When a Champion Wants You (5 page)

“
Okay…let me try to say
this without laughing,” Melanie said and began laughing
anyway.

“
Girl, you’re crazy,” Emily
said, taking a bite from her sandwich.

“
No. Dimitrius is crazy. He
told me that he was planning on spending the rest of his life with
me.”

“
What!” Emily shouted,
forgetting she was in a restaurant. But the place was so loud, no
one was disturbed by her sudden outburst.

“
That’s what he said...”
Melanie drawled out.

“
What!” Emily shouted
again.

“
Okay, Emily…at some point,
you have to say something other than
what
.”

“
I can’t. I’m like totally
in a state of shock right now. Dimitrius Champion told you what,
again?”

Melanie narrowed her eyes
at her. “You think this is funny, don’t you?”

“
I do,” Emily admitted. “I
honestly can’t imagine Dimitrius doing something like
that.”

“
Well he did. He even told
me that he made dinner reservations at Connelley’s tonight to
discuss it with me further. And get this…he didn’t
ask
me to come to dinner.
It was more like a demand that I meet him there.”

Trying her best to disguise
a smile, Emily said, “You should meet him, girl.”

“
The devil
is
a lie. I ain’t meeting
him nowhere.”

“
Why not?”

“
Um, hello…you don’t recall
me telling you how Dimitrius interrogated me this morning? And what
kind of man takes it upon himself to make dinner reservations for a
woman he doesn’t know and then
demand
she be there.”

“
It’s the Champion way,”
Emily said, thinking about all the things Dante had done to secure
her. Not only had he created a fake online profile, he also tricked
her into signing a contract in order to get her to marry him. “I’ll
admit, the Champion men are different, but they know what they
want. And I love Dante more and more every day.”

“
Well, that’s Dante. They
might be brothers, but Dimitrius is no Dante.”

“
Dimitrius is not that bad,
Melanie. You just have to get to know him, and then you’ll see.
Plus, I think he’s perfect for you. You two can balance each other
out.”

Melanie frowned. “How’s
that?”

“
Well, he’s uptight and
grouchy, and you’re lively and funny. You both are attractive. He’s
tall. You’re tall-
ish
. You would look good walking next to him.”

Melanie rolled her eyes.
“Whatever.”

“
Plus, it would be so cool
if you and Dimitrius ended up getting married. That would make us
sisters-in-law.”

“
And what makes you think
that I want to be with a grouch? And why are you talking about
marriage?”

“
You said he told you that
he wanted to spend the rest of his life with you,
right?”

“
Yeah, but—”

“
Then what is he talking
about if he’s not talking about marriage?”

“
I don’t know, and I
honestly don’t care. I want to get this job. I can’t be worried
about your brother-in-law and his arrogance.”

“
You better be worried
about it.”

“
Why?”

“
Because if you get the
job, you’re going to see him every day, so you might want to take
him up on his offer to go to Connelley’s. If you don’t, then it
probably won’t make for a good working relationship.”

“
Ugh,” Melanie grunted. “I
can’t believe this is happening.”

“
Yeah, now you know how I
felt when I kept telling you to stop trying to fix me up with Dante
but all you kept saying was,
take a leap
of faith, Emily
. I took a leap of faith
and, it worked for me. Now, it’s your turn, my dear. But dealing
with a man like Dimitrius, you’re going to need more than a leap of
faith….more like a surge of conviction.” Emily chuckled.

Melanie grunted again.
Standing, she said, “I’m going back to work.”

“
You haven’t eaten anything
yet,” Emily said.

“
I can’t…lost my appetite.
I’ll see you later.”

“
Alright,” Emily said,
watching Melanie walk away. “I expect to hear all about your dinner
date later.”

“
Whatever,” Melanie said as
she continued towards the door.

* * *

At work, Melanie couldn’t
concentrate. She was able to check in guests and make a few
reservations, but her mind was occupied with Dimitrius. The man
really told her that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with
her. It was baffling to watch him go from one extreme of disliking
her to the complete opposite end of the spectrum of wanting to
marry her. Was he insane?

And then he wanted her to
meet him at Connelley’s for dinner. As Emily was so quick to point
out, if she didn’t go, but ended up getting the job, then things
would be tense between her and Dimitrius. However, if she did go,
she would be extremely uncomfortable around the man. He was a bit
of a mystery. A presumptuous, hard-nosed, narcissistic mystery.
Although he was handsome and wealthy, something about him
frightened her, and she knew what that something was.

The Champion men were
well-known in Asheville because of their million-dollar corporation
but more famously due to their reputation with the ladies. Although
he hadn’t been rumored to have been attached to anyone recently,
Dimitrius could very well have any woman he wanted. He was
thirty-four, so handsome it should be against the law, and the man
had a body out of this world. Even when Melanie had briefly caught
sight of him a year ago, she knew how built and masculine he was.
Now, a year later, he wanted to have dinner…

Chapter 7

Back at the
office now, Dimitrius sat behind his desk, checked
a few emails then walked over to Dante’s office. The door was open
as he approached.

“
What’s up, man?” Dante
said.

Dimitrius walked in, took a
seat and said, “I’ve decided to take your advice.”

“
My advice?”

“
About Melanie.”

“
Okay. So what did you
do?”

“
Well, I saw her with Emily
at lunch today so I decided to apologize about the
interview.”

