Acquiring Hearts (11 page)

“I need to see my girlfriend.”

“Maybe you can postpone it. I’ll call you.

Before he could respond, his phone was ringing. “Bradley Roberts,” he answered.

“Hi Bradley, its Holly.” She went right into what she wanted to say. “I don’t think it is a good idea that you leave Saturday.”

He really didn’t think he needed to keep explaining himself to this woman. “Well, that’s not your decision. If you need anything while I’m gone, you can contact my assistant manager, Rachel. If it’s extremely important you can always email me or call the0 Blackberry.

“At least I’ll have a way to contact you if something goes wrong. Are you at a bar? I hear all noise in the background”

“Yes I am.”

It’s none of your fucking business.

He hated to have these horrible thoughts about her but this is what he had to endure for the past month.

“
Which bar are you at? I probably know it since I’m from Miami.”

“I’m sure you do then. It’s called Captain’s Café.”

Big Mistake telling her where I am.

“I know exactly where that is. Maybe I’ll come and join you.”

This chick is so persistent. Why do I attract all the crazy ones and the want that I do want, barely wants to talk to me?

“I’m getting ready to leave anyway. I’ll just see you tomorrow morning.” She sounded disappointed but he had to be firm with her.

“Ok, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

He hung around the bar a little while longer. Little did he know that Holly had plans of her own.

* * * * *

He was down at the site by nine in the morning. Holly was there already. They were reviewing the final prints for the building. The construction crew was set to begin building on Thursday. Being the project manager, Holly was supposed to take care of everything. When he left Saturday to go home, he should be leaving with a peace of mind.

Holly kept trying to touch his hand while they were reviewing the prints. He was starting to feel uncomfortable around her. “Holly, why are you trying to do this?”

She just looked at him and moved closer to him. “Bradley, I want you in the worst kind of way. I have wanted you since I first walked into your office.” She walked up to him and kissed him.

“Holly, No. Don’t. That was inappropriate. I have to go! You have everything you need to move forward.” He walked away from her leaving her standing there.

“Bradley, wait,” She called out but he was already pulling out of the lot.

He returned back to the condo when he left the site. He couldn’t believe the nerve that Holly had. He called Rachel from his office. She had now moved into one of the empty offices on his floor.

“Rachel Rossini speaking”

“Hey Rachel, it’s Brad. How are you?”

“I’m doing ok. How’s it going down in Miami?”

“It’s going well. Holly is a piece of work. I’ll just leave it at that. She has the finalized prints. Construction is set to begin on Thursday. I’m coming home on Saturday morning. I wanted to see if you could be available this weekend in case Holly needs something. I don’t want to deal with her. She aggravated me today.”

“Sure, that’s not a problem. I’ll email her and give her my cell number as the emergency contact person.” She was such a lifesaver. He was so grateful to have her working for him.

“While I have you on the phone, I wanted to talk to you about Gia.” He didn’t know if this was appropriate but he needed to try to find out what was bothering her.

“What’s wrong,” Rachel asked

“She’s been acting weird lately. She’s been very short with me. She won’t confide in me. Do you know what’s going on?”

“Listen, Brad, she doesn’t want me to tell you anything. All I can say is that a lot of things have happened with her at work and it’s a mess right now. She probably doesn’t want you to worry.”

Now, he was even more worried
.

“When I get home I need to have a long talk with Gia. Hopefully she’ll tell me what’s going on. I’ll probably stop by the office Monday, but we’ll need to keep in touch. I’ll email you the Miami project details.”

“Ok, talk to you soon.”

“Bye”

What could she possibly be going through?

He was distraught to know Gia was hurting. He called and made the flight reservations and sent Gia a text letting her know he was coming home Saturday. He asked her if she wanted to come over Saturday so they could see each other. She said she would.

At least she agreed to see me. That’s a good sign.

Chapter Eleven

Everything was moving smoothly until Thursday, when construction was scheduled to begin. Brad received a call from the owner of the construction company who stated that the appropriate licenses had never been filed.

“That’s impossible I signed all the paperwork. The project manager was handling everything,” Brad said with an incredulous voice. He couldn’t believe Holly would do something like this. It didn’t make sense.

“Brad, you should really look into this. I wasn’t comfortable working with Ms. Thornton on this project but I didn’t want to say anything. I figured if you trusted her then it was ok. There may be more issues than this. We only know about this issue because it is required at this point of the project.”

