Walking away and past Mr. Donatello, I make my way into an empty room just below the entrance stairs.
Perfect.
How do men have the audacity?
They get all defensive when we say men are shit but do nothing to repair their image.
I attempt to calm myself down before I eventually go back and avoid all contact from men, because quite frankly, most of my interactions with them are utterly infuriating.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
While I’m doing my breathing exercises, I hear the door open behind me. Of course, he followed me.
“Just go away. I’m attempting to not think that the whole male race should be extinct from this planet.”
“You just pissed off an important investor, what the fuck did you just do?” Mr. Donatello says in an aggravated tone.
“I told off a misogynistic asshole. That’s what I did, no more, no less.”
“I don’t care if you have opposing views. What you were supposed to do is try to convince him otherwise.”
“Convince him otherwise, huh? You told me that he was worried about me being a rookie, not me being a woman, or, in his words, ‘a genetically inferior girl’. You sent me to a guaranteed shit show and it’s not opposing views, it’s having human decency. You think that he could say those things to me, and I would stand there helpless? Think again, old man.”
“Cazzo!We needed those funds for next year’s prototype. You just fucked up a ten-million-dollar funding endeavor.”
“ME?! You mean him. How could you want to be associated with that?”
“‘That’ has money,” he says.
“You can find a new investor. Don’t blame me for what that man said.” I step closer to prove a point.
“It’s not that easy. You don’t understand business, do you?” He steps away.
“What did you just say?” I question.
“I said you don’t understand business!”
“Stop spewing bullshit.” He steps closer to me.
“You’re so infuriating,” he says.
“No,you’reinfuriating!!” I hear his breath from beside me as we make eye contact. Next thing I know, we collide. I’m kissing him. He’s kissing me, but not with adoration or any emotion a normal kiss would possess. It’s raw, frustrating. His hands go into my hair, and I pull him closer as my hands grip his shirt. Following each other’s every movement, our lips move like we’ve been in a drought. He bites my bottom lip and I moan. Grabbing my hair, he pulls my head back as he runs his nose down my neck. Holy fuck.
Alejandra, what are you doing?
I pull away and look at him breathlessly. I touch my lips where Mr. Donatello’s just were. I feel like I’m suffocating in this room. I need air. I walk past him and out the door, fixing my hair as I walk out. Finding the exit to the street, I breathe in the oxygen that seems to have just left my body.
I’m pacing back and forth on the sidewalk. Maria Alejandra Castillo, what the fuck did you do?I don’t even know at this point.Luca Donatello is one of the most egocentric, self-centered assholes I know, and I just kissed him. Not to mention, he’s my boss. MY BOSS. It was kind of a two-person thing though, he did kiss me back. But that doesn’t mean that it was okay. I just don’t know what to feel. I scream into my hands, trying to release all my built-up rage.
Sitting down on the curb, I close my eyes, and try to do a breathing technique to calm down. All I can see, and feel, is his nose trailing down my neck and the way he pulled my hair. The way it felt to have my body against his and his lips on mine. In my thoughts, I realize something. I liked it.
Why the fuck did I like it?
ChapterTwenty
Maria Alejandra