Chapter Four
That night, they didn’t do more than kiss. But it still helped bring them a lot closer, especially now that Adrien wasn’t there to interfere. For Camila, Adrien was an excellent example of her bad decisions. She’d even slept with him, and now she was going out with his brother. Could she be any more screwed up?
There were times when she didn’t think she deserved to have Samuel treating her so gently. But she wasn’t about to tell him to stop, either.
Camila had work, and as much as she would have preferred to stay with the Kane siblings, she couldn’t just abandon her mother, who she hadn't even given a complete explanation to for what was going on.
Samuel dropped her off at her apartment then went to his office, and she went inside to be confronted by her mother. Sure enough, she was waiting to ambush her the moment she walked into the house.
“Tell me what happened,” she demanded, getting close enough for it to be uncomfortable with her hands on her hips. “The neighbors have all been by asking if you were alright!”
Camila sighed. “I’ll tell you, okay? But can I at least go sit down, first?”
She conceded long enough for Camila to put her overnight bag in her room, then sat with her mom on the couch. Slowly, she explained everything from the moment Adrien showed up on her doorstep, up until Samuel took her away from the station after she’d given her statement to the police and agreed to go ahead with pressing charges.
Camila saw the complicated expressions on her mom’s face, and sighed as she leaned forward to hug her.
“It was horrible, but it’s all over now,” she said to soothe her mother. “I’m happy now, so let’s forget all this ever happened, okay?”
She didn’t wait for her mother’s response, before she went to her room to sleep. She had been too giddy last night after Samuel walked her to the guest room to get enough sleep.
As soon as she woke up, she checked her phone.
She smiled, seeing there was a message from Samuel and another from her boss. She checked Samuel’s first.
Hey, beautiful. Can we meet up this afternoon?
Smiling, she answered back, I would love to, where and when?
Switching to her boss’ message she read it.
Cami, got a project for you, get in here pronto.
Sighing she realized she’d have to get back to work. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy her work, just that she’d been off for a while and going back in was both a relief and a disappointment. But with renewed vigor, she realized she was ready to get her normal life back, with a few perks added.
She texted her boss back. Be there asap.
* * *
As she got backinto the groove of things, her work went as well as it usually did. When she was needed to join a reporter to take pictures, they always came out outstanding. She did her best to improve her writing ability, but even though she never felt it was quite good enough, she had never been that terrible at it. She knew it had to be at least decent because no one would have made her write it if it wasn’t. That would have been counterproductive.
Her relationship with Samuel only got better without Adrien bothering them.
Whenever they had the free time, they would meet up for a date. Either he would pick her up and follow her to her usual haunts, they went out to one of his favorite places, or he took her to his home.
At one point, Samuel had asked, “Are you sure this isn’t boring? I don’t like crowds much more than Brianna does. I can put up with them, but going out to fancy restaurants and clubs was never something I enjoyed.”
“I take you to restaurants and crowded places all the time, though,” Camila pointed out. “And you take me to museums, and the zoo and other places and they are crowded at times.”
They were chatting on the phone, so she couldn’t see him, but she did hear him chuckle and it made her heart tighten up and beat harder at the same time.
“That’s because the places you take me to, there are no expectations. I can be myself and no one would bother me or look at me. And those other places, anyone can be anonymous there. I figured the people around those places we go to don’t read your blog or they might have recognized me. Should I count that as a good or bad thing?”
Camila grumbled at that, but he just laughed again. She did understand what he was worried about, though. Samuel Kane was like a celebrity, not to mention one of the richest men in New York. Of course there would be eyes on him wherever he went. And it wasn’t so much that those people didn’t read her blog, though there was no way for her to find out whether they did or not. It was more likely that they didn’t expect a celebrity to be mingling with them, so even if someone did recognize him, they’d just think he was a guy that looked really similar.
More importantly, with Adrien gone, Samuel could relax. Camila had seen him produce a smile several times since they met. And not just a tiny quirk of the lips like that one time, but a real smile. It practically lit up his whole face, turning it from something stern to something tender when he looked at her. The only other person who got to see that expression besides her, was Brianna. He was still a public figure and she did occasionally see him on the news, and his expression was as stern as always. To her, the him on TV and in the media seemed like a whole different person now.
She had seen, in the time since Adrien was incarcerated, many examples of how kind Samuel could be once he really let his guard down. She had seen it before, of course, with how he took care of his sister, but he really shone when she didn’t have as much to worry about. She hadn't thought it could get any better, but it did, and it contrasted greatly with her initial impression of him.