“So, what do you think?” Lucas asks his best friend. It was the next day and they were both at the Augustine Company within Mason’s office. Lucas was hanging out here with him even though they were still within working hours, sitting on his desk. Even with the amnesia he’s had the past three years, the man has never changed.
“Think? Well… I think it’s great that you’re getting your memories back. Even a tiny bit counts…” Mason’s words trail off and he sweats as he remembers his boss’s threat from yesterday.
Davis ordered him to not mention Aria and to keep her name out of his head. The distress could make him sick. Lucas is his best friend, how could he lie to him? They’ve been friends for years. When Mason had a nasty divorce, Lucas let him stay at his house for as long as he liked and even gave him rides. Hell, he still does. And now he’s being forced to lie to his face. But what choice does he have? He doesn’t know what Davis is careful of.
Mason clears his throat to make sure his voice doesn’t waver as he speaks again with his eyes on his papers, still trying to work while in the middle of their conversation. “However, it’s just a woman, Lucas. She was probably just a fling you’ve had in the past. It’s best to forget about her and focus on what’s going on in the present instead of muddling over the past.”
Lucas frowns as he hears his friend blow him off. “Damn… that’s surprising. I thought you’d be more ecstatic.” Mason winces but doesn’t say anything else. Lucas heaves a sigh and looks away while crossing his arms. “Perhaps you're right… but either way, we’ll be working together for a little while so it’s not like I can’t see her.”
“Just keep your head screwed on straight, Lucas,” Mason murmurs.
Lucas watches him carefully, noticing that Mason is acting a little off, but eventually dismisses the thought and grins while placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Don’t I always?”
Mason gives a wry snort as Lucas finally gets off of his desk and calls over his shoulder. “Well, it’s almost time for me to meet with her again so I’ll see you later.”
“Already?? I mean… uh, good luck, Lucas.” Mason quickly tries to get a hold of his startled reaction before Lucas can question him. The former heir CEO looked a bit surprised but he brushed it off thankfully.
“Thanks, but don’t need it.” Comes Lucas’s cocky response before he leaves Mason’s office. Mason’s fake smile fades as he watches his friend go and then he looks back down at his trembling hands. What if Davis gets impatient with his nephew’s continued meddling with Aria? Will he take it out on him?
But there was more than one reason that Lucas wanted to see Aria. She may have been the very first thing that brought back the tiniest shred of memory, but, there was also something else she brought back as well. Something much stronger but it wasn’t an image in his head. No, it was a warmth in his chest. A desire to be with her. Songbird… and yet, through all the yearning, deep within his heart he could feel a sharp stab of guilt. He couldn’t help but wonder, why is that?
He drives to the small company again to meet with the agent he’ll be working with. Upon entering the lobby, he was surprised to see a different woman there. She turned around and faced the handsome man with an alluring smile. With strawberry blonde hair and a busty body, any man would be drooling over her but Lucas just frowned in disappointment. Where’s Aria?
“Mr. Augustine! It’s a pleasure to meet you. I heard you were seeking a partnership with an agent, I will gladly assist you.” She says while walking forward towards him. He recognized her face from photos, she was this company’s boss. The woman must’ve heard that he was looking for an assisting agent and gladly took the spot from Aria. But Lucas wasn’t there for just partnership anymore.
“Where’s Ms. La Belle?” Lucas asks straight up front, not caring for the woman’s name or what else she has to say. Her sexiness turns sour as soon as he asks for the other agent’s name who works beneath her.
“She’s not at work today.” The woman stubbornly says. She was very used to getting her way from men because she didn’t even bother to hide the jealousy in her eyes.
Lucas crossed his arms. “Then tell me when she is. I won’t work with anyone else.” He says stubbornly before turning around and fixing to leave. Before he walks out the door, he calls over his shoulder. “Oh yeah, I’ll be taking my business elsewhere too.”
The boss winced. She knew he was willing to spend a lot of money on his projects and her company needed it. She grumbled some curses under her breath before forcing a smile. “Fine, fine. Of course, anything you’d like. I’ll give her a call.” She finally says while turning away. Her fake smile turns grouchy before her back even faces him.
Lucas could hear her mumbling stuff on the phone in an aggressive tone that sounded as if she was making threats. By the time she turned around to face him again, she pasted that smile back onto her big lips. “She’ll be here shortly. Have a nice day.” This time, she didn’t hesitate to leave the room. It looked as if she was silently seething and she didn't want to get out of the room right then and there or she’d blow like a volcano.