Dante nodded.
“Good.”

“
And I told her I wanted to
spend the rest of my life with her.”

With a look of surprise on
his face and raised eyebrows, Dante said, “You did
what?”

Dimitrius smirked. “Look,
man. I like her, okay. I’ve had my eyes on her for a long time now.
I’ve just been avoiding her.”

“
Why?”

“
Because I wasn’t sure if I
was ready for another commitment…not sure if I wanted to attempt to
go down that road again. You know things didn’t end well between me
and Kyra.”

Dante nodded. He knew that
all too well.

“
I think it’s time for me
to settle down and watching you and Emily so happy together has
made me realize that it’s what I want.”

“
So you told her that you
wanted to spend the rest of your life with her?” Dante asked with a
smirk.

Dimitrius chuckled. “I did.
She looked like he wanted to slap me…that’s after she laughed at
me.”

“
Why did you go at her so
strong?”

“
Is there any other way to
go in? You went after Emily even stronger if I recall.”

Dante grinned, remembering
how he had borderline stalked Emily. But in the end, he got what he
wanted and now, they were a happily married couple.

“
Do you believe what father
used to tell us? That a man knows the exact moment when he meets
the woman he wants to marry?”

“
Of course. I believe it. I
believed it when I met Anita. That’s why, when she died, I felt
such a heavy loss. I didn’t think I would ever have that feeling
again. But when I saw Emily, I knew. Even before I ever had a
conversation with her, I knew.”

“
That’s the same way I feel
about Melanie. When I first saw her, I knew there was something
there.”

“
Then, do whatever it
takes.”

“
That’s what I plan on
doing, bro,” Dimitrius said. “Now let’s talk about this app. I
already have it built. In a few days, I’m hoping to run a
debuggable version of it.”

“
Okay. What about a
simplistic user guide for it?”

“
I’m building the user
guide into the program under a
help
menu.”

“
And do you think it will
be ready for the presentation in Vegas.”

“
It’ll be ready. One thing
I need to know from you is, are we making this a free app that goes
along with the new eRoll software package, or will there be a
charge for the app?”

“
Hmm…that’s a good
question.”

“
If you’re on the fence
about it, what I could do is make a
lite
version of it for free.
The
lite
version
could allow for time entry only. Then I could do a premium version
that contains all the bells and whistles.”

“
How much time will that
take?”

“
The lite version will be
ready for the presentation. The premium version wouldn’t be ready
until sometime after.”

“
You know what…I think we
should only make one version of the program. And we should charge
at least two dollars per download. I know most apps are free
nowadays, but the app will make it easier for users to input their
time, so I don’t think it’s too much to ask for users to pay a
two-dollar fee for convenience.”

Dimitrius nodded. “I
agree.”

“
Then, it’s
settled.”

“
Cool,” Dimitrius said,
standing. “Well, I’m going to get out of your hair.”

“
Alright Dimitrius.
Later.”

Chapter 8

At home, Melanie
finger-combed her hair into a thick ponytail. She
decided to meet Dimitrius for dinner, but only to turn him down
easy, thus keeping their communication intact. Emily was right
about one thing. If she had to work with Dimitrius, then things
would seem weird and strained if she didn’t show up at Connelley’s
to, at the very least, talk to him. And she already had what she
would say in mind. She would tell him that she was flattered by his
bold proposal (although she hadn’t been), that she knew there
must’ve been a flood of women waiting for a chance to be with him,
but she wasn’t the one. She was just getting over her ex, Scott.
She didn’t want to invite unnecessary chaos into her life. Being
with a man like Dimitrius would bring just that, and then
some.

Connelley’s, a place well
known for having the juiciest steaks around, was an upscale
restaurant in Asheville with reservation booked months in advance.
Melanie had never been there, but had heard about the place. It was
usually where the elite would dine. Barack and Michelle Obama had
dined there once on a visit to Asheville, so Melanie knew the place
must’ve had a strict dress code. Keeping things simple, she slid
into a comfortable pair of black slacks, a modest, light pink
blouse then threaded a pair of silver bangles in her ears. After
stepping into a pair of black flats, she grabbed her purse and was
out the door. The time was 6:45 p.m. She knew Dimitrius had a thing
about punctuality, so she thought she would ruffle his feathers a
bit by getting there late.

* * *

She walked in the
restaurant at 7:06 p.m., following the waitress to the table. When
her eyes locked with Dimitrius’, she knew this was going to be a
long, interesting night, one that she’d hoped to cut short, but by
the look on his face, she could tell he had a lot to
say.

“
Hi,” he said, standing,
walking over to her side of the table. He pulled out a chair,
allowing her to sit.

Dimitrius is a gentleman?
Hmm…who knew,
she thought to herself.
“Thank you,” Melanie said.

“
You’re welcome,
Melanie.”

Why did the way he said her
name have to sound so seductive? It rolled off his tongue
effortlessly and, at the same time, she caught a trace of his
cologne. She watched him sit again, across from her at the small,
round table, wearing the same three-piece suit he’d worn
earlier.

“
You’re late again,” he
said.

Melanie frowned.
Seriously?

“
It was a joke,” he replied
once he saw the disturbance in her forehead.

“
Usually when people joke,
they smile, laugh…something of the sort,” she
admonished.

He smirked.

“
That’s a start,” Melanie
said, smiling. “So, Mr. Champion, what am I doing here?”