I have taken a personal day today.
I feel a bit guilty because I've led Grace to believe I'm coming to SPI for a tour, when in reality I'm here to see about a girl. I take the tour anyway. And I hang on to mom's every word. I ask questions, and tell her how impressed I am. Because I truly am impressed with her passion project. However, I'd be more impressed if the next room we walked into held Ana Steele. Mom takes me through the classrooms. She introduces me loudly to the small groups of students, telling them I'm her home baby, and I've come to say hello to all her school babies.
A small boy that's sat crying at a table catches Grace's attention for a moment and I get anxious that a child might approach me in her absence. She makes it quick though, and we make our way back out into the hall.
"So. The instructor that spoke at the benefit last night. Is she here today?" I ask, unassumingly. Mom assumes however, because she knows me like the back of her hand. But she is nothing if not discreet. So, she plays along.
"Her class doesn't meet on Fridays, so she usually isn't here. But I believe she's stepped in for a bit to do some work on one of our vacant rooms. Would you like to meet her?" She speaks slow and knowingly. I hate that she's under the impression I might have some type of schoolboy crush, because I know she wishes herself sick that I one day would.
"Sure. You spoke highly of her. I'd like to know anyone you're impressed with."
"Uh huh" mom laughed, "come on."
Mom led me to the end of the hall where the lights had been turned off. It appeared to be a newer part of the building, fresh with the hints of construction.
I could hear humming. A twinkling musical sound coming from the last room on the left. As we step inside, I see her.
There she is. Standing tip-toed on a half-ladder, dressed in overall shorts and paint. She had a mark of it up her leg, strewn into her messy hair she'd plopped into a pile on top of her head, and when she turned to see who had caught her in her musical act, she even had a paint streak on her face. Haphazardly splattered across her cheekbone as if she'd wiped her face with a handful of primer.
Shocked by our visit, or shocked by mine, she stumbled slightly on the ladder squatting down quickly to prevent a fall. Before I realized what I am doing, I jump halfway across the room as if I were going to catch her should she not get her balance. Unfortunately, or fortunately she did before I could ever make it over to her.
"Oh goodness, Ana we didn't mean to startle you! I was giving my son, have you met my son? I was giving him the full tour of the building and he wanted to see our new rooms." Mom is such a rider. She didn't give me away.
"Oh. Well, no I can't say I have Mrs. Grace," she said sheepishly, in a slow southern accent. I could tell Ana wanted no part in meeting me. But with her manners taking over, she stepped off the ladder and made her way over to us. As she got closer, I realized she was quite young. She had to be in her early twenties. She was… small. She might reach three inches over five foot, but that would be generous. My mother's long legs, and my 6'3'' frame towered over her. How this girl got a classroom full of children to listen to her, I cannot imagine.
"Ana, this is my youngest boy. This is my Christian!" Ana placed her small hand in mine, and we greeted each other. "Christian, this is Ana Steele. She came to us about six months ago and has just been my saving grace." I couldn't pay attention to mom's praises if I had to. All I could feel was this girl's hand in mine. Her eyes had not left mine, and she appeared to be holding her breath. So, I do affect her. Good to know.
After a beat, Ana shakes herself and releases my hand. Her beautifully shocked face turns into a sheepish grimace. "I am so sorry, Christian." She says as she wipes her hand on her overalls. I look down at my wet hand and find a streak of paint across my palm. Her touch had already left a lasting impression, the paint proved as a reminder that my mind must have spoken into existence.
"That's… quite alright. I've had worse things on my hands." I laugh suggestively. She looks back up to my face and blushes a deep crimson. "Oh, I'm sure."
My mother clears her throat. "Christian. I've left my phone in the front office, dear. You know I have to keep it with me for when the hospital calls. Let me just step out and get it, I'll be right back." She says as she's halfway out the door. Grace isn't coming back.
It's now or never.
"Are you here to get me fired?" Ana asks sharply before I can even conjure up a sentence.
"What? Fired? No."
She turns back to the wall she had been painting and jerks a wet towel off the ladder to wipe herself down with. She begins by wiping the paint streak on her thigh. "I'm sure that's why you're here. I know you know…" she trails off and continues to wipe vigorously.
"Oh, I know a lot of things about you, Miss Steele." I say flirtatiously. However, the look on Ana's face told me she took it as a threat.
"Why did you tell Miss Porter you were not interested in me?"
She pauses her cleaning routine and stands up to look at me. "Because I'm not interested in you?" simple enough.
"You have a dom, then?" Ana shushes me, cutely. She's embarrassed to be talking about this here. I should be a gentleman and change the subject, but I won't. "Sarah Porter said you scened for Elena. As a friend of mine, I wish she would have introduced the two of us."
