Chapter 121: Chapter 121

Not knowing how to love

Jared scanned the headline nonchalantly "Engaged Casanova?"

Warning alarms went off in his head as he thought of the one person that was engaged, that could get this rise from Tyler because of the dirt on his name.

And just as he feared, his eyes took in the almost blurred picture of Xavier entering a hotel with two scantily dressed women. There was no mistaking that, that was Xavier despite the poor quality of the image and that disturbed him as his eyes were now fixated on Tyler who was still looking smug.

Maya, he thought standing up quickly as he prayed that she hadn't seen this because the last thing he wanted was for her to have a mental breakdown because of her foolish insensitive fiance.

"Where are you going to?" Tyler eyed him.

"I need to make sure that Maya doesn't see this."

"Too late. That must have been the first headline that she saw immediately she switched on her system this morning."

Jared gritted his teeth, resisting the urge to hit something or in this case someone, "What have you done this time?"

Tyler chuckled, showing off his dimpled face, his eyes shining brightly, "Can't you see? That's the beauty of this whole news. Nothing. Xavier is just a shit hole capable of destroying everything he comes across."

Jared plopped down on his seat closing his eyes.

"A man like that can never love Jared, he doesn't know how to."

***

Maya could tell that something was wrong the minute she noticed the sympathetic look Jessica who hated her completely gave to her when she thought she wasn't looking. She passed her disturbed and headed for her office.

Her phone rang and she smiled, seeing the caller ID. It was such a nice surprise that Alex was the one calling. Seems like the morning was already turning up with nice welcomed surprises.

"Hello," she sat down on her seat expecting his chirpy always happy voice.

"How are you doing, Maya? and I need the truth."

She raised her brow at Alex's serious tone which was foreign coming from him. She examined her phone making sure that was his number and she wasn't mistaking him for another Alex.

"Okay," she blurted out believing that he just might be messing with her, "My body aches, and I feel stressed but not in a bad, I can't take it anymore way but in a good, seems like I'm leaving my mark way," she recited her normal reply whenever the girls ask her how she was doing.

She raised her brow hearing an unmistakable sigh of relief, "Where are you?"

"At work." She replied but it came out more like a question, almost like she was unsure because of the strange way Alex was acting, "Are you okay? I know I didn't tell you before I left Salvador's Inc but everything had happened so fast and you know how moving in with Xavier__"

"Maya?"

She paused now puzzled, wondering what this was about because the seriousness in his voice was even more obvious now.

"No matter what you hear or see don't take any drastic decision or decide anything until you hear from Xavier, okay?"

"Alex, what is this about?"

"Just promise me," he urged making Maya sigh.

"I can't promise you anything until I know what is going on right now."

The call was disconnected immediately and she widened her eyes wondering what was going on.

Jessica called next and she ignored the call now aware that whatever was going on was somehow connected to Xavier and she was so not going to let whatever that man chooses to do with his life affect hers any more than it has already.

She switched on her system the same time Jessica walked in with a disposable cup of coffee.

She nodded in appreciation, immediately aware of how much she needed caffeine.

She saw a just-in-news notification and clicked on the notification without much thought.

Ever since that night with Xavier, when she had acted so unwisely because of her lack of information she had somehow become obsessed with gathering as much information as possible even though what most of the blogs did were just express speculation desperately in need of traffic.

Engaged Casanova? She chuckled lightly, acknowledging whoever had come up with the headline for his or her creativity which only helped pique her curiosity as she waited for the loading image to show.

She was supposed to grin and shrug, skim through the written piece knowing that most of the things were not all true but all that changed immediately her eyes stare at the unmistakable silhouette of Xavier.

There was no way she could mistake a body she had gawked at countless of times, a body that had been against her more than just once, a body she had been with even in the most intimate moments of lust or both of them smiling as they watched a funny TV show.

She had moved on, right? He had told her he wanted to try a relationship because of her but she had rejected it knowing she wanted more, knowing she needed more than just him giving her what she wanted to be happy so what was this tightening in her chest like her heart was being dragged and stomped on repeatedly? What was this unexplainable pain?

Tears blurred her vision and her phone rang again. Desperately, she answered the phone, not checking the caller ID.

"Maya," it was Jasmine.

"Hello." She couldn't even recognize her hoarse voice even as she dug her nails into her skin to stop herself from sobbing.

"I know you said everything that happened between you and Xavier was staged and you felt nothing for him." She nodded wondering what she was trying to say, forgetting that Jasmine couldn't see her.

There was a pause and noise from the other end and hush whisper before she heard Jessica's voice making her close her eyes, knowing that whatever Jasmine couldn't tell her, herself but needed the blunt Jessica's help was not a discovery she wanted to know.

Liar, her subconscious accused her because she didn't know when but somehow it had registered on her and that's why she had run without looking back because every day, every moment Xavier had stolen something from her.

Every conversation they had, every time their gazes clashed she was aware even though she had refused to admit it loudly wishing it away that somehow she gave a part of her away to him. She somehow went ahead and fell in love with Xavier and because she was stubborn and a fool she was now paying the price for that decision.

"Maya are you there?"

"Yes," she jerked, closing her eyes as she nodded at the same time.

"You lied that's what I wanted telling you but I guess you already know that by now," she fought the urge to bawl her eyes out at Jessica's cold clipped voice even though she was aware that was what she needed at the moment to stop running away from her Reality.

She was yet another girl who had lost her heart to Xavier. Just yet another fawning girl amongst the others and that was it. She was nothing special. He had explicitly told her he could never fall in love anyway.