“I guess there is nothing we can do today.”

“Definitely not today, but I can make a phone call and see what I can do. I can maybe begin next week if we can get this license issue resolved.” He really hoped that this could be resolved quickly.

“Thanks, Joe. Whatever needs to be done, I’m here.

“
I’ll email you and let you know if I need anything else.”

“You can contact my assistant manager at the Philadelphia office since building can’t begin. I will be staying there all next week.

“OK, either you or your assistant will hear from me shortly”

“Thanks Joe, I appreciate it.”

When Brad hung up the phone, he was in shock.

Holly probably thought that if something was messed up and it was not traced back to her, I would have to stay in Miami. Well her plan backfired.

Brad contacted John, Holly’s dad right away and told him he either needed to take Holly off of his project or he was going to find another company to represent him. He wasn’t blaming John, who kept apologizing for his daughter’s actions. Brad just wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again. He was satisfied that John was willing to assign a new project manager.

“I don’t want to lose your business. Rocco is first rate and I think you will work well together,” John said.

Because there wasn’t a whole lot that could be done in Miami, Brad decided to go home earlier. He was going to leave in the morning. Today, he was going to relax and reflect on his life which included his businesses, his home and his relationship. He needed to make some changes. He just wasn’t sure yet what they were… yet.

* * * * *

Brad’s plane landed at 9 A.M. He had Gary meet him at the airport and then drop him off at the office. On the way there he stopped at a flower shop and had roses sent to Gia at work. He filled out the card and tipped the delivery guy extra to ensure they were delivered before the afternoon. The card read:

Gia,

I’m home and can’t wait to see you. Miss you so much. Love, Brad

At the office, the first order of business was to meet with Rachel. He received a lot of welcome backs on the way up to his office. It made him proud to know that his employees liked working for him. When he arrived at Rachel’s office, she was on a call so he retreated to his office to check emails.

An hour later there was a knock at his door and Rachel peeked her head in. “So, how are you?”

“
Good. How’s everything going?”

“Ok, I faxed over the papers to Joe. He’s working on the licensing issue. Hopefully, it will get resolved quickly.”

He really appreciated all of Rachel’s hard work during the past month. “Thank you so much for your help. I’m going to stay the entire week so you can take next week off if you want.

Rachel was shocked. “Wow, thank you. That’s so generous of you.”

“You can even stay at my condo in Miami if you want to. It’s right on the beach. I just wanted to thank you for all you do for me.”

She could see what Gia saw in him. He would do anything for anyone and still run an efficient company at the same time. “You really are a great guy. I’ll put in a good word with my sister.” With that said, she left and went back to her office.

He kept checking his phone to see if Gia contacted him. She must not have received the flowers yet or maybe she was still in court. She would eventually contact him. He didn’t want to keep sitting there, so he decided to go to a meeting and then to the gym. He needed to work off some frustrations and thought the state of the art gym in the building would help.

After the gym, he finally decided to text Gia because he needed some sort of explanation. If she wanted this to be over, then she needed to say it, but in person.

“
Are you home yet?”

“
I just walked in. I was just about to call you.”

“
Are you staying home?”

“
Yes”

“
Don’t leave. I’ll be over within the hour. I’m bringing dinner.”

“
Ok, see you then.”

He was going to get to the bottom of this, the right way. The texting and brief phone calls were starting to get to him. On the way to her house, he stopped to get Chinese takeout and cheesecake for dessert, her favorite.

When he arrived at Gia’s house and she answered the door, he could tell that she wasn’t her normal self. He put the food down on the entryway table and hugged her so tight. He could feel her tense up. “Gia, baby what’s wrong? Are you ok?” He knew something wasn’t right. He could feel it.

“No, but I’m really happy to see you. I missed you so much. I feel so protected in your arms.”

This didn’t make much sense to him. He was hoping she was going to open up to him. “Talk to me. Let’s go over to the sofa. Forget the food for now.”

She looked like she hadn’t slept in weeks. She put her head on his chest and started hysterical crying.

“I can’t believe you’re this upset. Obviously it’s serious.”

“I didn’t want to upset you and I’ve been very depressed lately. I guess seeing you is bringing all the emotions back.”

“For God sakes Gia, tell me.”

“You sure you can handle it?”

“I don’t know but I’ll definitely try and we’ll get through this together.”

“I’ll tell you but don’t interrupt me.”

“Ok, go ahead.”

“I was attacked two weeks ago at work.”