Ana laughs bitterly, under her breath. "I didn't scene for Elena Lincoln. You know what? No. None of this is any of your business. So, unless you are here to get me fired, please just go… and don't make this awkward."
How I ever thought this girl could be submissive is beyond me. I had half a mind to put her over that ladder and show her just how awkward I could make things. Instead, I took a deep breath.
"Sarah Porter called me on your behalf, she spoke very highly of you."
"I didn't ask her to do that." By now she had made her way to wiping the paint off her shoulder.
"Well she did. She said I would be good for you. You disagree?" I felt like I was pleading with this girl. It was as uncomfortable as it was exciting.
"I don't know you." She said, with a laugh. "I do know that we probably have two completely different ideas of what's good for me."
"And what do you mean by that? What do you think I'm suggesting?"
"You want me to reconsider Elena's offer? You can forget it."
Jackpot. I knew Elena had done something to ruin this for me. "And just what did she offer you?"
"To be your little unicorn girl? I'm not interested in getting dommed by someone else's sub."
She thinks I'm still Elena's sub? She thinks I'm another Isaac?
I laugh loud and deep, arrogance suddenly coursing through me. "You have got this all wrong. Elena and I… we are not sexually involved. She is just a good friend of mine."
This time it was Ana's turn to laugh. "Sure, and I'm an actual real-life unicorn."
What a brat. Someone needed to get ahold of her little attitude. And quickly. "Listen, I don't know what Elena told you, but for the last time… she and I are not a package deal. Yes, she has scouted submissives out for me in the past. But if she made you an offer that consisted of you doing anything that involved the both of us? Elena and I? That's laughable. I apologize that she has led you into the wrong opinion of me, but whatever offer that was made to you, is not one that I was aware of. Maybe it is you that assumed Elena was a better friend to me than she is. You don't seem to have any problems with rubbing noses with her, here." I throw my hand toward the door.
Ana cuts her eyes at me and lowers her head. "Elena doesn't come here. She's a silent partner. Or I can promise you, I'd take my tail out the door."
I knew of a place I could take her tail.
"You had no problem taking the job she offered you." That was rude, I know. But so was this girl.
"I did not take a job Elena offered me. I took a job in my field. A job I am exceptionally good at. Elena Lincoln ain't never gave me nothing but a headache."
"And yet you're down at The Box subbing for fucking Isaac?" any other time, I would have never called someone out for what they do at the club. That is a private manor, and a club as exclusive as that, should take away the worry of word getting out.
But I suddenly, am so upset with this girl. I feel so possessive for no understandable reason. She didn't even know of me when she scened at the club, and here I am getting jealous over her proclivities.
"Who?!"
"Elena's sub. You scened with him. Miss Porter told me."
Ana began to giggle. A sweet twinkling sound. If I were not so heated, I might have smiled at how cute it was. Very quickly however, her giggle turned into cackling. She threw her head back and laughed at me. After a beat, she calmed herself and with her smile never leaving her face, she tilted her head and stared at me and sighed.
"Bless your damn heart." She chuckled again. "Somebody is working you up, honey." Her condescending tone, just barely masked by the southern belle drawl that hangs onto her every word, was sending me over the edge.
She slung her wet rag back over her shoulder, and took a seat on the second rung from the bottom of the ladder, huffing as if our conversation had exhausted her.
"I don't know who all is telling you what… but I haven't heard you tell the truth since you came in the door. I don't know who Isaac is. I don't know why Sarah Porter is telling you I did a scene for Elena. I don't even know if maybe… this is all in your head, and your cornbread just ain't done all the way in the middle. All I know is… you ain't nothing to me to be coming in here demanding I explain anything to you. And if you had any sense in that big old head of yours, you'd stop believing everything that dried up old hag tells you to be gospel, and you'd start thinking for yourself before she runs your name any further into the dirt."
Who does she think she is? It's obvious she's never had a dom that was worth a damn if she thinks she can talk to me in such a manner.
"When is the last time someone put you over their knee and reprimanded that attitude you've worked so hard to perfect?" I asked stepping closer.
Ana's face visibly heated up and my suggestive tone. "Excuse you?" she was squirming in her seat on the ladder.
"No, my dear. Excuse you. I know you are not aware of who you the fuck you are talking to. But let me make this noticeably clear. If you were mine, you would not be able to sit down for a week for the way you have just spoken to me."
By now I was standing so close to her, I could hear the catch in her breath at my words.