Lucas walked outside the lobby and waited patiently while leaning his back against the wall. Some women rubbed him the wrong way and she was a part of that pack. His head lifts as a car pulls up into the half-full parking lot. Aria stumbles out of her car, looking a little messy. Her glasses were gone, meaning that she must have eye contact. This time her hair was up in a neat ponytail. She smiles and waves as she approaches.
“Hey, Lucas! I mean, Mr. Augustine.” She quickly corrects herself with a small smile.
Lucas was about to return her greeting but he flinches when another pounding headache pulses through his skull. Another memory flickers a vision through his tightly closed eyes. He hears her voice singing again, and then he sees her smaller hand gently grasped into his as music for a slow dance begins to play. Again, he sees her smile and feels her heat as her body is pulled very close to his.
Aria sees his sudden falter full of pain just like yesterday and she quickly runs over and grabs his arm again. “Lucas!”
When he snapped out of the memory, her face from the slow dancing between them was at the same distance as it is now as she worriedly held on to his arm. Instead of a tender smile, her big gray eyes were filled with concern. A blush lights up his cheeks when he realizes how close they are and he quickly turns his head away.
“I’m fine… don’t worry about me.” He runs a hand through his blonde hair again as if trying to brush off the embarrassment with his pain. “Did your boss give you a day off today or something?” Aria’s concern changes into something darker and she doesn’t look him in the eye. He had suspicions that the boss had purposely sent her home today just so that she could be his assistant. And by Aria’s reaction, his suspicions were true. After being a bully throughout most of his youth, he can see another one in an instant.
Lucas could feel a vein throb in his neck as he turned away, back towards the building. “That’s what I thought. Stay here, I’ll go have a word with her.”
“Wait! Don’t!” Aria more frantically grabbed at his arm to stop him. “It’s not worth the trouble, Mr. Augustine, please…” Her last words are whispered. It was true that she didn’t want him to get in trouble with her boss, but what bothered her most was seeing him get aggressively confrontational. It brought up bad memories from their past that she was still struggling to forget.
Lucas sees her desperation and decides to relax his body. “Alright… well, I guess let’s get back to work, shall we? Oh, and call me Lucas.” The handsome man gives her a grin. Aria’s distress eases away as she gives a nod and one of her tender smiles. Her smile was so distracting that he almost tripped as he walked next to her and she giggled as they walked into the company.
Across the street, a car was parked with the driver still in the seat, hidden behind tinted windows so dark that they almost appeared black. But from behind those windows, somebody watched the duo from afar with cold resolve.
“So if we do this, then…” Aria explains to Lucas while pointing from paper to paper within the files she had collected to help them with his project. The pretty woman was so caught up in explaining their plan and layout that she didn’t even stop to ask Lucas for any opinions of his own. But when she finally did look at him, she spotted him staring at her from the other side of the table that they sat on. Aria becomes flustered with a blush as she raises her voice. “Mr. Augustine!” Lucas jumps when his surname is yelled at. By his reaction and sudden change in expression, it was obvious that Aria’s words had gone in one of his ears and flew right out the other without registering anything in his brain. Aria heaves a tired sigh and crosses her arms while shaking her head. “Honestly, sir, if you want my help then you need to take this seriously!” The former heir gives a sheepish grin since he was just caught gazing at her in a trance from her beauty once again. “Sorry. And, again, call
Aria’s frozen body is followed by a pounding heart as Lucas’s face leans closer to hers. She instinctively closed her eyes just to hide her panic mostly. As she begins to feel his warm breath against her skin, a knock at her office’s door makes the lovebirds jump and spin around right as Aria’s boss walks in.“Are you two- oh…” Her eyes were wide with awkward surprise when she saw what she had just walked in on and then she pretended to fix her shirt and act professional, even lifting her chin a bit as she spoke. “Ms. La Bella. Don’t forget you have an appointment with someone else as well. You’ll have to wrap up what you’re doing with Mr. Augustine soon.” The woman says before walking out of the room, her high-heeled shoes leaving behind loud clacks as they hear her walk down the hall.The black-haired woman lets out a tired sigh. “Oh, gosh, I almost forgot!” She then looked at the man apologetically. “Sorry, Lucas. We’ll pick it back up again tomorrow.”The look in Lucas’s eyes sho
