard a woman say, something about a meeting."

"Ah. She is one of our band members. She is on a call with him."

"But I think I heard knocking too?"

"Nah. You are overthinking honey. There's no door here."

Listening to the word Honey made Riley breathe a sigh of relief. They are going to be fine.

Another knock sounded, but he coughed hard to hide it.

"Okay. Bye Honey. I need to go now."

"Bye."