"Well," she began. "It's a good damn thing I'm not yours, then. If you'd punish someone for sticking up for themselves against a complete stranger, then the apple must not have fallen far from the tree when it comes to you and Mrs. Lincoln." Her comeback was practically whispered. As if she wasn't sure if she should say it or not.
I had suddenly forgotten how to close my mouth. As I was trying to get control of my body, Ana took the opportunity to stand from the ladder, throw her rag at my feet, and walk out.
As I left the school, I made a phone call. Until I took care of that thorn in my side, I wanted my name off the VIP list at The Box. And I most definitely did not want Elena using it to make any more 'offers'.
My Saturday morning started quite late. I had stayed up half the night playing Ana Steele's words over and over in my head. Even though what she had told me went against almost everything Elena and Miss Porter had stated, I still for some reason believed her.
What would she have to lie about? She already thought I was trying to get her fired, what would she have had to lose?
She thinks my apple doesn't fall far from Elena's tree. How would she even know I came from Elena's tree in the first place? Yes, she uses my name to get into the club, and admittedly she has recruited submissives for me in the past. But, until Ana Steele came along, I had no reason not to trust Elena's judgement.
She also says she never scened for Elena. Miss Porter insinuated that It was a closed showroom to anyone that was not a recruiter or a sponsor. And of course, Isaac. If she subbed for Isaac, then she must realize that he had only done so under Elena's charge. But Ana denied that as well. And Elena had kept it from me.
As I am musing these scenarios over and over in my head, my phone rings.
Shit, its Sarah Porter.
In a moment of weakness, I had used my personal phone number to get in contact with her about Ana. If this became a regular thing, I would have to change it.
From our initial greeting I could tell Miss Porter was upset.
"I really don't appreciate being thrown under the bus like you've done me, Mr. Grey," she began. "I saw a great potential between you and Ana, and as her friend, and as someone that knows first hand what you are looking for, I only ever tried to make that happen for the two of you. Ana is very upset with me right now."
"Well, Sarah. That makes two of us." I said bitterly.
"She thinks that I've gossiped about her to you, and that was just not my intention."
I wanted to be rude, I wanted to tell her that's exactly what she's done. That she created a 5'3'' problem in my life, when she could have just kept her mouth shut. But then I thought of what Ana would think of me should it get back around to her. And knowing Sarah Porter's track record as of late, the next thing I say will get back around to her.
"Listen Sarah," I said as sweetly as I could muster. "I know what your intentions were. And, I'm very upset that they didn't work out. Ana seems like a wonderful girl. The only reason I pushed her when we spoke yesterday is because I was trying to look out for her. You know how many sharks are swimming around down at that club. If you get into the wrong hands… you never get out. I'm worried for Ana."
Those were half-truths.
I was worried for Ana. Worried that she would find something permanent lurking around at The Box. She does seem wonderful, in a fairy-gremlin sort of way.
Sarah sighed like hopeless romantics do.
"Oh Mr. Grey. I can assure you I have really taken her under my wing. I will make sure nothing happens to her."
Sure. That's why Ana had only been in town for a couple months and already had a sponsored show room night under her belt.
"And just between you and me," she continued. "I believe Ana was only so upset with me because she felt as if she had ruined her chances with you. She kept talking about what you must think of her for acting the way that she did. She hasn't ruined her chances, has she?"
That girl wasn't concerned about her chances with me. There was sexual tension between us, yes. But the only thing she's concerned about is losing her chances with Grace Grey and her dream job.
Sarah Porter didn't have to know that, however.
'Absolutely not," I said smoothly. "As a matter of fact, I'm getting ready now to have some flowers sent to her home. Just as a bit of a peace offering. I would hope if I included in the note that I wanted to see her again, you would encourage her to meet me?"
Pester her, is what I should have said.
"Oh absolutely, I'll really stay on her about it. What would a meeting hurt, right? I'll make sure she gets back with you Mr. Grey. She doesn't know it yet, but this isn't something she needs to pass up."
That's correct. I'm not something Ana is going to pass up. Especially when it seems like everywhere I turn, the girl has weaseled her way into a new aspect of my life.
After a salutations to Sarah Porter, and a call to Jason Taylor for Ana's home address, I call the florist and ask for two dozen white roses to be delivered to Pike Place Town Village apartment, with an offer that Ana won't be able to refuse.
"It appears we have gotten our wires crossed. As a devoted son, I feel that I should make absolute sure that the person my mother has made responsible for the wellbeing of these children is in fact, who she says she is. Meet me for lunch, tomorrow at the Alibi Room, 12 noon. And make sure your story is straight."
Cruel, I know. But something tells me I'll have a date.