“Thanks for coming with me, Mason. I knew I could rely on you.” Lucas says to his best friend as they wait in the doctor’s office.“Of course. Whatever you need, I’ll always be right here for you.” Mason smiles back at him, doing his best to make sure it doesn’t look like it’s being forced. The man still felt awful for lying to Lucas about being a supportive friend.The situation Mason was in felt like torture, having to lie to the one man who had had his back through the best and worst of times. But he was still terrified over what Mr. Augustine would do to him if he refused to follow his orders. All he had to do was report to his boss about Lucas’s activities, lie to his friend about what his uncle was up to, and attempt to keep him away from Aria. Everything was going as Davis wanted but what he didn’t know was that he was failing to keep Lucas away from Aria. As a result, his friend has regained more memories. What will happen to Mason if Davis finds out about this?The two men lo
The look in Mason’s eyes couldn’t be hidden from Lucas. He could tell that his friend was very distressed and he would even say afraid. But afraid of what? His uncle? The two friends had their suspicions about Davis’s actions and behavior since his twin brother, Lucas’s father, died. But just because his personality changes doesn’t mean that his uncle has turned into a villain. Right?Lucas knew that their meeting had nothing to do with him so it was best if he didn’t interfere. The former heir decides to get back to work on his job but there was still another troubling question that crossed his mind. Why would his doctor on amnesia relay a message from Davis to Mason?The Augustine Company had an infirmary built within the building a long time ago, David cared about his employees and wanted to make sure that if any harm came to them, or even a mild headache, there would be a place there for them to feel better. This is where Lucas has been seeing his doctor for amnesia. At the same t
Papers are dumped on top of Aria’s head, making the woman flinch as all of her hard work gets scattered on the floor and it even messes up her black hair that she had struggled to put into a clean bun. “Unbelievable.” Her boss then tosses her files to the side. The anger in her eyes revealed the fuel behind her cruel fire: jealousy. “Un-fucking-believeable! Why the hell would Augustine be interested in someone like you? A failed singer. Roxanne told me all about how pathetic you are with your little singing career that got flushed down the drain because you were an alcoholic! Oh yeah, I bet he doesn’t even know that you’re a felon!”The rumors that Roxanne had spread about Aria weren’t true. Aria hated alcohol but she’d only make an exception when it was with her friends. But even then, she still doesn’t drink very much. Aria remained silent as her boss released her ire upon her. Her hands were balled up in tight fists where they rested on her lap. Even her whole body was completely
Lucas couldn’t help but watch Aria as she worked. She was speaking to him and yet, once again, her words fell on deaf ears. It’s not like he did it on purpose however, his head was merely full of over things. There was one thing that echoed in his mind the loudest, something that was bothering him the most - Aria wasn’t looking at him the same way she had always done before.Why is that?“Mr. Augustine.” Her pleasant voice speaking his last name caught his attention. But when he looked at her, her gray eyes didn’t hold that tender warmth that they usually did ever since he met her after getting amnesia. “What are your thoughts on the matter?”Lucas bit the inside of his cheek when he realized she was only questioning him just to see if he was paying attention. She didn’t look like she was in the mood to have extra patience for the man who spaced out so often. He finally decides to come out and speak his mind. “Ms. La Belle, I need to ask you something.” Aria put her hands together and
“Aria? What’s wrong?” Lucas questions her when he sees the look on her face change. By the time he looked towards what she was staring at, the shadow was gone but a new voice was heard amongst the familiar voice of Aria’s boss.“Roxanne!” Her boss echoes in surprise. “Well, this is a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t expecting to see you here til later!” “I just thought I’d come to pay my favorite friend a little visit.” Says a voice that Aria hasn’t heard in years that immediately makes her heart sink and feel sick to her stomach. All this time, Aria has been trying to ignore the woman’s name which seems to keep popping up more and more as her popularity grows and she becomes more famous. It was hard to believe that Roxanne was once a petty woman jealous of her talent in singing. Now she couldn’t even call her competition. Lucas sees Aria’s expression dampen even further. He had a feeling it had to do with the woman’s voice that had just appeared, this Roxanne person that Aria’s boss ju
Aria and Lucas get in his car and drive deeper into the city. He glanced over to the short woman who was twirling her black hair with a single finger, lost in thought as she stared out the window. Though she faced away from him, he could still see her reflection in the window. Her gray eyes reminded him of storm clouds that were about to rain. Lucas reached over to her lap and was about to place his hand on it but he then flinched as a sudden headache struck him. The flash of a memory crossed his mind. This isn’t the first time he’s seen her eyes like this. He’s seen those clouds pour rain plenty of times.Aria gives a startled gasp when the car gives a sudden jerk. She whirls around to look at Lucas and panics when she sees him gripping his head with a pained look in his eyes. “Goodness, Lucas, are you alright?! What happened?”“Y– yeah, just another migraine. Hey, open up my glovebox and hand me a pill from the bottle in there.” Lucas pointed towards the glovebox and Aria opened it